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.

[DarKlar Posted Oct 9th 2009 4:44AM]

I love this phone.

[7710user Posted Oct 9th 2009 4:50AM]

I've had each of the previous tablets and (provided this thing supports line-2/als) this'll be my next phone.. QT development is nice.. Fingers crossed it'll simplify symbian / maemo porting!! Pitty it wasn't finalised for the launch of this phone, but then again Maemo 6 being QT based will make for interesting times!

[Billy Posted Oct 9th 2009 4:51AM]

SDK?

[Renegade Fanboy Posted Oct 9th 2009 7:07AM]

http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/c05693a1-265c-4c7f-a389-fc227db4c465/Maemo_5_SDK.html

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 4:56AM]

I am obsessed about this phone. Been looking at it's specs and videos on the web for days. Can't wait till I get mine from Amazon. When is the freaking release date? I even bought a domain called nokian900hacks.com I am soooooo excited!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 6:18AM]

I don't think you need to "hack" the N900, it is quite open as it is.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 6:51AM]

omg you are correct. I totally forgot about this fact. Thanks so much. I'm ditchin that site lol.

[Kidna Posted Oct 9th 2009 5:59AM]

Finally!
I remembered when i was programming on my TI 89, i was regarded as a goof. But seriously , what's the point of any PERSONAL device, if you can't actually make anything personal with it?

[ale Posted Oct 9th 2009 2:56PM]

will there be a way to share all the programming done on QT? Like I'm not a programmer but will it be released as shareware?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 10th 2009 1:10AM]

QT is available under a proprietary/paid license, the GPLv3 and the LGPLv2.1

[Pdexter Posted Oct 9th 2009 5:29AM]

This is a great thing!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 5:57AM]

Yes, this is a great thing, like many other great things in this great world. Yay for great things. Yay.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 6:27AM]

i like thisphone and gonna purchase it any way.

does rumored Nokia N920 will b supporting QT????

[GGG Posted Oct 9th 2009 8:04AM]

of course, why wouldn't it?

[CJ Posted Oct 9th 2009 7:06AM]

It's great that after a few years of producing ho-hum (but still pretty decent) phones, Nokia have finally gotten back on track doing what they do best - great, innovative phones.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 7:18AM]

Yes. Yay. YAY!
I've also been obsessing over this thing for a while now. How to con my carrier ahead of my upgrade is the next question :-)

[artshark Posted Oct 9th 2009 8:23AM]

hey, the iPhone called. it wants its metallic toggles back

[Marc L Posted Oct 9th 2009 8:30AM]

Did it say "I want my metallic toggles back," or did it say "I want my metallic tog........." because the call was dropped and you just assumed?

[MarkAnderson Posted Oct 9th 2009 8:52AM]

The Prada just called: "They're not yours, b***h, they're mine."

[N900 Posted Oct 9th 2009 9:25AM]

...iPhone invented metallic toggles?

=\

[magallanes Posted Oct 9th 2009 9:50AM]

"toggles" do nothing.

:3

[Mmmm Donuts Posted Oct 9th 2009 4:31PM]

@Magallanes

No more colon three for you >:U

This is Engadget, dammit.

[Yemble Posted Oct 9th 2009 8:25AM]

How about python with gui bindings included out-of-the-box? Who the hell wants to write C in 2009?

[access Posted Oct 9th 2009 11:28AM]

Python's available: http://maemo.org/packages/view/python/ + all GUI bindings and what not.

[Yemble Posted Oct 9th 2009 11:48AM]

Bundled with the device I mean, so you can distribute apps for it without the runtime framework.

[access Posted Oct 9th 2009 11:52AM]

Don't know if it's got the packages installed, but any correctly packaged app would pull in all the dependencies needed automatically. It is after all using apt/dpkg.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2009 9:20AM]

Tried n900 in a flagship store and it's on par with the hype.

[TikiTeko Posted Oct 9th 2009 9:49AM]

what can you expect fro someone named ... Art.... He probably thinks the Mac and the iPhone are the gods of everything artistic in computer life....

[GN1 Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:36AM]

dude, not cool. i'm in art, but has been a nokia fan for quite awhile still using E61 waiting for a huge upgrade when they come out w/ a N9xx that run on 3g 850/1900, then i'll be all over it. i'm also a small pc modder w/an xps laptop, a netbook, a home server, 2 desktops. so next time you wanna make fun of art think of me and STFU

[N900 Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:50AM]

he wasn't making fun of art he was making fun of.....oh fuck it T.T

[TikiTeko Posted Oct 9th 2009 9:51AM]

This is a really cool device. It has pretty much everything you need. US 3G, 3.5 MM, Full physical qwerty, touchscreen, Flash, firefox!!! (I love you Firefox) and its plug-ins, cross fingers that they can port the Messengers (Live, Yahoo, AIM, etc) from Symbian into this one.

[yomachaser Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:04AM]

Pretty sure Pidgin already handles all the messenger types listed and it's been on maemo for a long time.

[access Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:23AM]

Maemo 5 uses Gnome Telepathy as its IM framework, and Telepathy supports everything that Pidgin supports: http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Components

So you'll be able to use MSN, AIM, ICQ, Skype, Twitter, SMS etc in the same messaging app that comes with the phone. The you can of course also install Pidgin or any other IM client you want.

[TikiTeko Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:27AM]

That is cool. I've always been skeptic about using other non-official applications due to a fear of "credential theft" but I may give it a try. However, I would prefer able to download each application, like you can do on symbian as of now.

[access Posted Oct 9th 2009 10:56AM]

Well, it should be possible to download separate apps if anyone bothers writing a separate app for each protocol anymore, but for the moment every IM conversation is run through http://maemo.nokia.com/features/conversations/ and if you need support for more protocols, then just add the correct plugin from the application store like http://maemo.org/packages/view/account-plugin-butterfly/ for only MSN and http://maemo.org/packages/view/account-plugin-haze/ for "everything" else (including MSN). Pidgin should also be available soon after launch if you don't like the built in Conversations app. :)