An All About Symbian application, which allows you easy access to the site's latest content, is now available in Nokia's Ovi Store. The application was built using Nokia's new Ovi App Wizard (more on that in a future post) and is based on the RSS content feeds. The content is divided into four chhanels: All About Symbian News, AAS Insight Podcast, AAS YouTube videos and the most recent AAS tweets. The application is free and is compatible with all of Nokia's Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) devices. Read on for further details and screenshots.
Read on in the full article.
Excellent App! Just curious to know how long it took from submission to approval. I've been waiting over 24 hours now and still nothing on my app 😮(
"Sorry, this item is not available for your country."
This is the message I got at Hong Kong.
So if Nokia actually had a flagship phone with a decent browser, I could just view the site as a normal web page without the need for an app?
Unregistered wrote:So if Nokia actually had a flagship phone with a decent browser, I could just view the site as a normal web page without the need for an app?
Jezus :/. You're sad, man. It buffles me you actually took time to come here and post such nonsense. Why even bother? Butthurt much? You've completely missed the purpose of such widget in OVI Store.
Thanks, Rafe. Kudos for homescreen plugin and kudos to Nokia for such great tool.
@krisq: Ignoring the inflammatory crap from the poster, he has a point which I agree with: I don't see the point of an app for a website such as this as I can access all the content very easily on my phone browser.
My view is that apps should give some additional functionality, like: JbakTaskman, Skype, Qik, Symtorrent, to name a few I have on my phone. The trend of websites having their own apps really doesn't make sense to me. Just putting it out there for discussion, not bashing anyone, or starting a flame war...
my wild guess is that for AAS this is more about proof of concept than Rafe actually thinking this is hugely useful or desperately needed. 😊
unregistered wrote:@krisq: Ignoring the inflammatory crap from the poster, he has a point which I agree with: I don't see the point of an app for a website such as this as I can access all the content very easily on my phone browser.
My view is that apps should give some additional functionality, like: JbakTaskman, Skype, Qik, Symtorrent, to name a few I have on my phone. The trend of websites having their own apps really doesn't make sense to me. Just putting it out there for discussion, not bashing anyone, or starting a flame war...
So you've missed the point too. If you'd run the site in likes of AAS you should or would want to have a widget available on a place like OVI Store, just for the possibility of reaching more readers and to rise awareness that such site even exists. Yes, the usability may be questionable but I for example, find homescreen widget pretty handy. I'm passionate about Symbian and updates directly to my desktop are very welcome. Don't like it, don't use it. Simple as that.
Glad you managed to get yours approved Rafe, I have had our Nokiausers, and NokiaDNA apps rejected several times now due to "Nokia" either being in the title, or url, and there is no way around it. I have even tried to submit them by renaming them NUsers, and NDNA, but rejected again. Gutted.
FYI... the site works fine on the Nokia default browser as well. I dont see a reason why the browser is been blamed by some people...
That's because some people have nothing better to do but wait here to post anti-Nokia comment.
AAS renders fine on the default and Opera browsers, but still a good work on the widget.
Unregistered wrote:So if Nokia actually had a flagship phone with a decent browser, I could just view the site as a normal web page without the need for an app?
I have been looking at this site from a non Symbian phone with a much praised browser and touch interface, and this app would still be a better way of doing it.
36 hours later and still waiting for my app to be approved 😞
Not available for 6720 classic😞
The AAS app visualy looks very nice and has all the functions needed from such an app. The problem though is that like all WRT apps its slow... and there is not enough feedback. I mean you press refresh and u wait. You do not know if its connected to the network or if it is downloading something or not... Then the scrolling is slow... Just compare it to gravity or to most iphone apps. Its a problem with WRT. Again the idea is perfect but the implementation not perfect. I hope in Symbian^3 and the N8 WRT runs much much faster.
I think providing an app like this is about making a website like AAS available by as many channels as possible so people can choose the method they prefer. It also helps raise awareness about the site in general.
Some people will prefer the main site, some the mobile, some RSS, some a podcast, some a mobile app... and honestly I think different ways are suited at different times and situations.
The app makes for easy entry to the site content from a mobile device, but is necessarily a limited subset of both content and functionality.
And yes I wanted to try out the new service too.
I'd agree there are some WRT performances issues, I think the next gen WRT should help with this.
I would certainly look at enhancing / improving functionality, but there a time and cost versus benefit ratio here. Using the Ovi App Wizard makes things easy, doing something beyond that becomes much more difficult.
Why not made it also for the symbian 3th edition phones
Getting confused earlier, but looks to me like this is available for 3rd edition. There's an AAS app in there for my E72. It doesn't look like the 5th edition version, it's more just a web page with the RSS feeds, but it's the same content and the layout is the same as other similar apps I've recently seen. I assume then this is what the Ovi App Wizard generates for 3rd edition (not sure if it's all, or limited to FP1, FP2, or whatever).
Well, it's been 5 days since I submitted my app. In that time, it has finally been approved and QA'd and allegedly published, according to my Publisher account page, but it is nowhere to be found in the Ovi Store.
I have downloaded the app from my Publisher account page and it works just as I had intended, but it's non-appearance in the store makes the whole exercise rather pointless.
I have contacted the support channel but heard nothing back.
Not a happy bunny 😞
Also, in case anyone was wondering, the App Wizard facility generates a .wgz and a .jar/.jad version of the app to cover multiple platforms. The Java version is essentially a web version of your creation. The .wgz version and it's accompanying home screen widget work rather well.
If only I could get mine in the store!!!