Symbian Programming tips: Symbian Community Newsletter

News

Only two weeks until Mobile DevFest

The Mobile DevFest will be held at Earls Court in London on 21-22 October. Offering over 1000 attendees dedicated developer content, Mobile DevFest is FREE TO ATTEND and a great opportunity to network with the mobile developer community. This year's event includes three tracks of dedicated technical developer content:

Mobile development - current development technologies and how technology has evolved over the last decade
Essential development - what every developer needs to know to be successful in building mobile applications
The next wave - the future of mobile development and technologies.

You will also be able to attend developer training free of charge in our instructor-led, hands-on labs. Each attendee will have access to a PC and will be able to follow the instructor in building a working mobile application in under an hour. Learn from the leading industry experts including Inmote, IdeaWorks, Motorola, Red Five Labs, NAVTEQ, Forum Nokia, Cranes Software, Xenient Corporation, Tieturi Oy, Digia and EMCC Software.

In addition, our 'Ask the Experts' area will give you an opportunity to meet and network with Symbian experts face-to-face and to find solutions to your programming questions.

Find out more and register

NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge - EMEA registrations close on October 24th!

NAVTEQ is a Bronze sponsor of the Symbian Smartphone Show and will have a seminar speaker slot and a Hands-on Lab session at the Mobile DevFest. NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) is running a global developer competition called the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge.

Symbian developers interested in participating can register and submit an LBS-enabled application into a competition to win one of three S60 devices Nokia E71, N85 or Samsung INNOV8 (i8510). EMEA registration closes in October. A completed solution is not necessary at time of registration.

Find out more

Penrillian sessions at this year's Smartphone Show

Penrillian is offering free, half hour consultancy sessions at the forthcoming Symbian Smartphone show. Penrillian's experts will help you to assess the feasibility of new product ideas, suggest porting approaches, and confirm whether they could assist with your planned project. To book an appointment, email Rachel Johnson at rachel.johnson@penrillian.com.

Wireless Industry Partnership's MINI Jam - Coming to the Smartphone Show!

An informal session to connect with experienced and talented developers, as well as industry experts and decision makers. Join the Jam on October 21, from 4:00pm – 6:00pm at the Mobile DevFest. Discussion leaders include: Handango, Moto, Getjar, Device Anywhere, OMTP, NSTL, Connect2Media and others. There will be three discussions featuring:

Cool, Cool, Cool - getting your opinion on what’s hot, what’s now, what should be
Future of Web Apps - are native apps dead?
Getting to Market - pushing discovery, increasing revenue

We’ll wrap it up with a review from everyone, and find out the truth behind developer programs and what’s really ‘open’. Got something to say ahead of time? Send us a tweet: http://twitter.com/mobilejam

New on SDN

New paper: Symbian OS Descriptors Cookbook

Alexey Gusev's paper illustrates the use of one of the more challenging entities in Symbian OS: descriptors. These string classes are frequently criticized by developers new to Symbian OS. Even the more seasoned engineer might have to spend some time to resolve common problems when working with the descriptors classes. This article provides a clear and definitive guide for everyone who wants to get handy experience with these classes, learn how they work and get brief solutions for the most common problems that a developer faces in his or her everyday job.

Read the paper and download the code

New paper: Long Running Active Object: a Design Pattern

This article describes a commonly used design pattern that solves the problem of allowing a thread to perform a long running background task whilst still remaining responsive to higher priority events. The article is laid out as a design pattern, in a style similar to the forthcoming Symbian Press book, Common Design Patterns for Symbian OS.

Read the paper

New booklet: A Guide to P.I.P.S.

P.I.P.S. and Open C are primarily porting aids that help you port POSIX-based software to Symbian OS, quickly and efficiently. This manual, A Guide to P.I.P.S., will guide you through using the latest version of P.I.P.S., v1.4, describing the libraries and the concepts behind them, as well as giving an example HelloWorld to help you get started.

Find out more

New translated booklets in Russian and Italian

Carbide.c++ in Russian and Quick Recipes Taster in Italian are now available on the site.

Find out more

New book coming soon: Multimedia on Symbian OS

The latest Symbian smartphones have extremely powerful multimedia capabilities. Multimedia on Symbian OS - Inside the Convergence Device will help you harness that power to create innovative mobile multimedia experiences.

Check out the Multimedia taster

New book coming soon: Common Design Patterns on Symbian OS

If you're asking yourself 'How do the experts architect software for mobile devices?' then this book is for you. Common Design Patterns for Symbian OS collects the wisdom and experience of some of Symbian's finest software engineers. It distils their knowledge into a set of common design patterns for you to use when creating software for Symbian smartphones.

Find out more

New booklets coming soon on LBS and .NET

Two of our forthcoming booklets focus on new releases and the hot topics at this year’s Smartphone Show in October:

A Guide to .NET Development on S60, created with Red Five Labs, takes you from starting your development using the .NET runtime on Symbian devices (using Net60) to extending your application to access the network. Example code is also provided to help you on your way.
Essential S60: Location-Aware Applications, produced with Forum Nokia, describes the LBS features provided by the S60 platform, introducing you to the market and to the APIs, and helping you to make the most of them to ensure your users receive a rich, location-aware experience!

We’re also updating our most popular booklet, Getting Started on Symbian OS, to help ease your first steps into development on Symbian OS. The booklet describes what you need to get started and how to build and run your first application.

Stay tuned for our brand new training section

Later this month we will launch of the new Symbian OS Training section on developer.symbian.com. The new section will combine an easy-to-use interface with the latest information on Symbian OS training courses available around the world.

The latest Symbian FAQs

How can I access serial communication ports from the Emulator?

Does Symbian OS provide a POSIX compliant file system?

Why does my DevCert only work for a small subset of the IMEIs I specified in my DevCertRequest?

How should I update my DEF file if I delete a class with exported ordinals?

Why do I get Exception 10000000 rather than Kern Exec 3 in the event of an access violation or segmentation fault?

From our Partners & Community

Forum Nokia

Forum Nokia Launchpad is your fast track to success.

Looking to take your mobile business to the next level? Then join Forum Nokia Launchpad today to get exclusive access to alpha/beta SDKs, platform roadmaps, discounted devices and technical support, business opportunities, market intelligence, and more. Whether it is technical resources or business opportunities, Launchpad has what you need.

For more information please visit Forum Nokia Launchpad

Forum Nokia Launches Calling All Innovators Competition

Forum Nokia is looking for applications that redefine what we think when we use our mobile devices. To find those game-changing applications from around the world, Forum Nokia has launched Calling All Innovators, a global contest for developers to create mobile applications that will help to better society. Calling All Innovators is open to all mobile application developers, and features three distinct categories for submissions:

ECO-Challenge “Make a Difference”
Emerging Markets Challenge “IMAGINE the Possibilities”
Technology Showcase “Developer Showdown”

More information about Forum Nokia’s Calling All Innovators, including how to submit an application and complete contest rules and requirements, can be found online at our website below. Additionally, visit Share on OVI to watch Dean Kamen discuss Calling All Innovators.

Find out more about Calling All Innovators

Learn about Web Runtime at live events

SNAP Mobile by Nokia is an industry-leading, turnkey, connected-game infrastructure based on Java™ technology.

Release 2.1 of the SNAP Mobile SDK adds a new implementation of Maze Racer as the sample game; demonstrates compliance with the SNAP Mobile Standard Game Requirements (SGR) and uses the UI Framework; and includes an expanded SNAP Mobile API that supports game development with new features, such as bots that simulate opponents and the UI Framework for the creation of graphical UI widgets. Also, the SNAP Mobile Emulation Environment has been updated to support games that use bots and assets.

Get more information about the SNAP Mobile SDK 2.1