KDE Announces Plasma Active Three, Promises More Speed

The third version of Plasma Active, a technology intended for all types of tablets, smartphones and touch computing devices such as settop boxes, smart TVs, home automation or in-vehicle infotainment, has just been released.

KDE has just announced the third iteration of its Plasma Active device-independent mobile user experience.

The interface is designed to be user-friendly and to work across a large number of mobile devices, helping users to better organize and access applications, files and information.

There are several new features in the latest Plasma Active. The most prominent one is the addition of several new apps.

Files (not to be mistaken with the former Nautilus and presently named also Files) is the new default application, a file manager that isn't based on folders. Users can search for documents by file type, creation time and semantic information such as Tags. Files does not use the file system directly; it organizes documents with Nepomuk, Plasma Active's underlying semantic engine.

A new ebook reader was also implemented and it's called Okular Active. It's built on the technology which also drives the desktop version of the popular Document Viewer, and support files such as PDF, EPub, Open Document, and a few others.

Calligra Active and Kontact Touch have also made an appearance in Plasma Active three, delivering scalable applications for office and groupware tasks.

KDE has also improved the overall performance. These improvements bring a snappier and more visually coherent user interface, and make using Plasma Active a more enjoyable experience compared to previous versions.

The last major feature is the addition of Maliit, a new virtual keyboard that is used on devices such as Nokia's N9 smartphone

Plasma Active is openly developed, free software. It's built on the Mer operating system and runs on a number of devices—popular x86-based tablet computers, ARM-based hardware such as the Archos G9 series, and emerging touch-enabled devices as well.

More details about KDE Active Plasma Three can be found in the official announcement.

Download KDE Active Plasma Three right now from Softpedia.