How to import phone contacts in Nokia Emulator for use with Java ME

Got stuck today while trying to load phone contacts in the Nokia emulator while testing out some new apps I'm working on.

For JavaME SDK 3.0, you can simply save various contacts in *.vcf format in the directory /runtimes/cldc-hi-javafx/appdb/PIM/contacts/Contacts and have it work as expected when loading contacts with PIM, but in the case of Nokia SDKs, it's a different story entirely. I tried writing to PIM, then load the contacts thereafter, but on each relaunch of the app, the contacts previously written have to be rewritten before they can be used again besides the nagging permission prompts for each write.

After taking some much needed break from testing and debugging, I eventually found the way out. To make contacts persistent in the Nokia Emulator, simply start the emulator, and wait for it to be fully loaded; then go to the menu File -> Open, select Save after loading the contact and then load the *.vcf file(s). Once you've done that, you can proceed to loading the previously saved contact(s) with JSR-75.

Here's a sample VCARD you can test with or edit to taste:

begin:vcard
fn:David Baldacci
n:Baldacci; David;; 
TEL;HOME;VOICE:123-456-7890
TEL;CELL;VOICE:987-654-3210
URL;HOME:http://davidbaldacci.net
EMAIL;INTERNET:author@davidbaldacci.net
version:2.1
end:vcard

The Click Through Rate (CTR) of different Mobile Devices

Inner-active did a good job on enlightening developers about the CTR of various mobile devices.

Creating 2D Graphics Accelerated Games for the Nokia 500 Phone with QT - Webinar

Nokia invites you to her upcoming webinar, which introduces the OpenVG API and how to utilise it on the Nokia 500 phone. Because the Nokia 500 phone does not include 3D-graphics acceleration, achieving high frames can be a challenge. The phone's 2D graphics accelerator, however, can be used to accelerate graphics rendering. In this session, several small OpenVG code snippets will be provided, and an easy-to-learn sprite-rendering API will be demonstrated with a full game example.

Date: 13 December
Time: 9 a.m. San Francisco, noon New York, 5 p.m. London, 7 p.m. Helsinki

You can sign up here

Optimising 2D and 3D Games for the New Symbian Belle Phones - Webinar

Each of Nokia's latest Symbian Belle phones — the Nokia 603, Nokia 700, and Nokia 701 smartphones — offers high-performance graphics-rendering capabilities and an upgraded CPU. To achieve the highest level of graphics performance, developers must know how the graphics architecture in Belle phones differs from the most commonly used architectures. This webinar will cover the changes to previous Symbian chipsets and give advice on how to optimise OpenGL ES games for Belle phones. Small shader performance-benchmarking snippets will be provided, with full source code.


Date: 14 December
Time: 9 a.m. San Francisco, noon New York, 5 p.m. London, 7 p.m. Helsinki

Sign up here

Developing In-App Purchasing Enabled Games with Qt Webinar

'Freemium' is rapidly becoming the most popular business model for mobile games. In-app purchasing is the core feature of the freemium business model and potentially a major source of revenue for game developers. Nokia is inviting you to an exciting webinar, which introduces the Qt in-app purchasing process and its possibilities for monetisation. The session will also feature a presentation of two game examples in which in-app purchasing is utilised.  

Date: 12 December
Time: 9 a.m. San Francisco, noon New York, 5 p.m. London, 7 p.m. Helsinki

You can sign up here

Implementing and Publishing Series 40 Web Apps (Session 1 & 2)

The webinar will provide a walk-through of a simple Series 40 web application and will point out the various Mobile Web Library (MWL) methods available for tackling various use cases. The session will also cover on-device deployment and testing and how to publish to Nokia Store. In addition, the new Nokia Web Tools 1.5 will be utilized and the new features in the release will be covered.

Date: 1 December
Time:

Session 1: 8 a.m. Helsinki, 10 a.m. Moscow, 2 p.m. Beijing
Session 2: 9 a.m. San Francisco, noon New York, 5 p.m. London, 7 p.m. Helsinki

Sign up now! Attend the session and discover how to receive a free Nokia C3 touch and type phone.

Creating a superb User Experience with Series 40 Web Apps (Session 1 & 2)

Nokia is offering a webinar on "Creating a superb User Experience with Series 40 Web Apps" on the 30th of November, 2011. This webinar will introduce the concepts behind the Nokia Browser for Series 40 that developers and designers need to know to effectively create a good user experience. In the session, the new Nokia Web Tools 1.5 will be utilized and the new features in the release will be covered. Programming topics in this webinar will be confined to HTML/Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and an introduction to Mobile Web Library (MWL); the 1 December webinars will address more-technical programming aspects.

Date: 30 November
Time: 8 a.m. Helsinki, 10 a.m. Moscow, 2 p.m. Beijing (Session 1)
           9 a.m. San Francisco, noon New York, 5 p.m. London, 7 p.m. Helsinki (Session 2)

Sign up now! Attend the session and discover how to receive a free Nokia C3 touch and type phone.

Showcase your Nokia N9 Apps on this Facebook page

Alessandro, popularly referred to as biskero, recently created a Facebook page for developers to showcase their apps, games etc and to get news about N9 related stuffs. Become a fan of the page to become a part of this.

Video: Kevin Lynch interviews Stephen Elop

Kevin Lynch, Adobe CTO interviews Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO in the video below:

Nokia Lumia 800 - In-depth Video Documentary

We had one simple goal “to build a better phone. Something that seamlessly fuses the best industrial design with the best software and user experience.”

Nokia Conversations goes behind the scenes with some of the key designers responsible for the creation of the Nokia Lumia 800, in order to bring you this exclusive in-depth video documentary. It’s as much a story about collaboration and taking risks as it is about design. At 8-minutes long, it’s not your ordinary bite-size online video, but it is packed with heaps of fascinating insights and exclusive access to never-before-seen materials. So it’s worth setting aside a little time if you’re interested in discovering how the Nokia Lumia 800 was born.

What if EVERY part of your next phone was a touchscreen?

Nokia GEM

Nokia GEM perspective

The picture above shows the new Nokia GEM concept device. What if every part of your next phone was a touchscreen? Nokia GEM revolutionizes mobile design by turning the entire handset into a touchscreen, as the video below shows:

The concept device was launched on the 25th anniversary of the Nokia Research Center, the GEM device changes appearance from camera to phone or map according to the function selected by the user. It could even display advertising messages on the back of the phone.

The back and front are also interactive, making it possible to pinch and zoom the rear of the phone while getting a constant clear view of the image on the front or you could have the same image at differing zoom factors on either side of the phone, allowing you to flip between a detailed map view and large-scale area, for example.

Senior Design Manager, Jarkko Saunamäki, who led the team which invented GEM, told Nokia Conversations awhile ago that “Now, when you launch an application like the camera, your mobile phone still looks like a mobile phone, but with GEM, when you launch the camera application, the whole phone looks like a camera. You can have one image wrapped around the whole device or one on each side, as demonstrated in the stylish video animation when the woman user photographs some wallpaper and adopts it as the design for her phone casing. There is no default appearance. If you play a lot of games it will usually resemble a games pad.

“It’s called GEM because polished precious stones have several sides. Also it’s a concept which is like a raw gem, but it needs to be polished to become a real product.”

Footage also shows that users could have the option of carrying advertising on the back of the phone while making calls, in return for a discount on bills. Another scene shows the user altering the mood of her avatar. You also see interaction between phones when one user pours contact details and photos into the woman’s  phone.

The phone could also display 3D images allowing viewing from all angles, allowing the woman user to take a cheeky peek up a man’s towel by tilting the phone.

Nokia HumanForm - Incredible footage of the mobile concept that’s more like a fish than a phone

Nokia HumanForm

Nokia HumanForm was created in a joint effort to translate the most promising new nanotechnologies into meaningful user experience, prototype those for decision making; and transfer and set aspiration for future portfolio. The project is a key to bring significant user experience benefits to the market thereby creating mindshare and value share through nanotechnology enabled experiences.

Nokia HumanForm is a visionary solution for a dynamically flexible device beyond touch screen and voice communication where technology is invisible and intuition takes over.

Natural interactions are enabled with a kinetic user interface. The concept and a follow-up Nokia Kinetic Device prototype were launched in Nokia World 2011.

Augmented Reality Nokia N9 site

Here is a cool interactive website explaining how Nokia N9 works.

Appcelerator/IDC Q4 2011 Mobile Developer Report now available.

In a survey recently carried out by Appcelerator, findings reveal that Amazon’s new Kindle Fire edged Samsung Galaxy Tab as the leading Android Tablet in North America, on par with interest for the iPad prior to its launch in April 2010, and second only to the Galaxy Tab globally with developers. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 also decisively moved ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry OS to become the clear number three mobile OS behind iOS and Android. Appcelerator and IDC also continued their research into how companies are making the move from the web to mobile.

Here are the top-line findings of the report:

• Amazon’s new Kindle Fire ignites developer interest.
• Price is the leading reason for interest in the Kindle Fire.
• When considering Kindle Fire’s potential drawbacks, fragmentation and lack of features like camera and geo-location were the two top concerns cited by developers.
• Windows Phone 7 separated from the pack to become the clear number three mobile platform this quarter.
• Microsoft is enjoying symbiotic success with Nokia. 
• There’s now more interest in Nokia’s new Lumia Windows Phone lineup than RIM’s smartphones.
• HTML5 continues to keep developer interest.
• Connected TV app development interest continues to slide.
• iOS continues to reign at number one in developer interest levels.
• Android phones fell nearly 4 points to 83% while tablets fell nearly 6 points to 68%.

You can download the report here for free.

Nokia Kinetic Device Demo

Nokia Kinetic Device demo

Nokia's research team is working on flexible displays and UIs. You can bend the screen to select, zoom, move between UI elements, and change the volume of music. It's crazy, wild, and as awesome as it looks to play with. See the video here. 

Nokia Lumia 800 review

Nokia Lumia 800

The Verge gives a very comprehensive review of this much touted phone.

As usual with AMOLED, some users will find the colors rendered a little too rich, though there's sadly no option to tone down saturation as there is on Samsung's Galaxy S II.

And for the Ecosystem, they've got this to say

The gravitational pull of Microsoft and Nokia's collective determination can reasonably be expected to produce the critical mass of good apps for Windows Phone to truly compete with the best — it's just that at this particular moment in time, it continues to lag. While closing the gap on Android and iOS, Windows Phone doesn't improve on them in any dramatic way. Its multitasking overview is good, the live tiles offer information more quickly and easily, and its calendar is arguably the best of the bunch, but those are small advantages. iOS still wins when I want to browse the web or check out a new app and Android is still the best platform for users of Google services.

All in all, here's the breakdown

I must really commend the Verge for this highly comprehensive review. It's as if they left nothing out.

The Making of Nokia N9

One word, AMAZING!

Nokia N95 8GB outguns Apple iPhone 3G

Nokia has done it again with their N95 8GB outgunning the soon to be out (July 11th) Apple iPhone 3G. Though similarly capable, the iPhone was found to be less capable though it stood head-to-head with the N95 8GB, but N95 nevertheless came out victorious. Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is very high-tech but has more limitations than N95. (Should soon pickup one.) Some of the restrictive features of iPhone 3G are:

• non-removable battery, 1400mAh, replacement is via sending away to Apple
• Very limited RAM (N95 has around 90MB of RAM after booting)
• Limited multitasking (all apps can be runat once,if necessary;but I don't see why I'd want to do this)
• No Flash support
• No option for Bluetooth keyboard, at present
• 2MP camera- no flash, no recording,fixed focus (N95 has a 5MP camera with professional lens)
• In use, requires two hands to use most of the time, proving a little restrictive
• No MMS support (Emailed photos are all downsampled to VGA)
  

Though it sure has some features that you can't find on N95,like:

• Pouched/cased by necessity, to protect the touch-screen from damage.(N95's camera is not mechanically protected and picks up small day-to-day scratches which slightly impact photo quality)
• Better form factor
  

and some other ones, but the N95 still outshines it, but lets give it to Apple to have been able come-up with a device that can stand head-to-head with one of the highest-tech devices from a phone leader (Nokia). Come to think of it, this is Apple's first time coming up with a mobile phone. What Apple has always been known for is their excellent sense of aesthetics - I hope we all agree?

You can get to read the full comparison by Steve Litchfield here