Going to MeeGo and Other Destinations

As is the case with most conferences, at IDF Beijing there simply isn’t enough time to see everything, and I greatly appreciate that Intel promptly posts PDFs of the presentation slides in the session catalog after the sessions. So even though I got sidetracked and missed the Evolutionary Mobility talk in person, I caught up while waiting for the MeeGo Hot Topic Q&A session to start, apparently applying some of the concepts from the Mobility talk–consuming content on the go–when I need it, not when it is delivered.

And MeeGo was truly the hot topic of the day. The numerous sessions were offered in one of the smaller session rooms and were standing room only, with lines running out the door. It’s hard to judge what is going to have a devoted audience; across the hall, large rooms were nearly empty, despite their interesting topics. There were so many people wanting to see the MeeGo talks that even the last Q&A session was packed.

When the pink MeeGo-branded laptop sleeves appeared, the crowd descended upon the box, enthusiastically grabbing the precious (and very cute) swag. I got a blue one, and a bar of soap. Though the basketball reference on the soap was lost on me, I did think of my friends back home who followed the Final Four.

The open source nature of the MeeGo developer platform is highly prized and is a device-agnostic development, acting as a foundation for apps that run on netbooks, connected TV, handsets, IVI, and media phones. In May, the 1.0 version will be released, and with 1.1 coming out in October, there will be support for Silverlight, Java, and Air. Developers can write native or runtime apps that can be Java-based, Web-based, Silverlight-based, or Air-based. Even though it’s open source, Intel has been working closely with Microsoft to make sure that MeeGo and Windows are friends. MeeGo = Moblin + Best of Maemo. Maemo had the sensor framework, which will be adopted by MeeGo, initially with compass and accelerometer, and more will come.

Even though the UI is very different across the form factors supported by Atom, there are a lot of background apps that users never need to engage with. The apps that run in the background and don’t have UI can run unmodified across devices. For apps that have a UI, most of the application logic remains the same. From netbooks to handsets, there is commonality to core app logic. Instead of rewriting an app for each form factor, developers can concentrate on optimizing the UI as the app is migrated. You don’t have to rewrite the whole application for a different form factor. That saves time and money and stress.

Intel will work closely with the community to push new hardware that supports MeeGo. Today the Nokia n900 platform is publicly available and can run it, and netbook code is available for the n270 and n450.

Almost every session–including MeeGo, of course–plugged the AppUp Center Atom Developer Program (ADP) with its million-dollar developer fund that launched at IDF San Francisco 2009. The ADP is continuing to grow and, as Renee James noted in the keynote, is opening to China and will have a monetization model for PRC next year.

While my friends who work in data centers encouraged me to hit as many of those sessions as possible, I followed my heart and stuck to the software side, except for the DisplayPort session, which was a bit over my head at times. I came away from it with a better understanding of display technology, and exactly what all those little pins carry across the video input types. I see why DisplayPort is the next generation of digital display interfaces.

Daniel Li, one of my colleagues from the MRM Beijing office, graciously insisted on carrying my bag for me from session to session in the afternoon. I didn’t have the burden of my heavy laptop, but felt very guilty for packing so much stuff that someone else had to carry. Another point in the votes for a netbook. I’m just looking for any excuse now.