Recent News Headlines - Developer
Design a Widget to Win a Nokia N97
In case you missed it during the hectic time between Christmas and New Year, Nokia have announced a competition to design a widget for the N97, specifically for the homescreen. The winning widget will 'go into production' (which we assume means it will be coded by the Nokia development team) and the winning designer will receive a production N97 with their widget ahead of the public release of the device. More details on the Nseries website.
UIQ files for bankruptcy
Following a board meeting on 29th December the board of UIQ Technology resolved to file for bankruptcy. This follows on from the news, in early November, that staff had been put on notice and a temporary transition period was being funded by Sony Ericsson. With that period over, with no alternative investor available and given the current economic climate the board had no choice but to shutter the company.
PyS60 hits 1.9, though you might not want to upgrade yet
Python for S60 has been almost totally rewritten, it seems (around the Python 2.5.1 core), with a huge version number jump to v1.90, available here. The most obvious changes are for developers, including a new GUI-driven SIS packaging tool and far better support for 'standard' Python libraries. Here's the download page, here's the readme that you'll want to scan over (it looks like it's something of an interim release before v2.0) and here's where I read about it.
Symbian Signed Basics
With Symbian Signed having been maligned by some in the past, David Wood reminds us in no uncertain terms of all of the reasons why such a scheme has to be in place. Google's Android marketplace is now hitting some of these issues, while the iPhone's App Store is artificially protected by the iPhone not allowing background applications of any kind. But David's arguments hold fast for all phone platforms that want to make it into the future...
Forum Nokia's Carbide C++ SDKs go free
Forum Nokia has released a whole new generation of Carbide C++ software development kits, for creating native Symbian OS applications. V2.0 is now out and, significantly, all editions are now totally free, helping to reduce the barriers to entry to Symbian development.
Latest and greatest Python
According to Forum Nokia, Python for S60 1.4.5 is now officially released and more powerful than ever. Picking the SIS files to grab is now simpler and there are several important under-the-hood improvements, not least that a Python script can now control Python code in processes that the script didn't start. Oh, dash it, just install the thing, won't you? It'll make all those useful Python mini-apps smoother than ever. Hopefully...
Roadblocks to commercial Python apps for S60
If you're a Python tinkerer like me then you'll be interested in a summary post over at Forum Nokia by Daniel Crocha, talking about possible reasons why Python for S60 doesn't often make for easy development of full, commercial (read polished) applications. He also links to a possible solution for making building all-in SIS install files easier.
Free Symbian Event In San Francisco Next Week
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.
AAS Insight 49: Hardware testing and developer days
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.
Forum Nokia gets rennovated!
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...
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