Nokia Mobile Reviews and Games

webinars Flash Lite Upcoming
Two upcoming Flash Lite related seminars - do register to them now: Via Bill: Flash Lite and Flex for mTourism January 23rd (9 am PST) Speakers: Untravel Media’s CTO Ira Hochman and CEO Michael Epstein Topic: developing mobile travel applications (using geo-coding), a web-based Flex application and a Flash Lite mobile application Via Boston Flash Mobile and Devices User Group: Developing Flash Lite Widgets for the Chumby Platform January 25th (9 am PST) Speaker: Scott Janousek, Technical Director of Hooken Mobile Topic: developing Flash Lite widgets for the Chumby platform

Casual Games Thoughts on
Here are some thoughts on the subject: According to a report by CGA (Casual Games Association), on the web, casual game demographics are: buyers are mostly female (74 percent) and over 35 years (72 percent) BUT only slightly more than half of the players of casual games are female (51 percent) and they’re also a little younger (just 62 percent are over 35) 80 percent of those with children/grandchildren play casual games with them THINGS TO UNDERSTAND: If you want to access a mass market, instead of dominating a small niche, think beyond the hardcore game audience, no matter what your personal preferences are. Reasons for playing include: educational use of leisure time mental exercise confidence building stress relief entertainment pain relief THINGS TO UNDERSTAND: Entertainment is not the only, or even the most important reason, for playing a casual game. Sources: Gamasutra: Opinion: Reflexive’s Carroll On Understanding The Casual Gamer As Casual Games are the hottest topic/genre on mobile games, it’s worthwhile to every Flash Lite game developer to ponder a bit who is buing casual games online (as that market has been growing a lot for the past couple of years), and what reasons people have for playing the games.

With NAM Tracker, To Maps Nokia Embed With Sports N95 Flickr, Photos Google
This is pretty cool to use for bloggers who take pictures with GPS-enabled phones like the Nokia N82 and Nokia N95. Pictures show up as dots on the map and goes to its Flickr page when clicked. View Larger Map I’m not sure if there are instructions already to do this, but I’ll write a How-To when I get back to New York and have more time to write. Related PostRecap: Puerto Vallarta Mexico Geotagged and Tracked with the Nokia N95 NAMLaguna Beach California Sunset Geotagged with the Nokia N95 NAMBrief: Sports Tracking Cabo MexicoNokia N95 Variation Guide for NewbiesTesting Nokia Sports Tracker With The Nokia N95-3 During Vacation I combined data from Sports Tracker and the geotagged photos uploaded on the Cabo Flickr set to embed a map in a blog post.

N95 Built-in Youtube Original’s Firmware Flash Support Demo: 21.0.001 Nokia Video
The firmware on this Nokia N95 is version 21.0.001, but its availability is still unknown. The current firmware at the time of this post, 20.0.015 can not play videos within the Youtube.com site. The v21.0.001 firmware for the Nokia N95-1 is available to developers for testing. Here’s a video demonstration of the Nokia N95 Original (also known as N95-1), playing flash videos within the Youtube.com site. Most likely, because the last update to the Nokia N95 8GB added built-in browser flash video support. In the meantime, I recommend emTube to satisfy your YouTube cravings for your Nokia N95. Related PostReview: Using Youtube Mobile on the Nokia N95Nokia N95 Viral Videos Uploaded on YoutubeYouTube or Flash Works Fine on the Nokia N95Nokia N95 Variation Guide for NewbiesHow To: Easy and Best Video Quality Conversion Using VisualHub on Mac Will Nokia release this functionality to the public?

Opera Mobile free adgames: 1.6m from downloads games Mini
It may well be, that the old models of pay per download or subscribe to a monthly service will not be as lucrative for Flash Lite content as the viral advertising model: PRO’s As End users are easily able to distribute Flash Lite files to each other; for example via bluetooth - just send the file from your mobile device to another [that has Flash Lite player] and there it is immediately; no installation, just find the game from your inbox, click, and play. Piracy is not an issue; as developer/publisher want the game to be accessed by as many people as possible, as the revenue comes solely from viewing the adds = more games played, more revenue Direct to consumer distribution is easier (as consumers, end-users, distribute the games to their friends) CON’s Legislation: legislation concerning mobile marketing differs vastly from country to country, and there are no clear rules. In order to show ads and count the number of ads showed, the mobile device needs to connect to the network — which creates some data transfer costs. How that legislation reacts to free mobile games — is anybody’s guess. When using term Advergaming, that usually refers to paid content, for example game comissioned by a client, to be used as a marketing tool for certain campaign or product. And the trend seems to be quite strong: according to this press release by Opera / Greystripe, during 60 days of launching a free downloadable mobile game service, over 1.6 million games and applications were downloaded. Currently it is not an issue, but might prove to be one in the future. Airtime: the catch with free games is that they show ads. One of the most interesting avenues for mobile games — and especially Flash Lite games — is the adgaming; today mainly meaning games that are distributed for free, and the revenue comes from showing the ads before and after the actual gameplay (just like in the internet). If there is no access to the network, the game is/might not be playable at all. Although the number of Flash Lite enabled devices is on the rise, lot of phones don’t have Flash Lite. If you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to post comments. (on November 23rd, 2007, Opera announced that the Opera Mini browser has been installed in more than 26 million devices - what is the churn rate [meaning how many of the old devices are still in use] is not known by us — Opera Mini officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006). And how it works: “The Opera Mini homepage now includes a GameJump bookmark, allowing users to access Greystripe’s freemobile game portal with one easy click.” Now, when you think about the possibilities with Flash Lite games and other content, you should immediately realize that viral distribution (one of the reasons is the lack of built in DRM, Digital Rights Management), and installation, of Flash Lite files is far more easier than with J2ME — which generates an opportunity.

Article: help tips to develop you Flash games Lite better Ten
She herself summarizes very nicely the 10 points in her blog: “To summarize the 10 tips - #1 - Always start with a base build and then port it to for multiple devices #2 - Follow intuitive and correct key navigation and controls #3 - Avoid hard-coding values and use variables and logic while writing code #4 - Use old school collision detection methods #5 - Choose between Frame based and Time based ActionScript #6 - Maintain game progress and scores thus adding incentives for user participation #7 - Keep your code organized and easy to maintain with classes #8 - Choose the right font for your games #9 - Replace arrays with strings in Flash Lite 1.1 #10 - Testing on actual device “ Mariam has written a new article on the Adobe Developer Center, Ten tips to help you develop better Flash Lite games.

devices install Lite of base Forecast: Flash
Source for the metrics is extracted from the Strategy Analytics Flash-Enabled Handset Forecast from January 4, 2008 The total estimated amount of Flash Lite enabled devices after 2008 is 461,733,000 — pretty nice figure Covered regions: Americas APAC (Asia Pacific) CALA (Central America/Latin America) Western Europe Central Europe Japan Flash Lite versions included are 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0. The amount of Flash Lite 3.0 enabled devices worldwide is expected to be a little over 5 million after 2008, so no big expectations about mobile YouTube video watching crazyness this year. devices seems to be the same in 2008 as in 2007 (or declining a bit), but still very formidable number of devices. Via Bill, excellent news: Adobe has made data about forecasted installed base of Flash Lite devices available as a .zip file (containing a pdf file). Information includes Flash Lite devices by version, country and region, for years 2007 and 2008. Generally speaking, the amount of Flash Lite 1.1.

Brief: Tracking Cabo Sports Mexico
I used the Nokia N95 NAM with Sports Tracker to track GPS location while on a small boat tour in Cabo San Lucas. I don’t have much time to blog more about it but I’m really amazed with this app. Check out the ‘workout’ at Cabo. Related PostRecap: Puerto Vallarta Mexico Geotagged and Tracked with the Nokia N95 NAMNokia N95 NAM With Sports Tracker, Flickr, Google To Embed Maps With Photos Laguna Beach California Sunset Geotagged with the Nokia N95 NAMNokia N95 Variation Guide for NewbiesTesting Nokia Sports Tracker With The Nokia N95-3 During Vacation Surprisingly the pictures taken were also collected by the Nokia Sports Tracker.

Handset Growth 2007 91% Global Forecast: Flash-Enabled in
The base continues to strengthen in Japan, but in 2008 we will see shipments of Flash Lite-enabled cellphones in the rest of the Asia Pacific region and Western Europe exceed shipments in Japan for the first time since the launch of Flash Lite. A further 1.4 billion FL-enabled phones are expected to be shipped globally over the next three years alone, at which point over 46% of phones shipped are likely to support Flash Lite. This report gives a global forecast of the market for Flash Lite-enabled phones with detailed analysis of 23 countries, and splits by Flash Lite version, air interface and network operator.” Cumulatively, over 301 million FL devices, of which over 90% are cellphones, have been shipped since 2003. Via Bill: according to a study by StrategyAnalytics, the Flash-Enabled Handset Forecast: 91% Global Growth in 2007 as Flash Lite Gains Momentum outside Japan. “Adobe’s Flash Lite technology has taken off rapidly in the last 18 months.