BlackBerry Storm Developer Competition

Vodafone is looking for the best application for the BlackBerry Storm. Resourceful developers taking part in the Vodafone innovations competition for the BlackBerry Storm
not only have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win 50,000 euros – the three best software applications will be provided as downloads for all users in the BlackBerry Application Center.

To enter the competition register here.

Here’s what you can win:



However here is catch :)

the winners of the SDC also agree to accord VF the following rights of usage for the prize-winning applications:
The winners acknowledge VF’s rights of usage (reproduction, duplication, distribution, publication, transmission, presentation, promotion, etc.) pertaining to the respective applications for all currently known forms of utilisation exclusively, in full, and without any limitation of content, regional restraints or time limits. The granting of such rights is in no way limited solely to online use, but also applies to the exploitation of said applications by other means. This granting of rights of usage also applies to any subsequent rights arising from new or future legislation or for any other reasons. VF reserves the right to transfer all or any of the aforementioned rights, in full or in part, to third parties, in particular to RIM.
VF is authorised to exploit any or all applications in conjunction with other works, and also to process, subsequently modify, enhance or expand the respective applications as they see fit. As the granting of rights detailed above is equally applicable to the relevant object and source codes of the respective applications, the winners are bound over to provide VF, on request, with the object and source codes free of charge.

Reading this, if you were to ‘win’ 1st prize of 50,000 Euros, you are giving your application away to Vodafone for this sum. It’s even worse if you ‘win’ 3rd place - only 5,000 Euros for all your intellectual property. Unbelieveable.

Handwriting Calculator by Nokia Beta Lab

Well, this is something I find really promising: Nokia Handwriting Calculator allows you to calculate handwritten math expressions with a touch-screen Nokia device, and with a Windows PC. As such, the calculator really nice, but the really cool part is, in my opinion, the underlying handwriting recognition technology that enables us to create great new applications in the future.

Download here.

Nokia Users get Free Email Service

When it comes to the subject of setting up an email account on your cell phone, Nokia's betting that the words "free of charge" will appeal to its users.

Mail on Ovi, Nokia's free email service, has just officially launched and accounts can be set up directly on Nokia phones. Users with Nokia Series 40 devices can create a custom email address right on their handsets. Better still is that the Ovi email service offers up features we typically associate with PC-based email accounts such as photo, music, and video sharing.

Consumers will be able to choose from 12 languages based on the settings of their device, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German (to mention a few).

To create a free account or to login to an existing account, click here.

MeraNokia for Agriculture, Education, Astrology and Ringtones services

MeraNokia offers a range of relevant services, in Agriculture, Education, Astrology and Ringtones, for our consumers. These
services are either subscription-based or on-demand, depending on the type of content. These special content updates are
accessible exclusively through our MeraNokia application, which is pre-embedded on select Nokia devices such as the Nokia
2600 classic and the Nokia 1680 classic.
The complete MeraNokia package consists of the following suite of services:

Agriculture Services A subscription-based package that gives daily updates on Market Prices for crops, Weather Information and Agri-Information & Tips. Education Services The Education service comprises two different offerings with individual subscriptions. These are Learn English (which provides daily tips to improve English language skills) & General Knowledge. Ringtones The Ringtones service is an On-demand service, where ringtones from two categories (Devotional & Top 10) can be downloaded for a nominal fee. Astrology This service provides daily SMS horoscopes for the selected sun-sign, via subscription.

Content delivery for all these services is via special content SMSes accessible only through the MeraNokia application.

Nokia signs agreement to sell security appliance business to Check Point Software Technologies

Nokia announced today that it has signed an agreement for Check Point Software Technologies to acquire Nokia’s security appliance business. The companies signed the deal on December 21, 2008. The two businesses have collaborated for over a decade to deliver industry-leading enterprise security solutions, and this agreement is the natural culmination of that long-standing collaboration.

This deal is one of the actions to focus the Services and Software unit’s portfolio on five core consumer internet services with the best consumer appeal and financial viability. Nokia announced on September 29, 2008 that it was in advanced stages to sell the security appliance business to a financial investor. However, unprecedented financial market conditions in recent months extended those negotiations, during which time Nokia actively evaluated other options for the business.

“The strong fundamentals of the business have always made it an attractive target for a number of buyers. The announcement today represents the fact that multiple and complex negotiations have culminated in a successful agreement with Check Point, the natural home for this business and a great option for moving the business forward,” says Tom Furlong, head of Consumer Messaging at Nokia.

“Check Point and Nokia form a natural combination, which will provide a great path forward for the thousands of customers who depend on Nokia security solutions today,” says Greg Podshadley, head of the security appliance business at Nokia. “For employees, it means an opportunity to be a part of one of the industry leading brands in security solutions.

Mobile Firefox [fennec] for Symbian just kicked off

Mozilla have kicked off their port for Fennec (ie Firefox Mobile) Symbian.

The current high-level plan is split into 5 phases:

1. Fennec compiling and linking
   Planned completion date: end of January
2. Basic/limited browsing possible
   Planned completion date: end of February
3. Full browsing
   Planned completion date: end of April
4. Fennec ready for initial testing
   Planned completion date: TBD
5. Bug fixing and productisation of Fennec
   Planned completion date: TBD

Want to get involved? Take a look at the wiki or join us on irc on #mobile for general mobile discussions or #symbian for Symbian specific discussions.

New Qt Training Materials

As you will most likely have noticed, Qt for S60 is going to be really big. Therefore, it’s a good idea to start learning Qt as soon as possible.

One chance to do this is going to be the first public “Qt on S60” webinar ( which will be broadcasted on 17th December 2008).

To get an overview of what Qt can do for you and how to get Qt to do just that, you might additionally want to take a look at the new Qt course materials that have just been published at symbianresources.com.

Three modules are already finished, which cover many of the general aspects of Qt cross-platform development, including:

- Qt overview
- Signals and Slots
- Meta-Objects, Properties
- Widgets, Dialogs, Main Window
- Menus, Toolbars, Actions
- Events
- Layouts and Styles, low level painting
- Data types
- Internationalization
- Settings
- Sockets / Files

In the future, new modules with a special focus on unique aspects of Qt for S60 will be added. Due to the cross-platform nature of Qt, the features that have been covered in the general slide sets are of course fully applicable to all platforms that Qt runs on, including S60.

For those reading about "Qt for S60" for the first time here's a blog post with the required pointers: We’re porting Qt to S60!

Also to be noted that the newly released IDE Carbide.c++ 2.0 includes support for application development using Qt for S60.