Qt 5.2 Alpha Gets Love From Bluetooth, NFC, QML

As was expected to happen, Qt 5.2 Alpha 1 is now available for downloading. Qt 5.2 is set to introduce several new default modules, tidies up the Android and iOS support, has a new JavaScript engine for Qt QML, and there's a whole host of other changes for this leading open-source tool-kit.

Some of the new features for Qt 5.2 Alpha include:

- Full support for Qt Android applications after it was in a preview state for Qt 5.1.

- Full support for Qt Apple iOS applications after it was in a preview state for Qt 5.1.

- Qt Base modules improvements.

- Qt QML now uses its own built-in JavaScript engine that's separate from the V8 engine.

- Significant improvements to Qt Quick, including a new scene graph renderer for better CPU and GPU usage.

- Qt Quick Controls has some new controls.

- A new Qt Creator IDE release will ship alongside Qt 5.2.

The new add-on modules for Qt 5.2 include:

- Qt Bluetooth with BlueZ 4.x support.
- Qt NFC for near-field communication.
- Qt Positioning for GeoClue and NMEA data.
- Qt Windows Extras.
- Qt Mac Extras.
- Qt Android Extras.

The final release of Qt 5.2.0 is expected around late November, or it will be December if delays hit the release cycle once more.

More details on Qt 5.2 Alpha are available from the Digia blog.