New benefits for Nokia Developer Champions

Nokia Developer Champions specialise in awesome, and today we announced at Mobile World Congress a renewed and revitalized Nokia Developer Champions program. Champions now get to enjoy new and exciting benefits and more opportunities.

champ_earnHere are just some of the new benefits our Champions enjoy:

  • Champions get free Nokia Premium Developer Program membership, which offers benefits worth up to $1500 (USD).
  • To reward the most active Champions, we are introducing a Points & Rewards system, where Champions can earn points by participating in various activities, and then trade those points for great rewards!
  • Champions get more chances to engage with other developers in the community and organize meet-ups, get speaking opportunities and host webinars

Champions of course continue enjoying previous benefits like the welcome pack, including a brand new device and a Champion certificate, and the device mini-loan service.

Do you have what it takes to be a Nokia Developer Champion? Do you know someone else who does? Nominate someone awesome.

DVLUP UK and open beta

We have two big pieces of news regarding DVLUP today: First, we’re very excited to announce that DVLUP, the developer rewards initiative that everyone’s talking about, will be opening for beta in the UK. The site will open on February 25th, and members will be able to begin claiming rewards after April 1st.

In addition, the DVLUP beta for the US and Canada will no longer require an invitation. If you’ve been waiting to join, now’s your chance!

Earn badges and points for your development efforts and community support, show off your chops to the Windows Phone Developer community, and be rewarded for your efforts with badges, gift cards, t-shirts, accessories and more. We’ll be adding new local challenges, as well as challenges for all members regardless of location.

To join, just register on the DVLUP site with your Microsoft Account, and when asked for your country, select “UK” or “US/Canada” depending on your location. You’ll also need to have a Windows Phone Dev Center account to validate your membership.

Riaz Ahmed, one of our Developer Evangelists in the UK, told us that his team is really excited that DVLUP is launching in the UK after seeing a massive success through its private beta launch in the US and Canada. “DVLUP is a fantastic reward initiative that we hope will encourage the development of some great Windows Phone apps through the various challenges. The Nokia UK Developer Experience team will be setting up UK specific challenges for UK developers and we look forward to seeing the results, rewarding developer efforts and even showcasing some of the apps that have come out of DVLUP.”

We couldn’t have said it better, Riaz! We’re happy to be able to open our beta further and bring it our compatriots in the UK. Happy developing!

Champion of the Month: Chintan Dave

Nokia Developer Chintan Dave is February’s Champion of the month and an active participant on the community’s discussion boards, blogs, and wikis. His recent contributions to the Nokia Developer discussion boards – where he is known as chintandave_er include posts on HTML-to-PDF conversions and Series Java 40 winners. Chintan also writes a Nokia Developer blog. And he is a moderator and frequent contributor to the Nokia Developer wiki.

Chintan is based in Mumbai, India, where works as a software engineer for SFW Ltd., a U.K.-based software-development and consulting company. In his job, Chintan has developed mobile apps for platforms including Windows Phone and Symbian, and mobile web apps. App development is also one of Chintan’s hobbies, and he has published several apps on both Nokia Store and the Windows Phone Marketplace, including Know Your Rashi, World’s Greatest Speeches, and India News TweetTalk. He is also among the winners of the recent Windows Phone 8 wiki contest.

Congratulations, Chintan!

 

Your New Year’s resolution: Learn and win more with the Series 40 webinars.

Your New Year’s resolution: Learn and win more with the Series 40 webinars.

You already know that we’re pumping up our Series 40 webinar offering for 2013, but now we can reveal that we’re also creating new possibilities to learn and win. While we’re continuing with the monthly draw, which is now for two Series 40 phones and associated goodies each month, we’ll also be rewarding contributions to the Nokia Developer wiki and the best Series 40 apps and games created by webinar attendees.

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Champion of the Month: João Cardoso, a developer with something to say

Nokia Developer Champion João Cardoso is December’s Champion of the Month and an active participant on the Nokia Developer discussion boards and wiki. Based in Lisbon, Portugal, João was in 1998 a co-founder of AciNet, a developer of human-relations and education solutions, and he is still a manager there. While João became a Nokia Developer Champion only this year, he has already made more than 270 posts on the Nokia Developer discussion board, and he was recently named moderator of the Windows Phone discussion board. In addition, his Nokia Developer Wiki articles span a wide range of topics, including face recognition, storage settings, draggable markers in Windows Phone, and in-app purchasing. Congratulations, João!

Meet Champion of the Month João Cardoso.

Learn and win prize winners for October

Congratulations to our October Learn and Win prize winners. Jukka-Pekka Lasanen, Adrian Stoicuta, Michal Kaminski, and Muhammad Salman Iftikhar each attended one of our Nokia Developer Webinars and answered a test question posed in a follow-up survey.
Here’s what they won:

  • Jukka-Pekka Lasanen from Finland will receive a sweet Nokia Asha 311 phone.
  • Adrian Stoicuta from Romania and Michal Kaminski from Poland each win a black DC-16 Nokia Portable USB Charger.
  • Muhammad Salman Iftikhar from Pakistan walks away with a black WH-920 Purity Stereo Headset.

Adrian informs us that “My black Nokia N9 will be very happy when he meets this black DC-19”. We just love it when our products find a good home.

If you want your chance at one of these prizes, we will give away Nokia Asha 311 phones and accessories each month for the rest of the year. To be eligible, all you need to do is register for a full-hour Nokia Developer webinar and complete a follow-up survey with the correct answer drawn from your session.

You know you’re awesome. Now prove it.

DVLUP iconWe developers are just a bit competitive, and always want to know how we stack up against other developers. Today, Nokia announces DVLUP, a rewards program by developers for developers – earn badges and points for development, community support, and completing challenges, then redeem your points for cool gear and display your achievements with pride.

DVLUP is launching as a private beta for developers in the USA and Canada who have a Windows Phone Dev Center Account. Register on DVLUP.com to starting earn badges and points for your development activities, and get recognized for your contributions, your code, and your genius.

You know you want to find out more, so check out the video.

Or just take the plunge and sign up now.

Announcing the Nokia and Microsoft Midnight Developer challenge

Attention, student developers in the Middle East and Africa: Nokia has teamed up with Microsoft to launch the Midnight Developer Challenge, and this is your chance to prove yourself and win amazing cash and prizes.

How? Team up with your mates (up to three students per team), register online between November 8th and December 1st, and develop a great app or game for the most innovative Smartphone around—the Nokia Lumia 920. The apps and games must be developed using the newly released Windows Phone 8 SDK.

The Midnight Developer challenge will also arm you with everything you need to accomplish your mission: weekly webinars and a dedicated hotline and resource center are at your disposal throughout the duration of the competition.

Categories:

The contest has two categories: Apps and Games. Each category will have two winners, with first prize being $10,000 (USD), a trip to a Nokia Global event, plus an XBOX and Lumia 920 for each team member. The second place team will receive $5,000 (USD), an XBOX and Lumia 920 per team member.

Additionally there will be a People’s Choice category, where the winner will receive $3,000 USD plus one XBOX and Lumia 920 per team member.

You want more? Your entry might also be eligible to compete in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2013 Windows Phone challenge. No more reasons to wait!

For more information on the timeline, registration and more, please visit the event’s Facebook page: http://apps.facebook.com/midnightdeveloper/

 

 

Nokia launches new developer products at Microsoft //BUILD conference

This is an exciting time for everyone in the Nokia developer community. Nokia has introduced a unique set of developer tools and services with the Nokia Premium Developer Program and Nokia Ad Exchange, the Windows Phone 8 SDK has arrived, and a range of new Nokia Lumia devices is starting to show up in stores!

Richard Kerris at BUILD

Last week, we were thrilled to announce our new developer tools and services at //BUILD, Microsoft’s premier developer event, to help developers build amazing apps for the Windows Phone platform.

Nokia was invited to be part of the Day 1 keynote where Richard Kerris, VP Developer Relations, announced all developers attending //BUILD would receive a Lumia 920 from Nokia. The reaction was overwhelming! Over the course of the event, we had a number of developers stop and tell us that they are excited to develop for Windows Phone 8 and impressed by our products, especially the unique design, clear display, incredible camera, and world-class maps.

Nokia also had a well-placed booth where over 1000 developers stopped by to find out more about the new Nokia Premium Developer Program, Nokia Ad Exchange and NFC. We distributed programmable NFC cards that allowed developers to literally “tap” their shiny new Lumia 920 to get more info on NFC app development.

Nokia had the privilege of presenting a tech session at BUILD. In this session, Steve Robbins, Chief Architect – Nokia Music, presented a coding session called ‘Nokia Music Windows Phone 8 App-to-App APIs ‘. You can watch this session here and download slides here. The session was well received and the coding detail was highly appreciated by the audience.

Here are some great early reactions from our loyal developers!

We’re excited too. We hope you’ll watch the videos, check out the Nokia Premium Developer Program and Nokia Ad Exchange, and blow us away with your new Windows Phone apps!