GLOBAL – Today marks another step in the evolution of Beta Labs, Nokia’s public testing and social feedback website for new apps. Since the dawn of Nokia Conversations we’ve been following Beta Labs as it’s matured and developed into one of Nokia’s most vibrant and collaborative online hangouts, where new ideas are forged, playful experiments undergone, and serious innovations made. Last month the team posted a preview on the Beta Labs blog of the update that is being applied later today – maintenance is currently being performed by the Beta Labs beavers, so anticipate changes to take effect within a few hours. In the meantime, find out what you can expect from this latest incarnation of Nokia Beta Labs.
A host of helpful and progressive changes are coming, each designed to make it easier to stay up-to-date with new info as it emerges and feedback on apps you’ve downloaded via the site. Most notably is the ability to follow apps – you’ll be able to automatically keep tabs on any apps you’re interested in, with all the latest details and developments on that app pulled into your Beta Labs profile for fast and easy access. Likewise, feeds are improving to ensure you’re fed the best and latest info by the minute. You’ll be able to get two flavours of feed – one that relates to apps you’re following, aggregating all the feedback from the Beta Labs community, and the other feed automatically sucking in comments related to any threads you’ve been a part of during your time visiting the Beta Labs site.
Bug reporting is also getting an update, with more structure planned (a request made by many folk currently using Beta Labs and the app developers involved), enabling you to subcategorize bug reports along with suggestions. You’ll also be able to rate the feedback of others with a simple thumbs up/down to vote on whether you reckon a piece of feedback is helpful or not. Hopefully these tweaks should help streamline the process and improve the quality of information sent to app developers, enabling the teams to work on the aspects of an app that are considered most important by the community.
A bunch of further changes are on the cards (read about the rest here), plus the site will be undergoing a subtle design refresh, as pictured below. So make sure you stop by later at Beta Labs to take a tour and try out its newly evolved features.