Hasta La Gadget!

Although we’ve seen a deluge of tinker-friendly boards, many of them share a dirty secret: they’re borrowing someone else’s OS. The creator of the new CoAction Hero board, Tyler Gilbert, doesn’t think that’s good enough for those who want both control and ease of use. His stackable ARM Cortex-M3 design runs its own real-time platform, CoActionOS, that supports Raspberry Pi-style features like file systems and multitasking while abstracting the hardware enough to remove some of the usual headaches. Coding for the CoAction Hero is much like writing a desktop app, and a Qt-based developer kit helps owners write their own interface without knowing the circuitry inside-out. The board is being crowdfunded and won’t ship until July if all goes according to plan, but a relatively low $10,000 target and $29 minimum pledge for a device should get the Hero into the hands of intrepid project builders.

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Source: Kickstarter

WebOS loyalists have been waiting a long, long time for HP’s September launch of Open webOS, but the company has made good on its promise with not a moment to spare. Open webOS 1.0 is now available with core browser and e-mail apps, the Enyo 2.0 framework and enough hooks to allow porting to a platform of choice. To prove this last point, HP has gone so far as to port the software to a TouchSmart all-in-one — a device just a tad larger than a Veer 4G. Lest anyone be hasty and get visions of developing a custom build for the TouchPad, though, they’d do well to remember both HP’s disclaimer ruling out legacy support as well as word of the holes that exist in the current Open webOS release. The company needs time to offer open-sourced media support, a Bluetooth stack, advanced network management, faster rendering and newer versions of both Qt and WebKit. The curious can nonetheless try the OS in an emulator today, and intrepid developers can start building their own projects with the code and tools found at the source link.

Continue reading HP takes Open webOS 1.0 live, shows it supersized on a TouchSmart (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Tablets, Mobile, HP

HP takes Open webOS 1.0 live, shows it supersized on a TouchSmart (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WebOS Nation  |  Open webOS  | Email this | Comments

Nokia has sold off its Qt software business to Digia, washing its hands of the ecosystem as it renews its focus on Windows Phone. The deal – financial terms of which have not been released – will see Digia take on all of the Qt-related duties Nokia had until now been responsible for, including the development of the programming language, commercial deployment, and open-source licensing and servicing. Although some may rue Nokia’s abandonment, Digia does at least have big plans for Qt, including enabling it on Android, iOS and Windows 8 platforms.

Digia had already acquired the commercial licensing business from Nokia, back in March 2011. Now, the company says it intends to pump cash into Qt R&D, relying on cross-platform ubiquity to encourage developers to jump onboard.

Up to 125 from the Nokia Qt team will transfer to Digia, with most of those based in Oslo or Berlin; Nokia had already laid off the Australian Qt team earlier this month, amid rumors of an asset sale.

“Nokia is proud of the contributions we’ve made to Qt over the past four years” Sebastian Nyström, head of Nokia Strategy, said today in a statement. ”We are pleased that we’ve been able to work with Digia to secure continued development of Qt by the current core team. Digia’s plans to acquire Qt mean that it can continue as a successful open source project and also offer continuing employment for many people in the community.”

Timescales for bringing Qt apps to Windows 8, Android and iOS devices have not been disclosed, though Digia says it expects consistent growth and a “positive” impact from the acquisition on 2012 revenues, implying some degree of speed. The new home for Qt will now be at here, while the developer network is here.

Nokia sells Qt to Digia: iOS, Android and Windows 8 ports promised is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

More than a few N9 aficionados felt their hearts sink when important MeeGo team members left Nokia this week, putting the fate of the entire swipe-friendly platform in doubt. Recently-founded Jolla was clearly watching, as it confirmed just in the nick of time that it’s planning to carry the torch further. The Finnish startup, which includes important members of the N9 team as well as veterans of the unofficial MeeGo community, not only plans to iterate on MeeGo but to build its very own smartphone with that foundation. Those attached to Nokia’s interpretation of MeeGo will have to adapt to a few changes: Jolla’s work is based on the related, partly HTML5-driven Mer Project and will have a “brand new UI” to go with the new hardware. It won’t be a literal N10 as a result, but we’ll find out just what direction Jolla is taking soon — it’s been working on the phone since late 2011 with plans to show its work later this year. As long as some of the N9’s spirit carries forward, we have a hunch that a lot of fans won’t mind the absence of a Nokia badge.

Continue reading Jolla promises MeeGo will live on, plans new smartphone to reward the faithful

Jolla promises MeeGo will live on, plans new smartphone to reward the faithful originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Handheld Blog  |  Jolla (LinkedIn), (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments