MeeGo

View of the MeeGo windows

Introduction to MeeGo

MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project which was announced at Mobile world Congress in February 2010 by Intel and Nokia in a joint press conference. Its aim is to merge the efforts of Intel on Moblin and of Nokia on Maemno into one project. It is hosted by the Linux Foundation. According to Intel, MeeGo was developed because Microsoft did not offer comprehensive Windows 7 support for

theAtom processor. Novell also play a large part in the MeeGo effort, working with the Linux Foundation on their build infrastructure and official MeeGo products, and MeeGo is increasingly using more of Novell's technology that was originally

developed for openSUSE, (including openSUSE Build Service, ZYpp for package management, and other system management tools).

MeeGo is primarly designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks / entry-level desktops, tablet computers,mobile computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, connected-TVs, IPTV-boxes, smart phones, and other embedded systems.

The MeeGo phone

Launch of MeeGo

· Global leaders Intel Corporation and Nokia merge Moblin and Maemo to create MeeGo*, a Linux-based software platform that will support multiple hardware architectures across the broadest range of device segments, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems.

· MeeGo offers the Qt application development environment, and builds on the capabilities of the Moblin core operating system and reference user experiences. Using Qt, developers can write once to create applications for a variety of devices and platforms, and market them through Nokia's Ovi Store and Intel AppUp^SM Center.

· MeeGo will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and governed using the best practices of the open source development model. The first release of MeeGo is expected in the second quarter of 2010 with devices launching later in the year.

· Nokia and Intel expect MeeGo to be adopted widely by global device manufacturers, network operators, semiconductor companies, software vendors and developers.

MeeGo Hosted by the Linux Foundation

The MeeGo software platform will be hosted by the Linux Foundation as a fully open source project, encouraging community participation in line with the best practices of the open source development model. Intel and Nokia invite the respective members of Maemo.org and Moblin.org to join the combined community atMeeGo.com, as well as encouraging wider participation from the communications, computing and related industries. Developers can begin writing applications for MeeGo in Qt immediately. The first release of MeeGo is targeted for the second quarter of this year.

· Media materials, including a Webcast replay, can be found atwww.intel.com/pressroom/intel-nokia and www.nokia.com/press.

Latest news about Meego

Despite the iOS, Android and soon-to-come Windows Phone 7 onslaughts, Intel and Nokia’s MeeGo OS won’t be powering publicly available smart phones until the first half of 2011, according to an Intel executive, seeing the same kind of delays plaguing many other tablet and Smartphone competitors.

Another setback troubled Nokia’s Smartphone plans. Rumors are that the MeeGo devices vice president Ari Jaaksi had left the company a week ago. No reason was given for his departure but it was said that the company’s plans related to having a MeeGo device ready to ship by the end of this year would not be affected. Nokia’s only self-made device known to be in works now is the N9.

An updated MeeGo was promised before the end of 2010. This statement however does not necessarily mean that the device would be shipping, but could simply mean the company would show the platform’s latest state or commit to a 2011 timeframe.

The conservatism towards smart phones caused most of Nokia’s recent problems in the phone arena. By adopting touch screens only on the past year, Nokia has faced a lot of problems such as frustrated developers, content only recently unified in the Ovi Store and, last but not least, modern Smartphone features missing, such as fast processors and capacitive multi-touch screens. By systematically neglecting the US market, Nokia has lost a lot of opportunities, but this could change with the recently unveiled N8 for AT&T.

MeeGo is Nokia’s joint development with Intel and is intended to modernize the high-end Nseries of Nokia phones by equipping

them with modern multi-touch interfaces and high levels of multitasking.

Reviews on MeeGo testing

The MeeGo project is happy to announce "Day 1" of the MeeGo Handset user experience project. Many of you will remember this "Day 1" concept from March, when we first made the MeeGo core OS source code available and started development towards the MeeGo 1.0 release. Today, the handset baseline source code is available to the development community. This code is being actively developed as MeeGo 1.1, which is scheduled for release in October. The team has been preparing MeeGo Gitorious with all the sources and infrastructure to perform the weekly builds for MeeGo 1.1 development. The MeeGo UI team has also been busy creating the handset reference user experience and preparing theMeeGo UI design principles and interaction guidelines

This milestone marks the completion of the merger of Moblin and Maemo as major architecture decisions and technical selections have been determined. Today, we are also opening the MeeGo Build Infrastructure.

The MeeGo Project Handset Day 1 includes:

· MeeGo APIs, incorporating Qt and MeeGo Touch UI Framework (MTF)

· Subset of the handset reference UI and applications

o Status Bar: clock, network, Bluetooth, 3G connection, notifications, and battery charge

o Home Screen

o Lock Screen

o Application Launcher

o Virtual Keyboard

o Applications: Dialer, SMS, Browser, Contacts, and Photo Viewer

· MeeGo Core OS (including the middleware components)

· Hardware adaptation support for Intel Atom-based handset (Moorestown) and ARM-based Nokia N900

Scope of MeeGo

"Our vision for seamlessly communicating between computing devices from the home, auto, office or your pocket is taking a big step forward today with the introduction of MeeGo," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "This is a foundational step in our evolving relationship with Nokia. The merging of these two important assets into an open source platform is critical toward providing a terrific experience across a variety of devices and gaining cross- industry support."

"MeeGo will drive an even wider range of Internet computing and communication experiences for consumers, on new types of mobile devices," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, and Nokia. "Through open innovation, MeeGo will create an ecosystem that is second to none, drawing in players from different industries. It will support a range of business models across the value chain, building on the experience and expertise of Nokia, Intel and all those who will join us. Simply put MeeGo heralds a new era of mobile computing."

MeeGo blends the best of Maemo with the best of Moblin to create an open platform for multiple processor architectures. MeeGo builds on the capabilities of the Moblin core OS and its support for a wide range of device types and reference user experiences, combined with the momentum of Maemo in the mobile industry and the broadly adopted Qt application and UI framework for software developers.

MeeGo also unites the robust worldwide Maemo and Moblin applications ecosystems and open source communities. For developers, MeeGo extends the range of target device segments for their applications. Using Qt for application development means that they can write applications once and easily deploy them on MeeGo and across other platforms, for example, on Symbian.

The Ovi Store will be the channel to market for apps and content for all Nokia devices, including MeeGo and Symbian-based, with Forum Nokia providing developer support across all Nokia device platforms. The Intel AppUp^SM Center will be the path to market for Intel-based MeeGo devices

xfrom other device manufacturers, with the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program providing support for applications targeting devices in a variety of categories.

The MeeGo software platform, running on high-performance devices, will deliver a range of Internet, computing and communication experiences, with visually rich graphics, multitasking and multimedia capabilities and the best application performance. Since MeeGo runs on multiple device types, people can keep their favorite applications when they change devices, so they are not locked into one kind of device or those from any individual manufacturer.