Back in December Nokia announced the launch of its alphalabs.cc competition, an experiment which merges technology and the arts. It is designed to encourage artists and developers to share the experimental apps that they create on the Windows Phone 7 platform.
The competition, launched in conjunction with onedotzero, a London-based moving image and digital arts company, will be open for submissions until 13th January 2012. It will judged by representatives from Nokia and onedotzero. Runners up will each win £500 while the winner will take away a grand prize sum of £5,000.
To enter the competition, entrants must simply document their experiments and submit them via alphalabs.cc.
Keith Varty, Head of EDX, Nokia UK and Ireland comments: “This competition is about bold ideas and experimentation, and brings to life the new possibilities that our partnership with Microsoft has created for the ecosystem.” He continues: “The Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7 has created exciting opportunities that participants of the competition will be able to take full advantage of. We’ll be looking for concepts that demonstrate a creative use of the platform, and not necessarily fully finished apps.”
For more information on how to enter and updates on the competition take a look at alphalabs.cc.
Below is an example of some of the work that was showcased on the day.
After being organised somewhat limply over previous years under the banner of Leeds Digital Week, 2011 sees the batten taken up by the people that really matter – the folks that actually get on and make stuff happen ‘The Industry’. Leeds Digital Festival starts from 29 October through to 30 November with five weeks of events taking place all around the city, covering everything from Usability to Social TV.
It’s great to see the industry coming together – a fantastic achievement, bringing all factions of digital within Leeds together along with wider industries through sponsorship and partnerships. Great work!
Details: Leeds Digital Festival 2011
Twitter: @ldsdigital
Hashtag: #ldf2011
It’s coming to the time when the successful Bradford Animation Festival returns to Bradford at the National Media Museum this year from 8-12 November 2011. Something that might be of interest to Mobile Manifest followers is an insight into the making of Rolando series of games by Hand Circus. We know it’s always hard to get under the skin of what really happens from creation, launch and subsequent deployment. Join Simon Oliver on 8 November from 13.45 when he’ll shares the background into making their games, how they got started and what worked well and provides advice for anyone who wants to get into development – and wants to stay there.
Details of the session – Simon Oliver – Founder, Hand Circus :: Lessons learned from an independent developer
Details of BAF 2011 - www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/BradfordAnimationFestival
What: Windows Phone Developer Training
When: 10 October, 2011 09.00 – 18.00
Where: Emirates Stadium, London
With the first Nokia Windows Phone expected to launch in Q4 2011, Nokia & Microsoft have teamed up to offer developers a free hands on training day. The Roadshow takes in various European cities, with the London session taking place on 10 October at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.
The day promises an in-depth insight on how easy it can be to adopt the Windows Phone developers’ platform, and getting your Apps to market with sessions including:
- Building Windows Phone Applications with Visual Studio 2010
- Silverlight on Windows Phone
- Windows Phone Fast Application Switching and Tombstoning
- XNA for Windows Phone
- Selling a Windows Phone Application
The event runs from 09.00 – 18.00 with lunch, refreshments, and networking included. Nokia and Microsoft teams will be there on the day to help support developers in making the move to the Windows Phone Platform. There’s also an opportunity on the day to take a tour around the stunning Emirates Stadium to see Arsenal’s new home.
More information on the event and registration can be found here.
The past couple of weeks I’ve been playing with a selection of Nokia handsets running the latest Symbian Anna OS (N8-00, C7-00, E6-00). Firstly the biggest sense that hits you is how a few simple changes in the OS design can seriously change the usable feel of the device. When you compare the old with the new, you can clearly see the improvements – smoother icons, better text input ability through the long awaited addition of portrait mode. No more spinning the handset around to tap in your text.
For me this iteration of the OS has been long overdue – somewhat late to the UI party. UI is king – users are well versed in the sexy UI’s offered by iOS and Android. Although it does bring the look and feel of Symbian up to date for the current slew of handsets. It’s the UI of N9 and Nokia Windows Phone that could really set Nokia as a headline act in the coming months when they hit the shops.
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- Icons within Anna have an update - smoother and a more rounded affair
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- Symbian Anna - Better text input now available through the portrait mode
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- Symbian ^3 - Screen Shot
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- Symbian ^3 - Screen Shot
Last week Mobile Manifest staged our latest event based upon Location Based Services (LBS). The Round Foundry Media Centre in Leeds were our kind hosts for the evening session, which was attended by a broad section of attendees who came to hear how location API developer tools could be implemented into mobile app development, and see some working examples.
Setting president for the evening was event sponsor NAVTEQ’s Technical Consultant Mike Moore, who provided an in-depth insight into NAVTEQ’s Network For Developers, and their suite of tools and resources to access their huge array of location API’s including Point of Interest (POI), and Visual Content. Mike showed some impressive growth figures – Navigation would rise to 351 million users, with search discovery through location soaring to 422 million users by 2014. Mike’s full presentation is embedded below.
Next up on the agenda was Jorg Hosel who made a sterling effort for the event by travelling from Berlin for the evening to represent Nokia Maps. Jorg a Software Engineer for Nokia provided details on Nokia’s tool sets across their QT, JavaME, platforms and how developers can tap into the API’s at Nokia Developer.
Yeadon based Bolser gave the event the first show of location examples through their work developing the 2011 V Festival App. Bolser’s 2010 V Festival app became an award winner, giving them scope to expand 2011 version to include LBS further. Digital Director Richard Carter shared how this location app needed a great deal of crafting, and on-site configuration, as ‘The site doesn’t begin to take shape until about a week before the festival, so pin pointing where things will be can be tricky’.
Sameer Ballewar from Samsung showcased Buddy Fix – an open source social & location application creator. Developed internally at Samsung, Buddy Fix provides the basis to create integrated social and location services, to mange social networks and locations through their platform.
Wrapping up the showcases was Dom Hodgson from Hodgetastic, Pizzapowered and Leeds Hack, who gave an entertaining demonstration of #hometourist a previous Hack project that utilises the Twitter Hashtag and geo located devices or postcodes to populate a map. Dom had the audience tweet live their comment and the tag, where participants could see their comments and location appear live on the big screen. The showcase provided a mindful example on the power of location.
Following the presented sessions the all important networking gave attendees the opportunity to discuss their LBS plans, current projects, and chat over a couple of beers.
View more presentations from Mobile Manifest
Sometimes we’re so obsessed with the latest this, and the latest that, that we don’t take the necessary time to pause and look back at the past and learn. Here’s a video from Steve Jobs chatting at WWDC 97, where he offers open questions from the audience. Bear in mind the date – there’s some gems of wisdom in there, knowing what we know now from Apple. One phrase is consistent throughout from Jobs – “Lets make some great products”. Think it’s fair to say they’ve stuck to that mantra.
Last week saw Engadget talking about a leaked video from Nokia, where Stephen Elop showcased the prototype Nokia Windows Phone due for release later in the year – code name Sea Ray.
Have a look at the video here, and let us know what you think.
Today we launched our next event taking place on 14 July 2011, with our friends at Round Foundry Media Centre. The event entitled Location, Location, Mobile! looks at the subject of Location Based Service via mobile devices. It’s a hot topic with estimates looking at it being an industry worth $10B by 2016.
On the day NAVTEQ, Nokia and a series of developers will present insights into the opportunities in terms of the development and business potential of LBS.
Registration can be made via the events page.
In the world of Nokia and Microsoft since the February announcement, the biggest question on any developers lips are ‘What’s Happening!!’. This week saw the Nokia re-brand of Forum Nokia to Nokia Developer, along with full integration of the Windows Phone development tools, documentation, and subsequent links.
The new Nokia Developer site offers all developers an easy route to finding all the information needed across Qt, Windows Phone 7.1, Java, and Web Apps. This clarity makes for a much more informative experience when entering the site, and ultimately gets you the the information you need quickly.
Developing on other mobile operating systems? Will you be making the shift into the new Nokia & Windows development space? Post your thoughts below, I’d be interested to see where you’re planning to go…
