gPodder 3.0.4 for Harmattan

Version 3.0.4 of gPodder has been released today. A new Harmattan package has been built and uploaded to Ovi Store (still waiting in QA) and Apps For MeeGo. You can already get gPodder 3.0.4 for Harmattan from Apps For MeeGo Staging now. Please test this version and review/rate it on apps.formeego.org so it can be put into the non-staging (stable) area of AFM.

While you can look at the complete list of changes in the release announcement, Harmattan users might be happy to know that the episode prefix elimination has been further improved and a play queue (screenshot 1, screenshot 2) and episode list filters (screenshot 1, screenshot 2) have been added.

The play queue feature comes in handy when you have a long car commute and want to listen to several episodes back to back without having to interact with the screen to play the next episode. It is also helpful to queue up several music podcasts to use as background music while working.

The episode list filters help you to quickly find the episodes you want, e.g. only show episodes that have been downloaded. Text search is not yet possible, but you can now hide deleted episodes just like on Maemo 5.

gPodder/QML on the N900 - Yesteryear and today

I just found this pre-feb11 gPodder/QML on a N900 on 2011-02-04 video and someone on TMO recently asked me about the status of gPodder for the N900, so I thought I'd try the current version of gPodder on the N900.

The result is a new video of gPodder/QML on a N900 today, which shows what works and what does not.

If you want to try it yourself, get the latest CSSU for your N900 and enable Extras-Devel (the usual disclaimers apparently still apply). Now, make sure to install all of PySide and Qt Mobility 1.2, and the packages qt-components and qt-components-blanco-theme. The theme package is broken right now, so you need to copy /usr/share/themes/blanco/meegotouch from a Harmattan device or the Harmattan SDK onto your N900 manually. When you have done that, simply checkout gPodder (master branch) from its Git repository.

What doesn't work yet:

• Text input fields are missing their backgrounds
• Screen rotation doesn't work (Qt Components bug?)
• Task switching is only possible with Ctrl+Backspace

Apart from these annoyances (and the problem with the missing blanco theme files), everything else works as one would expect. If these problems get fixed (so that all dependencies are readily available from Extras-Devel), I might be able to make some time to package gPodder 3 for the N900.

Harmattan (N9/N950) users: Have a look at the video to see how the play queue and episode list filters work, which will land in a new gPodder release "soon".

The N9 week: Hack-A-N9, gotoVienna, Camerra, gPodder

While the first week back in Vienna after the holidays was sad for a Maemoista walking around in the city (aka Admazing (sic) Everyday), there was also enough time to release gPodder 3.0.3 (already in AFM - thanks, testers!), catch up with local Maemoistas at the Hack-A-N9 and work on gotoVienna, the Camerra hack and even more post-3.0.3 gPodder goodness. But one after the other..

gotoVienna is a public transport live ticker app by kelvan. In the days after meeting at the Hack-A-N9, we implemented a nice line number input UI that makes it easy to quickly get live information for a given line - the code is in Git, and as a side-product, merlin1991 has implemented a stdeb/distutils extension to inject an Aegis manifest and create the digsigsums file - check it out if you want to build Python packages for Harmattan without Scratchbox/the SDK.

Next up is the Camerra hack, a quick'n'dirty "app" that monitors the Volume+ hardware button and (when the Camera UI is in the foreground) simulates a click on the shutter button, effectively making the Volume+ work as a shutter button. Ideal for all your self-portraying needs! It's called a hack, because it uses the likes of xprop and xresponse directly - a "proper" implementation would use QmSystem, XTest and Xlib from C/C++, just in case someone feels like spending time on rewriting something that Works For Me ;) There's a support thread on t.m.c, the Python and PySide powered code is available on Github, and the package is available on the website and (hopefully soon) also on Apps For MeeGo.

As for the post-3.0.3 gPodder goodness: Episode list filters (bug 1527) are currently being developed, a first patch is already written, and screenshot 1 and screenshot 2 show you how it currently looks. Don't forget to report any bugs and feature requests over at bugs.gpodder.org - don't keep them for yourself! :p

And now for the next two weeks for something completely different (i.e. Uni semester wrap-ups, exams, lab interviews and lab exercises).. ;) Enjoy the newly released stuff!

gPodder 3.0.3 for Harmattan

A new version of gPodder - a podcast and video manager - has been released today. In addition to improvements to the existing YouTube support, this version adds support for downloading videos from Vimeo (so if you wanted to get ahold of ye olde Maemo 5 "Getting Started" video from two years ago, subscribe to metalab on Vimeo, but I'm pretty confident that you can come up with better uses of the Vimeo support ;).

Anyway, the new king of Harmattan repos is Apps For MeeGo, as everyone knows, and so start your Community QA engines and review gPodder 3.0.3 in Apps For MeeGo Testing. If you don't have the Apps For MeeGo Client on your N950 or N9, click here to download the enabler. It has also been uploaded to Ovi Publish, but if and when it appears there is anyone's guess. Don't hold your breath and switch to Apps For MeeGo for downloading (and publishing if you do!) your open source Harmattan apps.

The 3.0.3 version of gPodder packs some long overdue improvements to the Harmattan QML UI (for example, the toolbar has been cleaned up, an about box has been added and you can now check for new episodes from the toolbar) with more to come in the future. In general, 3.0.3 should provide you with a more Harmattan-esque user experience. You can always get your wishes and problems heard at the gPodder bug tracker - make use of it! :)

Maemo devices in movies: 770 and N950

Jukka just posted "No such thing as silver N950 except for Transformers 3 ;)", which reminded me of the movie appearances of the Nokia 770. But first to the silver N950 appearance which I somehow missed: A quick TMO "site:"-search reveals the obligatory thread for the N950-in-Transformers 3 appearance with a frame grab by ro25anav:

As for the 770, it starred in a Harold and Kumar movie, in a Fantastic Four movie and in a Die Hard movie, but you probably already knew that. The 770 appearances are well documented (with screencaps) over at starringthecomputer.com if you don't have the time to watch all three movies. Any other movies in which Maemo devices appear? What about the N800, N810 and N900? Googling doesn't really yield any useful results, with most hits being about "watching movies on device so and so".

Next Tuesday (2012-01-10): Hack-A-N9 Session at Metalab Vienna

After a successful N9 Hackathon in October (where projects like Rodrigo's Forever Alone Hack were started), it's once again time for the local Maemo/MeeGo users to get together and do some hacking in person, so here's the official announcement so you can't say you didn't know ;)

• Event: Hack-A-N9
• Location: Metalab Vienna
• Date/Time: 2012-01-10, 18:00

Among other things, we'll try to get some locally-relevant apps (like kelvan's gotoVienna) in shape for apps.formeego.org, see how far we get with open mode and Christian of Maemo 5 Community SSU fame will probably be hacking on some NFC stuff. If you have time, stop by and say hi :)

Argh Ovi Store and COBS (and stray .debs in Forums)! ..or: I want my Maemo Extras back

Rant mode on (once again). The reason why gPodder 3.0.2, which has been released two weeks ago has not yet made it into Ovi Store is not because I was lazy (in fact, I uploaded the .deb on the same day as the release day, i.e. 2011-12-13) but because it took Ovi Store QA one whole week(!) to realize that the gPodder package isn't optified. Guess what? Optification isn't really needed by Harmattan anymore, and the Ovi Store has passed all previous gPodder releases which have been packaged exactly the same. Apparently they decided it's necessary this time.
Cool, so now I have to modify my packaging, and Marius' maemo-optify isn't in the Madde environment of the Qt SDK (and I'm not even sure if the package would be accepted then).

For some other reason, my gPodder 3.0.2 package hasn't yet been accepted in Apps For MeeGo even though I've submitted two requests already (and one should be enough?). Add to that that the Community OBS is not really easy to understand or use, but then maybe it's just my incompetence and other developers have no problem with it. It might also be overkill now that nobody cares about building against all these dead MeeGo UXes. The only thing I want to build my stuff against is the latest Harmattan release.

Contrast that to the simplicity, ease of use and clarity of Maemo Extras and its fabulous autobuilder. While it had its own problems, it was surely easier to use, and you knew where the packages came out, and the Maemo 5 Extras QA process has been fine-tuned for several months now. Can't we just have the same for Harmattan? :/

Oh, and by the way: I'd much rather trust an Extras repository (or even the OBS if need be) with a Community-driven QA and building on the server (with sources readily available for the interested!) than the Ovi QA - my Calenderr Hack, which modifies .desktop files of Nokia-provided built-in packages was uploaded by somebody else (I still haven't seen the full source of that package, and only found out that it has been uploaded by a post in the forum thread..) to Ovi Store, and it got accepted.

Bonus question: Which is the most comprehensive software directory for Harmattan? Answer: My-MeeGo.com's ad-infested Software Catalog, mixing Ovi Store links with deeplinks to .debs on some random web servers (and doing a very good job at it, they got most of my Ovi apps/games and random .debs listed). They even got lots of user comments that provide good feedback for developers, while apps.formeego.org looks nice and is ad-free, but contains a whopping 10 stable apps in its directory for the N9, with 14 more apps waiting for review. Because apparently it's hard to come up with something like Maemo.org Downloads for Harmattan.