Tag Archives: Open webOS

News

LuneOS April Stable Release: Cold Brew

A bit later than expected but we’re back! Over 2 months passed since the last release and we’re finally back with a new release called “Cold Brew”. We have been working very hard behind the scenes in the past 2 months!

So you’re asking what we have done? Most importantly we now have an initial setup for camera working on both the N4 and N5 with an initial version of the app written in Qt (QML). It’s still pretty rough, but it will do basics for now.  Further improvements will come once we upgrade Qt to 5.7/5.8.

Behind the scenes we’ve been working on getting our Yocto updated to Pyro. This brings quite some challenges due to glibc (2.24) not being compatible with linux kernels < 3.2. Also the newer systemd version (232) brings some challenges in terms of kernel requirements, but we’ve been able to work around those for now.

For Mako (N4), Hammerhead (N5) this isn’t really a problem because we have a 3.4 based kernel, for the Tenderloin (Touchpad) there are 3.4 based kernels available as well, so we’ll be aiming to migrate to a 3.4 based kernel for Tenderloin.

For Maguro (Galaxy Nexus) the situation is unfortunately more problematic because there’s no real working 3.4 based kernel available currently. It’s therefore likely that as of next release we will be forced to drop support for the Galaxy Nexus.

We’re also taking part in in the Halium Project that was announced last week. There are already a lot of synergies between the various OS-es based on Android and also still quite some minor tweaks for each OS. By joining forces in the project we aim to have a common base for the various Android based OS-es.

We have the following items on our to-do list to focus on:

  • Work on Yocto Pyro upgrade
  • QT 5.7/5.8 Upgrade
  • Various UI tweaks
  • Messaging improvements
  • Camera improvements

Continue reading LuneOS April Stable Release: Cold Brew →

News

A future JavaScript framework for LuneOS – Demos wanted!

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This article is unusual for pivotCE. Most of our articles are aimed at the general reader, but this one is specifically aimed at those with knowledge of javascript frameworks – specifically frameworks designed for app development. We hope this article will reach such people in our community and beyond in the hope that the LuneOS project can benefit from a range of experience and insight and even perhaps recruit some new contributors.

Long time webOS fans will be aware that one of it’s features was the ease with which apps could be created using methods more associated with web design. Most (non-game) apps were in fact mixtures of HTML & javascript. This and the ‘synergy’ of connecting data from various remote services into common user interfaces is what gave the system the name of webOS.

In the early days, webOS was at the cutting edge of using web technologies, but performance was not as responsive compared to more traditionally coded apps. Since the days of legacy webOS, many improvements have been made in app development frameworks and their implementation to bring speed up towards that of ‘native’ apps or at least fast enough for the user to see little difference. Increasing speed, power and multi-core processors have also helped, though performance is beginning to plateau as the physical limits of current hardware is reached.

The first (proprietary) development framework for webOS was called ‘Mojo’. After the purchase by HP, the (Open-source) ‘Enyo’ framework was introduced to target more varied screen sizes. Version 1 ran on the webOS 3.0 HP TouchPad and was back-ported to phones. Version 2 became a cross-platform framework also.

Of course, we all know about the end of hardware at HP and the eventual sell off of all parts of webOS. Officially, the Open-webOS project is still maintained by LG & HP and LG’s Silicon Valley lab have continued to develop the Enyo JS framework. The part used to make the UI for mobile apps is called ‘Onyx’. To make apps suitable for Television screens, LG developed a new UI library called, ‘Moonstone’. Enyo itself has developed through version 2.5 to now stand at version 2.7 and LGSVL now looks to the next generation of Enyo (Forum comments). But this brings with it potential problems for LuneOS.

Continue reading A future JavaScript framework for LuneOS – Demos wanted! →