Today Greystripe, a mobile advertising network, announced ad network support for Nokia's Ovi Store. Greystripe enables developers to automatically add pre-load and exit 'screen' rich media adverts to their games applications via a self-service web portal. This should result in an increased number of ad-supported (free) games and applications in the Ovi Store. Additionally Greystripe is migrating 1,200 Gamejump.com Java titles into Ovi Store.
Qt is continuing it progress towards becoming the primary development option for third-party applications on Symbian, with the release of Qt 4.6.1. While a minor release, it brings a big step forward by delivery on the binary compatibility promise made to Symbian developers.
In All About Symbian Insight 102 (AAS Podcast 166), the team start with news of Sony Ericsson's Vivaz and its continuous focus HD video capture capabilities. We move on to an in-depth discussion of Nokia's Ovi Maps announcement last week. The final item in this weeks podcast is a quick mention for the new beta version of Ovi Suite. You can listen to AAS Insight 102 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia today announced that it is releasing a new version of Ovi Maps with free walk (pedestrian) and driving (car) turn-by-turn, voice guided navigation functionality. Ovi Maps has global coverage, with 74 countries covered by its navigation services. Maps for all regions will be available, for free, for loading over the air or pre-loading via a desktop computer. Traffic information and city guides, from Lonely Planet and Michelin, will also be made available at no extra cost. There's an initial set of devices, in terms of availability, with more compatible devices to follow. See below.
This is an industry-shifting move; Nokia is essentially changing the economics of the consumer GPS navigation market overnight. It will give its phones a significant differentiator on shop shelves and has long term strategic implications for the future of location services. Read on for further details and analysis.
Carbide.c++ is again available as a download from Forum Nokia, adding to the options for obtaining this Symbian development tool. The latest version adds support for the Eclipse p2 update system, Qt code styling, and single file compiles on Raptor.
In All About Symbian Insight 101 (AAS Podcast 165), we round up the weeks news including updates to Ovi Suite, Samsung's 32 GB microSD card announcement, firmware updates for the 5800, N86, E72 and E75 and the release of Betalab's Gig Finder. We also discuss the UI concept proposal from Nokia for Symbian^4, before Ewan gives us some concluding thoughts on the X6. You can listen to AAS Insight 101 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Continuing the ping pong legal battle between Apple and Nokia over patents and IP, Apple have filed with the International Trade Commission asking for a US import ban on Nokia products... mirroring the complaint Nokia made to ITC about Apple. While escalating quickly, this progression of claim and counter-claim is to be expected as both companies legal departments engage in brinkmanship before negotiation.
Today Symbian made available, via its developer website, a number of documents relating to the Orbit and Direct UI proposals that make up a major part of the changes in Symbian^4. These proposals offer a glimpse of what the Symbian^4 UI may look like and explain some of the key UI layout and design changes. Symbian are looking for the community's feedback, comments and questions about the proposals. Read on for more details and illustrations.
Coming out of the Symbian Foundation's developer wiki system is a handy Wikipedia widget that installs on any Symbian-powered smartphone with Web runtime (so that's most of them). Search results are all optimised for the small screen and it seems a quick and efficient way to access Wikipedia's content. I've included some screenshots from the widget below.
There's a particularly interesting page over on the Symbian Foundation web site, detailing how the OS itself is 'built'. In other words, turning the millions of lines of Open Source code into a set of binaries that will work on phones and emulators. Fascinating stuff, if you've any interest in software engineering. (via Jim Clarke)
In All About Symbian Insight 99 (AAS Podcast 163), we discuss recent news including Nokia's presence at MWC, Ewan's Le Web trip and recent Apple legal activity. Then there's discussion of the Nokia Booklet 3G and the future direction of such mobile devices and software platforms. Finally there some special Christmas related content making for a longer-then-usual podcast. You can listen to AAS Insight 99 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Our very own Asri al-Baker has taken the time to sit down with Malcolm Lithgow, the guy behind Dreamspring, a software house which has been in the Psion and Symbian worlds for almost as long as I have(!) - Asri questions him on the challenges and rewards of developing for Symbian and asks him to summarise a modern developer's other options (Maemo, iPhone, Android, etc.) Here's the fairly lengthy, but interesting, interview.
Sasken, which provides mobile software services and solutions, has put forward a proposal in the Symbian Foundation for a Social Mobile Framework, which will hopefully be included in future releases of Symbian. The aim is "to enable seamless integration of social networks and web services into native C++ applications". Some more details and links below, if you're a developer or if you're interested.
The application development system Python for S60 has finally reached the big version 2.0, at least in runtime form, and is being pushed out via SW_Update on selected S60 phones. I've done some screens of the availability and installation process below on the Nokia N86. I daresay an official announcement and a full development release is also imminent. Watch this space.
Smaato are a name you've probably never heard of - even if you're a developer. Yet, if the latter, it's a name that should be well and truly on your radar - Smaato serve up over 3 billion ads each month, in both mobile applications and in mobile web sites. I found all this out when I interviewed Ragnar Kruse, Smaato's founder and serial entrepreneur, a few days ago in London, just after the Heroes of the Mobile Screen event and not that long after Google bought out Admob, one of Smaato's partners - an aspect I was keen to chat about. The full 20 minute video interview is embedded below - recommending watching for all, but especially for developers.
