Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Applications on Nokia 770 and N800 Internet Tablets

Now that the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is officially out, I took some time to test the applications I ported to the 770 on the new device. Some of them worked, some didn't and others didn't even install. Here is the list:

  • Gnumeric Spreadsheet: As far as I could see installed and worked fine. The gnumeric-plugins-extra package won't install due to the missing dependency of python2.4.

  • Evince: Didn't installed. The application manager couldn't some dependency package.

  • Xournal: Installed fine but didn't work at all. I have to check what is going on.

  • Leafpad: Installed and worked fine.

  • Games: All were installed and worked fine.


I have been receiving lots of e-mails and comments in my previous posts about new features in all these applications. So, I'd like to tell everyone that I'm reading and taking note of all requests you've done. Please apologize me for not answering all messages. It's been a really busy moment for me. Also, I would be glad to help anybody who want to implement those features.

So what are my plans?

  1. Keep on releasing latest versions of each of the applications I've already ported and try to make them available for both Nokia 770 and N800 devices. This will be a really big challenge, as every day the dependency list of each application gets bigger and bigger. For example, cairo is not an optional dependency for Gnumeric anymore. So we have to be sure that there will not be too much impact in the performance.

  2. Implement click-to-open functionality for the file types not recognized by the device. For example, open .xoj files automatically in Xournal just by clicking on it in the file manager. The same for other applications, like Gnumeric and Evince.

  3. Help finishing Abiword port. Actually we're almost there. Tomas has already done most of the work but there is some weird crash happening.

  4. Finish Rhythmbox port.


It would be really really great to get a Nokia N800 device for particular use. We do have some of them at our office, but they're shared between everybody here and meant to be used for work purposes only. As others have already requested, I and many others would like to see these devices available for purchase in other places than Europe and North America.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Eduardo,

Nice to hear from you, glad you had a good vacation. I understand you're very busy, but I would just like to draw attention to a bug in Evince 0.5.2 where it seems to be trying to cache ahead many many pages of a PDF (instead of just 1 or 2). This makes it unusable for documents larger than say 50 pages. I think this is a relatively small fix, but my scratchbox environment isn't fully set up. Think you can make a 0.5.3 release which fixes this, so I can stop using the Nokia XPDF viewer? :-)

Anonymous said...

please make evince work with n800...
it's been tough using the default pdf viewer because it can't access the pdf bookmarks...

thank you so much

Anonymous said...

If Evince retains a set horizontal position when switching pages (instead of moving to the left) and allows to perform such a page switch via the device's hardware keys (i.e. while in full-screen mode), I'd love to see it on the N800.

Anonymous said...

is there any news on xournal for the n800?

thanks

ps: your wish list link on your profile does not seem to work.

Anonymous said...

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33520

henry has fixed the xournal n800 bug and made a working package.

etrunko said...

Hi ssam,

Thank you very much for the information. As soon as i got some time, I'll incorporate Henry's patch and store the package in the repository.

Also, If you don't know yet, I've build evince package for the N800. You can grab the packages here:

http://www.maemo.org.br/platform/etrunko/evince_n800.tar.gz

Instructions on how to install it can be found in the following thread in maemo-users mail list:

http://maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-users/2007-January/003250.html

Best Regards, Etrunko.

Luis Villa said...

For what it is worth, etrunko, when I try to install the evince packages in your tarball on my N800, it says that the packages are an 'incompatible application package' and fail to install. All except unzip for some bizarre reason :) Hope that nokia gets you an N800 soon so that you can keep up your excellent work!

etrunko said...

Hi Luis,

These packages are meant to be installed using an Terminal session, not the application installer. So you'll need root access and then just run a simple command:

# dpkg -i *.deb

Best regards, Etrunko

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I just installed Evice on my N800 directly form the maemo.org.br mistral user repository without any problems. It seems to work right out of the box. So, have you changed anything because it works now?

-Klaus

Ernesto de Bernardis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I am looking for information about how to resolve my "Unable to install - Some applications packages required for the installation are missing" problem.

I seem to be missing lots of -dev packages - libc6, libc, libgpg, zliblg, libtsn1-3, libopencdk8, etc.

Where to I find these files and how to I load them onto the N800 so I can install several apps.

Thanks, Gene Jaleski

Anonymous said...

Somehow I managed to blindly install various libraries and catelogs so I was able to install most of the applications I found for the N800. I am wondering how the casual user feels about the N800.

Now I am looking for a way to change the screen orientation and resolution so that I can access web sites designer for Pocket PCs or mobile phones. These sites are character based and in portrait format.

Gene Jaleski said...

Does anyone know how to successfully "pair" the bluetooth connecion between the N800 and the freedom mini bluetooth keyboard? I keep getting "Failed" when I try. Perhaps there is a secret "XYZZY" that makes the two devices link

Anonymous said...

Installing the Freedom Mini Keyboard with the Nokia N800

Tools / Control Panel / Bluetooth / Devices / New

1) note the Code displayed by the N800 when the "Mobile Keyboard" is selected from the list of available Bluetooth devices. Have the Mini Keyboard in Link mode with LED flashing.

2) press OK

3) while the N800 is displaying "Pairing" hold down the Num key, enter the code, release the num key, press the Enter key.

Anonymous said...

Connecting Freedom Keyboard (don't think it's the same as the Mini). I select Generic in Keboard CP, the N800 'sees' it, provides a passcode, but I never get to enter the passcode. The N800 tries to synchronize for all of two seconds and then thows a "Failed".
Any preparation on the keyboard is needed? I tried pressing the key (next to Ctrl) with the home and synch symbols, before and after, to no avail. Any hints will be very much appreciated, the Freedom is a great keyboard...

Anonymous said...

This problem can be solved - see http://internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQs%2C_Problems_and_Solutions#Bluetooth_device_not_pairing_after_a_reboot_or_reflash

:^)

kgingeri said...

Oops, looks the the URL gets truncated. Piece it all together:

http://internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?
title=FAQs%2C_Problems_and_Solutions
#Bluetooth_device_not_pairing_after_a_reboot_
or_reflash

Caloã said...

Eduardo, blz?

To começando a usar o n800.. to querendo achar uns jogos! Tu sabes algum repositório de jogos?

Se puder mandar para o meu e-mail: caloafn@gmail.com

Obrigado.