MeeGo for tablets gets a pre-alpha video demonstration

We managed to grab some hands-on time with a Moorestown-powered MeeGo tablet prototype during the hustle and bustle that was Computex 2010, but if you're looking for a more subdued, PBS-approved rundown of what the forthcoming operating system will offer, you're in the right place. Hosted up just after the break is a video demo of the pre-alpha user interface, complete with a finger-led walkthrough of the entire system. We'll be frank -- what we're seeing here is downright dazzling, and it all looks a heck of a lot easier to wrap one's noodle around than a full-on copy of Win7. Peek it for yourself, won't you?

[Thanks, Allen]

See more video at our hub!

[adrian13 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 4:57AM]

@JFH
Everything connected to Nokia always has everything to do with Symbian. Now Meego was a collaboration between Nokia and Intel. As far I can tell, every Nokia product has been left behind in US. I dont know why, maybe they thought Nokia Symbian phones just a feature phone which can only make calls and smses which is very wrong. I can do almost everything with my old and trusty N82 and yes you can install apps too. But admit it, most people dont know that. As for Meego there will a new handset with Meego OS from Nokia later this year. Lets see how developer react to this new platform.

P.S Dont get me wrong, i am a full time symbian lover

[JFH Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:08AM]

@adrian13

Nokia is left out of the US, before Iphone even, because it did not want to yield to fairly crazy carrier demands. It decided not to participate. Currently, Nokia has 8% marketshare in the US. It is WAY less than the rest of the world, but not 0.

There will be one Nokia handset on MeeGo this year, perhaps more from others, but that doesnt connect to your point of not being interesting for dev's since it can install apps from other sources than Ovi. Android allows you to do the same, so I dont see why MeeGo would fare any worse in that respect.

Just my two cents.

[adrian13 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:35AM]

@JFH
Agreed with your points.
But you have missed some points here, android was an american product and they have carrier supports where Meego was not.

There is no way Nokia will sell high in US as they mostly sell unlocked phones/tablets with no contract and make it look very expensive to most Americans

And i like that fact, coz i dont like being tight to carrier, i love the freedom to change my sim card every time i want. An unlocked N8 would be enough for me :D

[moco Posted Jun 23rd 2010 6:10AM]

@adrian13 "There is no way Nokia will sell high in US as they mostly sell unlocked phones/tablets with no contract and make it look very expensive to most Americans"

The SIM freedom has been a core thing in Europe since the beginning of mobile communications as Europeans travel abroad more than Americans. You drive a few hours and you are out of the country pretty much anywhere in Europe and people love traveling and to have freedom of choosing the best service provider. That's why locked phones have never rooted in Europe. There are some "budget" providers who lock their phones but it's been widely considered as a PITA and frowned upon.

[incognito Posted Jun 23rd 2010 10:01AM]

@adrian13
1. This has nothing to do with Symbian, apart from both having Qt libs allowing developers to develop for one and publish on many (currently: Windows, MacOS X, many desktop Linux distributions, Maemo/MeeGo and Symbian, the future of Qt on WinMo platforms is not yet clear and depends on Microsoft). Further, MeeGo is a fully-fledged GNU/Linux meaning it can run any desktop Linux application provided that the hardware can cope with it and that lib dependencies are met, which in case of Moorestown platform is not a problem as it can use current i386/i586 libs; for ARM-based tablet you'll have to wait for a port, or do the port by yourself.

The only thing that differs MeeGo from your regular Linux distributions (say Ubuntu or Fedora) is the touch-screen, small-screen optimized GUI/UX, as well as some power-management 'modules'.

2. if the platform too open (like symbian or maemo as u can install apps and contents from everywhere), developer will ignore it for profit issues
The MeeGo platform at its core is far more open than both, Symbian and Maemo, that's the reason why it's hosted by the Linux Foundation. but that has nothing to do with profits. You can install any application from any place on your regular Windows, MacOS X and Linux OSes and I don't see developers leaving those platforms. In fact, for 1 developer developing for, lets say iOS, there are hundreds more developing for the aforementioned. You don't need a centralized system in form of an AppStore to deliver and earn from your content or your software. There will be centralized repositories for those that prefer to do their content/software delivery that way, tho.

[ounkeo Posted Jun 23rd 2010 4:42AM]

I'm waiting for this to come out on a tablet. This OS just seems to offer more than a pure mobilephone port. I am in the camp that tablets should not be running full OS (win7), but neither should they be running mobile phone OS (iPad). This really seems like the only real full fledged OS that can do tablets justice.

And as a long time smrtphone user, I appreciate the fact that they are putting effort into making the screen real estate useful rather than *just* display rows of icons that do absolutely nothing.

The multitasking is also sweet. Certainly much less complex than Apple's "multi-task done better" (which to me, is really quite convoluted).

[HereAndNow Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:19AM]

Looks kinda cool!

It's great to see all the OS innovation (iOS, Android, WebOS, MeeGo, ChromeOS, WP7, ...) that is happening these days. Hopefully, this will accelerate the development of "installable" HTML5 web apps, that can run across all of the different platforms. Then, users will simply pick the OS that provides the user experience they prefer.

[GoodToGo Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:20AM]

I for one am not fond of Nokia OS's. But if this is the way they plan on writing future OS's then sign me up!

[denisx Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:32AM]

Holly crap... i think this is the end of the world... An engadget post about a nokia product where most of the comments are positive?

All sarcasm aside this would look great next to my N900 (hopefully running meego too).

[Pies Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:36AM]

I'll wait for ChromeOS.

[Zigmar Posted Jun 23rd 2010 5:43AM]

Looks nice!

[MrLinux Posted Jun 23rd 2010 6:25AM]

comparing MeeGo to Android is stupid as they are aimed at different markets (Android is not really a tablet OS). Now comparing MeeGo to ChromeOS that is more like it.

[mattei Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:59AM]

Is that an issue of wired I see at 0:52? If i can get it on meego, then i'll never have to buy an ipad

[fast Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:17AM]

This wipes the floor, epic style. To all the ifans that posted pathetic blurbs on this thread..."Denial ain't just a river in Egypt". Snap out of it.
My n900 is getting this asap.

[TechHedz Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:25PM]

SeeKo the tab looks amazing. I wrote my post response for another new post below of Zintinos. I just hit reply to the wrong person. He just said he never thought linux could look that beautiful. I was just showing him a video of linux. But as far as the slate goes it looks amazing. When I first saw the Iphone I thought it would be a pain to learn. The learning curve on this looks even simpler. I am totally psyched about this and holding off on buying a slate till this is released. It looks way nicer then an Ipad. I am surprised Nokia has been able to pull something like this off. I do think though if Apple was to take a shit people would glorify how beautiful and intuitive it was. I do have a love hate relationship with apple myself but I see them for what they are.