[maemo-community] Pushing community software to prime time

[From: Ryan Abel]

On Oct 10, 2008, at 3:04 AM, Quim Gil wrote:

> Starting point yes, but think wide. To propose concrete benchmarks:
> things that would impress even your non-geeky your friends. Things  
> that
> tech bloggers wouldn't like to miss in their Maemo 5 review. Things
> that, in fact, don't exist entirely today but can be a reality next  
> year.


maemo-barcode sounds like the perfect example of this. See the recent  
Slashdot article.[1] Hook up a fast, accurate barcode scanner to an  
always-on HSPA connection with access to all sorts of product  
information, then you can scan a product in a store and get price  
comparisons to your top 3 online retailers, or a list of product  
reviews and alternative options; or check off items from your grocery  
list; or generate a wishlist.

There's all sorts of cool stuff you can do with this, with the N900's  
high-quality camera, fast CPU/DSP and always-on access.

With the camera, GPS, and always-on connection, gps-camera is another  
good candidate.[2] An integrated camera application that snaps, tags,  
localizes and uploads to your favorite photo service (Flickr, Picassa)  
all in one workflow.

Related to the gps-camera, something like gphoto2 to tether with a  
real camera, post-process (hopefully we'll have a screen with a decent  
color depth on the N900), tag, localize, and upload would be cool.  
With a WiFi equipped camera, it can all be handled wirelessly, too.

For entertainment, Numpty Physics would really take off with a little  
integration help.[3] Add high score-tracking, a level showcase and  
downloader, and some sexy accelerated graphics, and you've got  
yourself a damn cool (if already old news) showcase game.

With OMAP3, pushing the on-device development environment is a lot  
more feasible. Khertan already has a fantastic set of applications,  
but some direct support from the Development Platform team could make  
things so much easier, and so much cooler.[4] Admittedly it lacks  
appeal to the general consumer, but the right audience really eats  
stuff like that up.

Anyway, some examples that I think are relevant, I'll dupe some of  
this over to the wiki later.


[1]http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/28/2214203
[2]http://garage.maemo.org/projects/gps-camera/
[3]http://garage.maemo.org/projects/numptyphysics/
[4]http://garage.maemo.org/projects/pygtkeditor/

--
Ryan Abel
Maemo Community Council chair