Antony Pranata's Forum Nokia Blog

A New Symbian OS Book - Quick Recipes on Symbian OS

2008-05-01T21:39:50+03:00

It's Friday now. Is it a good time for announcement for a new book?

Today, I proudly announce a new Symbian OS book from Symbian Press, Quick Recipes on Symbian OS. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon today.

The book is authored by Michael Aubert and a bunch of other people that you may be familiar with, i.e.:

Alexey Gusev
Myself (a.k.a. antonypr)
Jo Stichbury (the author Symbian OS Explained and The Accredited Symbian Developer Primer)
Jenny Mulholland
Jukka Silvennoinen (a.k.a. symbian_yucca)
Tanzim Husain

What this book is all about? Unlike existing Symbian OS books, it is structured like recipes book. Each recipe solves one specific problem, for example: how to write data to a file, how to load JPG/PNG images, how to handle incoming message, how to dial a phone number, etc.

All the recipes are categorized in 10 different technology areas, i.e.:

File Handling
Contacts & Agenda
Networking
Messaging
Graphics and Drawing
3D Graphics
Multimedia
Telephony
Connectivity
Location-based Services

The example source code will be available soon on Symbian Press web site soon (once the book has started selling).

For now, you can download the source code of our Quick Recipes Taster booklet. The booklet is basically the stripped-down version of the book.

Screenshot v3.01 Released

2008-02-04T21:07:14+02:00

It's been a while since I released the last version of my open source application, Screenshot for Symbian OS. The new version (v3.01) is now available at SourceForge.net.

Unfortunately, only the unsigned version is available right now. As you may know, it takes a while for Symbian Signed to sign freeware/open source applications. So, please be patient to wait for the official signed version. Meanwhile, you can just download and sign it using your own developer's certificate.

What's new in this version?

A new shortcut, i.e. <#>+<*>. It's been a challenge to introduce this shortcut due to conflict with phone application on the idle screen. It is related to a known issue published at Forum Nokia (KIS000708). Fortunately, there is a tricky workaround to this issue.
Support for more applications. The previous version has some problems capturing some applications, especially the ones with direct screen access. The new version does not solve the problem completely; but it should be better than the previous one. For example, the new version is able to capture N-Gage games, which has just been released today.
License upgraded to GPLv3. As recommended by Free Software Foundation, it is better upgrading from GPLv2 to GPLv3.
Some bug fixes. For example, Camera key now works fine on most Nseries devices.

Click here to download unsigned version and source code of Screenshot v3.01

Using Accelerometer on Nokia N95

2007-11-01T22:58:17+02:00

The blogosphere has been hot since yesterday about accelerometer on Nokia N95. Apparently, Nokia 95 has a built-in accelerometer. You can find discussion about this on:

YouTube video showing RotateMe application on Nokia N95. It shows how to get an iPhone-like effect.
Moving Ball example from Nokia Research Center. It shows a simple moving ball application that is controlled by accelerometer.

In the latest firmware, we can even get the raw data from the accelerometer using Sensor Plug-in for S60 3rd Edition. You can download the plug-in and start experimenting with accelerometer on Nokia N95

The usage of the API is very straightforward. You just need to create an instance of CRDAccelerometer and then receives the accelerometer data from its observer, MRDAccelerometerObserver. Note that the API still has "RD" prefix in the class name and file name; so it is still an R&D version.

Having access to accelerometer raw data gives us many possibilities. For example, we can use it as control for games. Arto Holopainen has shown similar idea; but he is using human muscle to control games.

As developers, the first question that you may have is, how to process raw data from the accelerometer. You need to know about "g" unit, which is a standard unit of acceleration. There are several papers that discuss "g" unit in accelerometer, for example:

Accelerometer and How They Work - from Texas Instruments
Accelerometer Primer - from MEMSIC

Platform Security on Apple's iPhone?

2007-10-17T23:42:18+03:00

Thanks to petrib who pointed this out. Apple just announced that they are going to support third party applications on iPhone and iPod touch. This is not surprise because developers have been crying for SDK for iPhone. Many people have predicted that Apple will open their platform soon or later; otherwise they will have difficulty competing with "open" smart phones.

What made me surprise is the statement from Steve Jobs in the news. They will have an advanced system that allows developer to access iPhone's software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs. It sounds like Platform Security in Symbian OS, doesn't it?

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc.

...

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction.

There is no detail of how they will implement the system. It could be similar to Symbian's PlatSec or totally different. Let's wait and see on February next year.

Bonus Links

Third party applications on the iPhone - from Apple Hot News.
Some more info on the SDK - from Fake Steve Jobs.

Agile Software Methdology: An Interview with Jim Coplien

2007-09-13T21:38:47+03:00

Agile software methodology is very hot topic these days. Many companies have been starting to use agile in their software development. Jo Stichbury, the author of Symbian OS Explained and The Accredited Symbian Developer Primer books, has recently interviewed Jim Coplen about agile software methodology. The interview in PDF format is available on Symbian Developer Network. Here is a small quote from the interview:

When people inquire about what “Agile” means, I always return to the source: the Agile manifesto. There are so many branches of Agile, individual practices and individual methodologies that have been equated with the word Agile. Like most popular terms it ceases to have much useful meaning any more, so I like to go back to the source. The source is brilliant and there’s some really good stuff there for people to think about and to get their teeth into, but it probably isn’t what most people think it is.

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

If you are a fan of agile software methodology, you have to read the interview. It contains valuable information. If you don't know about agile or haven't used agile, I highly recommend reading the interview and then.... (this is the most important one) discuss with your team to start applying agile. :)

Links

The Agile Heart: An Interview with Jim Coplien
Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development - a book by Jim Coplien
Agile Manifesto

Save Our Planet

2007-05-11T21:33:59+03:00

Environmental issue seems to be keyword these days. We hear global warming, energy saving and many other terms almost everyday.

Yesterday, Nokia announced that they become the first phone makers to add energy saving alerts to their devices.

The alerts are one of a series of environmental initiatives that mobile manufacturers, led by Nokia, agreed to take action on this year. Nokia is the first of these manufacturers to implement the alerts into its products.

This is not the first action from Nokia to become a "greener" company. They have started a program last year, called Take-back and recycle, where we can send our unused phones to be recycled.

Nokia’s idea is to make it easier for consumers to act green by offering the possibility to return old, unused phones and accessories. Authorized Nokia Service Points, flagship stores, municipal collections, industry association's collections, or retailers' campaigns are all possible channels for returning used products.

Many other big companies are serious about these environmental issues. Steve Jobs from Apple wrote an open letter about "A Greener Apple" last week.

And we plan to bring other environmental issues to the table as well, such as the energy efficiency of the products in our industry. We are also beginning to explore the overall carbon “footprint” of our products, and may have some interesting data and issues to share later this year.

As the end users as well as mobile developers, should we do something? Yes, for sure. We need to take actions to save our planet. It's not for us, but for our children. There is a free booklet from Greenpeace, Your Personal Guide to Helping Save the Climate, which discusses some tips to save our lovely planet. Here are some of them:

Buy the most energy-efficient products.
Do your PC a favor and let it get some sleep.
Don't leave chargers and transformers plugged in. This is exactly the reason why Nokia adds energy saving alerts into their latest devices.