Oslo, Norway — Trolltech is releasing version 1.4 of Qt Palmtop, a complete mobile computing platform for advanced embedded Linux devices. This release provides numerous improvements to the existing Qt Palmtop, including bug fixes, enhanced functionality, and a new user interface.

Qt Palmtop provides device manufacturers and hobbyists a stunning set of productivity applications, games, multimedia software, and a Personal Information Management (PIM) suite for cutting-edge mobile computing devices. Qt Palmtop is built with Trolltech's Qt/Embedded, the embedded Linux port of the popular cross-platform application framework, Qt.

Some of the new enhancements in Qt Palmtop 1.4 include . . .

Applications:

• Addressbook bug fixes and improvements
  
• Datebook bug fixes and improvements
  
• Todo items can be filtered by category
  
• Calculator bug fixes and improvements
  
• Media player audio playback and user interface improved. Added support for wav files
  
• Image viewer user interface improved
  
• File manager can launch applications to view files based on MIME type
  
• LAN setup utility

General:

• Input methods are plugins
  
• Taskbar applets are plugins
  
• Handwriting input improved
  
• Alarm server wakes from deep sleep
  
• User interface consistency fixes for all applications
  
• Nearly all applications save state when closed
  
• Performance improvements in many applications
  
• Improved usage of buttons on device
  
• Documentation for developers

Launcher:

• Documents can now be categorized
  
• Document view allows easy filtering on type, category and name
  
• .desktop files are not required — all files in ~/Documents/ are visible
  
• Allow applications to be preloaded to ensure instant launch
  
• Automatic shutdown of least recently used applications
  
• Recently used application icons displayed in taskbar

Screenshots of the new version of Qt Palmtop are available here.

Currently, community and third-party developers are creating a variety of applications for Qt Palmtop. Applications include: Games; Multimedia applications; Internet applications; productivity applications; and various add-ons, such as Chinese language translations. Parties interested in participating in application development for Qt Palmtop can join via the SourceForge project or at Trolltech's website.

Availability

Qt Palmtop is available, for free, here (for source) and here (iPAQ specific
packages), with installation instructions available for the iPAQ here.

Qt Palmtop requires Qt/Embedded version 2.3.1 (plus enclosed patch), which is available from the Trolltech website. Qt Palmtop will be licensed under a dual license: It will be provided under the GPL as well as a commercial license.

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