Samsung Mobile Innovator has released the first iteration of the DevPak for the Samsung i8910 HD (formerly the Omnia HD). This plugs into the existing S60 5th Edition SDK to provide an emulator skin and control features, as well as additional APIs.

The DevPak provides the full Samsung boot sequence and Samsung i8910 look and feel in the emulator, along with device button, G-Sensor, and orientation controls. The look and feel is not complete, as the standard S60 toolbar is retained and there is no emulation of the Samsung home screen, with its widget support. The reskinned emulator provides three UI displays – standard portrait and landscape modes, plus a portrait mode optimised for laptop PCs.



The DevPak also includes the Samsung MotionUI API and Samsung NaviSensor API.

The MotionUI API provides developers with access to events and states from Samsung custom Sensor Framework channels, enabling an application to determine if a device has stopped moving, started moving, is stationary, or being shaken. The DevPak includes two example applications that illustrate the API capabilities, one in which an animation is started when the device is picked up and another that starts a stop watch when the device is shaken.

The NaviSensor API, which was introduced by Samsung to S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2, enables applications to receive readings from the accelerometer and geomagnetometer (compass) on the Samsung i8910. The API is provided to give compatibility with the earlier implementation, as these readings are now available from the generic S60 Sensor Framework. Three example applications are provided for this API.

There is also an example application (an animation of a bat) which shows how to control an application using the light intensity sensor on the Samsung i8910. This uses the standard S60 Sensor Framework API.

The Samsung i8910 DevPak is delivered in a zip archive and requires manual installation. As such it also requires manual removal from the SDK. Samsung recommends saving a copy of the folders that contain files that are overwritten by DevPak, so they can be restored to remove the DevPak. However, developers who wish to retain the generic S60 SDK might consider installing a new copy of the S60 5th Edition SDK and then adding the DevPak to that new installation, giving the flexibility to launch applications into either version of the SDK.

The alpha release is primarily about providing access to the Samsung APIs. The emulator does not have working G sensor controls, so cannot be used to fully test applications. However, the early access will undoubtedly be of benefit to developers readying their applications for this much anticipated S60 device.

You can download the DevKit from Samsung Mobile Innovator here (free registration is required).