For you, as web developers and web service providers, you can use the plug-in to create widgets that offers you the ability to connect with your consumers more regularly and in rich interactive ways that are simply not possible on the desktop. The Internet has been revolutioning our lives since its inception, now Nokia invites you to write the next chapter of that revolution.

And if that’s not enough, Forum Nokia also announced the launch of the next round of its Calling All Innovators competition. Details are available in the press release that was distributed yesterday. This global contest for developers to submit mobile applications for use on Nokia devices includes “Internet Innovation” as one of the key categories, challenging developers to create WRT widgets that enhance the use of mobile devices in real-world scenarios.   With these two announcements, there is no better time than right now for web developers to start using the new Nokia WRT plug-in to start creating widgets, both for the Calling All Innovators contest, and for global distribution to consumers via the Ovi Store.

Following a public beta trial in December 2008, we release of the commercial version of the free Nokia WRT Plug-In for Aptana Studio on Feb 16 2008, which helps developers create, edit, test and deploy WRT widgets for Nokia S60 devices, using either Aptana Studio or Aptana Studio Pro.

During the beta period at the end of last year, many developers tried the plug-in and provided valuable feedback to us about the features and functionality of this new tool.  Mobile application expert Marian Dholkawala recently wrote in a blog post: "The coolest thing about [the Nokia WRT Plug-In for Aptana Studio] is the ease with which it allows widgets to be created and tested. It not only cuts down the development time but also saves us the trouble of continuously packaging our files for testing within the S60 emulator and for debugging." 

Matthew Miller, author of the “Nokia Experts” blog, tried the new plug-in for himself, and concluded: “It is pretty cool to see how you can create these widgets in just a few steps and then have something you created appear on your device. I deployed the [RSS] widget to my Nokia E71 via Bluetooth and just used the default RSS setup to create my widget. There are even some basic settings in the widget, including when to check for updates.” Developers can also choose to use other Ajax libraries, as well; Aptana Studio makes these readily available. And for rapid testing during development, applications can be deployed to a mobile device via a Bluetooth connection.

We have received many other valuable inputs for the community and will continue to work in enhancing the plug-in(s). Hope this plug-in will help you in wigetizing your web content. Feel free to send your working widget to us at widgets@nokia.com. we are constantly looking out for good quality widgets.