Why the first MeeGo device launch needs to be big

Randall Arnold, a Maemo Community Council member, outlines his reasoning on why the first MeeGo device launch needs to be big. With each major variant in the Maemo Device line, Nokia enjoyed incrementally increasing success. Its conservative "test the waters cautiously with a toe tip" approach cultivated a small but determined community eager to demonstrate that mobility and open source were a match made in electronic heaven. This is okay for skunkworks and limited release projects. Not so much for paradigm-shattering advents. Nokia largely sacrificed its early lead in the market segment to competitors like Apple, Google and Palm with its inability to get behind the Maemo platform early on. Continued hedging on Linux-based platforms like Maemo in favor of a continued push behind Symbian, which the top of the market is swiftly losing interest in for more modern and glamorous platform, has left it behind in the market and will leave Nokia and Intel facing an intense uphill battle to regain the ground they've been steadily losing since 2005. MeeGo will need to be big indeed to get enough inertia to win past its competitors.

How to take N8x0 MeeGo layer forward?

Carsten Munk discusses the steps required to move forward with MeeGo on the N8x0 tablets. As we now have some kernels to play with on recent versions for N8x0, I suggest we start the real work. He outlines some of the tasks required to get moving with the effort, including adapting the MeeGo kernel to work for N8x0, packaging Xomap for MeeGo, and lots of testers to help spot bugs. ;)

Returning Amsterdam loaned devices

The loan period for the 300 N900s handed out at the Maemo Summit in Amsterdam last October is at an end. Holders of loaned devices can return them to Nokia at the address listed in the agreement. Anyone with a reason for extending the loan period can contact Quim Gil to discuss it. Otherwise returned devices will be redistributed to developers in the Fremantle Developer Device Queue, so those of you not relying on your loaned devices to be productive, be sure to return them as soon as possible so other developers can get in on the fun.

Diablo community SSU finds "interesting" behaviour with build flags

Lucas Maneos (one of the leaders of the Diablo Community SSU project) has discovered some interesting behaviors with the compiler flags for Diablo packages from Nokia. However it's becoming apparent that the Nokia build machine applies different compiler flags on different packages (outside of what is defined in the packages themselves).

For example, xorg-server needs DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=vfp to even compile, and an SDK osso-pdf-viewer build of the original unmodified package (without -mthumb) produces a binary that is significantly smaller than the Nokia package: 938972 vs 1162620 bytes. I suspect this case may be some vfp optimisation, but really don't feel like spending any more time tracking down this sort of thing - these discrepancies have come to light after touching just 8 source packages, and there's a lot more to go. Also, size differences in executables are relatively harmless, but there may be more tricky issues with libraries and such. Hopefully Nokia will be able to shine some light on the issue and help the community move forward with shipping an SSU update for Diablo.

O2 Joggler for £49 runs Mer and Ubuntu, with promise of full MeeGo

UK-based geeks have been salivating over the price reduction of O2's rebranded "OpenPeak" device, also known as the "Joggler". This x86-running, 800x480-capacitive touchscreened device can already run Mer 0.15, Ubuntu Netbook Remix and - if nothing else - is a pretty good digital photo frame and digital radio (get BBC 6music, whilst you can!). Carsten Munk and David Greaves are both working on porting MeeGo to give a full, touchscreen-oriented environment in future. The new site, jogglerwiki.info, links to tutorials for enabling telnet, SSH, BBC TV channels, installing Android, Mer and so on. It introduces itself, This wiki is designed to be a great source of information and tutorials across the internet for the O2 Joggler, we will always give credit for any tutorials we include. Here are just a few suggestions for uses: leave original system on it; small MythTV frontend in kitchen, with mythRecipies, mythMusic; bedside radio/alarm clock; system monitor; ... It's a well made little bit of kit, in your editor's opinion!