Nokia Theme Team - Give us some love!

[breakdesign]

Hi Nokia Theme Team!

We have been creating themes for Nokia for the last 3 years and even though Nokia has come a long way from the first theme editor we as theme developers are really getting terrible support from you guys!

Only the easiest questions get answered on the forums. What is the use of creating the theme editor if there is very little support on the official forum site?

I think the biggest problem is that the editing apps are not keeping up with actual roll-out of phones - 3.1.1 is really outdated now, especially when it comes to creating themes for newer phones. New icons and folders get added to the phones and theme developers need to know about these and how they can be updated.

Also I feel that the development team probably don't have time to browse these groups - Nokia should bring in someone to have a look at these forums and let Nokia's in-house developers know about the problems people are having here, not only is it good for your end-users it also let's the Nokia developers know what are the most requested features.

Our clients go crazy when they see a beautiful theme using their colours and all of sudden there are icons not matching the rest of the look and feel, especially if these icons come pre-installed on the phone. Even worse, doing a theme officially for Nokia and having to hold back because the theme editor just isn't sufficient to create a 100% working theme.

I used to work for Nokia, so I know things like the Theme Editor may be low on the priority list, but these things are important. Themes are many times the first kind of development people will start doing for Nokia phones and if people get frustrated here, how will you get them to continue developing for Nokia phones?

Or is the message that we really should be joining Nokia Pro to get the kind of support we need?

Stefan

[Nokia Ron]

Hi Stefan,

First, Theme Editor was replaced with Carbide.ui that is what you need to use now. I think you will find it what you need. If you do have a problem or seen ways to improve it please let us know here or in the Feedback to Nokia Tools discussion board.

There are many active Nokia persons that read these message boards and many that are active answering.

I will pass your comments on, just in case the person that handles this is on vacation.

Ron

[breakdesign]

Hi Ron

Thanks for replying. We are currently using Carbide.UI 3.1.1 - and if you read through these forums you should realize that even though it's a very good step in the right direction, people are still having problems that they are unable to fix because the software is already outdated.

If you want we could give you a list of outstanding issues - the most important at the moment is being unable to update list icons that are not available in the theme editor.

What Nokia needs to do is to publish a latest theme with all the new updated icons included or at least give developers the ability to add third party icons not just to the applications folders, but also in other areas of the UI.

Secondly Nokia need to create a file repository where new icons that have been created, can be downloaded by theme developers, since it is impossible for those that work outside Nokia to keep up with these developments.

I might be ranting and raving, but I care about Nokia as a company and it's products and we have an interest in your success - so please, forward this to whom you need to and if you need to us to mail someone in person we will do that!

Thanks for reading!

Stefan

[Nokia Ron]

I'll pass this on, and see if they can make any comments about when an update is coming.

You have some great ideas, I don't know why we can't use the Wiki for a Repository.

Ron

[ruifeng]

I'v used S60 theme studio for 2 years. But I think Carbide.ui is a ugly tools! Big and slow. It even can't replace theme element from file! So you must copy the image file from image editor. So developer must open more application. In these case, you must get a extreme performace computer.
Also because can't replce element from file. We can complete 3 theme by using s60 theme studio, but Now the result is only ONE!

So, I think nokia Theme Team must take care of the development efficency.