Maemo 5.0 AKA Nokia N900 is go!

I’m back! After a busy time away I’m back in the flesh.

And when I say busy, I MEAN busy. We’ve the odd one or two things happen then but it’s official! The Nokia N900 containing the new Maemo 5.0 AKA Fremantle OS is now official and on the way to release.

The new MID (Mobile Internet Device) will be part cellphone and part MID. In the US, I believe the carrier will be T-Mobile however, I am unsure of the others within other territories.

What about Mozilla? The new N900 will come with a Mozilla-based browser as with the previous incarnations like the N800 and the N810 models. Will it be a new browser? I cannot say as I have not tested it yet.

And speaking of Mozilla, a new version of Fennec the mobile browser AKA mobile Firefox for the mobile device device (MID’s, cellphones) platform has released version 1.0 beta 4. Congrats!

Arora: A Light, Cross-Platform Web Browser

The web browser market got more competition today, Arora – initially a project based on the QTWebKit framework and then carried on as a seperate project using the WebKit rendering engine (ala Google Chrome/Chromium).

The browser itself is cross-platform thanks in part to the Qt framework it’s based on.

Arora

The browser itself:

“…features a minimalistic and lightweight interface, including tab management, simple history, a bookmarks system and global user CSS.”

Essentially this makes it ideal for those that just want a browser for a browser and not much else however, the project is open source so more features could be coming to it as seeing as it’s based on the WebKit rendering engine as opposed to Firefox’s Gecko, it fits with it’s other cousins such as Chrome/Iron.

[via DLS]

Arora: A light-weight, cross-platform web browser based on WebKit.

Make Firefox 3.0 or 3.5 look like Firefox 3.7

A good writeup from DLS if you remember the mockups from MozillaWiki on the new Firefox 3.7 interface (note: they are mockups AND subject to change depending on demand).

For those that want to try and theme their Firefox 3.0 or 3.5 installation to look like the aforementioned mockups then DLS has you covered with their post on the subject here.

For the run down, the steps are:

You’ll need to grab a couple things to pull off the transformation:

• Personal Menu – One of my favorite add-ons. Needed to combine the bookmark and tools icons.
• All Glass – To add Vista / Windows 7 Aero Glass effects to the toolbars
• Stylish – To apply the provided UserStyle which tweaks inactive tab text
• The theme .JAR, from DeviantArt (of course)

The end result is pretty faithful to the mockup. Pull the switcheroo and confuse your pals – tell them you got your hands on an early pre-alpha (Make it more convincing with a quick Titlebar Tweak)!

[via @leemathews/@DownloadSquad/Tweaking with Vishal]

Make Firefox 3 or 3.5 look like the Firefox 3.7 new theme mockup.

Mauku 0.6.2 Released

For those of you having a problem with the open source microblogging client for the Maemo platform a release is now available!

Mauku – The micro-blogging client for Maemo devices.

Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 Available For Download

I am pleased to announce that Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 beta 3 is now available for download on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

Improvements include:

• Tabbed Email Messages

  Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.

• New Message Summary View

  Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.

• Column Headings

  The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.

• Smart Folders

  The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes (e.g. Inbox) from multiple accounts together.

• Improved Gmail Integration

  Better recognition and integration of Gmail’s special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.

We are also testing an early version of a new Mail Account Setup Wizard to make configuring e-mail accounts in Thunderbird easier and less error-prone. Learn about how this is implemented and how it has been carefully designed with your privacy in mind, by taking the the time to read this blog post with more information.

At this point, Mozilla Thunderbird is now being handled via the new Mozilla Messaging subsidary which is responsible for Thunderbirds upkeep.

There may also be more betas along the way depending on feedback from the Mozilla community. Once again, this is a beta so comes with the usual caveat:

Do NOT use in a production environment if unsure about the stability.

There are of course many other changes included, not just the ones highlighted.

I can however say that after usage for the past few days the open source mail client has been stable.

Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 is Available For Download.

Maemo Harmattan keynote at GCDS

The Nokia Maemo Harmatten address at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit took place earlier.

The new Harmatten AKA Maemo’s next iteration after Fremantle framework will use a Qt-based framework while being based on GNOME technologies.

As reported:

The goal is to offer an open, efficient and compelling Linux mobile stack with a cross-platform Qt API used also by Symbian and available in other mobile and traditional operating systems. Hopefully a successful step helping free software projects collaborating with each other and also helping free software developers reaching millions of potential users.

The audio is available for download (be warned, 25mins long) as well as slides.

Maemo Harmatten keynote at GCDS

Firefox 3.5 Released!

After a year (Tuesday 17th June 2008), Shiretoko AKA Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is finally out the door and available for download now!

Featuring support for the and tags of HTML5 it will now be easier to load up a page and see embedded media such as Ogg Theora audio and video rather than having to rely to on proprietary plug-ins like Adobe Flash et al. It also features support for geolocation (which is also present in the latest builds of Fennec as well, don’t worry, you can disable it if you wish).

It also implements other features like support for other features of CSS including @font-face which means that your fonts will display correctly as the web developer intended as well as support for native JSON and the new Mozilla JavaScript runtime TraceMonkey engine which promises better results on those JS heavy apps, Gmail, Facebook etc…

Other developments in the Mozilla world include a release update for Fennec which is now at Alpha 2 status on Window Mobile and beta 2 on Maemo, the Linux-based OS for Nokia Internet Devices.

A new version of the open source Email client Thunderbird should also be forthcoming, currently in beta 2 release, it should not be long before a Release Candidate is due.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Trailer

We’ve had Dawn of War 2 and now this??? Go Relic!

more about "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Trailer", posted with vodpod

New Google Chrome Short Films

Google has commissioned a series of short films about their open source Chrome browser. The series of 11 short films are set to promote the browser as an alternative to other browsers like Microsoft’s ubiquitous IE, Opera and Safari.

more about "New Google Chrome Short Films", posted with vodpod

Trailer Bioshock 2

It’s coming soon……… BioShock 2, predecessor to the 2007 best selling game of the same name is arriving soon! Looking forward to this one!

more about "Trailer Bioshock 2", posted with vodpod