<OVI beta> <podcast> by Martin

Ovi Developer Beta already allows select developers to embed Ovi Maps into their websites using simple and familiar web technologies. They can take advantage of rich mapping and positioning functionalities, such as 2D/3D maps, add custom content and fly trough. In a podcast from Nokia Developer Summit, Michael Halbherr, Vice President of Social Location at Nokia, talks about how developers can leverage the billions of dollars of development embedded in Ovi Maps and NAVTEQ data.

At the Web 2.0 Summit, Michael unveiled that Nokia Maps will in the near future include the insides of buildings such as shopping malls, airports, hotels and other facilities. This will expose mobile consumers to a whole new range of services that can include the mixed realities and augmented realities of real internal maps, metadata about the sites seen, and realtime interaction from the user.

The idea is simple enough, but turning the idea into reality is not. To begin with, GPS tracking ends when you lose your line of sight to the sky, so the interior mapping of a user’s location must be done through cell ID triangulation, and through WiFi hotspot identification and triangulation. ‘There must be one logic system for location, whether it is through GPS, cell ID, or WiFi,’ asserted Halberr. Right now, those systems are separate, but Nokia is working on the integration. Halberr said that Nokia is also working on including the 3D element to the interior mapping system. In one sense, this is an obvious need, in that the items one finds on the 4th floor of a large department store will be very different from the items for sale on the 5th floor. In a deeper sense, however, this may also include the 3D mapping of objects that one may find on a given floor.

When it comes to collecting the actual images that will form the interior maps, Halbherr says that Nokia has an advantage over Google. ‘We have millions of S60 devices already out there, and each of them is capable of collecting data,’ says Halberr. ‘We switched on the cell learning features, and within weeks we recorded 90 percent of all cell coverage in major countries. As we move to the mapping of interior walking paths, we have the advantage of numbers.’  Halbherr indicated that the buildout of interior mapping will include the installation of inside cellular base stations in shopping malls, airports and other locations by the wireless operators. By triangulating the device's position relative to the GPS satellite outside the building, and to all the cellular and Wi-Fi hotspots inside, Nokia will be able to associate the device with a specific cell (areas 10 meters or less) as it moves around inside the building.

When pressed about the timeframe for the interior mapping project, Halbherr gave himself a leisurely deadline of within the next two years. I suspect that we will see real demonstrations of parts of the interior mapping system long before that as the most popular locations will probably be mapped first.

All of this came from the Q and A session after Halbherr’s talk. During the speech itself, he discussed the state of the Ovi SDK, which is currently in closed beta, and why it is important. The best feature about the Ovi SDK, of course, is that it is built for use with Javascript, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and HTML. The bottom line is that developers with any of those three skillsets will be able to create mobile apps without having to know the deeper technologies like Symbian C++. Even Javascript writing may be abstracted up to a higher level, Halbherr claims. ‘Javascript is to mobile programming as assembly language was to the PC. It will be generated by higher-level tools rather than written directly.’

<video> <app> by Kevin 

I am a firm believer that the best uses of technology disappear. Good technology, like good design, gets out of your way and let's you do what you want to do. Only technology geeks care about how the developer did what the developer did. Considering we are all technology geeks here, I want to highlight apps you see in Ovi store that have some cool uses of web technology that you may not notice. 

The CNN International Video app supports progressive download to deliver the video content, a Flash innovation that was optimized by personnel within Nokia specifically for use in this application. Check it out.

Note that this app is not available in all countries.

<video>  <podcast of presentation> <podcast of conversation> by Kevin

You’re on top of the world, but the world is changing, noted EVP Mary McDowell as she opened her presentation High Order Bit – When can we scale the Mobile Web? at the Web 2.0 Summit. If you could not join Nokia at the conference, check out the video of her presentation. You can also listen to her presentation in this podcast. She talks about opening technology to the next billion people, Nokia Life tools and Nokia Money. There are 4 billion mobile phone users in the world, and only 1.6 billion bank accounts. Nokia Money aims to bridge that gap.

While Mary was at the conference, she sat down with Forum Nokia’s Martin Marshall to discuss augmented reality, the changing nature of R&D, and the opening of the Nokia Research Center at University of California – Berkley.  Check out the podcast.

<download Aptana plug-in> <more info> by Kevin

Code completion in Aptana using Nokia WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio includes the full set of Web Runtime 1.1 APIs, including those for platform services. The preview provides support for the home-screen view, sample data for the platform services APIs, and the ability to create device events. The latest version is also compatible with computers running Linux based Ubuntu 8.04 and Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

<download Visual Studio Plug-in> <more info> by Kevin 

The tools team has been busy. They just released the Nokia WRT Plug-in 2.0 for Visual Studio. Create and test widgets for all Nokia S60 devices that support WRT, now including support for the home–screen view capability of the Nokia N97 mobile computer.

New features include:

• Support for code-completion of the Web Runtime 1.1 API and the S60 Platform Services 1.0 API.
• Integrated widget preview browser, based on Gecko, now includes:
  • Simulation of device data for the S60 Platform Services 1.0 API.
  • Previewing home-screen widgets.
  • Touch-based interaction with previewed widgets.
  • Issuing charger, SMS and MMS messaging, and memory-card event triggers.
• Viewing JavaScript console messages.
• Comprehensive links to documentation.

<design aid> by Kevin

Why start from scratch? Nokia Mobile Web Templates offer a series of custom, styled, and tested mobile web components. Mix and match components or use the full series to completely customise your mobile website or application. The components are suitable for most S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition devices from Nokia and also are compatible with newer Series 40 WebKit and Maemo devices.

Check out the overview: Introduction to Nokia Mobile Web Templates

Or jump straight to the templates and samples for your target devices:

• Mobile Web Templates for High-End Devices
• Layout Samples for Mobile Web Templates for High-End Devices
• Mobile Web Templates for Mid-Range Devices
• Layout samples for Mid-Range Devices
• Mobile Web Templates for Low-End Devices
• Layout Samples for Low-End Devices

<Download Dreamweaver Extension> <Dreamweaver Quickstart> by Kevin

Dreamweaver developers get an upgrade with the new Nokia WRT Extension 2.0 for Adobe Dreamweaver.  Create and test widgets for all Nokia S60 devices that support Web Runtime (WRT), including home screen widgets for Nokia N97 mobile computers.

New features include:

• Web Runtime 1.1 API and S60 Platform Services 1.0 API, with support for code-completion and previewing widgets.
• Previewing home-screen widgets.
• Touch-based interaction in the widget preview.
• Event simulation now allows developers to send events to the previewing widget for charger, SMS and MMS messaging, and memory-card events.
• A JavaScript console in the widget preview.
• Preview update utility for widget projects created in Nokia WRT Extension 1.0 for Adobe Dreamweaver.
• Comprehensive links to documentation.

Welcome to the Forum Nokia Web Developer Alert blog. At the risk of overstating the obvious, this blog will talk about web development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WRT, Ovi APIs, everything that's already familiar to web developers. And it's a Forum Nokia blog, so it will obviously focus on those aspects of web development that serve users on the go.

We will cover tools for web development, including plug-ins for popular environments and stand-alone tools, debuggers, and just about anything else that lets developers spend more time creating great experiences and less time building plumbing.

We will cover web development from the designer's point of view. I say "we", but I really mean "not me". Those of you who know me know I am no designer. Not to worry. We'll bring in others to cover the design angles.

We will include reports from the field, doing our best to connect you with Nokia experts and fellow developers from around the world.

We hope you find this a valuable way to keep up with the latest in web development and design.

We also hope you add your voice to the conversation. Post comments here and let us know why you are excited to be a web developer entering the mobile space. What your experience in the mobile space has taught you. What we can do differently, or better, to make you successful in the mobile space. We want to hear from you.

Best regards,

-- Jason Black
Editorial Services Manager, Forum Nokia

--Kevin Sharp
Technical Editor
Forum Nokia