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Nokia makes Qt port to Maemo 5 and N900 official (video)

Hey developers, Nokia's got a special treat for you today. It just announced the official port of the community-driven Qt for Maemo project. That means a common framework for writing native applications (and web apps and services thanks to Webkit integration) across Maemo 5 and future Maemo 6 releases, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. That's a broad reach in terms of devices (including the hotly anticipated N900) and marketshare and a smart move by Nokia in an era where devices are differentiated not by hardware and OS but by their ability to run apps and connect to web services. A "technology preview" release is available now and scheduled for final release (based on Qt 4.6) in Q1 of 2010. Click through for a wee taste.

Symbian^4 to break compatibility with S60 apps in a big way


It's been known that the first iterations of the Symbian Foundation's platform releases are basically going to amount to S60 5th Edition Feature Packs, but what comes after that? TamsS60 recently had a chat with David Wood -- who has the rather fantastical-sounding title of "Catalyst and Futurist" at the Foundation -- and he's managed to set the record straight about how S60 as we know it will be phased out over the next few years to make way for a new (well, mostly new) development stack. Most notably, UI toolkit Qt will replace S60's legacy Avkon API around Symbian^4, which is expected to solidify in the latter half of 2010; this means that most current S60 applications will break except for low-level things that aren't using Avkon UI elements. That's a big deal and a bit of an issue considering the huge installed based of S60 users and apps -- but just like tearing off a bandage, it's gotta be done quickly and correctly for the health of the platform going forward.

Trolltech's Linux-based "Greenphone" for developers

Why wait for Access Linux or a garden-variety consortium to come to market, when Trolltech's got us covered right now with their Qtopia smartphone platform? Of course, devices running Qtopia have been few and far between, and unless you're willing to hit up France for one of your own, tracking down a handset is likely an exercise in futility. Trolltech has been feeling your pain and looks to introduce their "Greenphone" as part of several software development kits they'll be offering starting next month. We had a chance to hit up their launch event last night and snapped a couple shots (our apologies for the quality) and we have to admit, even though this thing is targeted squarely at Qtopia developers, it could just as well be decent looking handset for the masses. The quadband GSM / GPRS Greenphone includes Bluetooth, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM with a miniSD slot for expansion, and a QVGA touchscreen sitting atop a 317MHz XScale; we're even digging the ecto-green exterior. Interested parties best be on their toes -- the phone won't be offered alone, and SDK packages will be available in strictly limited quantities.




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