Revision as of 21:37, 30 May 2012

My plans for Harmattan

I'm planning to use the device as a development tool for developing various applications and some games. I will list here some of the apps and ideas I currently have, and will implement more apps and list here more as more ideas come to me.

What? Why?

I believe in the mission of the MeeGo project, but I don't actually own a MeeGo device so I haven't started to port my stuff to MeeGo yet. I own an N900, but I use it as my primary phone, so (unfortunately) putting an unstable OS on my N900 is not an option. This is the reason why I need an N950, it would enable me to actually contribute my apps to the Harmattan and MeeGo community.

Also, the capacitive multi-touch screen of the N950 would allow me to develop my apps in a way that allows them to use intuitive multi-touch gestures.

See my profile page

Apps

These are the apps I plan to implement for the N950 and MeeGo/Harmattan.

• Needless to say, all applications are (and will be) implemented as Free and Open Source

Puzzle Master

• • UPDATE 1: Some of the plans and ideas in this list have changed. During development and testing, a lot of ideas that didn't make sense or didn't work out just didn't make it into production code. Also, the fact that I had to rewrite the user interface completely reduced the time that I could allocate to more features. On the bright side, I have a much nicer UI now. :)**

• • UPDATE 2: The project is completed and it's in Nokia Store right now. Check it out! :)**

• Already working on Fremantle, Diablo, and Fedora
• Source on Gitorious
• More details and platform availability

First and foremost, I plan to adapt my Puzzle Master game to Harmattan. This includes adding multi-touch capabilities and various improvements to make the game more appealing to end users.

Specific ideas for improvements are:

• New game modes
  • Sliding puzzle
  • Mosaic
• Support for rotating the puzzle pieces with a multi-touch gesture
• Ability to move more than one piece at once
• Ability to use pinch-to-zoom into the game board
• And more.

(As I don't own a multi-touch device, these were impossible for me to implement yet. After completing the multi-touch features, I plan to release this application for Symbian's Ovi Store as well.)

Public transportation guide

• • UPDATE: This project idea has been cancelled in favour of IRC Chatter, the first IRC client for Harmattan.**

• No code available yet.
• Planned to work on both MeeGo and Harmattan, and Fremantle too (if possible)

This application will be able to help users with public transportation. (Initially in my country, others will be added later through an extensible infrastructure.)

Use case:

• The user specifies where he wants to go and from where
  • The app will be able to use the current location (via GPS) as a starting point
  • It will be possible to show the starting point and destination on a map (via Qt Mobility's Maps feature)
• The app will download time tables from the web
• Then it will present the user with options of various transport lines (buses, trains, etc.)

Features:

• Allow the user to mark specific lines as favourites and the ones which s/he will travel with
• Platform integration
  • Favourites are displayed in the Events View
  • The ones which s/he chose to travel with are also added as alarms
  • The upcoming one will be displayed on the lock screen as well
• The goal is to help the user get to where he wants to go, not only by helping him choose a line, but also by helping him actually reach it

Rationale:

• Web sites of railway/transport companies are usually too heavy for a mobile browser
• The interactivity of such sites is not good enough to be comfortable for most users (myself included)
• The app will integrate with the platform, adding alarms which ring when the bus departs, list them in the Events View, etc.

Memory game

• • UPDATE: The app is done for Harmattan, but didn't make it into Nokia Store yet.**

• Unreleased
• Source on Gitorious

This is a memory game I have been developing for some time (still in its early stages). The game hasn't been released yet, but it's simplicity and fluidity makes it already very addictive to the people who have tested it.

I plan to add more features to it to make it fully fledged, as well as some improvements in look and feel to look nicely on Harmattan.

Some of the planned features are:

• Allowing to use images on the memory cards
  • Possibly allowing the user to add his/her own pictures
• Allowing adjusting the number of cards displayed (partially done)
• and more.

Labirynth game

• • UPDATE: This idea has been cancelled in order to be able to spend more time on Puzzle Master. At the time, Puzzle Master seemed to be a lot more innovative idea, and this seemed like a cliché thing.**

(No code available yet.)

I'm planning to create a labirynth game (maybe 3D?) which could be operated with the accelerometer or other intuitive input methods.

I've always wanted to create such a game (it is an interesting challenge), just never got around to begin. This summer, however, I will be able to afford the time to begin with it.

• Still looking into more ideas and details about the implementation.

Porting

There are some apps that I wish to port to Harmattan and MeeGo as well.

Two examples are:

• Konversation (IRC client) Deemed non-portable because QWidget-based apps look quite dumb on Harmattan. Begun work on a new QML-based IRC client from scratch.
• KPatience (a card game collection) Deemed non-portable because QWidget-based apps look quite dumb on Harmattan.