The first question everyone asked when Nokia announced Python for S60 was "when." The second was "where's the source code then?" Well, now the unasked third question can be answered with a quick visit to the Sourceforge Project Page for PyS60 to pick up the S60 3rd Edition version of Python. Just take note of the release notes when they say This is not a final stable release. There are sharp edges and pointy bits. Wear gloves. Keep away from children. (Thanks to Jim for the heads up).
Very much for anyone planning to develop applications or Flash Lite content for Symbian OS 9 devices, Symbian have released a new paper documenting all the changes in the SIS installation file format and their implications.
Symbian formally announced the Symbian Academy program today. The program is aimed at supporting universities who are teaching students about developing Symbian OS software. Symbian will be providing course materials, training, technical support and guest lecturers. Symbian Academy reflects the need for a greater numbers of train Symbian OS developers.
OPL (the Open Source Programming Langauge) has been updated for Series 80 owners. The release is mostly bug fixes, and better compatibility for 9300 and 9500 owners, although there are some enhanced commands. Release notes are at the SourceForge page, as are the binaries and source code.
The UIQ Developer Program is offering everyone a chance to win a Sony Ericsson M600i. Other prizes include a year of professional membership of the developer program and five vouchers for technical support tickets. To enter the competition you need participate in their feedback survey which is available on the developer.uiq.com site. The survey is also an excellent opportunity to give your feedback and help shape the UIQ developers program.
The sessions reports from the recent Orange Partner Camp are now available on the Orange Partner website (registration required). Sessions ranged from the technical (Developing for UIQ 3) to the informational (S60 Business Update). Read on for more.
Ewan's been snuggling down each night with a copy of David Wood's 'Symbian for Software Leaders' and found it to be both comprehensive and readable, mainly for developers but with lots of anecdotes of interest to anyone interested in Symbian's history. Here's his review.
OK, so we missed the original announcement of Theme Studio 3.0 a few weeks ago, but not to worry because it's been tweaked again (though still calling itself '3.0'). The new release of Theme Studio has bug fixes for installing to 3rd Edition smartphones, plus support for morphing themes and animated highlights. Here's the download page.
Nokia has released (to the global open source software community) the source code for S60 WebKit, the engine for its next-gen Web Browser for S60, as featured in all 3rd Edition smartphones. Press release below the break...
Nokia has released two white papers (illustrated guides) helping you create content for the Flash Lite runtime in the new generation of S60 3rd edition smartphones. Here are the PDF links for the overview/intro and style guide.
Here are two session summaries from Orange Code Camp Opio (October 2005). Engineering with a Business Plan (part of a starting up guide) looked at the business side of mobile software development. While Developing for the Sony Ericsson P990 examined the developer options for Sony Ericsson's UIQ super phone. Orange's next biannual developer event, which I'll be attending, starts on Monday and we will be bringing you more developer coverage in the near future.
Nokia's Research Centre has posted up the binary files that will allow you to run an Apache server on your S60 smartphone. As well as the server files, there is a mod to allow Python integration, so you can use the scripting language to power the web page generation.
