Qt Quick with a MetaWatch and an N950

Via: @GeneralAntilles

Editor: Ryan Abel

Some of us received our MetaWatchs last week, notably Javier S. Pedro, who is already hard at work getting his to play nice with Qt Quick and Harmattan. It's showing the [spinning Qt logo] QML demo – which is actually being run on my N950, forwarding the results to the watch. Obviously, this is not going to be used for showing video :) But for ex. you could create reduced versions of your existing N950 QtQuick applications and show them on the watch, as widgets you can have on your wrist! In an IRC interview, Javier said of the work, "Now you have yet another form factor to recreate your QML interface for."

One of the big ideas behind the MetaWatch platform is the creation of an easily-accessible "fifth screen" to supplement your other mobile devices in situations when it's not possible or convenient to look at them. The ease of deployment of QML combined with the power of a Qt-based device results in a very interesting combination. Hopefully we'll see many interesting applications developed in the near future.

CordiaTab facing difficulties in finding GPL compliant manufacturer

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

The developers of CordiaTab (the open source, open hardware tablet based on the Corida UI we discussed here previously) have run into some trouble sourcing hardware that will provide kernel source: So again we are back to the same situation than before. Either giving them a deposit or directly make an order to get the kernel. The best, (or less worst) I have so far is ordering 2000 pieces to get it. (320usd for 1Gb RAM and 16Gb SDD). I think that to give a deposit or somehow commit to some orders is necessary to get the kernel. This is an unfortunate situation for a project that strive to keep everything as open as possible. It seems some hardware vendors are not very concerned about the GPL, which makes it difficult for a start-up project to get cheap, capable, and open hardware. The latest update points to other manufacturers being contacted.

New ownership for MetaWatch

Via: @GeneralAntilles

Editor: Ryan Abel

Last week the MetaWatch assets were acquired from Fossil by a team of investors, led by former Nokia executive Juha Pinomaa and including Bill Geiser and David Rosales of Fossil's Watch Technology Division, forming Meta Watch Ltd. Meta Watch will be based in Dallas, TX. The company will also open an R&D center in Espoo, Finland to capitalize on the rich history of Finland-based innovation in wrist-top computing and mobile devices. Hopefully this spells good things for the long-term development of the platform. As it didn't really fit anywhere in Fossil's business makeup, it should be more focused, agile and likely to survive as an indepedent company.

Using N9(50) LED for missed call and other notifications

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Flegg

In a short video demonstration, Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh shows how his N950 flashes its sole, white, LED when he has a missed call. To use the binary package, he says you'll probably need --relaxed-exec, unseal.ko and binhash.py

It's probably safe to say this is still at the "as long as you know what you're doing" stage; but is promising for a feature which Nokia would claim is met by the always-on AMOLED screen of the N9 - a statement which doesn't help those "unfortunate" enough to have an N950 instead.

N950 gets updated version of Harmattan

A newer image of MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan has been published for people with Nokia N950s. The new version, 1.2011.34-2 removes the "Developer Edition" branding and adds Ovi Store, Ovi Music, Twitter, Angry Birds, and the Wi-Fi Hotspot feature.