Aleksandr Trufanov's Forum Nokia Blog

Reading DjVu docs on Symbian 9.x

2009-04-10T14:30:07+03:00

Greetings,

I want to introduce a new project, published on DevMobile, russian mobile developers community.

We all well know the djvu file format. Its often used for ebook distribution, especially scanned non-OCR'ed pages (so djvu files is relative big). Its not so common as pdf, and user faced with djvu often stuck and can't view it even on PC.

Thats why i was so surprised when i get alpha version of DjVu Reader for Symbian 9.x in my hands. Its based OpenC port of DjVuLibre lib, and i'm very impressed how fast it render 3-5Mb documents.

Only PIPS and self-signed cert required for it's work. Screenshots:

You can download alpha version of DjVu Reader from it's page on DevMobile.

Current time, project is not finished. Viewer does't support color documents, touchscreen and have only several extra features (go to page, zoom in\out). Project intended to become opensource when author will be able to make stable fully functional version. For now it's donationware. If you like such kind of staff, you can support author by paypal donation via project page.

"Project Capuchin"-like solution for Symbian C++

2008-09-30T16:21:52+03:00

I'm not a Flash Lite expert. And never write even one line of Flash code. But i really think Flash is a excellent solution for GUI designing if it can be used as a part of other technology. I'm always looking on SE Project Capuchin with hope what one time such functionality will be aviable for Symbian C++ developers.

Some time ago i read a good news about MobiFLV project:

MobiFLV is Open Source FLV Player for Symbian ported from libavcodec, video decoder part of ffmpeg. MobiFLV is written in C and Symbian C++ language.

MobiFLV is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

Virtual GPS from Skyhook Wireless

2008-05-07T21:16:23+03:00

I just check updated Skyhook SDK and find very nice tool:

"Virtual GPS - Developers of GPS-enabled applications can now simply plug into the WPS engine using the NMEA standard interface with no additional code changes"

Thats just great news. Frankly, using OpenC based Skyhook API in pure Symbian C++ application is a bit ugly for me. Thats great what now user can just install Virtual GPS service on the phone, and any application can get Location from it without any changes in its code!

One problem: i wonder how it can work on device, which already have GPS onboard. Becouse some applications can use both GPS and WPS in one time... or switching then GPS not aviable (perhaps user drive into tunnel).

I cant check Virtual GPS for s60 yet - its still unaviable, bcs it under Symbian Signed process..

Other features of updated Skyhook SDK can be found there.

ROMPatcher

2008-04-25T15:03:55+03:00

Hi,

Sorry for the short post. I just whant to attract your attention to following blogs:

ROMPatcher - S60 finally and truly open to anything!

S60 ROM Patcher

"The technique maps ROM into RAM and then modifies it." "This is not a permanent change; that could only be achieved through the firmware update."

Sounds great. Looks like it's emulate ROM for hacking purposes. Checking it..

May Express Signing become free for freeware?

2008-04-13T09:14:31+03:00

I think about one possibility to improve Symbian Signed process.

All we know, what Symbian Signed support freeware developer’s community with Submit freeware. Frankly, I never use it, but that process definitely has lots of issues, so developers prefer to publish unsigned applications. What Cellmania do? It's provided access to Cellmania PubId and performs testing (taking risks to sign spyware etc). That's all.

Now let's see on PubId owners. That’s privileged and controllable category of developers completely hasn’t support for freeware development. PubId owners don’t need Cellmania, because they can take risks for signed app for self.

So if I’m a freeware coder, then I haven’t any reason even try to get PubId, because it's not give me any benefits, and I still have to use Cellmania process. On other side, if I’m PubId owner and I want to sign freeware application for free, then I have no any advantages of owning PubId, and forced to use Cellmania process again. Of course, thats force to publish unsigned applications.

That’s kind of *supporting* freeware development looks a bit ugly.
I think Symbian Signed can make it better. Symbian Signed can make Express Signed free for freeware applications.

That will have some advantages and disadvantages. Let’s clear up what that give to us:

Real freeware development support at least for PubId owners. That allows developer to sign freeware application immediately. So PubId owners get more motivation to publish their apps as freeware.
That can help with unsigned applications distribution problem.
That’s make PubId more desired for developers. So freeware developer may prefer to buy PubId.

Issues:

Who know, is it really freeware application? User can trick Symbian Signed to save 20$.
Risk to sign malware.

Let’s look closely at our issues. First one is a biggest problem. But it's can be solved well. First of all — PubId owners is vulnerable in compare with other developers. Symbian Signed have good way to penalty irresponsible developer — block its PubId or write off its TC Ids. And as more desired PubId looks for developer as more he don't want to lose it. That’s why PubId owners more responsible. Second — developer should mark it's submission as freeware before signing, so that kind of submissions is easy to track. Then Symbian Signed can use old technique of submissions random checking to find shareware apps which signed as freeware. If that still looks risky for Symbian Signed, they can implement more severe method: Developer should have enough TC TrustCenter IDs before signing freeware. Those IDs can be locked until Symbian Signed will check submission and confirm its freeware.

What about malware? 20$ is not a big price for signing malware. Moreover, if someone try to sign malware for free, he's prefer to send it to CellMania then to use PubId which allow to find his real name and firm details. So making Open Signed free for freeware doesn’t open the door for malware.

Now let's be honest: Symbian Signed will lose some profit (TC Id's), but such kind of freeware support looks much better then existing one.