Nokia API Bridge

Another thing I missed is the Nokia API bridge.

When I read the presentation of the technologie, 2 things came on my mind :
Capuchin and KuneriLite

KuneriLite adds functionnality throught plugins
Capuchin "enables developers to bridge the Java™ ME and Adobe® Flash Lite™"
Nokia API bridge "provides a plug-in mechanism that can be used to make features of Symbian and third-party native Symbian applications available to Java applications, web apps, and Adobe Flash Lite content"

You can't create your own plugin on KuneriLite
YOu can extend Capuchin throught the Service API
You can extend Nokia API bridge throught a Plugin API

KuneriLite supports any S60 phones (?)
Capuchin supports Java Platform JP-8.4 SE phones
Nokia API supports any S60 FP1+ phones (ie FL2 phones)...even SE, Samsung..?

So my question is "WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE A COMMON TECHNOLOGY?!" ;)

New SE capuchin phone : Jalou

Sony Ericsson announced a new phone : Jalou

This phone is Flash Lite 2.0 enabled and use Capuchin.
Apart the motion gaming (EyeToy on phone), this phone is...well...a bling bling phone.
It means the limited mirror-pink-24carats-D&G phone will be for girls who makes Paris Hilton their idol.
Guys have the pittyPhone to shine, girls now have the Jalou.

Sorry SE, but I hate the phones who aren't what they must be : a phone!
Satio seems far better than this...shinning toy.

Capuchin dedicated forum on SE

I found by chance the newly opened Project Capuchin and Flash Lite forum at SE Developer World.

I hope I'll read there as much interesting information as in Forum Nokia.

SE PlayNow app store submission opened to developers

While PlayNow submissim was only available to 'selected developers' at launch, SE announced 3 days ago the full opening.

Note that, as I already talked about, you need to be a company (for payment) and to sign your app to successfully submit content...like always

I was unable to even try submission since you must fill a form asking for company name, vat and bank info to access submission.
hopefully a Step by Step example is available, for illustration.

New Alpha app on SE Labs : FMRadio

A new Capuchin app has been added on SE Labs this morning

FM Radio

FM radio use the Tuner capability for JSR 234 (scroll to the bottom), with full RDS support

Note: download and mobile links are now working (they were broken on first post)

SE PlayNow app store, 1st July launch!

Sony Ericsson PlayNow app store submissions seems to have started but I can't use it...not working yet ?!
Hopefully a step by step details and informations are available



The interesting points:

For premium content (end user pays to download) you receive 70% of net revenue from sales, after taxes, service charges and so on. You can also distribute free content

The classic 70/30....but if you read the detailled doc, you'll see SE allows ads-enabled app and isn't against subscribtion-enabled app (and others specific registering models like upgrade,etc...)

To submit content, you need to be a legally registered company or entity.This is required for payment processing and tax (VAT) reasons. We regret that we cannot accept submissions from private individuals.

Sadly, it means I personnaly won't be able to submit to SE App store...
Unlike OVI Store, SE explains why this choice....and shows interest in private individuals (not ignore them).
On the FAQ, they use "At this point"...I don't know if I could dream or not :)

How long will it take for my application to be reviewed once it is submitted?
At present our goal is 30 days

Ouchh! 30 days while people are complaining about OVI Store 'slow' process !

If your application is accepted but not signed, you must now complete JavaVerified™ or Symbian Signed certification

It's a good thing...you only have to pay and go throught the signing process AFTER SE validation.
And yes, Symbian also! for their S60 5th edition's device(s)...




If your app is rejected, you can use GetJar as 2nd option....
It's strange...does it mean GetJar will be the home of middle/low quality apps ?!

I didn't find enought information on how GetJar & SE will work together.
I thought SE PlayNow will 'only' be a filter view of GetJar (read SE PlayNow apps will ALSO be available on standard GetJar).
But it seems GetJar will be the second choice...



For more 'pro' details & guidelines, read the misc documents available.
You'll find which countries is supported and with which payment methods...

New SE capuchin phone : T715

Sony Ericsson announced yesterday a new phone : T715

A "credit-card sized slider style phone"...small screen...
It's strange since actually people are looking for wide screen for video & web browsing...

Support FL2.0 and capuchin

SE PlayNow app store submission in July

Finally, Sony Ericsson PlayNow submission website will open 1st July.
I know GetJar is behind the submission process so I can't wait to see how they mix SE PlayNow & GetJar !

FlashLite Phone Browser v1.1

This morning I released the new version of FlashLite Phone Browser (see on the right side the AIR badge to install it)

This version uses a database to store information and include Sony Ericsson phones.
You could also filter the Flash Lite version wanted.



Unfortunatly, when I made v1.0, I missed an important point about update so v1.0 users have to uninstall their versions before installing v1.1.
Sorry for that !

New SE capuchin phones : Naite & C901GH

From Sony Ericsson, it seems SE is launching a new kind of phone : Greenheart™
Note, they already announced the prototypes in September'08.

The Naite & C901 are so FL2.0 enabled devices with Capuchin support, made of recycled plastics and with a low power consumption.

New SE Capuchin services !

While Nokia added the new Device service (thanks Dale to pointing it), Sony, following Satio announcement, added 10 new services :
-Accelerometer
-Bluetooth (!!)
-Contacts
-File (!!!!!!)
-Internationalization
-Location
-Messaging
-Multimedia (record audio!)
-Persistency
-Radio
+ the availability to create your own !

It's me or Sony is fighting hard with Nokia ?!
I can't wait for the Satio !

SE Labs : lot of Capuchin app to try!

June is SE's month !! ;)

Sony Ericsson launched its beta lab
You already can test 5 capuchin apps...the most interesting is the Capuchin Twitter

The Capuchin Twitter application allows both browsing and posting of tweets

I want a Capuchin enabled phone!!!
Please Sony, launch something like Nokia's RDA and Samsung's Labs!

SE PlayNow app store

Via AVIarts, SE launched its "content and service platform" and...will accept submission !
After Nokia's OVI, it's Sony Ericsson and its PlayNow !

I tried to open the Submission page w/o success so no more information right now...

I really hope it won't cost as much fees as for OVI store...

New SE capuchin phone : Satio

Sony Ericsson announced yesterday the coming soon Satio phone.

According SE's Phone Gallery, Satio is capuchin enabled...but no FlashLite ?
I doubt Phone Gallery data is correct because, on the press release we can see Satio is in fact a S60 5th Edition phone so I hope!

I remember SE told they'll contribute to Symbian Fundation with capuchin...Is it the first Symbian phone with capuchin ?! If yes, it's defintly the perfect phone for me !!!!!

It's even more possible since in Phone Gallery, Satio is on "SymbianFundation" platform...what does it mean ?!

New SE capuchin phone : Yari

Sony Ericsson announced yesterday the coming soon Yari phone.
According SE's Phone Gallery, Yari is FL2 & capuchin enabled.
The funny stuff about that one is

gesture gaming technology

For the one who played with the EyeToy on the PS2, here we go..EyeToy on mobile !
Don't know if capuchin will allows Flash content to access this 'gesture gaming' API but it could be fun !

New SE capuchin phone : Aino

Sony Ericsson announced yesterday the coming soon Aino phone.
According SE's Phone Gallery, Aino is FL2 & capuchin enabled.
The funny stuff about that one is

Control your PLAYSTATION®3 and access its media content on your Aino anywhere, anytime using Remote Play with PLAYSTATION®3

Screen sizes

Last week, I finally found some times to look a recorder eSeminar of Dale Rankine (Mocket) : Tips and Tricks for Effective Adobe Flash Lite.

In this cool eSeminar, Dale gave this tips :

Set Stage to minimum screen size, then bleed visual assets around the stage to allow for screen resizing

I'm actually using fsCommand2("FullScreen", true) to avoid problem with screensize but Dale came again with an alert

SE devices will not scale up but will scale down

ouch!
So the first tips is finally a great idea but when you see all the different screen sizes existing....wait a minute...which screen sizes EXACTLY ?

I so jumped to Bill Perry's Flash Lite enable phones sheet
I only develop for FL2.0+, since I'm not an AS1 guy so I looked to all FL2.0+ phones screen size and, well, screen sizes do not change as much as I though.
It seems I kept FL1.x phones enable screen sizes in memory.

Let's see which screen sizes exist

• 800x352 : 1 phone (Nokia E90)*


• 320x240 : 1 phone (Nokia E71...my future phone ? to replace my Samsung I320)


• 320x239 : 2 phones (BREW LG)


• 240x320 : 73 phones (56 Nokia + 17 SE)


• 240x300 : 8 phones (BREW)


• 240x266 : 9 phones (SE Cxxx phones ...even on the C905-capuchin inside)*


• 176x220 : 1 phone (SE V640i)


• 176x204 : 9 phones (BREW)


• 128x160 : 6 phones (only Nokia S40 3rd FP2 phones)

*E90 also has a secondary display which is 240x320

So...what does this mean ? What I see is that a lot of phones are 240x320 (or near)...
Personnaly, I'll try now to make applications in 240x320 with a 240x266 effective view (27 pixels up and down for other phones)
"Wait! you loose 20 phones!"
Well, if you really want to support the others size, just use some math ;)
128x160 is a 240x300 scaled down
176x204 is a 240x278 scaled down
176x220 is a 240x300 scaled down
320x240 is a 240x320 flipped...you'll need to handle that (and the controls!)
320x239 is near a 320x240, no ? ;)
for the E90...I don't know if FL applications could be launched on the secondary display. If so, it's a 240x320!

This post is what I'm actually testing...I don't know if you should do the same.
I just point out some details which could give you some ideas for your futur development. It's up to you and the main goal of your application.

oh...and the Chumby need a 320x240 SWF ;)

Summer ending !

Finally, I get back my web access.
This summer I moved to a better place, with forest and river.
A very good place to work when I'm at home!
The hardest part was...to get my Net connection back!
But it's now there and so, I was finally able to look at the eSiminar I was waiting for ages : Project Capuchin !

I can't wait to see Capuchin everywhere!
I'm a great lover of Nokia phones (and their Symbian OS) but I must admit I'll probably change my phone for a SE C905!!

Nokia, please! make a Capuchin for S40 & S60 !!!! :)
Java is far easier for Actionscript developer than this ugly Symbian C++.
And I still can accept there isn't an easy way to deploy FLite application on S40 phones, the most sold platform (at least, here in France)

Side note : I didn't receive feedback on my Flash Lite Phones Browser, so I'll probably won't update it anymore, it's useless.

Flash Lite 2 on Sony Ericsson phones

I was reading latest white paper on Projet Capuchin when I saw SE had a Flash Lite dedicated page

You should read Developers' Guidelines - Flash Lite 2.0 , it's very interesting...well, sort of...

I think the most important to read is

There are two main implementations in Flash Lite enabled Sony Ericsson phones:
• The “stand alone” model. Flash Lite exists as a separate media application in the phone. In some Sony Ericsson phones, this model is used for wallpaper or screensaver applications.
• The “browser based” model. Flash Lite essentially runs as a plugin within the resident browser of the phone.
This model allows a user to access Flash Lite content via an Internet connection without needing to open a separate application for viewing. It is also the default way of viewing Flash content via the phone file manager. This model is implemented in all Flash-enabled Sony Ericsson phones.

and

Network access from Flash Lite is only permitted for Flash files running in the browser plugin.

So, if I understood correclty, Flash Lite 2 applications will be launched throught SE's browser Acces Netfront 3.5

Something came to my mind :
Capuchin....It's pure assumption but it could be a Netfront embedded on a midlet. It's what every Flash(Lite) wrapper do, so you only have to make call to localhost (raw method) from the Flash file and pseudo browser will intercept it and respond.
It's also what I'm trying to do on Jarpa