Nokia today announced the next stage of its Widget (Web Run Time) platform for S60. The new version will allow widgets to access information and services on the phone (such as location through GPS) in order to enable context sensitive widgets. Also significant is a brief mention of Open C++ which will further extend the number of standard, platform-independent, programming libraries available on the S60 platform. Read on for more.
Read on in the full article.
slef-contained games?
Sounds interesting. What's a slef?
😉
davecozens wrote:slef-contained games?
Sounds interesting. What's a slef?
😉
Opps 😊 I think they're like self contained games.
What the hell is that busy looking mash up example? It's the most contrived and lazy example of mash up, and looks exactly like the marketing material that was rammed down our throats just before the dot.com bubble.
But really. Everything that a widget can do, can be done now (with a bit of effort) natively. I have to ask - if something was really that important, or could be monetised as easily as the "new widget economy" makes out, then why hasn't it already been done and deployed?
Why hasn't the 1.5 billion in VC funding in mobile startups produced anything worthwile?
I have to admit to thinking the same thing when I first saw that particular graphic. I mean they could have made it less clunky / mash up-ey and got the point across.
I think there is potential to Widgets because the development is easier, but I also think its not necessarily as simple as some suggest. There's also questions around commercialisation and distribution just as with native apps. I do think there's something to be said for an easy way to mix web services / webpages with phone services. I appreciate it can eb done natively, but there's a certain flexibility in addressing web services / phone services this way and using a web 'page' as the addressable UI for the end user.
"A weather widget that uses location information from the GPS to display weather information and forecasts for the current location. This saves the user from having to mnually set their location when travelling."
All I can say is LOL, it just isn't good enough or quick enough to be used in such a fashion, 99.99% of people will have a rough enough idea where they are and manual will still be loads quicker until GPS lock times improves 500%.
In fact assisted GPS would be much quicker if the app just said "roughly where are you?"
If they back port this to the n95/n82's already souped up FP1 then they might as well just put FP2 on it as that might save some work.
I think location awareness will be big, but yes it does need some smartness built in (e.g. query where was the last confirmed location) and any awareness importantly needs a good sensor.
I think you can also assume that GPS stuff will improve. Consider the originla N95 (4+ minute cold start, versus N82 - 30 second cold start). Bear in mind the phones using this are probably a year or so away and I'd expect improvement by then.
As of yet I've yet to clap my eyes on an actual widget that utilises the WRT as it is and here they are pontificating on what the future holds for something no one has seen yet...try getting the first stage up and running first before we all get excited about what can be done next.
We are making great progress.
Widgets RULE.
Bosambo wrote:As of yet I've yet to clap my eyes on an actual widget that utilises the WRT as it is and here they are pontificating on what the future holds for something no one has seen yet...try getting the first stage up and running first before we all get excited about what can be done next.
I saw the first commercial widget the other day, I think you'll start to see more of them. There are some free ones available on MOSH. But yes I guess there is a while to go... Of course the point is for most users you'll never know its a widget rather than a native application.
They don't endow the developer with creativity, a replacement for good UI design and aesthetics.
Javascript was always a big step backwards in terms of development, and it's a shame that it has prevailed. But it an environment that a lot of people have invested time and IP in.
Ease of development and mass deplyoment is important. I've thoroughly enjoyed the high level of quality of animation that emerged on the back of Macromedia flash. It has been an excellent platform for creativity and disposable "play once" games.
But still, i'm always sceptical when people queue behind a technology to try and make money from the huge potential of mobile subscribers.
I'm not sure that "location" as class of applications will be big. But I think google maps mobile will start to grow.
I'm certainly finding it useful to have a fast, responsive map available when i exit a tube station and am trying to find a building.
on a related topic ,I really enjoyed this article by Mark Russinovich (of sysinternals fame, and he also exposed the sony rootkit). He spent some time debugging a memory leak in a widget, and found out that the clock widget was leaking memory on each tick, eventually exhausting the virtual memory address pool.
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2007/10/15/2178879.aspx
Serious 60 wrote:But really. Everything that a widget can do, can be done now (with a bit of effort) natively. I have to ask - if something was really that important, or could be monetised as easily as the "new widget economy" makes out, then why hasn't it already been done and deployed?
I agree, and more and more I get the impression that Nokia tries something like a "machine-gun" approach to mobile applications here: Shoot as many bullets as possible in a short time all over the place without really knowing where the targets are and pray that anything interesting is hit nevertheless.
So far, the success does not impress me that much. Maybe the heart of the matter is at the little word that Series 60 uses, "effort". If nobody wants to spend some real effort and only tries to be successful with a widget wipped-up in one afternoon instead, maybe things will go only so far...