GLOBAL – Tucked away in a lesser-visited corridor on the Nokia Beta Labs site live a collection of exciting experimental apps. Last week we drew your attention to them in our video poll (a couple of which we know have already triggered your enthusiasm), to find out which of these innovative shards of software earned your vote as best in show. Read on to find out which app stormed to the top of the class.
GLOBAL – Each week we’ll be nudging a shy Ovi Store app into the limelight, kick-started last week with the smart I Parked Here app that recently came to our attention. This week, I stumbled across an intriguing software nugget called eyeCall – it’s particularly interesting from a gesture control point of view (Nokia gesture design has been a hot topic on Conversations lately). See, eyeCall is a simple third party app that lets you silence incoming calls and send an automated text message with a couple of easy-to-remember hand gestures. I’ve just downloaded it to N97 and given it a go, so read on to find out how it works.
GLOBAL – This time last year we ran a piece about how excited we were to see such diversity breeding on the mobile software scene, punctuated with the emergence of the suite of Ramadan related services for Nokia devices. This year, the Holy Month of Ramadan is again being supported via a package of pocket apps, with the addition of more devices, including the Nokia N97, plus each of the apps is now available through the Ovi Store and nokia.com/ramadan.
MONACO, Monte Carlo – Creating a world-class widget is tough at the best of times, never mind trying to develop a brilliant bite-size app against the clock within a 24-hour timeframe. But that’s exactly what happened last month at the Calling All Innovators Hackathon, which saw 10 small teams of developers go head-to-head and test their skills to the limit to create a winning app. Each team was tasked with building a different widget based on 10 original ideas created by consumers.
The results were fantastic, and the 24-hour event has been compressed into a great little 3-minute video diary that features bleary-eyed developers coding like crazy (and occasionally snoring very loudly) to create a winning service. It’s definitely worth a watch, so click through to watch the Hackathon video diary.
GLOBAL – Late last week we launched a poll to find out which S60 Twitter app put the biggest smile on your beak, and the response has been great, with Gravity currently storming ahead of the pack in the popularity race. We’re going to keep the poll open for a few more weeks as this topic on the ultimate Twitter app for S60 Nokia phones seems to have struck a serious chord – we’ve already clocked up over 300 votes in 6 days, and heaps of you have been commenting with some great suggestions for alternatives to our core list of S60 Twitter apps.
Read on for a full rundown of how all the Twitter apps are measuring up alongside each other in the most-loved stakes, plus find out which Twitter apps many of you have mentioned that weren’t included in our original list of big hitter Twitter apps for your Nokia.
GLOBAL – The S60 Twitter app on everyones lips (or rather beaks) at the moment is the quite brilliant Gravity. It’s interface is extremely clear, and it’s tough not to get suckered in by its velvet-smooth transitions and ease of use. That said it’s a paid-for S60 Twitter app and one of the pricier ones. But with this week’s emergence of the smart new Twittix S60 app (pictured), which is the highest flier of all S60 Twitter apps? Is Twibble the wind beneath your tweeting wings (it has recently been updated with new features)? Or Stew for the Nokia 5800 or Dabr? Is there some other S60 Twitter app we haven’t heard about that deserves shouting about? Let us know your favourite in our new S60 Twitter app poll below.
What’s you’re favourite Twitter app? We’ve listed the most prominent S60 Twitter apps and put them in alphabetical order, so take your pick and click.
San Francisco, USA – Folks have been asking me to get a video explaining what the Ovi Store looks like and what the publishing process is like.
I’ve done a bit more. I’ve made a video of what the Ovi Store look like on a Nokia N85. I also spoke with Bill Perry, part of the Forum Nokia services team, who told me a bit about the publishing process, on how to get apps onto Ovi Store. Also at the Nokia booths at Web 2.0 Expo, there were a few developers who are making stuff that will be distributed through the store starting in May 2009. So, I made a video of one of them.
So, enough prattling by me, click through to see the three videos below. Continue reading>>
BARCELONA, Spain – Last week Nokia World was awash with heavyweight announcements such as the N97 and Maps on Ovi. While these rightfully stole the limelight there were a bunch of interesting developments buzzing beneath the radar, such as the Nokia Supernova Theme Coloriser application demoed for us on the 7610.
LONDON, England – I’ve spent the last few days playing with the N96 and drawn like a midget to a lightbulb to its BBC iPlayer application. The N96 comes packing a DVB-H tuner, which means it can receive TV signals, which in turn enables it to play terrestrial TV. So far so good. Except in the UK there isn’t an form of mobile TV service right now. The UK Nokia team is doing its bit with Capsule N96 – the home-grown TV station designed specifically for the N96, but the real gap-filler has to be iPlayer.
ESPOO, Finland – People spend most of their time indoors (up to 90 per cent, according to research). GPS only works outside. Indoor positioning then could prove to be one of those killer apps that could change the way we interact with the world. Kimmo Kalliola, research leader for Wireless Systems and Services, gave us an update on Indoor Positioning, which was first shown off last year.
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