It compiles to native code. It just allows you to use C# to do it.
MonoTouch is not a runtime or an "app", it's a library with which you compile your own apps. It's ahead-of-time compiled, so you end up with a binary that runs on the iPhone.
It opens up iPhone development for millions of
If you're not interested, that's great, move along.
They want to see open source software running on Windows, and want to see IIS as the web server of record, not Apache.
The non-MS participators (with the somewhat odd, but welcome, exception of Monty Widenius) appear to be mostly from a
Doesn't mean that the software you run on Windows/IIS is any less Free, however. And you can still run it on Mono.
The fourth iteration (Maemo Fremantle) has a UI built on Hildon/GTK+; the fifth (Maemo Harmattan), a UI built on Qt. I've read 4Q 2010 or 1Q 2011, so app developers have to consider whether or not to use the community-supported Qt API on the existing device, which will become "the" OS in 2011, or build something on GTK+, Maemo/Nokia-supported now, which will become community-supported in Harmattan.
Sounds kind-of like this.
Unbranded maybe (I'm not in the US so can't comment), unlocked, no.
So, what's the difference?
The parentage (evolution from a non-phone N770/N8x0, rather than from the phone N9x), and the cost.
I have never used an N97 personally, but I'm sorry to hear that you're having so much trouble with it. It is not the only Symbian-powered device in the world!
Bugs get fixed. Technology improves. It looks like Nokia will use Symbian as their smartphone OS, and have their MID class use Maemo. They are easily big enough to support both. Other Symbian Foundation member companies will improve the OS and use it on whatever devices they want to do. The Samsung i8910HD and Sony Ericsson Satio are another couple of current Symbian S60v5 phones, and as the platform moves forward as open-source software, anything could happen. Android's Dalvik VM could be ported to Symbian. That could be interesting!
As for the SDK, I think that it's built on Eclipse, and there's a GCC toolchain - maybe not with S60 5th Edition, but with Symbian^1 or Symbian^2 (the OSS releases). It takes time for a commercial product to adjust to a new open source life. Give a while. No harm.
I meant that there is an option to buy it unlocked and unbranded. You can't generally buy an iPhone or Palm Pre in that state.
The Symbian software marketplace dwarfs the Maemo marketplace, which to date seems to be mostly open source apps (in line with the audience of the N770/800/810, which was mostly Linux geeks). And new versions of the firmware are still being released - with more major releases due in Sep/Oct.
Is it really fair to say it has no future?
N900 has a single-touch resistive touchscreen, compared to the iPhone's capactive, multitouch screen. The demo video shows an interesting single-touch zoom method on the N900 - draw a spiral, like winding a display closer or further away.
Look at the N900 feature list - "Phone" is fourth down.
Maemo may power Nokia's high-end devices, but this is no reason to sound the death knell for Symbian. With regard to Nokia, they make a lot of phones that are not the N900, and do not cost 500 euro. There are also dozens of other companies supporting the Symbian Foundation, including many other manufacturers like Samsung and Sony Ericsson.
Symbian^4 will use Qt as its UI layer, and Maemo is moving into a similar direction (that's why Nokia bought Trolltech!) - targeting both platforms should be quite simple.
My apologies, Slashdot ate my euro symbol. That's 500 euro.
It's a mobile internet device that does telephony, not a phone. Phone capability is quite low on their feature list! And yes, it supports wifi..
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