MeeGo Handset project: day one

Day One of the MeeGo Handset UX is finally upon us, bringing with it the UI and many of the applications that will likely form the basis of Nokia's Harmattan release later this year. The Handset UX image in its current form requires a large amount of effort to install on the N900 (hopefully this should improve in the near future), and much of the functionality you'd expect from Maemo is currently incomplete or simply not present (cellular, for instance). So this release is really only useful to platform- or very dedicated application-developers, and not useful day-to-day.

Hopes that this "Day One" release would finally bring everything out into the open (as stated by several important project members months prior to the release) and signal an end to the big reveal mentality that has so far been plaguing the MeeGo project seem to not have been fulfilled, as many parts of the Handset UX reference set have been held back until they're "ready". This unfortunately gives weight to the opinion that openness in MeeGo is really less about being Open than being open-when-it-doesn't-interfere-with-marketing-nor-make-things-too-inconvenient-for-management. Given the strong smell of developer preview which accompanies this release, "ready" is a very relative term and holding such projects back should not be necessary.



In this edition...

1. Front Page
   • MeeGo Handset project: day one
2. Applications
   • Shazam coming to the N900
   • Hermes gets support for adding phone numbers to contacts from LinkedIn
3. Development
   • Complete (with pictures) MeeGo Handset UX guidelines
   • Gtk+ on MeeGo: screenshots, issues and next steps
4. Community
   • Reggie takes on third MeeGo-related forum at AllAboutMeego
   • "Mobile Freidae" in Berlin, present or attend: 16th July
   • MeeGoPortal gives overview of the week
5. Devices
   • MeeGo Handset UX day 1 for N900 problems
   • Running MeeGo Handset UX on netbook
   • Running MeeGo Handset UX on an N900
6. Announcements
   • Intelligent music player in Ovi
   • Faster Application Manager in development
   • SleepAnalyser records movements in sleep
   • Vuvuzela app to annoy your friends
   • ShipRolling records & visualises rolling of boats