At the SEE 2009 show, Ewan chats to representatives from Qt (the cross-platform runtime destined to become the default environment for Symbian^4 and beyond), Navteq (the mapping data guys now owned by Nokia) and Opera (makers of the popular Opera Mini proxy browser). It's all in AAS Podcast 155.
Yesterday the Symbian Foundation announced the release of the EKA2, together with supporting development kit, under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). This marks a major stepping stone is the process to opensource the entire Symbian platform, which the Symbian Foundation is currently undertaking. The microkernel is the heart of the operating system and comprises of a 'robust, fully multi-tasking architecture', which 'manages all system resources and frameworks necessary for the co-existence of the processes and applications that make up the complete system'.
The Monday evening before the Symbian Show, branded SEE09 this year, traditionally provides fertile ground for mobile related 'fringe' events - and this year is no exception. Fitting around other events, we will be having a small, informal pub get together. So from 5:30pm or so until around 8:00pm we'll (Rafe, Ewan, Steve) be in the Windmill pub, which is just a few minutes away from Oxford Circus. More below, including a map, if you're in London and want to come along!
Following up on their promise at launch to involve their customers in business decisions, Giffgaff have started a discussion about pricing on their blog and forum. Their initial thinking is for a simple per minute and per text charge, but the community aren't so sure. And there are even more option about charging for data after the first six months (where everyone gets free data from launch).
In All About Symbian Insight 91 (AAS Podcast 153), Steve expands on his N97 camera and GPS experience from last weeks podcast. Rafe and Steve then discuss Nokia's Q3 2009 result in details, before Steve asks Rafe about his initial N900 versus N97 impressions. Our final topic is Steve's experience with Ovi Suite 2.0. You can listen to AAS Insight 91 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
NAVTEQ would literally like to take you for a ride at SEE. Along with the usual activities, NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) will be giving developers the opportunity to gain an insight into how NAVTEQ gathers mapping and location information.
Nokia today released betas for Qt 4.6 and Qt Creator 1.3, both of which include Symbian support. Qt is Nokia's cross platform application and UI framework, which is set to become a key developer offering in the Symbian and Maemo platforms. Qt Creator is a cross platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Qt developers.
The annual Symbian show kicks-off in just under two weeks. This year’s event promises to be busier than ever, with more demands on the time of attendees. To help you figure out your priorities, I will be highlighting a few key exhibitors and speakers over the next few days. Today, Accenture.
When is an app store not an app store? Following my editorial last week, ShoZu got in touch to tell me about their new 'App Store' which launches today. Great, I thought, a new store, done by a company that focuses a lot on making things easy for a customer, so I headed over there. To realise that the Shozu App Store has just one application... Shozu. But this is a good thing – read on.
In All About Symbian Insight 89 (AAS Podcast 151), Rafe and Steve talk about the recent release of version 20 firmware for the Nokia N86 8MP. Rafe and Ewan report back from Over the Air (OTA) where they listened to presentations on Symbian approach to evolving UI and Nokia's Qt strategy. There's also discussion about Nokia's acquisition of Dopplr. You can listen to AAS Insight 89 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
One of the biggest changes coming to the Symbian world over the next few years is the inclusion of Qt into new devices. Starting with the Symbian^2 platform, Qt will be in our smartphones and providing a new Developer Platform choice for programmers (and come Symbian ^4 it's going to be powering the UI as well). A recent presentation at Over the Air laid out Nokia's plans...
Rafe reports back from the recent (September 2009) Ovi Developer Day in London, with details on all the main speakers and the issues raised (and responded to). Rafe notes in particular (and welcomes) a sea change in Forum Nokia's attitude to developers. There are also a number of interesting facts and stats about the Nokia Ovi Store.
In All About Symbian Insight 88 (AAS Podcast 150), Rafe and Steve talk about the release dates for some upcoming devices and preview the Nokia 5730. Rafe reports back from the Ovi Developer Day and Steve shares news of the latest Nokia 5800 firmware and upcoming firmware for the N86. There's also discussion about the Ovi Store and Vodafone 360. You can listen to AAS Insight 88 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
I was fascinated to read of the continued progress of some of Symbian's 'Wiki books' over on the Symbian Blog today. Essentially, these slightly niche guides and reference texts are being created in collaborative style by a number of authors, all contributing online into a 'wiki', a hypertext shared document. The 'wiki books' can then be electronically massaged into free electronic 'ebooks' or even passed over as needed to an on-demand book printing service. And it goes without saying that content can be kept up to date a lot more easily than with conventional '100% paper' titles.
Web development standards — HTML, CSS and JavaScript — are a front runner in the quest to provide an accessible development environment for Symbian. However, Web Runtime (WRT) has its limitations and, across the industry as a whole, is rather fragmented. Find out how Symbian hopes to address these issues in the latest developer section feature.