Nokia Developer Newsletter

Nokia has announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes free walk and drive navigation worldwide.

For mobile developers and publishers, these changes for Ovi Maps represent a significant opportunity. The worldwide customer base for additional location-based applications and services will expand dramatically.

Developers will be able to create applications with cutting-edge navigation features built into their applications without incurring additional costs. Also, developers and publishers using the new navigation features can:

• Experience the power of a new mobile platform that makes global navigation an integral part of the offer
• Delight consumers worldwide with compelling, contextually relevant solutions
• Bring new, location-based innovations to mobile devices as a result of global navigation becoming a standard feature on the mobile platform

The new version of Ovi Maps includes both car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries in 46 languages and traffic information for over 10 countries. It also includes maps for more than 180 countries, as well as free access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides.

Come to San Francisco on 9 – 10 June, to discover how easy it is to develop for Nokia and get apps in the hands of millions of consumers worldwide. The Nokia Developer Summit 2010 will feature two days of keynotes, technical and business presentations, hands-on labs, demos, and plenty of opportunities for personal and professional networking — all aimed at mobile and web developers. Technology topics will help you develop with Maemo™, Qt, and Web Runtime (WRT). By taking part in these live demos and coding sessions, developers will learn to create compelling user experiences, quickly and easily.

Register before 31 March, and to save $150 off the regular $600 registration fee. Last year's Nokia Developer Summit was completely sold out, so don't miss this opportunity to book today!

Nokia has updated the Maemo 5 SDK to provide developers with the software delivered in the second software update to the Nokia N900 device (version 2.2009.51-1). The update provides features for Bluetooth technology and e-mail, as well as improved documentation that will be of interest to multimedia messaging service (MMS) developers.

The Maemo 5 SDK is designed to help developers create applications for Nokia devices based on Maemo 5, including the Nokia N900 device. The SDK includes all the tools developers need to write, test, compile, and package for distribution Maemo 5 software on a Linux-based computer. For developers who have already installed an earlier version of the SDK, the update can be obtained using a package-management tool in scratchbox.

Two recent example applications from Forum Nokia help developers utilise QtWebKit, a module that lets developers create application UIs using pure web technologies — including HTML, XML, and the JavaScript™ programming language — much as they do Nokia S60 on Symbian OS Web Runtime widgets.

The QtWebKit: ListEm Example demonstrates how to create a hybrid application that combines a web UI with a C++ engine to access a SQLite database. The application has been optimised for Symbian OS, S60 5.0 and Maemo 5 touch UIs, but is also compatible with desktop platforms.

The QtWebKit: Beta Labs Example has been ported from an existing Symbian WRT widget to a Qt application. This approach is great for adding system functionality to an application without compromising the existing UI. Also, compatibility can be extended to all platforms that support QtWebKit, including Maemo 5. The example also includes a porting guide.

Are you publishing your apps to Ovi Store by Nokia yet? If not, you're missing out on lots of action:

• Publishers from more than 80 countries are currently distributing their content through Ovi Store, and as of this month Ovi Store is averaging more than one million downloads per day; and, on average, each registered user has downloaded almost 12 items from Ovi Store since the launch of the service
• Both new users and downloads are up in January 2010 more than 100% month-over-month, compared to December 2009
• Ovi Store has overtaken Apple in crucial high-growth emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, according to Evans Data Corp's new Wireless Development Survey: "Nokia has been busy cultivating developers outside the U.S. in their traditional offshore strongholds, and has been remarkably successful in the short time of the Ovi store's existence,' said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data
• Nokia N900 apps are now being offered on Ovi Store, and the store now has full integration with the Nokia N900 device. When a Nokia N900 user clicks on the Ovi Store icon, bookmark, or shortcut, he or she is taken to an Ovi Store interface that has been tailored for his or her device
• A new video profiles the power of Ovi Store by Nokia: The whimsical two-minute video, now on YouTube, was directed by Hiro Murai, a music-video director who has worked with the Willowz, the Fray, Bloc Party, and others; it was produced by Partizan, an award-winning producer of music videos, documentaries, and online content.
• A total of 60 operators in 18 countries support integrated mobile billing with Ovi Store: This includes AT&T customers who use the Nokia E71x, Nokia Surge, Nokia Mural, Nokia 6650, Nokia 6555, or Nokia 6350 (with more devices to come); these AT&T customers can download content from Ovi Store and charge their paid content purchases directly to their monthly AT&T bills
• The Ovi Daily App blog is now reviewing both free and paid apps, widgets and other content every day of the week; recent reviews have focused on apps for the Nokia N900 device

Ready for some mobile eye candy? A recent Forum Nokia video presents a Flash Lite example application that demonstrates simple transition effects and their use cases. Transitions are a way of showing a mobile user that the application is moving from one state to another. In the video, Riku Salminen of Forum Nokia demonstrates the Peek Menu on a Nokia N97 mini.

This transition application has been optimised for touch UI on Symbian OS, S60 5.0 devices. But it is also compatible with all devices supporting Flash Lite 2.x and higher; namely, Symbian OS, S60 3.0, Feature Pack 1 devices, and newer Series 40 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 and higher devices.

The winners of Forum Nokia’s Calling All Innovators U.K. 2009 contest were recently announced. The winner of both the Grand Prize and the Social Location prize is woZZon Ltd.’s woZZon, a mobile app that helps users find 'what's on' in the U.K. with a database of some 60,000 geocoded events. woZZon’s Grand Prize includes £20,000 in cash, paid travel to the Nokia Developer Summit in June, sponsorship to become an Ovi Store publisher, and a one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad. Winners were also named in four additional categories: business and productivity, communications and social networking, just for fun, and special award.

If you need technical help with your mobile development projects, Forum Nokia Technical Services is standing by to provide the following developer services:

Technical Support, including API partnering

• Technical support is designed to solve a specific problem or answer a focused technical question on a case-by-case basis
• API partnering requests may be submitted when a technical-support request cannot be solved via public APIs

Bug reporting and requirement requests

• This is an input channel only; technical support is not provided
• Bug reporting is provided free of charge

Do you hope to create mobile services that are an indispensible part of a user’s life? Then check out Forum Nokia’s completely new material regarding design-driven service development. Here you will find resources, videos, and tips to help you quickly integrate the basic tenets of good service design into your applications.

You could win 5,000 euros! Nokia is a platinum sponsor of the 2010 NFC Global Competition, which promotes the development and deployment of innovative near field communication (NFC) services by both commercial and academic developers.

Entries will be judged on their innovation, commercial potential, usability, and quality of design and implementation. Twenty finalists will be named, and they will be invited to present their entries at a conference in Monaco. From them, six winners will be selected, and they will receive cash prizes of 5,000 euros to 1,000 euros. All entries are due by 19 February.

In this podcast, Forum Nokia's Bill Volpe speaks with Chris Petty, Communications Director at BlueskyNorth. Chris talks about the development of the Flash Lite application FLORIN Finance Tracker, which was a recipient of funding from the Nokia and Adobe Open Screen Project Fund, as well as a winner in Forum Nokia's 2009 Calling All Innovators contest. Chris also touches on best practices in mobile application development — both for beginners and advanced developers.

Qt Creator is the IDE that accompanies Qt 4.6 application and UI framework. This webinar will demonstrate the cross platform capabilities of Qt on both Maemo and Symbian. Participants will also learn how to quickly and easily build and compile apps for both mobile platforms using Qt Creator.

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