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A new beta version of KAlarm, the KDE scheduling application, has been released. Version 1.9.1 improves the alarm edit dialog box, has a user feedback facility, and updates some translations including Belarussian and Farsi. Screenshots here, downloads (source, Debian Etch package) here. Requires KDE 3.2. Stable version is 1.4.4, same download location; requires KDE 3.
Version 1.2 of kAnyRemote, an application providing a Bluetooth or InfraRed remote control service for KDE, has been released. For changelog see KDE Apps; screenshots here, downloads (source only, console and KDE versions) here. Has been tested on recent Linux distro releases, but no minimum KDE requirement stated.
The KOffice project has announced the first release candidate of their KDE office applications suite. This contains only bug fixes over the last beta, as per protocol; they affect the libraries, KSpread, Kexi, Krita and KFormula (full list here). See press release here, announcement here and any bugs may be reported to the KDE Bug Tracking System. Source downloads (only) can be found on the same page as the announcement. Requires KDE 3.3 or later.
A new beta of BasKet Note Pads version 0.6 has been released. BasKet is a note-taking app allowing the user to drop various kinds of information in its "baskets", including text, images, sounds and application launchers. Beta 2.2 includes a redesigned settings dialog and the ability to disable automatic bullet transformation (for the substantial full list, see here). This includes the last new features before the 0.6 final release, expected early November. Screenshots here, source download here. Stable version is 0.5.0, available here, although the developers tell us this beta is "perfectly usable for your daily needs". Requires KDE 3.
Benjamin Reed has announced that he has put out new packages of KDE 4 for Aqua on OS X. They can be downloaded from the new Wiki-based KDE/Mac pages as torrents.
Version 0.8.6 of kvpnc, a KDE front-end for various VPN clients supporting vpnc (Cisco), IPSec, PPTP and OpenVPN, has been released, with a substantial number of bug fixes and new fetures (see changelog at KDE Apps or here). Screenshots here, downloads (source, SUSE 9.3 to 10.1 RPM) here. Requires KDE 3.3.
Version 1.35 of AutoQ3D, a 3D modelling app using Qt 4, has been released. This version adds a Spanish translation and has a variety of other improvements; see changelog on KDE Apps. Screenshots are on KDE Apps; download (source, Windows installer) here. A newer version (AutoQ3D PRO 2.0) is available under a commercial licence.
Version 0.7.3 of Smb4K, the Samba share browser for KDE, has been released. This version updates the documentation, has several file I/O bug fixes, updates several translations and reintroduces Chinese Traditional (zh_TW), among other things (see KDE Apps for full changelog). Screenshots here, downloads (source, with links to binaries for Debian Sarge, Ubuntu Dapper, Fedora, SUSE and Slackware) here. Requires KDE 3.2 and Samba 3.
Version 1.2.3 of Tellico, a personal collections manager for KDE, has been released. This version fixes relative links and included files in HTML exports, adds an Internet search facility for Amazon, IMDb and z39.50, fixes "some focus/UI issues with CSV importer" and lowers the required KDE version to 3.3.1. Screenshots here, downloads (source, with links to contributed binaries) from home page.
Version 1.9.43 of Gambas, the Visual Basic development environment for Unix with a KDE front-end, has been released. New features include a new project selection dialog, an improved file creation dialog, a fix to the "nightmare" syntax of Dialog.Filter, support for bookmarks in DirChooser and FileChooser controls, and updates to the GTK component (full changelog here). Screenshots here, source downloads here. Stable version, recommended for production work, is 1.0.17 (same download location).
Riverbank Computing has announced that a snapshot of eric4, the PyQt4 IDE, has been released. Since an earlier snapshot (13th Sept), Subversion 1.4.0 support and an interface style selector have been added and many bugs have been fixed. Downloads, with changelog, here (English speakers need the bottom GZ file; there are also German, French and Russian versions).
Riverbank Computing has announced that version 3.16.0 of PyKDE, the bindings allowing for KDE applications to be written in Python, has been released. It includes support for KDE 3.5.3 and requires SIP v4.4 or later, PyQt v3.16 or later and Qt v3.2 or later. Download (source only) here.
Version 1.5.0 of KPoGre, a KDE administration front-end for PostgreSQL, has been released. New additions include an "executor" for executing functions, a data table editing function, and SQL command completion; see KDE Apps for changelog. Screenshots here, downloads (source, SUSE 10 RPMs) here. Requires KDE 3.5.
Version 1.4.3 of LyX, a WYSIWYG LaTeX editor, has been released. Changes include improved Windows support (no need for MSys Unix tools), a number of crash bug fixes particularly for GCC 4.1 users, and a "new function inset-dissolve ... to delete an text inset and put its contents in the enclosing text"; full changelog here. Screenshots here, download links here with requirements here. Requires Qt 2.3 or 3.
Version 1.4.0 of Gwenview, the KDE image viewer, has been released. This version adds SVG and video support, reworked toolbars, a file filter bar, and many other new features (see homepage); the only change since the last development version (1.3.91) is "the support for the video duration in slideshows". Screenshots here, downloads (source only, with links to official distro binaries and contribs) here. Requires KDE 3.4.
Version 0.4.2 of KBackup, a KDE directory-tree backup program which uses the standard TAR and gz/bz2 formats, has been released. This version adds Russian and Italian translations. Screenshot and downloads (source and SUSE RPM) from KDE Apps (no homepage linked). Requires KDE 3.
Version 0.9.3 of kdesvn, the KDE Subversion client, has been released. This version fixes a bug which prevented the underlying svnqt library building against Subversion 1.4 (at least, I think that's what "svnqt now build against subversion 1.4" means). Screenshots here, downloads (source, FC5 RPM and SRPM) here. Requires KDE 3.4.
Trolltech has announced that its Greenphone, a mobile phone for Qtopia Phone Edition developers, is now available as part of the software development kit. Prices start from US$695 for the Community and Professional versions (for the latter, the user must purchase a Qtopia License on top); there is an apparently all-inclusive version, the "Greenphone Software Development Kit Light", for $890 (prices exclude tax, shipping and handling). Those interested should contact Trolltech at sales@trolltech.com. Trolltech has also announced that the device will use an Intel PXA27X (ARM type) processor, and corporate support comes from OpenWave (mobile browser and MIDAS "experience engine"), Innovo (WAP/HTML browser and messaging system), Real (media player), BeepScience (DRM) and Opera (web browser).
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo - London Olympia 2
The KDE booth at the upcoming Linux World Conference & Expo, to be held at the Olympia on 25-26 October this year, needs people to man it, according to George Wright (via Planet KDE). Anyone who can volunteer should add their names to the KDE UK Wiki.
A first beta of version 1.6 of KOffice has been released. The biggest changes (i.e. those listed in the announcement) are in KSpread, which supports Python and Ruby scripting, Kexi (database), Krita (graphics editor), Kugar (reporting tool), KPlato (project management) and KFormula, which now uses OpenDocument by default; full changelog is here. This is a source only release; downloads are here.
Version 2.1 of FacturaLUX, a finance management app for small to medium size businesses, has been released. The homepage is in Spanish and there is no changelog on the KDE Apps site. Screenshots at KDE Apps and on the home page; downloads (source, ZIP binaries for GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X) here. Requires Qt 3.
Version 0.5.2.3 of KBib, a BibTeX manager for KDE (BibTeX being a program and format for representing bibliographic references in LaTeX), has been released. This version fixes a serious bug which caused newly added entries to become macro definitions after saving. Screenshots here, downloads (source, FC5 RPM) here. Requires KDE 3.
Trolltech has issued a release candidate of Qt 4.2 under a special evaluation licence. This version features CSS-like widget styling capability, a new 2D canvas class called QGraphicsView, text completion, new calendar and font selection widgets, and new desktop integration features. Detailed list of new features here and here, downloads here for all platforms.
Version 1.2.2 of Tellico, the personal collections manager for KDE, has been released. This, the second bug fix version in a week since version 1.2 was released, fixes a bug which caused the wrong temporary directory to be used, which could lose images, and a bug with URLs not showing up in the Image List report. (An earlier minor update also updates the Brazilian Portuguese translation and has various bug fixes also.) Screenshots here, downloads (source, with links to binaries) available on home page. Requires KDE 3.4 (see homepage for other requirements).
Version 2.3.0 of TaskJuggler, a project management tool for KDE, has been released. This version has "much improved ICal file support, more flexible calendar generation, improved critical path visualization and numerous bug fixes". Users of 2.2.0 are encouraged to upgrade. Screenshots here, downloads (source only) here; a Debian Sarge DEB file can be found here. Requires KDE 3.4 (the Debian Sarge port requires 3.5).
Version 1.4.3 of Amarok, the KDE audio player and archiver, has been released. This version includes improved playlist performance, File Tracking (allowing re-arranging of files without losing statistics), support for removable media and network shares in the collection, and many bug fixes, some of them courtesy of Klocwork; full changelog here. Screenshots here, downloads (source with some binaries, not all of them up to date) here. Requires KDE 3.3.
Version 0.8.7 of QtiPlot, an Origin clone which does "data analysis and scientific plotting", has been released. Changes include support for Python scripts on Linux and Mac OS X, rewritten fit routines, improved help browser and online documentation and two crash bugs fixed (full changelog at KDE Apps). Screenshots linked off home page (and at KDE Apps); downloads (source, binaries in return for donation) here (note: the binary downloads at KDE Apps link to the free source / paid binary download page). Requires Qt 3 (see homepage for other requirements).
14th October this year will be the 10th anniversary of the announcement by Matthias Ettrich of the start of the KDE project. Various events are planned around the world but the biggest will be in Stuttgart on the 13th (the party is to last into the 14th!); others are planned in Nijmegen (Netherlands) and Portugal. More info on #kde-anniversary (irc.kde.org) and on kde-promo.
Via Planet KDE, Cyrille Berger writes that a feature freeze has been declared on version 1.6 of KOffice; only bug fixes will be accepted until the final release. A first alpha was released a month ago.
Version 1.0 of Filelight, a file manager for KDE which shows directories as concentric rings to represent the space they occupy on the device, has been release. It is unchanged since RC2 (22nd August). Screenshots at KDE Apps and on the homepage; source download from homepage also. Requires KDE 3.3.
Version 1.2 of Tellico, a personal collections manager for KDE, has been released. New features include various new import possibilities; the app is now ISBN-13 compliant and exports valid HTML with better formatting, with some memory leaks fixed also. (Full changelog on KDE Apps or on the home page.) Screenshots and downloads (source only, but with links to distro binaries and a requirements list) to be found on home page. Requires KDE 3.4.