MONTE CARLO, Monaco – The inaugural Nokia Developer Summit kicked off in Monaco today with a host of announcements designed to make it even easier for developers to extend the functionality of Nokia devices. Alongside news of a new Nokia N97 SDK (Software Development Kit), come the first five applications to receive funding from the Nokia and Adobe Open Screen Project Fund, an update from Aptana and an N97 Widget competition. Full details on all these after the jump.
Nokia N97 Beta SDK
Sign up to Forum Nokia as a developer and you’ll be able to access the Beta SDK for the Nokia N97. This will give developers a chance to see how well their content works on the device, as well as explore app integration into the homescreen. This enables users to get the latest updates from an app, directly from their homescreen, without even having to open the app. This functionality is available to both native applications and widgets along with access to platform services such as camera, location and calendar.
This will make for some pretty cool applications, I reckon. It’s frequently the case that once third party developers get hold of core assets such as these that we really see them come to life.
Adobe and Nokia Open Screen Project Fund
Back in February we got word of a $10million initiative between Nokia and Adobe to encourage developers to bring their Flash applications to the 300 million Flash enabled Nokia devices out there. The fund is designed to accelerate the creation of apps, content and services that “leverage the Adobe Flash Platform and run across mobile, desktop and consumer electronic devices”.
The first five applications to receive funds have now been officially announced:
- MyFestival, by Little Big Ideas (Denmark): a guide for the Roskilde Music Festival with integrated LBS functionality
- Golfbox, also by Little Big Ideas (Denmark): a golf companion to set tee times, check scores, and more
- “Social Portfolio” (working title) by Tui Interactive (UK): a stock news and portfolio tracker application.
- Pocket Piano, by Better Day Wireless (US): a virtual piano player for touch devices
- Barking Seed by Breakdesign (Singapore): a Web and Flash-based games community for players of Flash Lite games
Aptana and Nokia unveil tools for feature rich mobile web apps
The latest version of the Nokia WRT Plugin for Aptana Studio (version 2 Beta) was announced this morning and promises a host of new functionality to make it easy to develop widgets for the latest Nokia devices, including the incoming N97.
The plugin will make it easy for developers to access the devices services such as contacts, calendar, location, send and receive messages and even the accelerometer. It also supports the creation of widgets that utilise the “homescreen” functionality.
Like the N97 SDK, this will surely see even more apps make it onto not only the Ovi Store, but also the Nokia N97 when it launches.
Nokia N97 Widget competition
As we write, a group of developers are in Monaco beavering away on new widgets, fighting for first prize in the 24-Nokia Hackathon event. The winner, which will be announced tomorrow, will bag himself a brand new Nokia N97, complete with his winning widget proudly displayed on the homescreen. The widget will also take pride of place on the Ovi store homepage as a free download. Two runners up will also be featured on the Ovi Store homepage.
We’ll have word on the winner after the announcement.
For all the latest on the Nokia Developer Summit, check out the Forum Nokia Blog.
Check out the latest videos and chats from the event at the Nokia Event site.