Daily Archives: August 31, 2012

Brain Party Git repository, new release 0.5.990

Posted on by
Reply

Back in March I’ve been working on Brain Party for the N950/N9, and since then, I’ve uploaded it to Apps For MeeGo in May. With Apps For MeeGo being down more often recently, I thought it might be a good idea to upload it to Nokia Store, so more people can discover this nice game.

Before uploading to Nokia Store, some things have to be fixed – a big icon and screenshots have to be made/taken, single-instance launching and being a good multitasking citizen (pausing gameplay when put into background) is a precondition for QA to not fail, so these things have now been implemented.

In order to properly maintain Brain Party for the N950/N9 in the future, and to track changes, I’ve set up a Git repository in the Collaborative Harmattan Repository on Github (which gets used a lot – as of today, we have 35 repositories and 16 organization members, and you can get yourself added easily).

The Git repository of Brain Party starts off with an initial commit that is just a copy of the 0.5.91-2 source package contents from Fremantle (sans the artwork/music, which got added in a separate commit later), and then has (in a single commit) all Harmattan customizations that I did back in March, May and today. The repository content is quite big, as the images, sounds and music are all included now, but that shouldn’t stop you from cloning it and hacking the code ;)

As written in the announcement on TMO, you can get your .deb from the downloads page or wait until it surfaces on Nokia Store as free app. As with most repositories on Github, we have an issue tracker where you can file pull requests, bugs and other things that you notice while using Brain Party :)

Tools for Nokia Asha Touch apps graduate from beta

Posted on by
Reply

Since the June 25th beta release of our S40 Tools 2.0, we’ve been very pleased by developer interest in the latest tools for Series 40 apps. We hope you are as excited as we are about bringing smartphone-like capabilities to some of the most affordable price points ever with the Nokia Asha Touch range. As downloads to Series 40 phones from Nokia Store continue to grow, there is a clear demand and real opportunity to deliver world class apps to a global audience.

Following your feedback on the features and performance of the Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java and Nokia Web Tools 2.0, we have been busy making improvements and are pleased to announce that the tools have today graduated from beta to full releases.

For the Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java, the changes since the beta release are quite significant and include:

  • SDK:
    • The Series 40-optimised version of LWUIT is now available as an SDK plug-in, which can be included when the SDK is installed or added later.
    • Inclusion of the Series 40 UI/UX design documentation in the main SDK help, so you no longer need consult the Nokia Developer website to find design information.
    • A desktop alert about updates to the SDK, so you can find out about and install new features as soon as they become available.
    • Support for JDK 7, so you can work with the latest core Java tools.
  • Emulator:
    • A new simulation feature that enables you to record the paths of two gesture actions and play them back simultaneously into the emulator. This means you can test your app’s reaction to pinch-to-zoom or similar gestures.
    • Type input into the emulator screen directly from your PC’s keyboard, eliminating the need to use the emulated phone keyboard and therefore speeding up testing.
    • support for debugging on Microsoft Windows 7 with JDK 7 (32-bit).
  • Nokia IDE for Java ME:
    • A new code examples dialogue that provides a full list of the examples in the SDK, from which the code can be loaded directly into the workspace and run.
    • Enhancements to the Device SDK Manager, including a predictive search capability, making it easier to locate the SDKs that support specific phone features or APIs.
    • A new maps template, providing a quick start to any location based app.

Read more about the features of the full release >

Download the updated SDK >

Nokia Web Tools 2.0 has also received an online update as part of the graduation from beta. This update adds several new code examples covering functionality to handle screen resolutions, Google Maps, data input, partial page updates, swipe gestures, transitions, timers, video, and several others.

With the tool’s update comes an update of the Nokia Browser for Series 40. This update delivers a number of performance and functional improvements. To improve performance, web apps are now able to render progressively. Images defined in the web app are now downloaded and cached locally to improve performance in subsequent use of the app. In terms of functionality, the main addition is support for video streaming over RTSP, offering more options for the delivery of video on the Nokia Asha 311 and many other Series 40 phones. There have been some improvements in the rendering of certain languages, such as Hindi, too.

Read more about the features of the full release >

Download the tools then run the online update >

As the Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306, and Nokia Asha 311 ship to markets worldwide, the demand for apps that match the capabilities of the full-touch UI will undoubtedly grow quickly. Now, with the full releases of the Nokia SDK 2.0 for Java and Nokia Web Tools 2.0 you have the best opportunity to be among the first to fulfill this demand.