The MeeGo project released version 1.0 of the MeeGo for IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) environment for car computers running Linux on Intel Atom processors. MeeGo for IVI ships with a sample, Qt-based IVI Home Screen and taskbar featuring a scroll-wheel motif, as well as automotive-specific middleware components and sample applications, says the project.

MeeGo for IVI arrives a little over a week after the Genivi Alliance announced that the open source automotive organization had chosen the Linux Foundation's Intel- and Nokia-backed MeeGo operating system as the basis of its next "Apollo" reference release for IVI computers.

The Apollo reference design is said to build upon the recently released MeeGo Handset environment. A third, touch-enabled Tablet environment is set to arrive soon, followed by a MeeGo 1.1 core release of the open source Linux operating system in October that further extends the touch interface. A Netbook environment shipped with the MeeGo 1.0 core release in May.

Screen from YouTube MeeGo for IVI demo post from "Vgrade100"

According to the MeeGo project, the IVI environment is designed with Automotive Center Console HMI requirements in mind. Sample apps included a navigation program (Navit) and a sample dialer application (BT-HFP Dialer) which uses Bluetooth and a paired phone.

Several videos of the environment have appeared this week on YouTube, including one from "Vgrade100" shown in the image above, revealing a carousel-like scroll-wheel interface somewhat reminiscent of that of the now-defunct First Else phone from Else Mobile (see video farther below). The scroll interface is part of the sample IVI home screen and taskbar, which is built with the QT 4.6 development tools included with MeeGo 1.0 core software platform.

The interface defaults to the left side of the screen, as shown in the video below, but it can be easily moved to the right side of the screen, says the project. The taskbar can be controlled by a Contour ShuttleXpress scroll-wheel, a mouse, or a touchscreen, says the MeeGo project.

The MeeGo IVI "Day 1 User Experience" is said to include:

• Kernel version 2.6.33
• Home screen and taskbar for launching and managing applications
• Sample navigation app (Navit)
• Sample Bluetooth-enabled dialer application (BT-HFP Dialer), which will be replaced in MeeGo 1.1 with a MeeGo Touch Framework based dialer application that supports HFP
• UI for managing network connections
• Fennec (Mozilla's Firefox for Mobile) browser
• Packages from open source automotive projects for audio, resource, persistent storage, CE device, and system health management

MeeGo for IVI has been tested on an Intel Russellville eMenlow reference board, which is based on Intel's existing Atom Z5xx processors, says the project. It has is also said to have been tested on an Intel Crown Bay Tunnel Creek processor, said to be a next-generation upgrade to the Intel Atom.

YouTube post from "Vgrade100" demonstrating MeeGo for IVI
(Click to play)

Availability

Release notes for MeeGo for IVI 1.0, with links to downloads, may be found here.

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