Yesterday the KDE developers made a post blog, in which release a report on the preparation of the first stable version of the mobile platform PlasmaMobile.
This publication was made in order to answer some questions that many users ask developers on a daily basis, among which the main question they ask is when will version 1.0 be ready?
For those who are unfamiliar with Plasma Mobile should know that, this is a platform that is based on the mobile edition of the Plasma 5 desktop, the KDE Frameworks 5 libraries, the Ofono phone stack, and the Telepathy communication framework.
To create the application interface, Qt and the Kirigami framework from KDE Frameworks are used, allowing to create universal interfaces suitable for smartphones, tablets and PCs. The kwin_wayland composite server is used to display charts. For sound processing, PulseAudio is used.
Plasma Mobile Status
And even though they do not have a date as such, the developers comment that do not have a large workload and whate are focused as much as possible to work on current issues. So they mention that Plasma Mobile 1.0 will be formed after the preparation of all the planned components.
Of these, the following applications are already available adapted for use on mobile devices and covering basic needs:
- Music Player: Vvave
- Image viewers: Koko and Pix
- Notes: owl
- Schedule: calindori
- File manager: Index
- Document viewer: Okular
- Application manager: Discover
- Program to send SMS: Spacebar
- Address book: plasmaphonebook
- Interface for making phone calls: plasma-dialer
- Browser: plasma-angelfish
For messaging applications are contemplated for pre-installation, some typical applications such as Telegram and Spectral.
On the other hand too some applications are considered Developed by individual developers, but not yet translated into the Plasma Mobile repositories:
- video player: Videoplayer
- Clock: Kirigamiclock
- Calculator: Kalk
- SoundMemo Sound Recorder
Of these applications Plasma developers mention that most from previous programs contain flaws or do not have proper functionality.
For example, there are unresolved problems in the program to send SMS, the calendar scheduler requires a handoff to the timer_fd kernel interface to arrange the sending of notifications during sleep mode, it is also mentioned that there is no possibility to answer a call when the screen is off or locked.
Before the first version, it is also necessary to solve some problems on the KWin composite server using Wayland. In particular, it is necessary to provide support for the selective updating of the content of the surfaces, omitting the areas in which there were no changes (this will increase productivity and reduce energy consumption).
Support for displaying thumbnails in the task switching interface has not been implemented yet. Implementation of support for the input-method-unstable-v1 protocol is required to organize on-screen keyboard input in some third-party applications. Profiling and optimization of KWin performance is required.
Of the common tasks, the support to show notifications on lock screen interface and create missing modules for the configurator. In its current form, the configurator allows you to configure the date and time, language settings, supports the connection of Nextcloud and Google accounts, provides simple Wi-Fi settings and displays general information about the system.
Between planned tasks for implementation are the automatic time reception from a mobile operator, setting sound and notification parameters, displaying information about IMEI, MAC address, mobile network and SIM card, support for Wi-Fi protection modes other than WPA2-PSK, the ability to connect to hidden wireless networks, configuring mobile data transmission modes, expanding language settings, configuring Bluetooth, managing keyboard layouts, configuring a screen lock and PIN, power consumption modes.
Source: https://www.plasma-mobile.org