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As an Assistant Professor, I'm teaching Symbian OS at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria. My company "Mopius" is developing mobile software with a special focus on Symbian OS.

Mobile Application Prototyping with Python for S60

mopius | 22 October, 2007 15:00

Application development for mobile phones is not so easy to get into in case you use native languages. For many applications – and especially for prototypes – “simpler” languages are preferable.

The most obvious choices would be Java ME or Flash Lite, but both have their own shortcomings and limitations, which don’t always justify their use. A better choice can be using Python for S60 (PyS60), which allows development in a very efficient way and at the same time offers greatly simplified access to many lower-level features of Symbian OS phones.

If you have not yet had the time to take a closer look at Python, the technical report from Bernhard Famler from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria might be very interesting for you. On a few pages, he gives an overview of what makes the programming language special, how it is integrated with S60 and how you can distribute your applications – e.g. by building stand-alone applications.

Of course, for a more detailed look, you should take a closer look at the highly recommended “Mobile Python: Rapid prototyping of applications on the mobile platform”-book by Jürgen Scheible and Ville Tuulos. It has just been released at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London – if you didn’t use this event to get your own (signed) copy or at least one of his famous book covers with your own portrait on it :-) , you should order it as soon as possible!

The technical report is freely available at symbianresources.com.

Python | Permalink | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

A Case-Study of Porting Widgets to S60

mopius | 11 October, 2007 21:29

With data transfer charges for mobile devices finally going down, mobile widgets might possibly be the next big thing to conquer the mobile phone software and at the same time the attention of the users.

The case study contains a description of the solved issues when porting the "Heise News"-widget to the S60 Web Runtime.
As you might know, Nokia has just released the beta-SDK supporting widgets for the upcoming S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2. This allows more seamless integration with the mobile phone than their previous Java ME-based WidSets-software.

Before this was published, an early beta had already been part of the S60 3rd Edition FP2 Beta-SDK for MIDP. This SDK supports the Web Run-Time environment for developing and testing widgets in the emulator, but does not include any further documentation.

Christian Kaar from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg tested the new engine and tried to port several Apple Dashboard widgets to the S60 engine.

Even though Nokia has been a few days too fast for us with publishing their official documentation, his technical report is still very interesting to read. After an overview of widget technology, he included a case-study of porting two widgets, whereas the official documentation only points out the general issues.

You can download and read the technical report at symbianresources.com.

Browsing, Connectivity, S60 | Permalink | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Wii Controller + S60 Phone = Motorcycle Game!

mopius | 01 October, 2007 22:32

Controlling a game on a mobile phone is often a bigger challenge than the game itself — with tiny buttons that are close together, playing a game can be cumbersome and inaccurate. Therefore, designers always have to adapt the games to the keyboard of mobile phones, which naturally limits the possibilities.

WiiRider
WiiRider is a motorcycle game that is controlled with the Nintendo WiiMote - connected to a S60 phone!
For gaming consoles, dedicated gaming hardware makes it possible to play complex and involving games. One of the most recent examples is the success of the Nintendo Wii. Its wireless Bluetooth controller includes great features, like motion sensors. Therefore, many projects have already tried to use it for many other things — e.g. for controlling a roboter.

WiiConnect / WiiRider is a student project by Alexander Erifiu and Mario Grammer (developed at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg), which now enables you to use the controller with your S60 phone.

WiiConnect is a Bluetooth-"driver" for S60 phones. It allows using the features of the Wiimote, including the 3D accelerometer and rumble functionality. WiiConnect is very easy to use — activate Bluetooth on your phone, start the driver and you’re connected to the Wiimote. This application offers the data of the WiiMote to other applications through an internal socket connection.

WiiRider is a motorcycle game, based on Java ME. The controls simulate driving with a motorcycle on a country road. You have to hold the Wiimote like the handlebar of a motorcycle. To accelerate, you symbolically open the throttle by turning the controller. Moving left or right is equally controlled by your motion – you do not have to press any buttons to play the game. To make the game more challenging, you have to evade several obstacles like cows and pigs, but you should try to collect petrol cans to fill up your energy. The goal of the game is to keep up as long as possible!

The services could also be used by other games, of course it would be great to see more games use the Wii controller using this new project. The new N-Gage platform does also looks very promising - let's hope that it will contain games that make innovative use of the mobile phone features like the camera (remember Mozzies from Siemens Mobile?) or acceleration sensors.

You can download WiiConnect / WiiRider for free from symbianresources.com - the zip-file also includes the source code of the WiiRider Java-game, so that you can develop your own games using WiiConnect!

Games, Java, S60 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

 
 
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