MeeGo tablet UX’s, the future is bright

It’s been a while since I last posted, for numerous reasons of course, but now with a bit of time on my hands, I figured I’d post a couple videos supplied to us by  Jim on a few of the MeeGo UX’s currently being worked on by dev teams around the world.

First up is a video of XBMC being demo-ed on the Lenovo ideapad running an undisclosed version of MeeGo. XBMC is a cross platform media player with some of their work being seen in high-profile devices like the original Xbox. While I’ve never been one to consider flashy visuals over an easy and functional interface, this video here definitely deserves a mention. Video after the break.

Video: TheTrainLine.com App for Symbian demoed on Nokia N8. Buy train tickets and check train times with ease!

Back in October we saw thetrainline.com advertising their application using the Nokia N8.

This app has been available for download from Ovi Store for a few days now and let me tell you that it’s awesome!

It is a really slick useful application for UK train travellers. You can check train times as well as buy train tickets but it goes so much further in making a very smooth and visually appealing interface to interact with. Over checking the browser version, this is leaps and bounds in speed and usability since it’s mobile (thumb input) focused and also uses very little data (no constantly clicking a new page).

We’ve got a video demo below as well as screenshots and more details about this great app!)

Connectivity Analyzer from Nokia Beta Labs!

Hey all, it’s been a while since i’v properly blogged on “My Nokia Blog” but as I no longer have time to post as much as i’d like to on my own TheTekBlogger.com, I thought Jay wouldn’t mind me posting here!

One of the recent creations from the people over at Nokia Beta Labs yet again helps us to solve an issue that I’m sure we have all had at one point or another…”Why won’t my phone connect….AAAGGGHHHH”.

“Connectivity Analyzer” from Nokia Beta Labs does exactly what it says on the tin, it tries to figure out well (or not so well) your phone connects to either a Wireless LAN in your home or somewhere else, or Packet Data connections through the mobile network of your choice.

Here is what the developers have to say about it:

Video and screenshots: Trill on the Nokia N8 – Excellent Twitter App for S60 and Symbian^3 – Available for FREE at Ovi Store

Twitter user? Yes? Then here’s another great alternative to the almighty Gravity. This folks is “Trill”. It’s FREE at the Ovi Store and offers quite a lot of functionality and looks great too. (yup FREE. Load on as many handsets as you like at no charge)

• Fast start up. Loads all previous tweets.
• Very fast at fetching tweets, even on slow connection. 3G not needed (as was the case with Tweetgo.net being entirely browser based)
• Swipe left/right to navigate between timeline, replies, DMs etc
• Big finger friendly buttons when tapping tweets
• Search within app
• Tag links/search
• Cute little bird animations during search load (and initial twitter connection)
• Profile viewer
• Trending topics viewer

It’s available to download for FREE for S60 and Symbian^3 from the Ovi Store.

Click to see demo video and features/screenshots not seen in the video

Video: Air Hockey Game demoed on Nokia N8 for S^3 and 5th Ed Free at Ovi Store

Air Hockey. You versus the phone as you try and score a goal with the virtual air lifted puck. First to 5 wins and each round goes to a higher level with slightly harder opponents.

It’s really enjoyable (I love Air Hockey at arcades!) and great for those short distractions. It’s well worth a download.

The only things I’d like to see is the option for 2 player mode with multitouch support of course (though that would rule out S60 5th users).

Oh it’s meant to be played in portrait but was recorded in landscape.

You’ve got two price points with Air Hockey. An Advert-supported FREE game or £3.00 (variable by country) ad-free.

Above was the ad-supported version and you’ll note the presence of adverts (which you can skip or click to open an advert page). You’ll also need to have an internet connection. You don’t have to view the ads, just press skip.

DOWNLOAD FROM THE OVI STORE:

• AIR HOCKEY (FREE)
• AIR HOCKEY (PAID)

BTW for comparison here’s a paid version demoed on 5530 by TheBossAkib.

Note that you get cheers or awws depending on scoring or letting a goal in. It also looks a little faster here but part of that was due to my bad cam and video conversion (E.G. look at the image trail of my finger)

[YOUTUBE=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyVmvdfR9VY]

Video: Vertical and Horizontal App Page Swiping for Symbian with Grid Touch – Free at the Ovi Store – demoed on Nokia N8

Remember this idea post and video from last year?

9 homescreens on the N900 – all accessible in one swipe

The original concept was not just for homescreens but also for your apps.

Whilst nothing of the sort has appeared on Maemo, Thanks to Offscreen Technologies, lucky Symbian owners (do you think it’s confusing not to name particular variations of Symbian, i.e. ^1, ^3) can try out a new grid style menu with Grid Touch. At the moment it performs horizontal and vertical page scrolling, which by comments of the N900 post would be the best way to go about it as the 9 direction would certainly confuse.

Offscreen Technologies have gone all out with this, providing a new look status bar, search bar with new portrait keyboard, instant grid overview look

What’s totally most awesome is that Offscreen Technologies are giving this excellent app away for free at the Ovi Store! Vaihab from TheHandheldBlog has a great demo video to share.

Go download Grid Touch from the Ovi Store now!

Cheers to Jim for the heads up!

VIA TheHandheldBlog

Video: Demo of Nokia Internet Radio app – get free it from the Ovi Store

NokNokTV takes a look at the Nokia Internet Radio app – “an app from the Ovi Store that lets you listen to music from anywhere in the world”

Check it out at the Ovi Store

NokNokTV from NokNok.tv

Video Demo: Nokia Panorama on the Nokia N8

Last week we saw that Nokia Panorama was available on the Ovi Store for the Nokia N8.

Below is a video demo shot by nuuneoi from showing “Nokia Panorama” in action.

Apps like Morpho Panorama use “sweep” – possibly the easiest method where you just sweep from left to right with no pausing or thought as to whether your picture is aligned – much like taking a video. Samples this way though may suffer from different light exposures, and quality may suffer.

Other PanoApps may require you to manually align one photo after the next, pressing a button each time.

“Nokia Panorama” seems to be the stop gap in between these types of Panorama apps. You sweep the camera and after the first picture, an overlay appears where you can align the camera. BUT, you don’t have to manually shoot as the app takes a photo automatically ONCE aligned.

Processing takes a fair few seconds (not an instant result) but the final photograph is quite incredible.

On his site, N8Lover, you can see that like Damien’s Sample the panorama appears seamless (and in much better quality than Quick Panorama)

Via nuuneoi

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NOKIA PANORAMA FROM THE OVI STORE.

FREEWARE: Nokia Panorama Available at the Ovi Store for your Nokia N8 (And Nokia N900)

An alternative to Morpho QuickPanorama “Nokia Panorama” is now available at the Ovi Store for free.

In contrast to Morpho, the detail seems MUCH higher with the Nokia version. The seams are pretty much invisible.

The pic below is from Damien Dining.

I don’t have a N8 to test this out so I’m not sure if this is a stitcher panorama (where you manually line up the images) or a sweeping panorama (where you sweep from left to right as steady as possible) like the Morpho Quick Panorama

Click here to download from the Ovi Store.

Thanks to @NOMOSdesign for the heads up.

Swype for Symbian^1

The guys at Nokia Beta labs, responsible for the awesome “Nokia Bots” and ”Nokia Conversations” widgets and the “Photo Browser” application currently available in the Ovi Store have released a beta version of the text input program “Swype”. The Swype apps is available at the following link. Swype aims to significantly speed up text entry on touchscreen, button-less devices and is available on multiple platforms. Go give it a whirl and leave your feedback both here and at the Beta Labs page. Help them make a better product for us users will ya!

Currently available for the Nokia N97, N97mini, X6, 5800, and 5230

Video of Swype in action below.

via