Hartti Suomela's Forum Nokia Blog

Security prompting improvements on their way to S60

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:57:58 +0300

A colleague of mine just pointed me to the new Developing on S60 -blog ("new" is of course a relative term in here :-) on S60.com, where Aleksi Uotila from S60 Java team has written quite a few informative entries on S60 Java implementation. The latest one is about security prompting - a chronically hot topic on Forum Nokia discussions to say the least.

The good news is that there are improvements coming:

A new kind of runtime security prompt which allows user to directly change the security setting for the application (pictured here)
A set of security policy changes allowing user more control on the settings levels for untrusted and trusted 3rd party

The bad news is that the improvements will not be available on all existing S60 phones:

"The enhanced prompts will be added to upcoming 3rd edition FP 2 (and later) devices but we are seeking to get this enhancement also as a correction to some existing products via Nokia SW update."

Check also Aleksi's detailed posts on touch support for MIDlets on S60 5th Edition devices in the same blog...

Use Accelerometer in Flash Lite

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:33:03 +0200

Continuing the Flash Lite posting theme, KuneriLite 0.9.4 is out. The new features include Accelerometer plug-in, Rotation plug-in, etc..

And if you do not know: "KuneriLite is Rapid Application Development toolkit to extend Adobe Flash Lite capabilities on S60 devices (it is programmed with Symbian C++ and acts a layer in between Flash Lite and S60 platform). It enables Flash Lite developers to go beyond Flash Lite development without any knowledge of Symbian programming"

Developer Edition of Flash Lite 3 available in Nov

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:24:56 +0200

Bill Perry notes in his blog that Flash Lite 3 deliveries to developers have been delayed a little. Should be out in Nov. Note also that this is a Developer Edition and not a end-user version of the runtime

The Flash Lite 3 developer edition is only a standalone player and will allow developers to test and play back SWF files that are published as Flash Lite 3. Note, the Flash Lite 3 developer edition does not support the mobile phone web browser as a plug-in or other content types such as wallpapers and screensavers. It is meant only for developers, not for consumers to download.

Also available from Bill: His presentations (see the links on the right hand side of his blog...). Check for example the one about Developing Flash Lite 3 apps...

FN Developer Day - Maps and Navigation API

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:15:42 +0300

This is the first time I am attending a Forum Nokia Developer Day (or Forum Nokia Champions Day) event, which really runs for two days for the name "Day" is a little misleading. This time the event is organized just before the Symbian Smartphone Show in London on Oct 16th and 17th. It looks like about 50 people are attending the event (or at least I was able to count that many people attending the first session on Sunday (yes, Sunday – some people are also working on Sundays!).

The first session by my esteemed colleagues Jure Sustersic and Lucian Tomuta was about the soon-to-be-released Map and Navigation Framework/API. Here are my short notes on the API (I’ll skip the coding details as my Symbian C++ knowledge is not strong enough to allow me to note any details without making huge mistakes…)

The API relies on (copyrighted) navigation data provided by third parties (like Navteq and TeleAtlas) and therefore the commercial application developers utilizing this API have to pay for a license – the license model is fixed fee per application activation. The license also prohibits you from developing a new fleet management application but an extension to an existing one is allowed. There is no license fee for non-commercial applications (like freeware).

What are then commercial applications? Basically any enterprise applications, or any applications getting revenue in some form or another. And the licenses can be bought in bulk – I think the licenses will be available in piles of 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000.

You can use this API on any S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices. In addition, you can run the same application on S60 3rd Edition and 3rd Edition FP1 devices, but an additional SIS file needs to be installed (that is basically the navigation provider application also known as Nokia Maps).

S60 3rd Edition FP2 MIDP SDK (beta) - some comments

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:47:40 +0300

As some of you might have noted, the beta version for the MIDP SDK for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 has been available from Forum Nokia for a couple of weeks now. The SDK (and also platform in question) introduces the subset of MSA specification (JSR-248), which means that also MIDP 2.1 is supported (for the Nokia platform support of various APIs see this table).

The beta SDK works and has been tested with NetBeans or Eclipse with Eclipse ME. Note that Sun WTK is not supported (mainly as WTK does not support UEI - Unified Emulator Interface). The release notes contain also other valuable information so please be sure to read it.

And please note that this is beta release, so some things might not work as expected. But if you encounter something, please report it to us!

An evening with S60 - San Francisco

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:40:16 +0300

S60 evenings will continue on the West Coast. This time the party will be in San Francisco (almost my home town) around the time of CTIA (October 23rd to be exact), so register on the S60 site, plan your travels accordingly, and party!!!

[edit: corrected the non-working link]

Any questions about NokiaCV (Computer Vision) library?

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:46:43 +0300

Related to my earlier post about NokiaCV library, which spurred some comments and questions. In the future, please post your questions in this sticky thread on Forum Nokia Discussion Boards. The researchers from NRC working on that project will monitor the thread (and also the discussion is easier to found and also you do not need to wait me to approve your comments... a big plus :-)

S60 Feature wishlist

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:03:48 +0300

S60 blogs note here and there that S60 has added a feature wishlist on their site. This is in addition to the S60 application wishlist they have had for some time already. The system allows users to vote for the features, currently there is not much votes cast yet, but maybe after a few days...

I guess someone should add the EAP-TTLS / PAP support request in there, it would not hurt to try this route too...

VoIP Deep DIve in Helsinki, FInland -Sept 12

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:42:57 +0300

As the VoIP Deep Dive in Mountain View (some time ago) was a success, Forum Nokia will repeat the event - this time in Finland. This is the event announcement I received just today from Niklas, who also organized the earlier event:

Forum Nokia, Nokia's developer organization, is hosting a VoIP and WLAN Deep Dive at the Nokia Headquarters in Espoo, Finland on September 12th. Attend this event to learn how to create full-duplex VoIP applications with great voice quality as well as hear how to use WLAN without wasting the battery. Speakers will range from Forum Nokia to the S60 Audio and S60 WLAN-WiMax teams, who will take you on a deep dive into the S60 platform features. Please bring your code if you would like help debugging or fixing any issue you may have!

Additionally, there will be Forum Nokia technical experts available to answer any questions you may have as well as the opportunity to meet 1:1 with the Nokia team.

To review the agenda and register for this event, please visit:
https://mktools.forum.nokia.com/invitation?mode=doLogin&event_username=wlan&event_password=voip

Date: Wednesday, September 12th

Location:
Nokia Headquarters,
Keilalahdentie 2-4
02150 ESPOO
FINLAND

NokiaCV library - giving brains to your S60 imaging app

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:12:47 +0300

NokiaCV is a cool new computer vision library from Nokia Research Center. It provides some neat enhancements to the Symbian OS imaging capabilities, including capture enhancements (color conversions, panorama creation, etc.), motion estimation (for gaming UI for example), and post-capture editing (including image warping and adding things on images).

On the page linked above there is a download link for the Nokia CV package (includes DLL for the library along with source code and SIS files for some sample demos using the library). Check it out! (I would, but I don't speak Symbian C++, unfortunately...)