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I thought that I start a series of posts giving some tips on how to get started to code applications for Nokia 770 using Python. I have some experience on coding Pyhon for Series 60 and now I’ve started to play with the Python for Maemo. My intention was to give some examples and hints how to easily develop software for Nokia 770. I’m still in the phase of learning how to use GTK/Hildon to implement user interfaces, so feel free to comment if I’m doing something totally wrong or if you have questions.

In this first part I thought that I’d give instructions how to set up an easy configuration so you can easily code Python on Nokia 770 using your PC and also very easily run your applications on the actual device. I’ll also give an example of a very simple Python application that you can see below. It’s not much, but it is a good start.

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Official Python for Maemo 1.1 has been released on pymaemo.sourceforge.net. This is first working version with an installer that I have seen. It comes with Python 2.4.2, Numerical Python 23.8, Pygame 1.6, PyGTK 2.6.1 and Python Hildon 0.6.0.

If you have ever felt like you would like to code something for Nokia 770 and felt like learning C-programming sounds too much work, here is your change. Go to python.org and read the Python 2.4.2 tutorial to learn how to code in Python. Just for practise it might be good idea to install Python runtime for Windows or whatever OS you are using and learn to use the basic Python libraries. There is lots of stuff readily implemented and you really can make cool applications without too much work. For testing graphical user interfaces (Gtk/Hildon) you need to use Nokia 770 or Maemo development environment that is only for Linux. I’ll be writing about my experienses of Python with Nokia 770 here on my blog as soon as I have done something worth telling about.

New version of Scummvm has been released for Nokia 770. It fixes the sound and music stuttering problem that occurred with the earlier version. I made a brief test with Monkey Island 2 and I can confirm that sounds work now the way they should. Download the new version from here.

I stumbled across interesting news about VoIP and Nokia 770 while browsing the web. I found a picture of Larry Page from Google presenting that Nokia 770 will support GTalk. The site was in Spanish so I had to rely on Babelfish to translate it for me, so the news might not be that accurate. I started to think a bit more about this and remembered Google also announcing that GTalk will be open towards other XMPP services. Probably it was this that Mr. Page was talking about. So conclusions from this is that Nokia 770 VoIP software will support also XMPP. This naturally means only instant messaging with GTalk users and that should be already possible using Gaim for Maemo. Or maybe Nokia 770 will also support Jingle which has also become freely available. This way it could support also voice. The Jingle option sounds a bit too far fetched, since why would it be needed if Nokia 770 already supports SIP for VoIP. Well, it remains to be seen.

Some thoughts around the web have also risen up from the fact that Skype is also available for Ubuntu and Debian linux, so why wouldn’t it be also for Nokia 770. Why not? Or more like, why it should? Ok, first of all Skype port would have to be done by Skype and that is very unlikely to happen for a while anyway. Also SIP is the way to go since that is the way to make different VoIP communities interoperable. Users should be able to decide what client software they can use for their VoIP calls and not to be limited only to some special software. I know that Skype works very well and current SIP clients are quite far from that, but we are getting there… some day. Anyway, my opinion is that keep the Skype out of Nokia 770.

Huh… I’ve waited this for some time. Actually as long as I have had the device. Now Bertrand Pivaty has done what I’ve been waiting from the pymaemo people, since I reported about the bug in their python installer that made it not to work on the real device. Bertnand has released a working python installer for Nokia 770. Good job…

I browsed through Maemo Wiki and found some new status bar applications. A clock applet, that shows analog or digital clock in the status bar and a statusbar network monitor that shows info about your network connection on the status bar as well.

After having the CPU/Mem/Screenshot applet also in the status bar, it is getting a bit crowded up there.

JMills posted on Internet Tablet Talk Forums that he has been able to “get audio pass-through to work just fine” on Nokia 770. Interesting news… haven’t tried that yet. This sort of confirms that the is a mic (if it wasn’t confirmed yet) and proves that it is not locked somehow. I don’t know why it would be prevented to use the mic currently, but there are not any applications using it.

Quite interesting (also quite useless) information about how to dismantle a Nokia 770 on uselessinfo.org.uk. Also nice exploded view of the device can be found from the same site. Although the instructions are quite detailed, I wouldn’t dare to try that on my Nokia 770.

Edit:

And for the disbelievers. Look the exploded view on the bottom left. Indeed… there is a microphone.

New year has started fairly well for Nokia 770. It has been reported that it’s production has been increased because of the huge demand especially in the USA.

This morning I found also more interesting news from Nokia 770 blog. An application called DejaDesktop has been released for Nokia 770. It is free personal information manager (PIM) application that can synchronize itself to Outlook calendar and contacts. The PIM software is offered for free of charge. The ip-based synchronization service costs then $9.95 per month. You can try it free for two weeks.

Quite interesting that already at this early stage there are some sort of business being done relying on Nokia 770. And the approach is interesting also. Free software, but you have to pay for the service. That is very much the way to go with a device like Nokia 770. Lets hope that we see more of this in the future.

Today I noticed that minisip has been packed for Nokia 770. The link can be found from maemo.org Wiki. Installer and the application are still heavily work in progress, but I was already able to register to my SIP service using minisip from Nokia 770. Also I was able to receive call from my Gizmo account. Well, to be honest I was able to receive the call, but no audio went either way. SIP signaling worked perfectly though, since when I ended the call from my 770, the Gizmo client noticed it as well.

According to Marcelo Oliveira Another VoIP project for Nokia 770 called Tapioca will be releasing their SIP VoIP client for Nokia 770 soon. It is only lacking the UI. Hopefully test version will be out soon. We are living interesting times my friends. Soon I will be able to make VoIP calls using my Nokia 770.