Maemo 5 Alpha SDK Released: Hardware 3D Acceleration & LBS

While at first glance not perhaps the most inspiring of images, this is actually a very special desktop: it's that of the Maemo 5 Alpha SDK, which Nokia have freshly released today.  Comprising the new UI framework and app development APIs, the SDK now supports hardware acceleration for 3D graphics at WVGA resolution.

There are also five new APIs, including one for location which opens the door to more advanced location-aware services, a City Information API for pulling down city name, country name, dialing code and other information, and a time management API.  Maemo 5 Alpha also supports different vibration alerts, controlled through their own API, together with a Device Orientation API.

This isn't something to download if you're looking for the latest functionality on your Internet Tablet, but if you've been holding off coding apps for the platform then head over to the release page.  Documentation is minimal at present, but expect that to change as more developers jump on board and explore.