The company behind the ultra small java midlet internet apps Webviewer and Mailviewer, Reqwireless, is now part of Google. Google announced the news late last week. That'll explain why it's not been possible to buy these apps for the last few months. No mention of the price paid or any other details, but there's sure to be speculation on what the technology is going to be used for, given the rumours of Desktop Thin Client Software coming from the Big G in 2006.
Mobiforms (www.mobiforms.com) dropped us a quick email to let us know about two user led changes in the updated version of their drag and drop, forms based IDE. Inking on the screen now allows quick sketches or (more usefully) signature capturing, as well as using ASCII files instead of databases if required.
Nokia recently gathered their leading N-Gage developers in a workshop session on S60 v3 and Symbian OS 9.1 - the next generation platform, as they describe it. In attendence were Backbone, Digital Legends, Bonus.com, Barking Lizards, Ideaworks, Jadestone, Razorback, Torus, and Two Tribes. Full Press Release Follows...
Following up on the launch in October and the November updates, UIQ has again updated the UIQ3 SDK, which is available for immediate download (Thanks to NewLC for the heads up).
Via the UIQ Developer website comes news of an opporunity for developers to beta test Carbide.c++. Caribide.c++ is the next generation of Symbian OS development tools and is built on Eclipse, the open-source IDE framework. The UIQ Developer site also provides the opportunity to get everything you need to develop for UIQ 3, inlcuding support from experts via its forum.
Ooh! Finally catching up on news from the October Press Briefing is Slashdot's rather negative coverage of Nokia's re-targeting of the N-Gage from a single handset to a brand covering the entire Series 60 portfolio. Worth a read to see just what Nokia's marketing department was up against before they had even launched. And also worth it for the comment that Nokia's so called failure has sold more units than all the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone devices put together.
Futuremark has announced the new SPMarkJava06 benchmark for evaluating handheld devices performance in running Java applications. The benchmark includes test for the latest Java functionality (MIDP 2, CLDC 1.1, JSR 184). Read on for a quick overview and results from several Symbian devices.
Now up to v1.15, Domi Hugo's essential Series 60 file manager continues to blaze a trail for freeware applications. Changes in this version include better cursor control, more error checking for free RAM, progress bars and improvements to the hex editor. Download available at www.gosymbian.com.
There's just one month left to register your interest in the Nokia/Macromedia Series 60 Third Edition Programming Challenge over at Forum Nokia. With a prize fund of 100,000 Euros split over various categories, tehre's plenty of scope for Developers to work with. And if it helps you get your applications ready for S60 v3, then Nokia will probably think 'mission accomplished' when the final builds are submitted in March 2006.
Arjen Broeze released RSCEdit, an application that allows OPL programmers to create language resource files on Series 80 devices for use in OPL applications. Up until now, creating a multilingual application in OPL was a very cumbersome process. The entire process of creating a multilingual application can be done directly on your Communicator. RSCEdit maintains all the different languages you want to support (up to 15) in a single database and generates true Symbian resource files with the press of a button. RSCEdit will also automatically generate a file containing all the constants needed for using the resources in your OPL application. More information about RSCEdit is at http://opldev.broeze.com/.
Steve has already had a good look at the new UIQ layout in the UIQ 3.0 SDK, and now you can get a hold of it over the internet. UIQ's Developer Site has the download, which includes the required library and binary files, gcc and winscw compilers, all the required tools, utilites and API documentation. Be aware this is still in beta, and those of you who picked up a copy at The Smartphone Show should get this update (and read the release notes carefully).
Forum Nokia recently released an updated version of Python for Series 60. New features in the 1.2 version include support for 2D Graphics and full-screen applications, Camera, Screenshot, Contacts and Calendar APIs, sound recording and playback, telephone dialing and rich text display.
Every 6 months Orange run a developer event which is a mixture of technical sessions, networking and fun. Rafe reports back from the most recent event at Opio, France on what the Camp offered to the attendees.
Tom Hume's posted some interesting thoughts on the downside of the long tail (a business model particularly suited to internet and software - more info here). His job involves a large amount of working porting applications to mobile phones, and the cardinal rule of "always test on actual hardware" is the problem. As Hume puts it " 'Write once, run everywhere.' Stare into the mirror and say it's name three times - it doesn't appear, it's just a fairytale."
