Next generation of Nokia Internet Tablet

Nokia Internet Tablet

The next generation of Nokia Internet Tablet will sport 3G HSPA, a TI OMAP3 processor, OpenGL graphics accelerator, and will run Maemo 5 OS the first release of which SDK was done recently. Supporting of 3G network will give more choices for people to stay online.

[via The Nokia Blog]

Maemo CTags package

VIM and Ctags
VIM and Ctags

Recently I built Exuberant Ctags package for OS2008. It might be useful for all who develop directly under Scratchbox using VIM. Ctags offers a possibility to explore methods from the opened files similar way as IDE (see screen-shot).

The CTag package can be found on the download page under section Packages for Nokia770/N800/N810. The config file for VIM with supporting of CTags can be downloaded there as well.

New mozilla-based for N810 browser much faster then MicroB

Fennec vs MicroB

Good news. The Firefox 3 is gonna be released soon. There is a big list of improvement such reducing of memory usage, increasing of performance etc. In parallel developers are working with mobile version of web browser based on Firefox 3 beta 4 source code. It’s named Fennec. According to tests it 5.9x faster than MicroB which is based on Firefox Alpha 1 (see chart). Sounds good, doesn’t it?

You can try Fennec now. Go to that page and install it. It’ll appear in the Extras category on your N810. Note that Fennec still doesn’t support soft keyboard. So, it isn’t recommended to install it on N800. But on N810 it should work fine.

I’m gonna try Fennec on my N810. It doesn’t replace default browser (as MicroB does). So, it’s a good opportunity to have a fast web browser and help to test it.

[via Christopher Blizzard]

Eclipse plugins for Maemo Development

Maemo Team recently released a set of plug-ins for Maemo Eclipse integration. It allows developers to use Eclipse IDE to develop and test Maemo applications. Actually, the set contains following parts: maemo PC Connectivity, maemo ESBox plugin for Eclipse IDE and maemo Pluthon plugin for Eclipse IDE.

Maemo PC connectivity makes connection between developer PC and Internet Tablet. Maemo ESBox plugin for Eclipse IDE integrates maemo SDK Scratchbox based development environment to the Eclipse development environment. So, developers can do all their work from Eclipse IDE. Maemo Pluthon plugin for Eclipse IDE allows to develop and test Python application directly on Internet Tablet without using maemo SDK and Scratchbox.

As I see that set of plug-ins will make the process of Maemo development easier and more suitable. I’m going to install Eclipse IDE on my fresh Kubuntu 7.10 and use Maemo PC connectivity with Maemo ESBox plugin for LinuxMCE Orbiter for Nokia770/N800/N810.

[via MaemoGeek]

Google Gears on Nokia Internet Tablets

Google Gears was ported to Nokia’s Linux-based Internet Tablet platform Maemo. This port allows you to install the Gears extension to devices like Nokia’s N800 and N810:

The code is in a SVN repository with vendor branches. The changes should be relatively easy to spot (svn diff). The changes are not well- engineered, rather they just indicate the difference between gecko 1.8 and 1.9. This is to keep the delta as small as possible. In practice, if these modifications are wanted in the main codebase, the changes should be done a bit differently (==build abstractions around thread queues).

For more information, please, read this.

This is not fresh news but still. I like idea of Google Gears to work with on-line content without Internet connection and then synchronize the results. And I like the idea to port it to Maemo platform (especially taking into account that my N810 was shipped today from UK to Cyprus). So, let’s see and help to Kimmo Kinnunen to tune Google Gears for Maemo.

[via Devphone]

Accessing the Nokia N800 camera

Linux-based Internet Tablet Nokia N800 is very popular. Even coming N810 is not going to replace it completely (I’m not talking about windows-based Origami). Using Maemo SDK it’s fairly simple develop new applications or porting existing ones. For sure to be success you need a right documentation. Following article from IBM.com explains obviously how to use N800 camera API.

P. S. The easiest way IMHO to setup Maemo development environment is downloading the Maemo SDK VMware Appliance. It can be run with free VMwave Player which available for both: Linux and Windows.