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We all know the decisions of Nokia and Microsoft, we know that MeeGo is not main Nokia smartphone operating system anymore. I was also thinking that Nokia will abandon Qt at all and it will become one of many forgotten mobile technologies. Apparently I was wrong, at least a bit.

I’m aware that porting libraries between platforms is quite common. Programmers want to have their favourite tools in palm of the hand, so that we have for example java and icedtea on N900. This time Qt (currently owned by Nokia) is going to Android. I’ve seen few projects trying to make this port but none of them was big success. Finally I’ve found ?Necessitas, you can check it out on Qt labs blog.
This makes me feel better, when Nokia-MS fusion (I know, cooperation not fusion) came to reality I was a bit confused what to do with my newly acquired Qt certificate. but maybe with Necessitas I can move (as programmer) to another platform without need to develop bunch of new skills and maybe soon we will have more Qt applications ported to Android and some of Nokia products will prove itself useful.
I’m waiting for something more than recently released alpha version, which still may be buggy, but I have great hopes related to this port.
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MJ

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Today I’ve became certified Qt developer (so today I’ll spend some time for self-promotion), my experience is now confirmed by propper authorities, so I can go back to coding for Nokia N900 and maybe other Nokia phones or even desktop computers (okay okay, and blogging sometimes ).
You may ask how does it look and what is needed to pass Qt Essentials exam. I was pretty stressed for some time, since it was part of my work plan, so I needed to pass at first attempt. I’m working in MeeGo Touch Framework for over a year now and I have some previous experience in Qt, these facts were my strong points. But on the other hand, while working on specific project you never use every single part of such complex framework as Qt, it touches actually every part of possible application functionality.
So what’s the secret recipe for passing the exam?
First of all taking Qt tainings from Nokia, free material available covers really huge part of Qt and it’s vital to at least know what the trainings cover. It’s good to take the training from someone who knows what to focus on, even when having all of the documents or presentations someone more experienced can show you what is important and how to organise your knowledge.
On the other hand it’s nice to have some real experience. To be honest practical part of what I know, the things that I’ve already done and I’m still doing using Qt, all of this became more understandable to me. Some of coding practices are not nameless habits anymore, I can say that now I know what I’m doing
Summarizing, to take the exam and pass succesfully I’d advise taking some training and courses, reading a lot and having some practical experience. It helps a lot, it helped me.
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Maciej Jablonski, certified Qt developer

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I was writing about Qt few times ago, with some examples how to use it on N900. Apart from that it’s framework to be used with more Nokia mobiles like N8. Because Nokia ties its future with Qt I think it’s good idea to get familiar with this technology, because it may be future for Ovi by Nokia and many more. So let’s think about possibilities.
First of all you can attend one of many events related to Qt, try googling a bit more to find one in your area. If it’s organised by Nokia you can even join a contest, my work collegues did some time ago and it appears to be very good opportunity to show yourself as good developer, team leader or at least show your ideas to wider audience. First of it I can think of is Innovation Contest, just check it.
Second of all trainings, it seems like Qt trainings are happening everywhere around, so you can have a bit easier beginning. You can try the one related to Innovations Contest or for example well tested Qt Essentials Training and certification system.
Finally, when Qt went Open Source it’s developing quite nicely giving more and more possibilities, not only for mobile devices but also for desktop, with a bit of luck you can create something used on desktop computers, phones, laptops, tablets and many more. Current Qt status gives quite good idea of expansion it has made last few yars, from small visualisation library to complete framework for almost every digital device around. I think it’s really nice to at least try.
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MJ

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Some time ago I’ve started more technical part of this blog by presenting possibilities of Nokia Qt SDK and testing directly on N900. I may not be best suited for teaching but I can point out some interesting plots where to start and where to look. So let’s get to something more technical, this time – the code.

First of all Model-View-Controller, design pattern used for Qt widgets. Idea is pretty simple, to create widget we need Controller, from which we can manage its visual features, behavior and properties. Second of all most of widgets need data, enclosed in Model, for exaple combo box needs values that will show on the list of drop-down menu. Models can be created and added to widget with setModel() method of Controller. Third part, View provides actual UI part of widget, what we can see on screen when widget is shown in our application.
So how to bring widget to screen, what is actually needed? If it comes to simple widgets, like button (QPushButton) it’s enough to create it (actually to create Controller) and put on screen. When we want to use some more complex widgets, like drop-down list it’s possible to supply it with Model enclosing data shown in drop-down menu. Most of Qt widgets have default View, so for simple applications you don’t need to take care of this part.

So now something for N900, among Qt modules we can find QtMaemo5 with some widgets specific for Maemo 5. You can try more yourself, but let’s take QMaemo5ValueButton for example. It’s finger friendly button that allows to choose option and displays this option in specified place on button. To give choice we can use QMaemo5ListPickSelector widget, invoked by pressing button, but it needs it’s own data (here’s the place where MVC works). We can construct our Model using QStandardItemModel, which is structured like table and for each row we can use QStandardItem with specified text. So let’s create few rows, append it to model and see how it works. If you’re interested in code lying behind this exampe you can download test application and try it …

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Recently I’ve started (finally) realising my idea of creating application for Nokia N900. Since PR1.3 update is already available and Qt 4.7 is supported by N900 it’s easier to make new application. With Nokia Qt SDK it’s even easier, since it has possibility to test directly on your phone.
First of all you need to install Nokia Qt SDK on your computer. You have choice of full installer and online installer that will download needed parts of SDK during installation process. Second of all, to have possibility to debug and test your applications on the phone, you need to install Mad Developer application on your N900.

Now that we have everything installed let’s start with our application. Run Qt Creator and create new project, in popup window choose Mobile Qt Application. In the next steps you can choose name for your project, location on hard drive and which components to use for this application. I’ve chosen all of them, since it may become not-only N900 application. Next you can choose base widget for the application, I left the QMainWindow and everything by default. If you uncheck Generate form you will have plain code application, without main window editable via WYSIWYG widget designer. For the first application, let’s have this possibility so leave this checked. If you also want to use some kind of version control, there is also possibility to include it in the last step, but let’s leave it for now.

Now we have our project started and we can put some widgets on the screen and test it, let’s put a button on the window, get one from list on the left and place, resize as you want. On the right you can modify object’s properties, upper part lists objects, lower part lists properties, for example text placed on button, let’s change it for something else. In the same way let’s change windowTitle of our main window. Now that we have something visible, let’s moove to testing it on N900…

From menu choose Tools and Options, there in category Projects go to Maemo Device Configurations tab and here the magic begins. The …

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Few days ago Dave Neary, guy involved in MeeGo development, made quite extensive review of current MeeGo status, inside the project and outside on market. For full article read The MeeGo Progress Report, I will shorten to the most vital parts.
All of the commotion around Symbian (that was almost closed down recently and seems to be dying slowly) and MeeGo (still under heavy development) leaded to announcement that Nokia will choose the latter as main system for high-end mobiles. This is good news for MeeGo after recent changes in Nokia management, new CEO (formerly in high ranked at Microsoft) and employment reduction.
On the other hand cooperation between Nokia and Intel is still far from monolithic. Intel bases on it’s GTK+ solutions, while Nokia insists on Qt. There is right on both sides, investing time, money and work in technology and abandoning it later doesn’t seem the best solution for big company. This part is a bit tricky for Nokia and Intel, while Apple released iPhone with it’s iOS quite a while ago, iPad quite recently, in the mean time Google answered with coherent Android platform, MeeGo may meet some difficulties conquering mobile market.
Apart from all of difficulties and doubts, MeeGo looks quite good as for few months old, open source project. Lot of experienced developers are involved, works is going forward every day, even I have my own share. In the next few days I hope some of the secrets will be revealed during MeeGo Conference 2010 in Dublin, I will be there and I will surely share my observations and every news I can reach. Let’s stay in touch, something interesting may come up
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MJ

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Not so long ago we’ve seen first news about Maemo 5 PR1.3 update and this time we don’t need to wait long. According to Maemo.org wiki and my own observation it’s already out. I’ve noticed Maemo 5 update in App Manager today around 2PM, so without much thinking I started preparations and installation.
At First I’ve encountered small problem when trying OTA update, but there is a way to solve conflicts in packages. Just open details screen, go to problems tab and see if you have any conflicts in packages (see the screenshots). Remember (or write down) package names. At this point you can disable all additional software catalogues, like Mozilla, Opera or extras-devel and extras-testing, it will speed up further steps. Close App Manager, go to XTerminal, then switch to root (using sudo gainroot) and for every package in conflicts type apt-get remove <package_name>. This will give you the list of packages to be uninstalled from your N900, but it’s necessary if you want to update over WLAN. Then go to App Manager again, check if there are some problems and repeat above steps until you can update.
When the update is possible it will download 83MB of data, you should be aware of that if you are using GPRS/3G connection! You should be also aware that during the update (which took me about 40-50 minutes) you won’t be able to make any phone calls (even emergency calls).
And most important thing, what is updated? There’s nothing on wiki. What I’ve found at first glance is that it looks that N900 works better with Nokia Ovi Suite. That’s regular user’s point of view, power users and application developers will find updated Qt 4.7.0 and Qt Mobility packages. It looks like application development for MeeGo can start just now with this. It was also mentioned that PR1.3 will come with possibility to dual-boot to MeeGo, right now I don’t have such functionality, but I assume that it may be announced on MeeGo Conference 2010 next month, I will keep you informed. Until then let’s enjoy brand new PR1.3 update!
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MJ

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If you follow software updates frequently you may have noticed some new updates in extras-devel and extras-testing catalogues which cannot be installed because of unresolved dependencies. I’m fully aware of the date today, but I cannot take everything as a joke and this time I think it’s not a joke. If you follow Maemo 5 development and this blog, you should already know that new system update is almost ready to be released, application developers already have SDK PR1.2 to adapt their applications to this new firmware.
Let’s have a look into App Manager and maybe some of my installed applications. As you can see Maepad 1.5 is available but trying to install it causes error, and going to details shows unresolved dependency of libhildon1 (>= 2.2.10). This package is one of base of Maemo 5 UI and it comes with system. If you’re a little skilled with console and APT you can easily check current version of this package installed (which is for me 2.2.3-1+0m5). Similar situation with QtIrreco 0.3.1-1 update with unmet dependencies of total 5 libqt4 packages (>=4.6.2~git20100224) making update unable to install.
As we know Qt 4.6 will come with PR1.2 update and I assume the same goes to Hildon 2.2.10 so I think that broken updates are not to be afraid of this time. It’s part of good job done by developers, making their packages ready for Maemo 5 PR1.2 update!
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

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Qt was mentioned in my posts few times already. Most of the times I refered to this framework as good base for building applications on many platforms, including Maemo. This time I have another example of Qt application.
CuteExplorer is currently available in extras-devel and for now it seems to be really under development, at least I think it is not perfect yet . Nevertheless it gives power beyond built-in file manager.
Browsing with keyboard is rather easy and intuitive, arrows to move around, backspace to go up in directory tree and enter to go to selected directory or open file as in default manager. Selecting multiple files is also easy holding shift key and moving as usual. Mouse browsing, well, to be honest I still can’t get the idea. Most of the times i get stuck in directory or file I don’t actually want to see. Maybe I should read the manual first, but I think I’m not that type of person .
The most interesting feature from my point of view is browsing whole filesystem, not only one directory from device and memory card as defauld browser allows. This may help when you find some tutorial pointing i.e. /usr/share/hildon directory and you have no idea where to look, now you can see full path on top of the screen and see exactly what’s inside.
One more thing is worth mentioning, Bluetooth sharing of selected files. Usage is a little confusing, because first you need to ‘copy’ and then ‘send’ files, but it’s relatively easy when you find desired file somewhere in directory tree and you want to quickly send it.
Few more features, new look and intuitive keyboard usage are things that made me want to use this application. Still I see that CuteExplorer needs further work but I hope some day it will be great replacement for default file manager.
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

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Some time ago I’ve mentioned Widgets Gallery, UI concept of Maemo 6. Even earlier you could have found series of Qt-based demos. Qt itself is application framework taken over by Nokia in 2008. Since then technology was developed to be available on every platform Nokia could reach, including Linux-based mobile phones, and Symbian. If to belive in Qt’s most important feature, portability, the code written in a good manner can be used to build application for Windows, Linux, Symbian, Mac OS and more.
I’m sure that in case of N900, the technology is advanced enough to write complex and advanced applications. In extras-devel repository there is a series of Qt Mobile Demo applications like MyBudget, HyperUI and ShopList. Part of it, Qt Mobile Demo: Weather is now developed as regular application, still staying in extras-devel before will be well tested and approved.
What makes Qt so attractive? I think that putting together a nice piece of software is fairly easy with default available widgets. At least try demos mentioned above or have a look on screenshots, slick and steady, rather concepts than fully working applications, but give a nice view on what is possible with this framework. Phone UI looks futuristic, but still elegant and intuitive. Lists, counters, charts, animations, overall look of MyBudget and ShopList are really eye-candy. As concept-only work it makes me think more optimistic about UI future!
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For more info on devel and testing catalogues visit Application catalogues tutorial
Please visit Nokia N900 Forum

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A few days ago, it has been released an alpha version of Office Viewer for Nokia N900 called Koffice. This application would complement the mobile functionalities of the Nokia N900 as it gives to the users to carry with them any Office document such as text, spreadsheet or presentation.
The Koffice is basically an application to view word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentation as it supports text files, spreadsheets and presentation in OpenDocument format (ODF) and Microsoft Office formats.  The most important features are the option to open more than one file at once (multiple documents), open the office documents from emails and search, copy and paste in office files from the N900´s documents.
“This shows both how portable and lean on resources KOffice is” says Inge Wallin, the marketing coordinator of Koffice as it points out an important feature that this application brings to the Nokia N900, the possibility to use the device to give presentation. Further, the Koffice is a great complement to work along the web program Google Docs in my opinion (while waiting for an office editor).
Apart from this application new, there is another important process. As some of you might know, Nokia has been working with Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework for developers to encourage them as it gives everything needed to create web-enabled desktop, mobile and embedded applications (For more information, please click here). So, the Maemo OS is in the process of moving to Qt meaning that the come up of the Office viewer marks the begin of Qt based applications in the future.
The application requires the last firmware update (PR1.1) and you can install it as it available on the Maemo repositories. For further installations details, please click here. Don’t forget that it’s an alpha version.
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