Android ported to Nokia N900 internet tablet

A team of Maemo hackers working with Nokia’s home grown Linux platform have successfully ported the Android platform to the Nokia N900 internet tablet, replacing the original Maemo 5 OS.

Working under the NITdroid project – for Nokia Internet Tablets – the coders have got Android version 2.1, known as Éclair, up and running on the Nokia N900, which follows up from Nokia’s previous generation of internet tablets such as the N810.

In a shaky YouTube video, posted below, the operating system is shown booting on the device, and shows Android performing with decent speed. The port is a long way of being usable however, as many of the drivers for telephony and wifi to mention but a few are still missing.

“The touch screen is near enough perfect and the current speed is excellent,” said the lead developer who goes by the name of dj_steve. “[We] will be using a overclocked kernel before long courtesy of titan so will have a android build running at 800mhz or 1ghz,” he said.

Still, the purpose of the project is to eventually be able to dual boot into Android or Maemo, to have functional phone capabilities on the N900, and to have all features, such as sound, wifi and 3D graphics working on all versions of devices.

Last week we reported that IPhone and Android platform hacker David Wang had got Android running on the iPhone 3G, and it’s looking pretty good, although audio hasn’t made it across yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Orange backs the Intel, Nokia, Linux platform, MeeGo

Mobile operator Orange got behind the Nokia-Intel founded Linux initiative MeeGo on Wednesday, anticipating the creation of a new channel for the delivery of consumer multimedia services.

MeeGo was unveiled at Barcelona in February as a merger of Intel and Nokia’s respective Linux initiatives, to create a software platform spanning a range of consumer electronics from mobile phones to netbooks.

Intel is contributing its Moblin platform, which will be merged with Nokia’s Maemo platform and the Nokia-owned cross platform application environment, Qt.

With the operator’s backing, Intel and Orange will work to increase the availability of Orange Signature Services, such as Orange TV and Orange Maps, to be supported by the MeeGo and Intel Atom environment.

“Seventy-five per cent of our customer base has yet to embrace the mobile internet. With the increasing number of phones and operating systems for customers to choose from, it is our role to make sure our customer’s journey into this richer mobile multimedia environment is simple and easy,” said Yves Maitre, SVP of devices at Orange. “Our collaboration with Intel on the MeeGo software platform will not only ensure a broader choice in terms of screens and devices, but that customers continue to benefit from a consistent user experience delivered through Orange Signature services, including a customized home-screen they trust and recognize, the highest quality network and secure and simplified billing.”

The companies aim to establish a common software framework across multiple devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to netbooks. An ambitious initiative, but as Ovum analyst Tony Cripps at Barcelona, the real win is in tying developers to the MeeGo platform.

“Turning MeeGo into a mainstream platform for CE will be no mean achievement in its own right. However, it will ultimately be largely meaningless how many devices it is deployed on if the consistency provided by the underlying OS is not matched by its ability to provide a true multi-screen application platform for developers.

“For that to happen, several things need to occur. First, Nokia needs to prove that Qt development really can scale across different categories of device. Second, it needs to prove the benefits of that scalability to developers. Third, it needs to persuade developers that Qt is a better cross-platform, cross-device application and UX platform than alternatives such as Adobe Flash/AIR, Microsoft Silverlight and HTML5,” Cripps said.

But given that Qt’s rivals – like Microsoft Foundation Class and wxWidgets – are either already widely deployed or likely to become more so and already have sizable developer communities, MeeGo may have its work cut out for it.

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Nokia to overhaul Symbian UI, invest in Maemo

Handset giant Nokia is planning an overhaul of its Symbian user interface in 2010, and will also bring out a flagship device powered by the Maemo Linux-based operating system the same year.

Speaking at the Nokia capital markets day on Wednesday, Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, put paid to rumours that the world’s biggest handset maker is preparing to shift its focus off Symbian.

The Nokia chief said the company is working to improve the user experience on its Symbian devices and is re-engineering its UI in preparation to deliver a major product before mid-year 2010, and another major product milestone before the end of the year.

“In 2010, we will drive user experience improvements, and the progress we make will take the Symbian user interface to a new level. As an operating system, Symbian has reach and flexibility like no other platform, and we have measures in place to push smartphones down to new price points globally, while growing margins,” said Kallasvuo.

But the company is investing in its Linux-based Maemo platform, and will deliver its first Maemo 6-powered device in the second half of 2010.

Over the next year, Nokia said it will “significantly” increase the proportion of touchscreen and QWERTY devices in its smartphone portfolio but will also continue to focus on localised offerings for emerging markets.

Developers will also get a look in, with Nokia set to provide third party developers with better tools to create applications and content for the Ovi ecosystem. Earlier this week the company unveiled the latest version of Qt, its cross platform application and user interface framework, providing support for more platforms including Symbian, Windows 7, Mac OS 10.6 and Maemo 6.

When telecoms.com recently spoke to John Forsyth, of the leadership team, Symbian Foundation, he was enthusiastic about getting the Qt onto Symbian. “Application development has not been great for Symbian, there’s no sense in hiding this, and that’s due to a mixture of tools that have been good but not best in class and an environment that’s brilliant for making phones, but too complex for making applications,” he said.

“So in the roadmap we have a couple of big thrusts: Getting Qt into the platform – there are already 300,000 developers that love Qt, and it’s a fun productive environment; and there’s also the web runtime, so you will be able to program just in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and write an application that uses all the underlying native services,” Forsyth added.

Kallasvuo also said the firm is looking to scale up its services business by expanding geographically and in partnership with more operators, and is targeting 300 million active users for its services by the end of 2011.

According to Bengt Nordstrom, co-founder and CEO of wireless consultancy Northstream, it will take Nokia some time to recast itself as an internet and services provider, “However 2010 is the “make or break” year where it needs to show that with its new apps and services, it’s genuinely closing the gap with Apple and the iPhone and also Google’s growing mobile presence.”

Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes to be up approximately 10 per cent in 2010, compared to 2009 and said its own mobile device market share is expected to be flat.

In OS terms, Nordstrom believes that Symbian is becoming a liability for Nokia. “There is much more traction for Android and the iPhone in developer communities around the world than there is for Symbian currently,” he said, agreeing with the prevailing view among analysts that Nokia needs to adopt a multiplatform strategy instead.

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Nokia brings Qt to Symbian, Maemo

Finnish handset vendor Nokia on Tuesday unveiled the latest version of Qt, its cross platform application and user interface framework, providing support for more platforms including Symbian, Windows 7, Mac OS 10.6 and the upcoming Maemo 6.

Adding support for Symbian and Maemo gives developers the opportunity to target both of these platforms from the same codebase, which should help the applications they create reach the market faster and hit a broader audience. Of late, Nokia, which was traditionally in the Symbian camp, has been flirting more with Maemo.

To support Qt on the mobile, Nokia has released a technology preview of APIs from the Qt Mobility project, providing functionality such as location, messaging, contacts, and bearer management.

When telecoms.com recently spoke to John Forsyth, of the leadership team, Symbian Foundation, he was enthusiastic about getting the framework onto Symbian. “Application development has not been great for Symbian, there’s no sense in hiding this, and that’s due to a mixture of tools that have been good but not best in class and an environment that’s brilliant for making phones, but too complex for making applications,” he said.

“So in the roadmap we have a couple of big thrusts: Getting Qt into the platform – there are already 300,000 developers that love Qt, and it’s a fun productive environment; and there’s also the web runtime, so you will be able to program just in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and write an application that uses all the underlying native services,” Forsyth added.

Qt 4.6 will add support for more eye candy with the addition of an animation framework, plus graphics effects like opacity, drop shadows, glow, and filtering; multi-touch application support; enhanced graphics algorithms; and a cross-platform IDE for Qt development.

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Nokia bolsters Memo Linux OS with Qt port, bringing the platform to the forthcoming N900

Finnish handset vendor Nokia pressed on with development of its in house Linux platform on Friday, porting its cross platform application and user interface framework – Qt – to Maemo 5.

Nokia’s acquisition of Qt was at the heart of the Finnish firm’s purchase of Scandinavian mobile Linux developer Trolltech for $153m in January 2008. The move set the Finnish firm and third party developers up to build web applications that work across Nokia’s device portfolio, regardless of whether the device was running Symbian or Linux – a key part of the Ovi concept.

More recently, Nokia gave yet more indication that it is to reduce its reliance on Symbian with plans to introduce more high end devices on the Linux-based Maemo platform. The Nokia N900 follows up from Nokia’s previous generation of internet tablets such as the N810, and uses Maemo 5, which allows users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously.

So the port of Qt to Maemo 5 means that developers can now use Qt to target the upcoming N900 and also ensures that applications can be easily ported to all Qt’s supported platforms including the next Maemo 6 release as well as Symbian and Windows Mobile – expanding the potential market for the Qt developer base.

The port itself will be based on Qt’s upcoming version 4.6 and is scheduled for final release in the first quarter of 2010.

Nokia’s CTO, Benoit Schillings, the driving force behind Qt, recently left the Finnish firm

“With this announcement and our upcoming port of Qt to the Symbian platform, we will quickly see Qt established as a leading framework for mobile application development. Developers will be able to use Qt as a framework to create powerful native applications and with Qt’s Webkit integration, it also provides them with a platform for creating web applications and services,” said Sebastian Nyström, vice president of application services and frameworks at Nokia. “Qt’s support for Maemo 5, Maemo 6, Symbian, as well as Windows Mobile makes Qt the most sensible choice for developers looking to target multiple devices and achieve the broadest reach with their innovations.”

The N900 runs Nokia's Linux-based Maemo operating system

Nokia has given yet more indication that it is to reduce its reliance on Symbian with an announcement that it is to introduce more high end devices on the Linux-based Maemo platform.

The Nokia N900 follows up from Nokia’s previous generation of internet tablets such as the N810, and uses the Maemo 5 software, which allows users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously.

The N900 improves on Nokia’s previous tablet devices by actually giving it cellular connectivity and phone features. However, the device still boasts a touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard, supported by an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration, a five megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics, with 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card.

“With Linux software, Mozilla-based browser technology and now also with cellular connectivity, the Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience,” said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president, markets, at  Nokia. “The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways.”

Nokia is embracing other operating systems in a bid to diversify its portfolio. The company is getting pretty tight with Microsoft, earlier this week announcing its first laptop product, the Booklet 3G, which runs Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

When telecoms.com recently quizzed Nokia on its commitment to Symbian, the company would only say that it “remains strongly committed to its current open OS software strategy for smartphones, which is based on the world leading Symbian software.”

The Nokia N900 will be available from October with an estimated retail price of €500 excluding sales taxes and subsidies.