Monthly Archives: January 2013

3D printing industry rallies around Lumia 3DK

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3D printed Lumia 820 shellWell, it seems like just a few days ago that we released the Lumia 3DK, letting makers on the cutting edge experiment with our 3D models for the Nokia Lumia 820 back shell, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the result. The reaction has been fantastic, and we’re already seeing some interesting designs showing up on Thingiverse and IdeasProject.

To help those printing at home, the nice folks at Makerbot optimized the model for their Replicator 2 and posted it on Thingiverse, along with some great pictures of the printing process.

We’ve also gotten great responses from 3D printing services i.materialize, Sculpteo, and Shapeways. The latest blog from i.materialise shows us a nice range of designs to get the creative juices flowing, and shows off materials you might not have imagined for a phone case. Velvet, anybody?

Finally, the IdeasProject team has started the 3D Printing Challenge. Share your ideas for Nokia Lumia cases for a chance to win a trip to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona!

It’s been a lot of fun watching all the makers at work. Be sure to check out our wiki, contribute to it where you can, and keep those ideas coming!

Tetrepetete, SMS Backup and apkenv updates

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Whew, January is pretty much over already, and there haven’t been any updates here. So this means here’s a short cumulative update of what’s happened over the last few weeks:

Tetrepetete
If you are not afraid of falling blocks, and don’t mind the lack of colors, give Tetrepetete a try. Not to be confused with a game of a totally different name, this game brings falling blocks of 4 to your N900 and N950/N9. While the full color version is still not available as such, the free greyscale version is up for grabs as .deb on the website. Including a cameo appearance by That Rabbit from That Rabbit Game for no good reason. Play or discuss. Or be productive. Or something.

SMS Backup GUI
Instead of rolling my own solution from scratch, I found the wonderful MeegoSMSBackupRestore project by Tony Wang, which is a command-line tool for Harmattan devices to backup and restore SMS messages (as if that wasn’t clear from the application name..). It was missing a GUI, so I’ve added one. The announcement and download, as well as the Debian source package (.dsc, .tar.gz) are available from an Internet near you. Feel like Git? We have you covered as well.

apkenv updates
If you haven’t been watching the apkenv Git repo closely (I know you haven’t), you might have missed the Pandora port by crowriot, which – while not being directly useful to Maemo/MeeGo users as such – also brought improvements to the Cut the Rope module, which somehow works now. To be discussed at talk.maemo.org, and patches (as always) welcome.

In other (totally unrelated) news, the thesis is done (yay!).

New contest: Windows Phone Next App Star. Enter to win devices and appear in a primetime TV commercial

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Windows Phone App Star is a Microsoft sponsored tournament-style challenge that will award 100s of prizes and give one developer the chance to see their app featured in a primetime TV commercial.

It’s Microsoft’s way of showcasing great Windows Phone apps from developers around the world. Whether you already have an app or want to create a new one for Windows Phone 8, this challenge will let consumers try yours and others, then vote for their favorites. It’s a fun, head-to-head, bracket-style competition that starts by rating all the entries and selecting the top 64. Then, these 64 are whittled down over several weeks of consumer voting. Think your app has what it takes?

How it works:

  1. Register by March 5, 2013
    Developers register and ensure apps are live in at least one market before deadline.
    Note: If you are not a Windows Phone Dev Center member, you can get a free Dev Center membership as part of the Nokia Premium Developer Program.
  2. Determining the top 64
    Apps get rated (50% rating/50% quality) to determine the top 64. All 64 winners receive a Lumia 920, app merchandising, and one year of Dev Center.
  3. The Next App Star Grand Champion
    Top 64 apps compete in a head-to-head tournament. Public voting determines who moves forward each round.

The grand prize will be announced on April 9 and the commercial to air Spring/Summer 2013 See rules for complete contest terms and conditions, and register now at dev.windowsphone.com/en-US/featured/next-app-star

Windows Phone 8 Tip: Fast App Resume

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Hola a todos! Hoy vengo con un pequeño truco, que mejorará increíblemente la experiencia de uso de nuestra aplicación. Se trata de una nueva característica de Windows Phone 8 llamada Fast App Resume. Pero… ¿Qué es esto exactamente? Bueno, desde Windows Phone 7.5, sabemos que nuestra aplicación queda suspendida cuando el usuario va a la pantalla inicial. Si presionamos el botón atrás durante unos segundos, aparece el gestor…(read more)

podcasts (Featured Project)

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2715-87cb911a1aced53d3801b3377cc42368podcasts is a Series40 Java application that packed with news, education, music etc, and user can also search  for popular podcasts and add their own. It also comes with advance player controls like playback control speed and audio quality with graphics equalizer.

banner

If you don’t like in-app advertising: there is a paid of the app available for you.  To know more about the application features/functionality and the flow, see project wiki.  You feedback and suggestions are most welcome for project enhancement. Feel free to raise tickets or start your discussion here.

– Somnath Banik (on behalf of the Projects Moderation team)

Series 40 Webinar: Working with persistent storage in Series 40 apps (Featured Video)

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This webinar gives you an in-depth look at strategies for persistent storage in Series 40 Java™ apps. We look at two options, MIDP 2 RecordStore and the FileConnection API. RecordStore is part of the Java ME Record Management System (RMS).

Java expert Michael Samarin of Futurice gives you an overview of usage scenarios, including state preservation between user sessions, local storage of configuration data, and other ways to use local storage to make your apps more compelling. In the coding demonstration, Michael illustrates data-caching strategies using RecordStore for network-based applications and games.

You can download the slides from this session at: http://www.slideshare.net/nokia-developer/persistent-storage-techniques-for-series-40 and view the original webinar recordings – which include Q&A sessions – at https://forumnokia.adobeconnect.com/_a799911421/p366gfw6vtd/

Find out more about developing for Series 40 at: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Series40

Check out the current webinar schedule here: http://www.developer.nokia.com/webinars

3D print a shell for your Nokia Phone (Featured Article)

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3D print a shell for your Nokia Phone by fpatton

Lumia820ShellInside.png

Here at Nokia, we like to be on the leading edge, and we have for you what we believe is a phone manufacturer first – providing the mechanical drawings for a phone’s back shell so you can make modifications or accessories to print out on your 3D printer.

While the outside of the phone case can take almost any shape, limited only by your imagination, the inside is a bit trickier. You have to make sure there’s room for the battery, antennae, and other protuberances, as well as openings for buttons, speaker, microphone, etc. Not fun to figure out on your own, so we’ve taken the guesswork out of the equation for you.

Read more about 3D printing in the article.

Upcoming Windows Phone events in Poland, Finland, Germany and Estonia

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The following are some of the upcoming events centered around Windows Phone. For a full list of our events, visit our events page.

Windows Phone Camp
Windows Phone Camp is a free event where you can learn everything you need to know to develop and publish a Windows Phone application. Whether you’re a student just starting out or a seasoned developer for Windows Phone, Android, Symbian, Web OS or iOS, we’ll share tips and tricks and all-around Windows Phone development know-how.

App Developer Day Phone Edition: Innovations in Windows Phone 8 for Developers
Come to this special Phone Edition event, part of the successful App Developer Days series, to educate yourself in app development for Microsoft Windows Phone 8. You’ll benefit from expert insight into the planning, design, and programming of apps for Windows Phone 8. Nokia is a co-sponsor of this free-of-charge event.

INTERGAME 2013
Mark your calendar for INTERGAME 2013, a conference and exhibition of key players in the games industry who are interested in collaborating, exploring new opportunities, and exhibiting the latest products.

The Future of IT
This event will bring together experienced IT professionals and leading IT companies in Poland, with a focus on recruitment and business-development strategy. The event will feature business presentations as well as substantive talks conducted by experts. Among the participating companies will be Nokia and Microsoft, covering Nokia Lumia phones and Microsoft Windows and Windows Phone 8.

Sanoma Group report on Finland: “Lumia became more popular than Android, and reached the popularity of the iPhone.”

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Check out the latest news from, Sanoma Group, one of the largest media companies in Finland. They just came out with an interesting press release for those of you who are interested in evaluating the business case for developing on Windows Phone.

A couple of highlights from a Nokia perspecitve:

“Nokia is a favourite among Finns

The visitor statistics of Sanoma online services also indicate changes in the popularity of mobile devices. It seems that Finns really embraced Nokia Lumia last year.

”Sanoma’s network and number of mobile visitors indicates that the total traffic from Lumia phones exceeded that from Android phones in the summer and it also reached the traffic level of the iPhone at year-end,” says Anders Stenbäck, Director of Sanoma’s digital partnerships.

In the autumn, Sanoma and Nokia launched co-operation through which new Lumia phones have Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta-Sanomat apps pre-installed.

“The co-operation with Nokia has been productive and it has also clearly increased the number of users of our Windows apps. Finland still remains Nokialand,” says Stenbäck.”

Check out the full press release here >

Lumia Geek Challenge announces winners

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Congratulations to the winners of the Lumia Geek Challenge! The Challenge, sponsored by Nokia and WindowsPhoneGeek.com, was open to all developers worldwide who submitted either new or updated Windows Phone 7.5 or Windows Phone 8 apps to the Window Phone Store between 13 November 2012 and 8 January 2013. Three overall winners were named, as was one Technology Showcase winner and one People’s Choice award.

Prizes won by the winners include all-expenses-paid trips to Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013 in Barcelona, app demos at the WIPJam at MWC in Barcelona, customized Nokia Lumia phones and accessories, credit on the Nokia Ad Exchange, and free one-year subscriptions to the Nokia Premium Developer Program.

Overall winners:

TVShow

This is a great app for all of us TV show addicts, combining different online sources about the most popular TV shows. The sleek UI, resizable Live Tiles, lock screen notifications and the media player integration won us over.

NearSpeak

We really like how this innovative app pushes the boundaries of NFC technology.

AppoinTile

This app really takes the next step in bringing our calendars front and center to our Windows Phone 8 homescreen and lockscreens – the way we prefer.

Technology Showcase: TouchMountain

The jury was impressed by the number of different technologies integrated into a simple to use, intuitive user experience, and the novel take on augmented reality.

People’s Choice: Photo Signer

With 1,900 supporters, this app was undoubtedly the favourite of the voters.

Thanks to all who participated in the challenge! We had a lot of fun, and hope you did too. To learn more about the Lumia Geek Challenge, and meet the winners, visit WindowsPhoneGeek.com here.

Interested in participating in the next big Windows Phone contest? Be sure to check out the Next App Star competition. The top prize will be featured placement of the winning app in a Windows Phone prime time TV ad. Good luck!