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

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.

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.

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.