Hasta La Gadget!

Now that Nokia has shifted to a Windows Phone-centric smartphone strategy, it’s only natural for the company to divest itself of responsibility with regard to the Qt framework at the heart of Symbian and MeeGo development — a platform Nokia acquired from Trolltech back in January of 2008. We just got word that Digia will acquire the Qt commercial licensing and services business from Nokia, including the transfer of some 3,500 desktop and embedded customers actively using Qt today. Sebastian Nyström, Nokia Vice President, Application and Service Frameworks, had this to say about the agreement:

“Nokia will continue to invest in developing Qt as a cross-platform framework for mobile, desktop and embedded segments, focusing on open source development and expansion, we wanted a partner who can drive the commercial licensing and services business around Qt. Digia has proven, in-depth Qt expertise, operational excellence and a keen interest in growing and improving the overall Qt community and so well positioned to expand the Qt Commercial licensing and services business.”

So, if you’re interested in developing in Qt commercially, Digia will be your contact just as soon as the transaction completes sometime later this month.

[Thanks, Nisse]

Continue reading Nokia sells Qt commercial licensing and services business to Digia

Nokia sells Qt commercial licensing and services business to Digia originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Give yourself a cookie if you can still remember as far back as August 29th of last year. That was the day when HP’s Phil McKinney teased the world with images of three new prototypes being developed in his company’s labs — there was a tablet, now known as the HP TouchPad, a smartphone that’s since taken on the name of Pre 3, and something snaked around his wrist that looked suspiciously like a watch. Today, we learn more about this Metal Watch, as HP calls. It’s a continuation of the company’s overarching theme of mobile interconnectedness, however unlike its webOS devices, this connected watch is nowhere near ready for prime time (or maybe it’s just like them since none are actually shipping yet!). The new Metal fella is still a research project as much as anything else, but it’s seen as a key part of our future, acting as an easy-to-use information aggregator. It looks just like any old watch to us, but why not jump past the break and let HP’s CTO enlighten you on what makes it special?

[Thanks, Obstacle-Man]

Continue reading HP shows off Metal Watch concept (video)

HP shows off Metal Watch concept (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know electric cars are in the ascendancy when even the fearsome 4x4s start looking to add an extra little spark to their energy production and storage. Land Rover has just announced it’ll demo one — there are multiple working versions — of its development prototypes at the Geneva Motor Show next month, treating us to an exhibition of what a diesel engine can do when augmented with some electric firepower. The Range_e’s design is based on the Range Rover Sport and its 3.0-liter TDV6 core, however the new vehicle is capable of going a full 20 miles purely on its electric charge and touts a whopping 690-mile range altogether. Let’s hope Geneva shows enough interest in the Range_e to compel Land Rover to turn it into a commercial reality.

Land Rover develops Range_e hybrid, will show it off at the Geneva Motor Show originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details about Sony’s next-gen portable Playstation, the NGP, have been scarce since we spoke with SCEA President-CEO Jack Tretton about the new device. However, in an interview in the forthcoming issue of Edge, Shuhei Yoshida –who happens to be president of SCEA Worldwide Studios — revealed a few more tidbits about Sony’s NGP strategy (alas, still no official price). Apparently, the PSP will stick around even after NGP’s release because of high demand for the older handheld, not to mention a lower price. For those of you concerned about a dearth of titles upon the NGP’s debut — a la the PS3 — fear not, as Yoshida stated that porting PS3 games was a goal from the very beginning and the process will be simple (relatively speaking, of course). Combine that with a push to make the NGP’s development environment “as easy as possible,” and we’ll hopefully see plenty of available titles upon the device’s release. Oh yeah, Yoshida-san also said that NGP is just the console’s codename, and the real name will be announced later this year — PSP2 just rolls off the tongue, now doesn’t it?

Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida drops some NGP knowledge: PSP sticking around, PS3 games easy to port originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s been beating the Qt warpath for years after purchasing the developer framework from Trolltech back in January of 2008. In fact, Nokia just made the switch to Qt exclusively back in October in a sign of its unrelenting support for the unified development environment. That, like all previous Nokia strategies, is in for a big change today. While Qt will continue on as the development framework for Symbian and MeeGo, Microsoft will provide its free Windows Phone Developer Tools (Visual Studio 2010, Expression, Silverlight and the XNA Framework) to developers interested in developing for Nokia Windows Phones (get used to that phrase) while providing “guidance” to anyone wishing to port their apps to WP7. In other words, Qt will not be adapted for Windows Phone 7 APIs. Full letter after the break to what we imagine is a very disgruntled and previously loyal Nokia developer community.

Continue reading Nokia to developers: no Qt for Windows Phone development

Nokia to developers: no Qt for Windows Phone development originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 04:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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