Plasma Active 3 released with new apps

The Plasma Active 3 welcome screen
Source: KDE Project The recently released third stable version of Plasma Active includes new apps and delivers improved performance. Among the new apps for the KDE user interface for touchscreen mobile devices is a file manager called "Files". Unlike traditional file managers, Files is not folder-based and does not access the filesystem directly. Instead users can search for files using details such as file name and type, creation date and semantic information such as tags.

The new Okular Active e-reader app was built using the same technology as the desktop version of the Document Viewer and supports a number of file formats, including PDF, EPub, and ODF documents. It can also access thousands of free ebooks through add-ons; paid applications and content are said to be "coming soon".

Calligra Active and Kontact Touch, based on KDE applications Calligra and Kontact, respectively, are now included for productivity and groupware tasks. A new virtual keyboard has also been added which the developers say make text input even easier; the keyboard is based on Maliit, as used on Nokia's N9 smartphone.

Presentation video by the Plasma Active 3 development team

The Plasma Active 3 installation image uses Mer as its base operating system; Mer is a Linux distribution for mobile devices developed by the Mer Project and based on components of MeeGo. The Mer project also plans to share its effort with MeeGo and LiMo successor Tizen. Download links for Plasma Active 3 and installation instructions for ARM and x86 systems are provided on the KDE Community Wiki.

(crve)