Those of you in or around San Francisco on the 4th December might be interested in attending the Symbian Partner Event, being held in the Palace Hotel on that day from 8.30 am. This is a free event, which is open to all, with keynotes, exhibitions and discussion panels. More information and registration can be found at the Symbian Partner Event site.
In AAS Insight 49, we have brief news of a new version of Mobile Web Server, and a forthcoming TD-SCDMA S60 phone. The main part of the podcast is divided in to two parts: Rafe discusses his time at a recent Developer Day in Budapest while Steve, from the 17 minute mark, tells us about his visit to Nokia's hardware testing facility. If you want to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Not just for developers, Forum Nokia's web site has been an invaluable resource for everybody connected with Nokia, S60 or Series 40 over the last few years. As of 10 minutes ago, Forum Nokia has re-launched its web site with a new look and a new 'I want to', mission-based structure. If this wasn't in your Nokia/Symbian bookmarks before, then time to take a look now. Screenshot of the new home page below...
In AAS Insight 48, we talk about the launch of the new 'Facebook phone', the INQ1, we chat about the Nokia N96 and the new E63, plus we cover Qt, the cross-platform environment that Nokia bought recently. If you want to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week (19th-20th) Forum Nokia goes to Budapest for two events: a Developer Day and Code Camps on S60 5th Edition Touch UI and Web Runtime widgets. At the beginning of December it is the turn of Barcelona which has S60 5th Edition Touch UI and Mobile Web Code Camps. Both events are free to attend; all you need do is register on the Forum Nokia web site. I'll be in Budapest for both days of the Forum Nokia event, please do look out for me, introduce yourself, chat about the Symbian ecosystem and show me any applications or services you may be working on.
In our last video interview snatched from the floor at the Smartphone Show 2008, in AAS video podcast 36, I chat to George Henne from NS Basic and Lew Shepherdson from StyleTap about their programming tools and Palm runtime for S60 phones.
With Sony Ericsson's and Motorola's decision to stop using the UIQ platform in future products the long term future of UIQ Technology, the company behind the platform, was thrown into doubt. As things currently stand the long term future of the company is not secure. As a result, yesterday, its remaining 270 employees were put on notice of dismissal. However Sony Ericsson has agreed to continue funding the company on a by month by month basis in order to allow the company to investigate options for the future.
In All About Symbian Podcast 99 (Insight #46) we talk about the N96 which has received mixed reviews from initial users. In the second half the podcast Ewan provides his first impressions of One, the latest N-Gage game, before we move on to discussing manufacturer commitment to the Symbian Foundation and what the future may hold for UIQ.
One of the easiest contests ever: every week for the next twelve weeks a Nokia N81 8GB and limited edition N-Gage bathrobe will be given away on Gamasutra.com in association with Sauna Talk. All you have to do is answer one multiple choice question, which has a hint link next to it where you can find the answer. You can enter once a week, so you effectively have up to twelve chances to win the prizes. (In case you're unaware, Sauna Talk is a series of videos designed to advertise the N-Gage platform to developers. Apparently the contest is only open to those "related" to the games industry, but don't ask us what that means.) (via the Official N-Gage Blog)
Yesterday, in a third quarter earnings call, Motorola's CEO, Sanjay Jha, said that they would be streamlining their OS strategy to concentrate on three platforms: P2K (low end and feature phones), Android (consumer smartphones) and Windows Mobile (business phones). Motorola will no longer use its own LinuxJava (MOTOMAGX) or the Symbian UIQ platform. It also appears that several UIQ phones that are currently in development, which would have hit the market next year, will be abandoned. Read on for more.
In this editorial, Ewan mulls over the Smartphone Show 2008 and its significance in the grand scheme of things. How will Symbian Foundation attract developers in the coming years? Was the atmosphere one of post-iPhone doom and gloom? Not from Ewan's perspective, he ends up very optimistic about prospects for Symbian ES (EcoSystem).
Last week, at the Symbian Smartphone Show, the Samsung Mobile Innovator developer program opened its doors for developer registrations. The program provides support, both technical and business, for mobile developers creating applications across the entire range of Samsung S60 devices. As part of the launch Samsung are offering to put to 300 applications through the Symbian Signing process for free. Read on for more.
In All About Symbian Podcast 98 (Insight #45) we are back from last weeks Symbian Smartphone Show at Earl's Court. There some discussion on the feel and size of the show, Symbian Foundation related announcements, and the start of our run through of some of the devices and demos we saw.
If you've been following the semi-official S60 blogs over on S60.com then note that the old blog feeds have just been discontinued and the blogs archived. There are now just two main feeds/blogs to follow in your feed reader: S60 Living and Developing on S60. A simpler system and less confusing all round!
Symbian has released Ruby for Symbian OS to the Open Source software developer community. Ruby is "a powerful dynamic language that reaches the heights of the pure Object Oriented Programming paradigm" and is popular in many developer communities.