Planet of Guoyong.org

• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
  
• Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams

Thanks to the E-series blog for spotting that Nokia Team Suite (an office contact manager/facilitator, previously only on the E50) is now available for free for other S60 3rd Edition devices through Nokia's over-the-air app system, Nokia Catalogs. Comments welcome on compatibility/availability with various devices...

Description:
Easy way to learning japanese language , Learn and Test your knowledge with quiz mode,create and Write Japanese messages

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Price:$6.99
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 2.0.0

The D800iDS from Mitsubishi is the worlds first dual internal screen clamshell. It is for the Japanese market and runs on NTT DoCoMo's FOMA network. The phone has two screens - a normal QVGA screen on the upper half, a QVGA touch panel display on the bottom half of the phone (reminiscent of the Nintendo DS). The touch panel is used to control the phone with on screen buttons and controls.

NTT DoCoMo recently announced its latest series of phones, among the 10 announced are 6 phone powered by MOAP on Symbian OS (the others are MOAP on Linux). They include the D703i (Mitsubishi), F703i (Fujitsu), SH703i (Sharp), SO703i (Sony Ericsson), D800iDS (Mitsubishi) and SO903iTV (Sony Ericsson). The NTT DoCoMo phones continue to push the boundaries, this sets includes phones that are waterproof (F703i), with dual internal screens (D800iDS) and a BRAVIA branded TV phone (SO903iTV). 

The Ubuntu Weekly News issue #28 has been published and brings you the latest news in the Ubuntu community for the period between January 8th and 14th, 2007. You can read about:

• Herd 2 released
  
• New screencast team
  
• New xubuntu-users mailing list
  
• Mozilla Team meeting
  
• Ubuntu-Women IRC Meeting
  
• Community council meeting roundup
  
• Planet Ubuntu Users
  
• Ubuntu Forum Stats
  
• LoCo News
  
• Weekly Trivia Update
  
• Feisty Changes
  
• Upcoming meetings and events
  
• MIR: What, Who, Why?
  
• Security notices and 6.06 & 6.10 updates
  
• Bug stats

You can read Issue 28 of the Ubuntu Weekly News on the wiki.

Do you have a story idea for the Weekly News? Submit it via email or on the wiki!

The Weekly News is brought to you by the Marketing Team, who are always seeking new people to help with their many projects. Go help them out!

Ewan has been rocking with the Sony Ericsson W950i. In the first part of his review he looks at the music capabilities of this Walkman branded UIQ smartphone from the perspective of a power music user.

At Nokia World Alastair Curtis talked about some of the concepts behind the Nokia Design philosophy. As a glimpse of the future he showed some concept videos, which Nokia has now made available via YouTube, exploring the potential areas for mobile hardware design and accompanying software might go to. Read on for more.

Obstacles to Innovation is an excellent post over on MobHappy which asks what are the obstacles to innovation in the mobile industry. There seems to be a constant flow of good ideas, but there are only a limited number of true success stories. The potential of mobile seems almost unbounded, but it seems that much of the time obstacles to innovation are stifling the realisation of this potential.

This was from a few weeks ago but we all missed it. According to Telephia, European smartphone use is now up to almost 9% of the whole phone market - Italians apparently lead the way, with one in five phones being a smartphone. Here's the full article. Via Nordic Wireless Watch

This weekend 20-21 January 2007 has been officially declared a WikiWeekend. This is an initiative similar to the legendary Ubuntu Bug Day, except for documentation!

It was started by K.Mandla of the Forums to encourage contributions to the Community Documentation wiki. Now it’s going global, and we need your help!

All you need to do is dedicate some of your time this weekend, however small, to improve the documentation. It’s one of the easiest ways to give something back to the Ubuntu Community.

To find out how to get involved, visit the WikiWeekend page and the forum thread.

Description:
Grey Theme for Nokia N80 / E60 / E70 ( 352 x 416 )

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Price:$3.49
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 2.0

In case this isn't already bookmarked in your RSS reader, my video podcast the Smartphones Show now has programme 22 live, with a video review of the Sony Ericsson W950i, my thoughts and video of the Apple iPhone and a shortened version of Rafe's N76/N93i video snippets.

Description:
Utility to show information about the phone and its hardware.


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Price:Free
Further Links: Download
Version: 2.0

Steve casts his eye over the new Nokia N93i Nseries multimedia computer and find that there are more than just cosmetic changes. In his full review, he examines the physical differences but notes that differences in the camera algorithms may be just as significant.

Description:
Handy Converter lets you save your time and money, especially abroad, by professionally performing various currency calculations right on your mobile screen!

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Price:$9.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 2.01

Description:
Speereo Voice Translator is an easy-to-use but very powerful and extremely useful product for a active travelers.

Thumbnail Screenshot:


Price:$19.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 1.1

Description:
Speereo Voice Translator is an easy-to-use but very powerful and extremely useful product for a active travelers.

Thumbnail Screenshot:


Price:$19.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 1.1

Description:
With Voice Translator, you select a phrase in English/Italian and it gets immediately translated and articulated Italian/English. Plus flight status, flight timetable.

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Price:$19.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 2.62

Description:
With Voice Translator, you select a phrase in English/German and it gets immediately translated and articulated German/English. Plus flight status, flight timetable.

Thumbnail Screenshot:


Price:$19.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 2.62

Description:
With Voice Translator, you select a phrase in English/German and it gets immediately translated and articulated German/English. Plus flight status, flight timetable.

Thumbnail Screenshot:


Price:$19.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 1.7.0

Description:
With Voice Translator, you select a phrase in English/Italian and it gets immediately translated and articulated Italian/English. Plus flight status, flight timetable.

Thumbnail Screenshot:


Price:$19.95
Further Links: Buy / Download
Version: 1.7.0

Ruby, the programming language, is now available for UIQ 3 phones following on from its early availability on S60. Ruby is currently in the proof on concept stage and is gradually being developed in response to feedback from interested parties, the next update should be available in February. Thanks to augeas for the heads up.

Symbian has announced the forthcoming availability of P.I.P.S. (PIPS is POSIXon Symbian). This allows the running of POSIX libraries on Symbian OS. It is aimed at allowing developers to more easily port existing applications and middleware to Symbian by providing standard POSIX C APIs on Symbian OS.

PuTTY the secure shell terminal software is now available for UIQ 3. The software supports SSH protocol version 1 and 2 and private key authentication using keys generated with PuTTYGen. You can connect over WLAN, 3G, or GPRS connectivity. The developer is looking for feedback and suggestions for future versions.

Symbian has announced it has opened an office in Beijing, China. The new office will support Symbian's efforts in the Chinese market including links with academia, developer training and localisation activities. China is already an important market and is likely to be a key battleground between software platforms and device manufacturers in the future.

I see Python for S60 just received a big update, now to v1.3.17, quoting "access point selection support, added documentation for GLES and a few bug fixes". Also new is an API for the camera viewfinder, though it's reported as not fully featured yet.

Nokia today announced an extension of its relationship with Sony Ericsson, bringing Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email to two additional devices, the M600 and P990. The product allows users a fully synchronized, real-time email, calendar and contacts solution. It's available immediately. The full press release follows.

Do yourself a favour and set aside 20 minutes today to read Krisse's new editorial, comparing smartphones (among other things) to in-flight airline meals, haute couture fashion and tinned food. Puzzled? Go read. Krisse argues that there's no such thing as a real smartphone revolution - at least not today and not until smartphones are as disposable as light bulbs or umbrellas.

Another week, another Carnival of the Mobilists, over at TomSoft. And, in CES and iPhone week, at least there's no shortage of mobile-related stuff to talk about! Shame we forgot to submit either of our entries though.... Maybe next time.

Maybe not so much a battle as a minor skirmish, but the Sony Ericsson W950, the Nokia N91 and the iPod Shuffle all come out of Ewan's blind listening tests with decent scores. Read the article for details and comments.

Rounding out our CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2007 coverage in style, we (well, mainly Rafe) present AAS video podcast number 6, 11 minutes long and featuring plenty of video of the new Nokia N76 and N93i, plus extensive photo sets for general CES, the N76 and the N93i. Full text reviews of both devices will be along in due course.

Maintainer needed for gentoo-sources-2.4, Simplified Chinese translation team seeking help, Gentoo classes at MIT

According to GamesIndustry.biz, British game publisher Eidos has apparently just done a deal with Nokia to provide "embedded Tomb Raider games on N-series handsets". The phrase implies games built into handsets, rather than sold on Nokia's Next Gen games platform, and it's also unclear which models will contain the games. Rather encouragingly, Eidos went on to say "There's a real market there, it's no flash in the pan - particularly when you see some of the newer handsets, and how good content looks on those." (Story spotted by mathias_szil on the N-Gage Arena boards)

Brand new, freeware and created by Zensis and strangely not on their web site is Themes DIY, featured here over on Symbian Freak. This runs on S60 3rd Edition and allows theme creation on the smartphone itself. Comments welcome on how well it works.

Ho, Darla seems to have been given a shiny Nokia N76 at the end of CES and she's been exploring it, with a look at the new menu layouts and at the pop-up toolbar in the FP1 web browser.

Matthew East has announced the creation of a Screencast Team, and they need your help!

Screencasts are videos which show users how to achieve a specific task in Ubuntu. They can be seriously useful when walking users through a new task and are intended to complement Ubuntu’s other support resources, such as documentation, forums, mailing lists and irc.

The project is led by Alan Pope, who has already done some great work on screencasts. But now the project is expanding, and you can help out! Simply head over to the team wiki page and soak up the material there. You’ll then be ready to contribute to the team by requesting or even making new videos!

Contact the Documentation Team with any questions or simply to get involved!

A new accessory has appeared on the Nokia site. The CA-100 allows you to charge your Nokia phone from a USB port. This will be a boon for frequent travellers who carry a laptop or have access to a computer and want to leave their main charger behind. Similar accessories are available on eBay, but are not always reliable.

The latest development milestone release (Herd 2) for the Ubuntu project’s next release, Feisty Fawn, has been released. This release will become Ubuntu 7.04 in April 2007.

There have been many improvements along the lines of bug fixes, feature implementations, and the latest versions of the most popular Open Source software currently available. We don’t recommend it for use as a stable environment, but it is great for testing Ubuntu and contributing to the next release by filing bugs!

You can download Herd 2 here:

• Ubuntu
• Kubuntu
• Edubuntu
• Xubuntu

You can also read the the complete release announcement.

OK, so you're all going to laugh at my expense, but necessity is the mother of invention  and I needed a tripod mount for my Nokia N93 video filming work. With the prototype DT-22 having been reclaimed by Nokia, it was back to cardboard skills and duct tape....

Antony Pranata usefully provides screenshots, details and the right download address for the new (beta) Yahoo! Go 2.0, a Java host for a selection of genuinely useful widgets (news, searching, etc.) Do note though that the 500k download has to be done in Services, not Web. We'll be knocking up a full review in the next week or so.

Themes abound for most smartphones, of course, but I always take note when they're official - or at least semi-official, since then they're hopfully of higher quality. UIQ Technology has started giving away themes as part of a PR campaign. More here.

Now that the Apple [cough] device is out of the way, it's time for a little Nokia N93i buzz. Darla's been posting her first hands-on impressions, Symbian Freak have their own opinionated first 36 hours with the N93i and - hey - apparently I'll have a loan N93i for review on Tuesday. Watch this space for a detailed review and video coverage.

It's AAS audio podcast no. 10, in which Rafe sat down for an in-depth interview with Antti Vasara, Nokia's Eseries enterprise manager, for a wide ranging discussion on the marketplace, Nokia's viewpoint and some of the specific areas in business that these devices can address.

Having now had a day or so to mull over the iPhone launch and the media frenzy surrounding it, I've been pondering the fact that in one important way, the iPhone definitely IS a 'break through' device, while Ewan refutes Jobs' 'Five years' boast by casting a satirical eye back five years instead and then describing what we have today.

There are dozens of video snippets of the two new Nokia Nseries smartphones across the net, but this WTF one on WOM World is of pretty high quality, despite the background noise. Worth watching - at least until Rafe (currently mid-air?) gets back from the USA with his own footage.

I was interested to see Nokia's vice president of Nseries Computers, Pekka Pohjakallio, interviewed at CES by TechDigest after the launch of the iPhone. Quotes and link below, but the general consensus is that competition is good and that the iPhone is yet more confirmation that (smart)phones are now becoming 'multimedia computers'... (still hate the term though!)

Krisse puts in a plea for greater colour variety in S60 smartphone hardware - Nokia and their licensees need to think about greater colour variety if they want to expand smartphone sales further into the mainstream.

Behind Ubuntu has published an interview with Ben Collins.

Ben Collins is the maintainer of the Linux Kernel in Ubuntu. In this interview you will learn about his work on Ubuntu, his love of vim, and why his servers are hosted in a real barn, surrounded by cows and electric fences.

This interview, and many others, are available on the Behind Ubuntu web site.

Like many of you, I've been watching coverage of Steve Jobs Macworld keynote (just finished, it had been going two hours as I write this) - he's just formally announced the iPhone (smartphone), running Mac OS X, only one hardware button and with a fingers-only touch interface. A competitor to Symbian OS/S60/UIQ? Not due in Europe for almost a year... Battery life claimed at 5 hours talk time. My initial impressions are that it's a bit of a premium device, with that large and fragile touch screen (which will be hard to read in sunlight etc.)

The Ubuntu Weekly News issue #27, the first issue of the new year, has been published and brings you the latest news in the Ubuntu community for the period between January 1st and 7th, 2007. You can read about:

• Kubuntu Developer Meeting
• Google sponsors Edubuntu notebooks for Fijian schools
• New CD/DVD Image Testing Forum
• Use the Ubuntu IRC Channels Securely
• Ubuntu turns “Pro”
• Upcoming meetings and events
• Bug stats
• Security notices & Updates for Ubuntu 6.10 and 6.06
• Feisty Fawn Changes
• Ubuntu Trivia Quiz Update
• German LocoTeam Forum’s Post Count: Half a million
• LoCo Team Meetings

As always, you can read more at Issue 27 on the wiki.

Do you have a story idea for the Weekly News? Submit it via email or on the wiki!

The Weekly News is brought to you by the Marketing Team, who are always seeking new people to help with their many projects. Go help them out!

Blogger Paul Whitaker, who admittedly works at one of Nokia's divisions, has put up the first live shots of the Nokia N93i in action, filming it on his N93. (What, jealous? me?) I'm hoping that Rafe comes back from the USA with his own batch of video of the N93i and N76...!

Now this sounds like a smashing idea. China is looking to regulate the A/C chargers used in mobile phones so they all use the same connectors (CrunchGear reports). Smashing idea. Now if they wouldn't mind an amendment asking all MP3 capable phones to have a 3.5mm stereo jack for regualr headphones as well? (Thanks to Frank for the link).

With less than a week away linux.conf.au 2007 is shaping up to be better than ever. The conference will run from the 15th through the 20th of January. linux.conf.au, a purely volunteer effort hosted in a different Australian city each year, is one of the world’s best Open Source and Free Software developer community conferences. This year the conference will be held at the Kensington campus of the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Included in the events are talks from some of our very own:

• Jono Bacon
• Scott James Remnant
• Robert Collins
• Matthew Garrett

There is a free Open Day on Thursday, January 18th, from 3pm until 8pm. During this time the Australia Local Community Team will be doing their best to spread Ubuntu by handing out swag bags and do flashing cool demos for the attendees. The team will also hold an unofficial, casual, late dinner at a nearby pub after the Open Day. Details of the dinner can be found at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/2007-January/001106.html.

More information about linux.conf.au can be found at http://lca2007.linux.org.au/. A breakdown of the entire event can be viewed at http://lca2007.linux.org.au/Programme.

Here are some pictures I captured at Day One of CES in Las Vegas including a look inside the Nokia Multimedia (Nseries) Tent and some pictures with brief comments from Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo keynote address this morning. More detailed commentary will be coming in due course.

Six Apart and Nokia have announced a collaboration that allows Nokia Nseries users to send images and video from their phones to Xix Apart's Vox blogging service. Vox is Six Apart's new personal blogging service which emphasises the use of rich media (images, audio and video) in posts combined with access / sharing controls to allow users to choose who can view their content.

Interesting to see the promo videos for these three new Nokia Nseries devices now online. Go to Nokia's CES page and click on 'Blog' and then 'Videos'. (Note that the N800 is Linux-based and doesn't include telephony).

Continuing the CES 2007 announcements, Nokia has launched the N76 - a stylish S60 3rd Edition clamshell. The N76 is 13.7mm thin, and highlights include a 2.0 megapixel camera, WCDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM connectivity, FM Radio, standard 3.5mm audio jack and Bluetooth and USB connectivity. Read on for more.

The first of the big announcements at CES 2007, Nokia has announced the followup to the N93. Dubbed the N93i, it has identical specifications to its predecessor but is slimmer and sleeker, with an integral cover display, side joystick and metallic keypad. There are also changes are in the software package which adds more multimedia features including support for the Vox blogging platform. Read on for more.

Wap Review have done a great job in the first Carnival of the Mobilists of 2007. Here's their bumper issue with links to the best in mobile-related writing.