You can tell Christmas is coming from the app stores around the world, including the Ovi Store. So what delights do we have already to entertain you? Offscreen Technologies have a strong 'little utility' portfolio in the Ovi Store (we've looked at Elements and their ebook range) so their freeware addition to the festive fun deserves a little look.
Let's start with Snowglobe. This almost perfectly replicates the experience of an ornamental model, with flakes of pretend snow inside. Using the accelerometer and a flick of the wrist, the flakes of snow will rise up from the ground and circle around inside the globe, slowly falling to the ground again.
It's well presented and the landscape and background are well done pieces of computer art. But... there's no real physics here. I was hoping that a gentle shake of my 5800 would start a tiny flurry, a long shake would see a storm, and leaving the phone upside down would see all the flakes end up on “the roof” of the world. Alas no. Once you trigger the accelerometers, the flakes head into a pre-programmed animation that's identical every time.
All I want for Christmas is some physics!
Maybe I'll get that in another of their offerings – Xmas Tree. It's an advent calendar for the smartphone! Each day another numbered bauble on the tree turns into a present. The sort of present you can click on and be taken to the Ovi Store for a free download.
Naturally, OffScreen have a large portfolio that they use to show what they can do (good advertising for a development house), so this is a nice interactive catalogue, with the added bonus that instead of some cheap chocolate and a picture of a tinsel covered cat, you get a new application!
Now that's the sort of calendar I can enjoy.
-- Ewan Spence, Dec 2009.