We have ported PhoneGap mobile application framework to the new Nokia N900 smartphone and its Maemo operating system. PhoneGap is a framework to build mobile applications easily with HTML and Javascript. With the new Maemo port PhoneGap platform support covers iPhone, Android, Nokia Series 60, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Maemo, making it one of the most portable mobile application development solution available.
The demo application currently supports only Device Info and Accelerometer APIs. The porting work is still in its early stages and we suggest novice developers steer away from it. We’ll develop and maintain the work as long as we have client cases for mobile applications. If you are looking forward to port your commercial PhoneGap application to N900, please contact us.
PhoneGap port was done using QT and QWebView controller. The native shell source code is in C++. Build and packaging scripts are standard Makefiles. More technical information on the release notes page.
Code is available on GitHub.
1. So what’s cool about Maemo (compared to other PhoneGap platforms)?
Shortly: The openess of Maemo platforms enables developer innovation never seen before. There are zero artificial limitations chaining your imagination.
- No code signing whatsoever required
- No approval process to get your application distributed
- Very robust development tools and development environment. Hey, it’s Linux! The phone ships with X terminal built in.
- You have root access to the device if needed
- QWebView WebKit control which itself is open source – you can recompile from scratch and stick in the needed features
- The phone itself is rock solid. It beats iPhone 100-0.
- Maemo has very active open source community. You actually might get help when stuck, unlike with NDAs and other madness from some other vendors.
So what’s cool about PhoneGap (compared to other mobile application technologies)?
- Use low entry level HTML, CSS and Javascript technologies – even PHp coder can build his/her own mobile application! This is the most cost effective way to develop non-CPU-intensive applications.
- PhoneGap has the widest mobile platform support – the best medicine against fragmented mobile application markets
- You can always break out from the sandbox and use the native capabilities of the phone. This is something you cannot do with Flash Lite or Java ME.
- Very active community
- WebKit rendering engine enables CSS3 goodies and much more
- Easily convert your existing mobile site to an application
Discussion:
http://groups.google.com/group/phonegap/browse_thread/thread/7602a71642564b55
http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=186638
http://www.symbian-freak.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=40654
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34969
Hi Mikko Ohtamaa!
Can I use it instead of PhoneGap?
So I don’t need Mac anymore to develop phoneGap?
Thanks!!
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Is your question is “can N900 use it instead of iPhone?”
The answer is yes.
You can use Linux for development. maemo.org provides nice tutorials.
Hi, phonegapdemo starts on my N900, but Deviceinfos and Custom Alert are the only things that work. When i start it over Terminal, it says “9: file:////usr/share/phonegapdemo/www/app.js get Current No dbus_proxy”. The description of phonegap for maemo says, that Deviceinfo and Location APIs are supported.
Does Deviceinfo API include Accelerometer? What could be the reason, that Location and Acceleration doesn’t work?
Hi,
I suggest you try “more official” Qt port created by Nitobi guys. I guess Maemo firmware has gone so many upgrades after this post that the code is no longer functional.
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