S60 Open to new features

Hi,

soemthing like this would be really nice. E.g. we are maybe developing an application for the 5500, and could test it a lot cheaper this way.

As a Forum Pro member, you can get the devices, and there is also now a new possibility to test your app on numerous devices over the internet.

But why is this only for Forum Pro members? I would pay of course also for these services, but just cannot afford the annual Forum Pop membership.

Best regards
Max

As an addon, I would really like the testing over the internet.

I would think about it like this:
You pay a small fee and push your application via a webinterface to your desired handheld. You can then watch the screen and have access to the keypad in a normal webbrowser or some extra application. Such software is already available or shoudn't be hard to develop. The developers can test their softwares without travelling to some fixed lab

Max

Hi,

I agreee with Max. I saw something like this at Motorola as a beta test last year.

Maybe Nokia is "testing" this new service with Pro members and (hopefully) make this available as a paid service to all developers sooner or later. (I really hope that. Forum Nokia Pro is not an option for a shareware developer.)

But one thing that could be very hard to test are interactions with additional hardware like GPS receivers. Don't know if or how Nokia solved that problem.

Best Regards
Björn

Ciao

I like the idea of having a Nokia Lab for testing on different devices. For Flash Lite development is important to see physically how your content looks like on different screen resolution and how it performs.

Alessandro

@Tommi: This is really a good idea. I fully support that... :)

@Max and Bjorn: The "online" service is up and running now. It costs EUR 8/hour and is available for Forum Nokia Pro members only.

I was invited to be a beta tester a couple of weeks ago as Forum Nokia Champion. The service works great, but there is overhead because the screenshots have to be captured and transferred via Internet. Some applications that requires a lot of processing power, such as games, may not be suitable for this.

IMHO, a service where we can test our applications on "real" devices are still much better.

Yes, I know that it is now up and running, my point was to open it up for others, why only Nokia Pro?

Maybe Tommi can ask them to open it for everybody :-)

@Max: Sorry for my misunderstanding. I was actually just scanning all the comments and saw the word "testing" in Bjorn's comment.

Anyway, I agree with you, the service should be opened for everyone.

I noticed Nokia has set up booths in area malls, perhaps have the testing labs in those?

This is one of our biggest problems with developing for phones, especially given that the S60 platform doesn't seem to be quite as 'standard' as would be nice, even for an application as basic as ours. It's very expensive to get hold of new phone handsets, especially SIM-free, and everyone here who needs a phone (and could get one on contract and reduced price) already has one.

I have talked to several people at the Smartphone show for the last couple of years about loan devices. The main issue seems to be covering the cost of the device in the event that they don't get returned. Forum Nokia Pro members have already paid a fair chunk of cash over so I suspect this is used in part as security for the loan phones.

One guy I spoke to told me that the final test devices that they have prior to a new phone release are just thrown in the bin, so perhaps the way is to hang around the bins....

You might also want to talk to phone operators - I think Orange here in the UK do some kind of testing labs, where by arrangement you can visit and use test equipment. I think you have to join their developer program to access the labs.

Can you say... RPM? http://www.sysopendigia.com/C2256FEF0043E9C1/0/405000811

Seems our friends at SysOpen Digia have a solution for this problem.

Forum Nokia used have this kind of service. It was called a "Developer hub" and it was in Helsinki, Finland. There developer had access to all devices including prototypes. It was closed down just a while a go due to a lack of "traffic". Testing over the Internet is kind of a replacement for that. Of course it's not the same thing, but it's much more cheaper.