In this edition...

  1. Front Page
    • Maemo Community Council elections: nomination period extended
    • Nokia "working on two new low end MeeGo smartphones"
  2. Applications
    • gPodder updated to 3.1.0 for N950 and N9
    • get_iplayer works on N9
  3. Development
    • Maliit Keyboard: Word suggestions and error correction
    • Testing requirement for Harmattan PR1.0 removed from N9 Nokia Store
  4. Community
    • maemocommunity.org - a fragmentation too far?
  5. Devices
    • USB audio on N900
  6. Announcements
    • ZoneMinder on Nokia N9

Front Page

Maemo Community Council elections: nomination period extended

Via: @timsamoff

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

The Maemo Community Council election nominations have been extended for an extra week. If enough interested candidates come forward during the extension the voting will be extended another week as well. Anyone interested in running is encouraged to come forward on the mailing list to express their candidacy.

At the time of writing, RM Bauer claims there have been three nominations, but none of them has accepted it on the maemo-community list.

Nokia "working on two new low end MeeGo smartphones"

Via: @timsamoff

Editor: Andrew Flegg

Last week the Internet was set a twittering with the report, via NetbookNews, that according to an industry insider Nokia is working on 2 new low end MeeGo handsets, and information was recieved directly from Nokia’s Next Billion Group. This is, almost certainly, referring to "Meltemi": Nokia's not-so-secret-now project to replace the aging S40 on their low-end devices with a Qt+Linux platform. Ideally, this new platform would have binary compatibility with Harmattan so that Harmattan apps would run on Meltemi, and vice versa. This would give an enormous boost to the Qt ecosystem: a "superphone" in the form of the N9 and a range of "little sisters" running Meltemi. Combined with smartphones running Symbian and a push to standardise Qt Components across Symbian & Linux, this could reinvigorate Nokia's cross-platform and next billion strategies.

Unfortunately, the article itself repeats many "well known facts" about Harmattan, including its ability to run Android applications. Myriad may have demoed Alien Dalvik on video, to try and entice OEMs, but this is a long way from an end-user being able to run Angry Birds Space.


Applications

gPodder updated to 3.1.0 for N950 and N9

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

Thomas Perl reports that the Harmattan version of gPodder has been updated with some user interface changes. The new gPodder version comes with some improvements for Harmattan users: Redesigned artwork for the main window and episode list; Better arrangement of podcast list and cover artwork there; New preferences menu, containing gpodder.net and orientation settings; New empty state UI for first-time users; Various other changes to be more in line with the UX Guidelines; Context menu item to delete episodes without downloading them

get_iplayer works on N9

Via: @jonquark

Editor: Andrew Flegg

The response to a question on TMO of "Is there any technical reason which would stop Get_iPlayer from being ported to the N9?" got the simple response, It's a perl script. It doesn't need porting, it works fine! More details are included in the thread, and videos play in the built-in Videos app directly.

Development

Maliit Keyboard: Word suggestions and error correction

Via: @timsamoff

Michael Hasselmann has posted information on a new feature now available in Maliit - the open source virtual keyboard used in Harmattan: This is a feature that I personally wanted for a long time. [...] I finally managed to get word prediction and error correction beyond prototype quality. The video shows just how amazingly good the Presage word prediction can be, even without extensive training (in fact, for the video we used the minimal language model training that comes with a regular Presage installation). The second part of the video shows how combining Presage with a spellchecker such as Hunspell further improves the provided word candidates. A video demonstrating the feature is included.

Testing requirement for Harmattan PR1.0 removed from N9 Nokia Store

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

Due to the number of Harmattan users that have updated to PR 1.1 and PR 1.2 firmware levels, it is no longer necessary for applications in the Nokia store to pass QA on PR 1.0. Hence, we have initiated steps to change the principal test environment from Harmattan PR 1.0 to Harmattan PR 1.1 in the Nokia Store. If your application previously has been rejected on account of PR1.0-incompatibility, those issues are now automatically waived. The SDK and corresponding sysroot in the Harmattan target is not (yet) updated from PR 1.0. In other words, you will still compile against Harmattan PR 1.0 sysroot for time being. Availability of a newer sysroot and instructions on how to take it into use will be announced at an appropriate time.

Community

maemocommunity.org - a fragmentation too far?

Editor: Andrew Flegg

In the post where he announced the extended nomination period, RM Bauer also mentioned: We have already started plans to centralize open source parts of the community at www.maemocommunity.org. Repos are first priority, then wiki, the forum is tricky. Input on value of community OBS for harmattan/fremantle/diablo would be appreciated at this point. Open for discussion and volunteers are definitely wanted. I would also check first to make sure that someone hasn't already mirrored the repos as discussed previously on the forum (sorry, don't have a link at the moment) as a safeguard against them.

Reggie Suplido, Quim Gil and your editor have asked for clarifications about this, since further fragmentation would have to be carefully managed to avoid destroying the community completely. However, the post has served to highlight there are a lot of people who care about the success of the community having invested so much time in it over the last seven years (even if they no longer follow TMO on a daily basis) and the problems the current council is having with getting things done.

Devices

USB audio on N900

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Flegg

Fred Pacquier has asked for assistance from those who know the insides of Fremantle's sound system with integrating USB audio output with the default sound stack: The goal is to take advantage of the “USB Host” (h-e-n) package to stream digital audio through the USB port. [...] This stream is then sent out through the USB port to an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and headphone amplifier, bypassing the N900′s own electronics, to achieve maximum sound quality. Information on MAFW has been posted in Fred's blog, but more assistance would - no doubt - be appreciated.

Announcements

ZoneMinder on Nokia N9

Via: @Jaffa2

Ben Martin has discussed another of his projects, a ZoneMinder client, on Harmattan. ZoneMinder is an integrated set of applications which provide a complete surveillance solution allowing capture, analysis, recording and monitoring of any CCTV or security cameras attached to a Linux based machine.