Nokia has released the full version, 1.0, of the S60 5th Edition SDK (previously available was version 0.9). Available through Forum Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the new version adds support for keypad-off display in the emulator, additional languages, a start-up progress indicator for the emulator. In addition, a number of bugs, issues and deficiencies have been fixed, and many new plug-ins were made available.
For the record, the SDK enables development in Symbian C++, Standard C/C++ (Open C/C++), Java (JME), Web Runtime (WRT) and Python (via a plug-in) for devices based on the S60 platform. It is based on Symbian OS 9.4 and includes documentation, API reference, emulator and associated development tools. IDE is not included, though you can work with Carbide.C++ for C++ developments; and/or NetBeans IDE 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5 or Eclipse 3.3.1 with EclipseME 1.7.7 and MTJ for Java development.
Man, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) sure has some neat stuff coming out of their labs. This Text Art app for the E71 takes your SMS messages and re-jiggers them for MMS format, so when you want to send a particularly important text, you can give it that little bit of extra expression. Artist Marius Waltz came up with the impressive idea, and really adds a cool twist to the way we’re used to getting texts. Hopefully we’ll see this app migrate to other Nokia phones in the near future, and who knows – maybe other artists will take a cue and bring something similar to other platforms. Check out the free Text Art app and their other cool, artsy endeavors for the E71 here.
Need a new theme for your Symbian S60 smartphone. Here’s a cool solution made by Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Ovi team, which will certainly make your device look “ready for the spring.” Yap, that’s the way I see it. The theme is called “Ovi Blue” and it looks clear and fresh — I can’t find better words to describe it.
As expected — since it’s made by the Ovi team — the theme sports the Ovi icons, and also comes with its own ring and message tones, as well as a cool screensaver.
Finally for those of you with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic smartphone, you’ll be glad to know it can also work on your favorite touch-enabled device.
Seeing Windows 3.1 running on an already-aged Nokia N95 reminded us just how far we’ve come in the past decade, or so. Then there was that iPhone running Mac OS 7 (System 7). Mobile phones these days, smartphones especially, are jam-packed with more computing power than we would have thought possible before the turn of the century. So, then, are these handsets today capable or running more robust, power-hungry platforms? Maybe even Windows 98? It seems that way.
What you’re seeing here are pictures and video of good ‘ole Windows 98 doing its thing on a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95 and a Nokia N85. Both cellphones are part of Nokia’s high-end NSeries lineup, so it’s a given that both the Nokia N95 and N85 were up to the task of running Win98. Granted, things take a little longer to execute when you’re running your Windows 98 desktop off of a Nokia N85, but just the fact that we can remember desktop boot-times on par with what you see in the video is just astounding!
James Harper, senior manager of technology marketing at Nokia (NYSE: NOK), talked up their LTE plans in Texas recently, much to the chagrin of Sprint (NYSE: S) and their hopes for a successful WiMAX network.
“WiMAX has some place in the market, but we do believe it’s a niche play,” Harper says.
Some think Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is the one who will host Nokia’s first LTE handset which due to land sometime in 2010, the generally-accepted dawn of 4G, but don’t rule out AT&T (NYSE: T); they have plans for an LTE network in 2012, which will doubtlessly host a few 4G Nokias. We still have a year to wait until we see how this all unfolds, but for the time being, Nokia has chosen their side.
Ars Technica is reporting that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will be bringing its “Comes With Music” offering to the United States. In a recent interview, the company’s Senior Manager for North American Communications, Chris Morris, said that U.S. will be blessed with Nokia’s unlimited music offering “sometime in 2009.” Nothing to specific, but then again, enough to keep some of our U.S.-based readers, Nokia fans happy.
Those not familiar should know that Nokia “Comes With Music” handsets comes with unlimited music downloads service for a year, or some other predefined period. After that period expires, users get to keep all the songs they’ve downloaded during the time, even if they opt out from the service.
Earlier this year, we saw the Finnish giant unveiling its “Comes With Music” offering for Singapore and Australia.
It seems that the problem may have been on Nokia’s end. A new rumor, sourced from an unknown “insider,” hints at a near-term resolution to Nokia’s 3G-woes. An upcoming firmware update may fix any 3G issues that has been plaguing Nokia’s US-fleet of 5800 XpressMusic NAM cellphones. Early testing has supposedly proven successful in fixing the 5800 XM NAM’s 3G problems, which means an official firmware update can’t be too far off.
For those of you waiting to get your hands on a fully-functional 5800 XM, sit tight, you’re in the home stretch. For those of you with affected units, keep on keepin’ on!
It was back in December when we saw the pre-alpha Maemo 5 SDK being released. The platform is advancing, and now we have the full Alpha version released, bringing a whole new finger-friendly UI framework among other things.
Although “Alpha” usually stands for “adventurous developers, only,” Maemo team says the new release is a good basis to get started with Maemo 5 application development instead of waiting for the forthcoming beta release.
As for the APIs included in the Maemo 5 Alpha SDK, there are:
Location API – for developing location-aware applications.
City Information – for obtaining information about cities, including city name, country name and country code.
Time management – an interface for handling time change notifications and collect relevant time and time zone information.
Vibra service – for triggering and controlling vibrations.
Device orientation – respond to changes in orientation and discover current orientation.
Other APIs available in Maemo 4 have been improved and are now available in this SDK release including: Alarm, Address book Access and Data notifications, Account, Battery and Logging development interfaces… More information is available in the official release notes.
A new version of Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s cross-platform and UI framework, Qt 4.5, has been released. Along with it, the Finnish giant unveiled Qt Creator, a lightweight cross-platform IDE, which together with Qt 4.5 comprises the Qt SDK.
As we’ve already mentioned almost two months ago, Qt 4.5 is released under very flexible LGPL, allowing developers to add their proprietary applications on top of Qt without paying a licensing fee.
The single most important upgrade of Qt 4.5 is the overall performance improvement across the entire framework. In addition, the new version also improves integration with the WebKit web rendering engine which will “blend web and native content into a richer user experience.” This includes Netscape plugin API support, more advanced web UI effects (i.e. animations, transformations and zooming), as well as a new, faster JavaScript engine.
Also new in this release is that Qt 4.5 has been ported to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s Cocoa framework. Now developers can create applications that support 32 or 64 bit, Intel or PowerPC Mac binaries from a single source.
As for Qt Creator, it’s designed to help those people that are new to the Qt framework to get up and running more quickly. In that sense, it includes such tools as an advanced C++ code editor, context sensitive help system, visual debugger, source code management, project and build management tools.
Finally, interested parties should visit Qt’s website to grab the new Qt SDK, which has everything a developer needs to begin cross-platform Qt development from a simple-to-install binary package. While there, you’ll also find tons of other documents that may be of use.
What would make Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s first S60-powered (S60 5th Edition, that is) touchscreen handset better than it already is? Well, for starters, we’d love to see the US fleet of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handsets actually working with 3G frequencies in the US. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for Nokia to get the bugs worked out on that end. On the other hand, the 5800 XM could put its touchscreen to even better use with some finger-lovin’ multi-touch support. And, it turns out that imaginative hackers have already started down the road to a multi-touch enabled Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
The video you see here demonstrates Jamie Fuller’s proof-of-concept application that keeps the hope alive for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic owners longing for a bit of two-finger touchscreen action. With a little “homebrew” magic, Jamie managed to develop a mobile game – not too unlike Guitar Hero – that has the user tapping the screen to a musical beat. For now, though, things on the multi-touch front are still strictly in the testing stage. Jamie hopes to get her multi-touch capable S60 application out to the public in due time, but needs some help putting the finishing touches to the app first.
Nokia has released the full version, 1.0, of the S60 5th Edition SDK (previously available was version 0.9). Available through Forum Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the new version adds support for keypad-off display in the emulator, additional languages, a start-up progress indicator for the emulator. In addition, a number of bugs, issues and deficiencies have been fixed, and many new plug-ins were made available.
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