There's no doubt that widgets still remain in the spotlight. It was not so long ago when Nokia WRT plug-ins for Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio and Aptana Studio were released (IMHO, these represent about 80%-90% of the web development environments, so it was a well-thought-out decision from Nokia). Then, Nokia Mobile Web Templates were released (I hope I'll get back to these components in my next post). Now, we can test Platform Services 2.0 JavaScript API (beta release).

What is it? It's a set of JavaScript extensions for the Web Runtime environment on Nokia devices that enables developers to access device features with one or two lines of JavaScript. Apart from access to key device features like GPS unit, sensors, contacts records, calendar entries, messages, landmarks, media files, log entries, and system status information, new API adds access to device’s camera. The API also includes startEditor to enable use of native application editors for user data entry (e.g. calendar.startEditor(onStart, null)). The documentation notes: "This method has the advantage of presenting the user with a familiar data entry UI. It also requires the user to confirm data entry in the normal way, making the addition of data transparent and adding to the user’s trust in the application."

There's one more sentence that catches my eye: 
"The Platform Services 2.0 JavaScript API is also designed to be platform independent, offering the possibility for its implementation on other web browser and Web Runtime implementations on Nokia devices, as well as in PC and other mobile browsers."

Wouldn't it be great to see this API coming to WebOS/Palm, Android/Google, mobile Firefox (Fennec) than runs on many mobile platforms,... ? Is there a chance for "write once, run anywhere" slogan to become reality on many mobile web platforms? Currently, Platform Services 2.0 JavaScript API is compatible with the Nokia 5800/5530/N97 and the emulator supplied in the S60 5th Edition SDK for Symbian OS (most of the functionality should also work on selected S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices).