As reported yesterday and in a previous thought piece, Samsung and Intel will join together as leaders in a new OS project. It’s open source, HTML5-focused and called Tizen.

The plan involves contributing Limo and Meego elements into a new open-source OS project, called Tizen, that appears to ditch QT and native apps in favour of HTML5.

Not only is this likely to introduce the same year+ delay that the transition from Moblin/Maemo to Meego did but it’s going to shake-off a lot of developers who were working on native apps although AppUp, the one Intel software component that could get a big boost from this, is promising.that it will support Tizen and applications for existing Meego builds.

HTML5 apps mean one thing to me – more CPU power. It makes sense

Goodbye from Meegonews.

Via Netbooknews

Source: Meego.com

Given that Samsung already support Limo and Bada, one wonders whether a total merge is in the offing with the best of all operating systems, engineers and tools to be used in an all-out heavyweight attempt to make an impact of the market dominated by Android and IOS.

As I’ve already posted about a Samsung merge, I obviously regard this story as very likely indeed.

With Intel’s software developer event, AppUp Elements, taking place in Seattle, now would be a good time to make the announcement.

The next question is – what would the operating system be called, BadGo, MeeMo?

Via Meegoexperts

http://www.ftd.de/it-medien/medien-internet/:erfolgloses-handy-betriebssystem-intel-wirft-rettungsring-fuer-meego/60109122.html

Meegonews.com didn’t work out for me as part of my blog network. I haven’t written an article for it in weeks but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in Meego. I see it as a critical, not just important, component of Intels strategy to move into the mobile market. I might have seen Andy Rubin waving about an Intel Android phone on stage in front of me at the IDF keynote last week but that still doesn’t mean that Intels customers don’t need another choice. Android comes with risks. It also comes with ready made ARM platforms. Intel need something else and that’s why Meego is still critical.

No-one in Intel that’s involved with Meego is talking Meego. There’s no Meego conference planned yet, there was no Meego representation in the IDF technology showcase and I even heard a ‘watch this space’ comment in one of the technical sessions. Everyone is keeping their mouths shut tight. Something is going on.

The scenario I am working over in my head has been influenced by rumors, I can not deny that, but it seems to make sense.

Intel needs a phone hardware partner, more so now than ever before simply because Intels phone hardware, Medfield is ready to go into handsets. Intel’s customers (and customers of customers) may be more interested to see Medfield in tablets today but Intel need a foot in the smartphone door badly. Ultrabooks might be a great strategy for the next three years but after that, phones, personal communicators are critical. Server sales may be on the up due to cloud services but that could level-off in 3-4 years too. Where next for Intel?

Intel will be doing everything they can to court a major partner. HTC are in the running of course and other large companies will also be looking for Android alternatives but the Samsung connection seems the most likely. Bada appears to be working well as a second-tier solution for Samsung but how about taking this recognised brand to the next level, and moving it beyond Android.

Meego has been well designed as a smartphone core. How about the Bada brand and UI on a Meego core? Remember, Meego really is just a core with a UI framework.

A company like Samsung would be the biggest win possible for Intel if they could just convince Samsung to break out a new range of Bada phones, based on a Meego core, and Intel hardware with Intel value-add silicon and services.

Wouldn’t it cut across their fantastic Android smartphones though? It would, but it could jump over the option into a higher-end solution for the future. It would give Samsung control of the stack, independence, a way to drive the Bada brand and get an App store in the bargain.

Could Intel trade technology, AppUp and a healthy donation to the Linux Foundation for Atom-love and a respected brand, respected manufacturer and the best possible partner in the world?

If this doesn’t happen it won’t be without Intel trying. It won’t be the end either. They’ll continue to work on a new partner. They have no choice. Well, apart from Windows Phone 7. Somehow I cant see that as a solution for Intel customers on the high-end despite how tidy a solution it may sound.

Whatever happens, the Meego core work will move forward but it seems that there’s now a risk to the UI layer and Meego brand. They could be sacrificed for the right partner.

Notes: A standard netbook but with 2GB and Meego as the operating system. No Bluetooth on this model (can vary by region.) 6-cell battery and matt screen.

Opinion: At 222 Euros for a top-end netbook platform, this Meego edition saves around 60 Euros over the Windows Home 7 Starter version, a differential that's larger than the cost of the Windows 7 Starter License. 2GB of RAM is also included (the WIndows 7 version comes with only 1GB) which hints that this device may be either subsidised or a loss-leader for Acer. It's unclear if any application store is included or whether Acer will be providing updates as Meego progresses. Battery life is expected to be as good as the Windows version which users are reporting to have 7hrs of life.

More information available in the database

While I do appreciate the ARM-based solutions offer some real advantages with battery life, there are issues that prevent independent solution vendors moving forward quickly and openly with these platforms. A lot of the driver development is proprietary (Marvel’s open source drivers are an exception) which makes developing generic software solutions more difficult. There’s also the issue of porting existing Linux-based apps, achieving PC-like features like USB host, PC-like processing capability and application stores. Currently AppUp is the best application store for MeeGo and it’s only available on the Intel platforms.

There’s also the fact that most Linux operating system vendors and application developers are working in the X86 world. That might change over time though.

If you’re an operating System vendor planning a generic Meego operating operating system, you need to know that target hardware is going to be in the market.  Fortunately, Oaktrail could be an easy route to hardware solutions because of its traditional PC architecture. It has the unique advantage of being able to run Windows 7,  Ubuntu, Android (X86 build) and other operating systems. Even Windows 8 should be supported which should ensure that it remains an interesting platform for device designers.

Finally, there’s an interesting advantage to be had in the special power-saving hardware features, the future Intel roadmap, Intel’s marketing budget and Intel’s work on Android Honeycomb for the Oaktrail, Moorestown and Medfield platforms. The power-saving features will work best with the Intel-optimised code found in their MeeGo and Android builds.

So keep an eye on products like the EKing H9, The Lenovo Ideapad P1 Slate and of course the recently announced Acer Iconia Pad M500 and keep another eye on the operating System vendor Linpus. They’ve already delivered generic X86 Meego operating systems and special builds for the likes of Acer. They’ve also demonstrated touch user interfaces and talked about further development of that platform.

Oaktrail is a great multi-OS ‘bridge’ platform for Meego and I hope to see Intel promoting Oaktrail solutions for Meego at IDF in September.

To put that price into perspective, its the same as the cheapest discounted netbook price I’ve found in Europe and remember this is the starting price, and it’s made by Samsung. The cheapest discounted Samsung you’ll find in Europe is about 230 Euros with RRPs running at 300 Euros. That’s 50% more!

Full specifications are already in our Meego product list.

I mentioned ‘Samsung’ as a highlight there. let me explain. Samsung have consistently produced netbooks of the highest quality on the market with some of the best electronic engineering possible. They’ve been more efficient, lighter and longer lasting than many other manufacturers. Their screens are generally great quality and their battery technology is good too. This may only be a 3-cell battery but it’s packing an impressive 40Wh of power according to reports. It isn’t much less than some cheap 6-cell batteries. By using 3-cells, Samsung have kept the weight down to a class-leading 1.03KG. This challenges the 1.06KG Samsung N350 I tested last year.

And then there’s Meego on top. I’m not saying it’s as brand-attractive and feature-rich as Windows but it comes with a solid Chromium-based browser, some really easy social networking features, easy email, calendar and contacts sync and easy access to some good quality software. I doubt it will have it at launch but the MeeGo AppUp store could add access to some new and exciting software too.

A matt screen and the usual array of netbook connections for USB devices, SDHC cards, wired networking, screen and audio will put the device in a far more flexible position than devices running a mobile operating system too.

The only thing you might notice under heavy web and Flash loads is the Single-core (not dual-core as seen in some reports today) 1.33Ghz Intel Atom CPU. Don’t expect 720p YouTube playback or even 720p local playback.

Battery life is estimated, by me, to be 4-6hrs with indoor screen brightness and Wifi-on.

Expect this device to pop up in many other parts of the world.

Via Meegoexperts,  Techgadgets.in

MeeGo is as great as it was ever hyped up to be

Although you won’t be able to buy the N950 (it’s a developer-only phone) it gives us an indication of how the N9, a version without the keyboard, will look and feel on the software side.

There’s no indication of battery life figures or, something I’m very interested in, the sharing subsystem but I admit, I haven’t watched all the videos yet.

The full article, over at Fone Arena,  a must-read for anyone remotely interested in the N9 and Meego.

The N9 delivers what Intel and Nokia set out to do – to release a product that highlights MeeGo. MeeGo badly needed the N9 but maybe the N9 needed MeeGo too.

What if someone was looking at a making a similar style of product; one that was slightly different with different hardware and a different user interface in a market that moves quickly. Would it need MeeGo? In my opinion, the N9 highlights exactly the sort of product that could be developed on MeeGo and yes, this sort of product needs MeeGo. Technical reasons lies in both the core and the user interface layers but it’s the business advantages that makes it unique.

In the Meego core you’ve got an operating system for which it’s easy to find engineers and software. That means quick prototyping, cheaper driver development, 3rd party software developer interest and frameworks along with some rich history in terms of how to build an operating system using Linux.

Then there are the security, communications, media, power control and other advanced subsystems. Inter-process communications are important too because that enables sharing, something that has been highlighted as a key feature of the N9. From what I’ve read, heard and discussed with engineers, the sharing subsystem in MeeGo is good. This isn’t a simple ‘share-to-cloud’ system this is a system that can share between apps running within the operating system as well as interface with cloud-based services.

These sub-systems aren’t exclusive to MeeGo though, we’re talking about Linux. Why not use another Linux distro focused at mobility?

While Linux is interesting for manufacturers, Meego solves some other considerations that manufacturers would have when choosing Linux. It’s the controlled build and investment in this Linux distro that makes it stand out. Software stability, roadway and dependency is important for anyone thinking of investing millions in a product.
From security to phone stack there’s simply no other Linux build I can find that is focused in the same way while also including the investment of major companies with money, people and products. It is these factors that will give MeeGo the edge when being considered for a new product. Now we’ve seen a decent product built on it, the OS just became even more interesting and you’re likely to see investment from independents grow from now on which will create a nice positive-feedback effect.

But that’s only half the story.

The second half is the user interface. I’ve personally seen 10′s of different user interfaces for a MeeGo build and many of these were not for final products. It’s the fact that companies are knocking up demonstrators in a matter of weeks that highlights why the UI architecture used in Meego is so important. Fast prototyping of user-interfaces makes being creative, cheaper. Not only that, it makes the process of completing the final design faster. By using the Qt tools you get the advantage of time and in the world of mobile computing, that’s a huge selling point.

There’s a third point too. What if you don’t want to join the Google ecosystem and have all your customers credit cards and data left with them? What if you’re not Apple? What if you want to offer offline maps or your own camera services and software, your own books, your own payment system and your own marketplace? What if you want to compete with Google and Apple? What if you want to different in ui, and in software?

We could talk about developers too because with the promise of multiple target builds for different markets, the write-once, distribute to many (with modified UI of-course) creates an attractive target for hobby and professional software companies alike. With Intel building an app-store framework, AppUp, for their architechtures, it makes it even easier to write, distribute and make money.

Yes, the N9 could be built on any operating system and for the end-product and end-user it doesn’t really matter unless you’re targeting a savvy market that wants to buy a top-5 brand. If you’re a company looking to develop a distinctive product though, MeeGo has some very serious advantages. If you need to get going fast with a low-risk Linux-based build, need to prototype new user interfaces and want to be different, MeeGo is for you because MeeGo could give you enough time to add the creative sparkle that makes a product really stand out, and that’s what could make the difference between success and failure.

To summarise then – a focused and financially well-supported Linux build plus the Qt development environment removes risk and gives time. Fast prototyping and the ability to stand alone without relying on Apple or Google allow manufacturers to be different and the potential for developers to develop to MeeGo-conformant products across a wide range of product categories gives MeeGo products potential to grow over time. Meego offers advantages for companies wanting to build unique products for the customer.

MeeGo may be just a Linux distro, but its one that enables creativity and that’s something we can all benefit from.

You’ll find all products listed with search and sort at the Product Databank also linked above in the header.

Nokia N9	Acer Iconia M500	ASUS Eee PC X101

Indamixx 2 Beta M1touch	Fujitsu Lifebook MH330	Lenovo Ideapad S100 MeeGo

Acer Aspire One D255E	WeTab WeTab	Coming soon!