Nokia Developer Newsletter

Nokia recently introduced the Nokia 5235 Comes With Music Edition, a Symbian OS, S60 5.0 device aimed at music-loving consumers. The new device features a 3.2-inch, bright nHD (640 x 360 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touch screen and tactile feedback with the home screen featuring contacts and media bars. Consumers can use the new device to access the Nokia Music Store for a world of free music downloads, or they can use their favourite Ovi services and social networks on the go. Other features of the Nokia 5235 Comes With Music Edition include a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, Flash Lite 3.0, and MIDP Java™ 2.1 APIs.

View device details for the Nokia 5235 Comes With Music Edition.

Check out press photos of the Nokia 5235 Comes with Music Edition.

Nokia's Calling All Innovators contest is back, and this year it is bigger than ever. Submissions for the 2010 Calling All Innovators will be accepted between 1 February and 18 May. Entries of mobile apps can be submitted in the following categories:

• Eco/Being Green: Help save the planet with innovative, eco-friendly applications for use on Nokia devices.
• Entertainment: Rock and show off the coolest multimedia, music, and games features on Nokia devices.
• Productivity: Ease the daily lives of consumers with mobile utilities, business, and personal-finance apps for Nokia devices.
• Life Improvement: Better the daily lives of people in developing countries with apps for education, agriculture, health, and more. In the education subcategory, Sesame Workshop, producers of the popular 'Sesame Street' television series is collaborating with Nokia to encourage developers to create and offer applications for Nokia devices that teach early literacy to communities around the world. Sesame Workshop will offer guidance during the judging process and work with selected developers to further enhance relevant projects.

This year, in addition to app submissions from 3rd party developers, Nokia is seeking an idea that is worth a $1 million (USD) investment. At CES last week in Las Vegas, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced the Growth Economy Venture Challenge to encourage innovators and entrepreneurs to create a mobile product or service that raises the standard of living or enhances the lives of those in growth economies worldwide. Ten finalists will be invited to present their ideas and business models to a panel of Nokia business people and private venture capitalists. The innovators may receive business guidance and possibly other funding from participating venture capitalists. Submissions for the Growth Economy Venture Challenge are being accepted now, and the deadline for all submissions is 18 April. The winning organization will be announced in June and will receive a $1 million Nokia investment.

Check out the details for the 2010 Calling All Innovators contest.

Register for the Growth Economy Venture Challenge for a chance to win $1 million in capital investment.

Find out more about Nokia's million-dollar venture challenge.

The beta version of Series 40 5th Edition SDK, Feature Pack 1 Lite, is now available on the Forum Nokia site. This SDK has been designed to help developers test Series 40 applications against the feature set of Series 40 5th Edition, Feature Pack 1 Lite devices. Also supported is the development of Java applications, the creation of web and messaging content, and Adobe Flash Lite.

A language pack is now available for the Series 40 5th Edition SDK, Feature Pack 1 Lite. Called the World Languages Packs for the Series 40 Platform SDKs, it provides developers with additional language support in the Series 40 emulators. The SDKs are shipped with Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish languages. Any SDK should be installed before its language pack is installed.

Download the beta release of the Series 40 5th Edition SDK, Feature Pack 1 Lite.

Download the Series 40 Platform SDK World Languages Packs.

A new version of Carbide.c++ is now available for download from Forum Nokia. Optimised for the creation of third-party applications designed to run on Nokia Symbian devices, Carbide.c++ 2.3 provides developers with a number of performance improvements and support for the tools and features (such as the Qt code style) required to undertake the development of software using Qt. It also includes support for the Eclipse p2 update services — offering more flexible and easier updates — and single-file compiles in Raptor.

The Carbide.c++ integrated development environment (IDE) has been designed to help developers create Symbian C++ and Qt software for Symbian devices. It provides features for project creation, drag-and-drop UI design, querying API information, investigating project dependencies, performing static code analysis, building and packaging software, undertaking emulator and on-device debugging, and investigating project performance.

Explore the new version of Carbide.c++.

Download the new version today.

Visit Forum Nokia's Carbide.c++ overview.

Nokia WRT Extension 2.0 for Adobe Dreamweaver is now available in Chinese (both simplified and traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish translations. These new versions add features that let developers create and test widgets on all Nokia Symbian devices that support Web Runtime. Version 2.0 also includes support for the home-screen widget-view capability of the Nokia N97 mobile computer and the WRT 1.1 API. The extension includes tools for the creation, testing, debugging, validation, packaging, and deployment of WRT widgets in Adobe Dreamweaver.

Download the Nokia WRT Extension 2.0 for Adobe Dreamweaver.

Watch the Forum Nokia screencast: Creating Widgets with the Nokia WRT Extension for Adobe Dreamweaver.

The Nokia WRT Plug-in 2.0 for Visual Studio is now available in Chinese (both simplified and traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish translations. This new version adds features that enable the development and testing of widgets for all Nokia Symbian devices that support Web Runtime (WRT). It also supports the home-screen widget-view capability of the Nokia N97 multimedia device and the WRT 1.1 API.

Download the Nokia WRT Plug-in 2.0 for Visual Studio.

View a list of all Nokia Symbian devices that support WRT.

Browse the new Web Developer's Library v1.8.

If you're not developing applications for Ovi Store, you are missing an exciting growth opportunity. Ovi Store by Nokia is now approaching 1 million downloads a day, and the number of both downloads and new visitors has been doubling every month. Each user has downloaded, on average, 11 items since Ovi Store's launch last year.

Ovi Store is poised for global growth. Local language support has been increased to 30 languages, including Portuguese (both standard and Brazilian), Ukrainian, Thai, Greek, and Malay. Full localisation — including local content, local language support, and mobile billing — is now available in 17 countries. And the number of mobile operators supporting Ovi Store has grown to more than 50 worldwide.

Nokia is also supporting Ovi Store on the hardware front. Several new devices ship with Ovi Store embedded, including the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia E72, and Nokia X6 devices. Other devices, notably the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, are popular with Ovi Store consumers.

Find out about Nokia N900 content available on Ovi Store.

Don't wait another day! Check out the excitement on Ovi Store.

Publish your apps on Ovi Store.

Learn more about Ovi Store's expansion to AT&T customers.

Ziteng Chen, the January Forum Nokia Champion, has led the design and development of utilities and multimedia applications that have been pre-loaded on Nokia Symbian devices. His experience with the Symbian platform began in 2003, and though he currently spends most of his time in analysis and design he still considers himself a 'coding zealot'. He enjoys joining online discussions and contributing what he knows to the Forum Nokia developer community, where you my know him as chenziteng.

Meet Forum Nokia Champion of the Month Ziteng Chen.

You already know about the Nokia N900 multimedia device, the company's cool new Maemo™ platform-based mobile computer. But do you also have the latest information and web design guidelines to ensure that your web pages work well with the Nokia N900 device? Now you do. A new document, available on the Forum Nokia site, covers topics that include technical details of the Maemo browser and browser engine, general design guidelines, and designing and optimising websites for the Nokia N900 device.

Download the Web Design Guidelines for the Nokia N900 document.

Check out Nokia N900 device details.

The beta release of a new Forum Nokia training course is now available and offers developers a deep view into developing Qt applications for the Maemo 5 platform. The online course covers the Maemo platform and development tools, shows how to port Qt applications from other platforms to the Maemo 5 platform, and explains fine-tuning the UI for Maemo and Qt features available in the Maemo platform. Included in the downloadable package are training documentation and lab exercises with example codes.

Download the Qt for Maemo Training Course beta version.

There will be three webinars in Spanish later this month:

Using the GPS and cell phone camera from Flash Lite (Usando el GPS y la camara del celular desde Flash Lite)

We will explain how to access high-level APIs using Kuneri Lite, allowing Flash to deliver a great user experience (Explicaremos como usando Kuneri Lite, Flash puede acceder a las APIs de alto nivel del celular, permitiendo desarrollar aplicaciones que brindan una excelente experiencia de usuario.)

7.30pm – 8.45pm (GMT -5), 26 January 2010

How to use The Animation Framework for Symbian using Qt(Como hacer uso del framework de Animacion de Symbian usando Qt)

To all developers with a C and C++ background, this is for you! We will explain how the Animation framework for Symbian, as part of the Kinetic project, aims to provide an easy way for creating animated and smooth GUI's. (Para aquellos desarrolladores que vienen del mundo de C, C++ y sus variantes, explicaremos como el framework de animacion de Qt, como parte del proyecto Kinetic, nos permite crear GUI elegantes y animadas.)

7.30pm – 8.45pm (GMT -5), 27 January 2010

Developing mobile applications using only HTML, CSS and JavaScript (Desarrollando aplicaciones moviles usando solo HTML, CSS y JavaScript)

If you are not a hardcore developer, you can still create great mobile applications using your web development tools and knowledge. (Si no eres programador, puedes utlizar tus conocimientos en diseño y desarrollo web para crear widgets.)

7.30pm – 8.45pm (GMT -5), 28 January 2010

In addition to the three Spanish webinars there is an upcoming user experience webinar in January:

User Experience and Design Resources

What is user experience, anyway? In a Forum Nokia webinar scheduled for 28 January, Nokia's Arabella David will provide the basics of the user experience and explain how elements of the user experience can help make apps easier to use and more efficient. Arabella will also review resources available for free online, the evaluations that developers can purchase for their apps, and events where developers can sit face-to-face with a user-experience specialist and immediately improve their apps. Developers interested in improving the user experience of applications should attend the webinar.

Register now for the 28 January webinar on User Experience and Design Resources.

1 p.m. London/3 p.m. Helsinki, 28 January 2010

11 a.m. San Francisco/2 p.m. New York, 28 January 2010

New Forum Nokia Podcasts are available:

Episode #31: In this episode, our first for the new year, Forum Nokia's Jason Black leads a discussion that spanned the globe with two Forum Nokia Champions: Anina.net, international model, developer, and the driving force behind 360Fashion who spoke with us from Australia; and Robin Jewsbury who is the founder of Alibro, Ltd., which powers the EyeMags publishing platform. They discuss mobile magazines as part of the total human experience, tech development strategy, and they take a look into the crystal ball for what 2010 may hold for mobile developers around the world (here's a hint - one word: China).

Episode #30: Thierry Doyen, Nokia's Developer Relations Manager, discusses multimedia development on the Nokia N900 multimedia device, including hardware and software specs, and establishing beachheads when entering markets. He also tells how to blow away a Formula One party with a pocket-sized Nokia N900 device driving a 64-inch hi-def TV.

Episode #29: Marc Kleinmaier, Business Development Manager for Location Based Services, Lifestyles, and Gadgets, presents his role in Business Development. Marc also discusses key developers he has been working with.

Episode #28: Ganesh Sivaraman, Senior Developer Relations Manager at Nokia, explains how Associated Press and Verve Wireless developed a socially integrated WRT widget in less than five weeks.

Listen to Forum Nokia Podcast #31.

Listen to Forum Nokia Podcast #30.

Listen to Forum Nokia Podcast #29.

Listen to Forum Nokia Podcast #28.

Browse all Forum Nokia Podcasts.

What is user experience, anyways? Arabella David will give you the basics of what user experience is, and how elements of it can be used in developing an easier to use, more efficient application. We will review the free resources available online, the evaluations you can purchase for your app, and events where you can sit down face to face with a user experience specialist and immediately improve your app.

Register »

What is user experience, anyways? Arabella David will give you the basics of what user experience is, and how elements of it can be used in developing an easier to use, more efficient application. We will review the free resources available online, the evaluations you can purchase for your app, and events where you can sit down face to face with a user experience specialist and immediately improve your app.

Register »