Browser for Linux devices

Mozilla Labs has announced the release of first version Fennec browser for mobile devices for PC desktops based testing. Both Arm and x86 ports of the browser had been released .Fennec is available for a number of platforms including Maemo, Linux, Windows, Macintosh and Windows Mobile.



With this release mozilla is trying to jump in head on competition with Safari's rendering engine Webkit , which has from sometime emerged as the default browser for all the small and handheld mobile Internet devices.

Release notes for Fennec on Official website say about the browser that "This is an early developer release of the mobile version of Firefox, for testing purposes only, intended to:

* get wider community feedback on our approach to the user experience
* engage Mozilla community teams, including localizers, add-on developers, and testers
* get feedback from Web developers"

Although previous release of Fennec were targeted for being tested on Nokia N810 internet tablet but in second release mozilla labs has tried to cover a number of platforms for the purpose of wider range of assessment for users.

There has been some tremendous gain in performance of Javascript engine in the new release. This is a major field for various browser activities these days. But still it has to compete with Webkit's javascript engine. Though this release is a good head start for mozilla in every terms for start of penetration in MID space.

Maemo 5 SDK pre-alpha released

Nokia's Internet tablet Nokia N810 off late is in quite a buzz among Linux devices. Now Maemo.org has released pre alpha version of its Maemo 5 SDK . This open source release of SDK is featured with supports of hardware-based graphics acceleration for TI OMAP3 processors. Maemo SDK 5.0 also has supports for hi def cameras and cellular connectivity.

This advance Maemo SDK release also includes support for 3D graphical libary Clutter, PulseAudio, Tracker, Libcanberra, and OpenMax. Clutter is supposed to be used for a soon-to-be revamped UI and also a new multimedia framework (called "Midas") is also in pipeline through repository updates from NOKIA. There are supposed to be some backward compatibility hitches coz of addition of support for OMAP processors.There are also major updates in Glib, GTK+, GUPnP, Telepathy, BlueZ, the X server and some of the renewed Hildon components. Release notes can be referred for further information of SDK release.

Android 1.0 ported to Nokia N810

Now this can be considered as news of weekend. Google's much hyped Linux based mobile phone stack Android is ported on Nokia N810 tablet. Some week back there was news of Linux was ported to IPhone. Now this news can again be taken in same taste. This shows the penetration & attempts of Linux hackers to make Linux run on various proprietary devices.



This hack was done by Beijing based consulting firm NthCode. NthCode specializes in Linux device development, in markets that include mobile phones, set-top boxes, and "converged" multimedia devices. The NthCode team also did a comparative study between Android's Linux kernel and the mainline kernel and found the differences to be "significant." Google had changed 75 files and added an additional 88, making substantial changes in emulation, power management, Netfilter, debugging, memory handling, and other areas.

Video of Android booting on Nokia N810 tablet can be seen below :



But still there are few things left to be done. Most important of all is making ANDROID applications work & secondly to make wifi work on Nokia N810.

Nokia Smart Home Centre

Nokia unveils a linux device which can easily be out of the league a Nokia Smart Home Centre . This nano technology powered device is meant for controlling your home via a mobile phone or desktop PC. Nokia Smart Home Centre is a Linux Home Automation Gateway which uses Z-waves sensors & security radio to interact with other smart home devices.This device is meant for synchronising smart devices at home with a unique control interface.


Specifications listed for the Nokia Home Control Center include:

* 533MHz CPU
* 256MB RAM
* 6GB internal storage
* SD card reader with SDHC support
* 5 x gigabit Ethernet (4 x LAN; 1 x WAN)
* 802.11n WiFi (two antennas); Z-Wave
* GSM/GPRS
* 4 x USB 2.0 host
* 13.8 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches (350 x 150 x 35mm)
* OpenWrt Linux 2.6




The system offers a unified interface for devices including security systems, washing machines,self-operating lights,self-adjusting curtains,heating systems,smart refrigerators, and programmable thermostats.

Nokia Home Control Center features are also said to include:

* Automated responses to moisture, temperature limits , motion sensor triggering or luminance levels
* Linking of security, lighting, heating, and Internet systems
* Grouping of devices to control by location, function, and type

Device which is supposed to be shipped with OpenWrt Linux distribution comprise of fully featured 2.6 series linux kernel which features Linux server with file sharing cpabilities . Also this 550 gms (1.1 pound) device has web, email & media server capabilities. The product is expected to hit Europen Market in the last quarter of 2009.

Palm PDA Software on Nokia Tablets

Many of the PDA lovers were waiting from a long time to have liberty of rich set of applications like PALM PDA devices to be present on there linux powered devices. But the fragmented nature of development of linux smartphones haven't resulted in any Linux device with a very rich set of applications like IPhone or Palm PDA. But after the acquisition of Access labs by Nokia there have been some integrated efforts on those fronts.

So here comes the result of efforts in form of Garnett Virtual Machines or Garnett VM for Nokia Tablets.



Now we can have the richness of Palm PDA Software applications on Nokia Tablets N 770 , N800, N810.

Garnett VM or GVM aims to let binaries of PALM PDA applications run on these Nokia Tablets. Thanks to GVM now you can have various application like Google Maps ,Pocket Tunes, EzFTP , SnapperMail etc & games like PacMan & Bejeweled on ur Nokia Tablets.

Good going Access & Nokia!!!!

Linux Devices

Here i am starting a series of articles on the latest buzz in field of linux devices.

Linux has been considered as an Operating system especially for geeks/hackers. But now it has found place in range of small & handheld devices. Use of linux as an embedded operating system has grown much . From the beginning of decade there has been fragmented but continuous efforts by every kind of device manufacturer to use linux for there needs. So there have been a range of devices which can be termed as linux devices ranging from mobile phone to set-top boxes.But the best among them has been from the mobile phone OEM's ranging from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung etc.

The idea of this whole blog is to create a place to cater the needs of audience readers who want themselves to remain updated about the latest buzz in world of Linux devices.