We released a couple of widgets a few weeks ago (didn’t have time to blog about it :S) and GameNeus was one of them. This is essentially a gaming news reader with homescreen support.

Hit the read more link to find out how you can snag a copy.

GameNeus

This widget is fairly straightforward and easy to use. Have a look at the screens below!

The loading screen

The main menu separated by console types

The news content area

News feeds are taken from Gamespot … the best source for gaming news! This is a fairly simple widget from us, just to flex the UI muscles … so help yourself to a free copy over at the Ovi Store!

Download from Ovi Store

]]> http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/2010/05/21/gameneus-a-game-news-reader/feed/ 0 http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/2010/05/05/topapps-on-ovi-store-an-app-recommender/ http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/2010/05/05/topapps-on-ovi-store-an-app-recommender/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 05:49:18 +0000 NerdAttack http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/?p=315

You know, sometimes it gets really tough to discover apps on the Ovi Store? Contrary to what people might believe, the Ovi Store has apps buried so deep that sometimes don’t see the light of day (exaggeration points +1). What about local flavoured apps? Bet you didn’t know there were apps submitted from Malaysia. That’s where ‘topApps’ for Ovi Store come in, a handy little widget that we had the opportunity to design for Nokia.

Hit the read more link to find out more.

Late last year (Nov 2009), Nokia presented the opportunity for us to design (not develop) a widget that essentially makes it easy for users to discover contents on the Ovi Store. There were a few design iterations, and today we’re proud to see the completion and upload onto the Ovi Store.

So, what exactly does the app do? It pulls content from the Ovi Store, e.g top selling app on the Ovi Store, apps based on your geographical location, so that you can download these apps directly on the Ovi Store without having to search for them. Very handy me thinks.

Perhaps it’ll be easier to show you guys the screen shots instead to give you a better idea of what it does.

The loading screen, if you're on a REALLY slow network and it takes too long to load, tap the 'X' button at the top to close the app.

Featured Tab

This screen highlights some notable apps in it’s own respective categories. Tapping any of the categories will load up the list of apps.

Some app categories to choose from, the widget detected our region.

... continuation of previous screen

Category view

Let’s have a look at the ‘Ovi Top 10′, here it’ll list out the top 10 apps on the Ovi Store. Tapping on the content itself will load a more descriptive content, as well as a link to download the app on the Ovi Store. You can also sort free and paid contents.

Oh look, 2 of our widgets are in the Malaysia channel :D

Tapping download will bring you to the content on the Ovi Store

At the detailed screen, you’ll be able to download the widget as well as share the content via Email or SMS by tapping the ‘Share’ button. Ok, let me rephrase that, you can share the content link via Email or SMS :P

Staff Picks

This section highlights both free and paid applications that Nokia thinks that’s great. Tapping on it will bring you to a more detailed view of the app.

Staff Picks

Reviewed

The reviewed section is basically an app review section, where you’ll get to read about what a reviewer thinks about some of the apps on the Ovi Store. Definitely a good read before plunking in money on a widget.

The reviews

Tapping on the reviews will load a complete content :)

Settings Screen

Now, this is an interesting screen … for developers like us. Why, you say? Well … hang on, let me upload the screens first.

Settings screen

Select countries

… you get to change your location. We’re always curious about what developers in various countries have developed for their local market. If you’re free, just change your location and have a look at the apps created locally for that country. Very handy. However, I believe some of the apps can’t be downloaded probably due to the region lock, such a shame :\

Design wise, we hope that users will find familiarity with the current Ovi Store and should feel right at home.

And so you have it, a brief walk through of topApps. It was a privilege and experience to be working on this project and something of a global scale. Look forward to better and greater apps from us, especially on that certain new device that’s launching *hint hint*. We’re really excited about that.

Ovi blog wrote a better review and thoughts about topApps, hit the link to read about it.

topApps review by Ovi Blog

and also, grab the free copy of topApps here!

topApps

A couple of weeks ago we released “My Headlines”,  a Malaysian news reader. A few days later we made a few variations for different regions as it proved to be quite popular with users from the said regions.

Hit the read more link to find out how you can download a copy.

SG Headlines

A Singapore news reader. News bits that’s supported by this variant are,

1. Asia One
2. Channel News Asia
3. Singapore Star
4. Today
5. Straits Times

I’m pretty sure there are a lot more news portal, do leave a comment so that we can update the widget to support it.

The loading screen, note: Merlions are NOT real.

Let us know what else you'd like to include into this variant

The content screen. Tapping on the news content will load the full content on the phone's default browser

UK Headlines

A UK news reader (you could tell from the name of the app right?) News bits that’s supported by this variant are,

1. Express.co.uk
2. Mail Online
3. Telegraph
4. Daily Star
5. Mirror.co.uk
6. The Sun
7. Times Online

London Bridge is falling down ... falling down ....

A pretty extensive list of news portal to choose from

Tap on the content to get the full news

Drop us a note down at the comment section if you’d like us to include any other news portal.

IN Headlines

An Indian news reader. News bits that’s supported by this variant are,

1. Business Line
2. Deccan Herald
3. Indian Express
4. The Asian Age
5. The Hindu
6. The Telegraph
7. Time of India

The Taj Mahal ... how else do you let users know it's India?

A list of all news portal in India

Tap to get the full news

Well, that’s some variations that we’ve done (without feeling like a cookie cutter factory, ewww). We’ll definitely make improvements as well go along, perhaps adding in social elements and more user interactivity, but that will all depends on how well the widget does on the Ovi Store.

Here are the links to the respective widgets on the Ovi Store.

SG Headlines, UK Headlines, IN Headlines

A very simple and useful app from us … to you ;) “MY Headline” is basically a news reader app that aggregates news snippets from several Malaysian sources and conveniently roll them into a single app, like magic. Maybe.

Hit the read more link to find out how you can download a copy.

Some screens

The loading screen, oh look, that's KLCC ... makes it ever more Malaysian :P

Currently supports several news portals

At this moment, MY Headlines has support for these portals

1. The Star
2. New Straits Times
3. Bernama
4. The Daily Chilli
5. Business Times
6. The Malaysian Insider
7. Malaysiakini

If there are other portals out there that you’d like us to include, please leave a comment below and we’ll try to include it in the next version update.

The news

MY Headlines has homescreen support as well for all you guys out there with an N97 and N97 Mini.

If you’d like to give this app a try, head on over to the OVI Store and download your copy.

Download MY Headlines

]]> http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/2010/04/13/my-headlines-our-new-nokia-widget/feed/ 4 http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/2010/03/19/kltraffic-update-with-homescreen-support/ http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/2010/03/19/kltraffic-update-with-homescreen-support/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:20:09 +0000 NerdAttack http://www.nerdattack.com.my/blog/?p=277

Hello everyone, we’ve done a few updates and tinkering to the KLTraffic widget.

Hit the read more link to find out how you can update or download a copy. KLTraffic remain FREE as usual.

KLTraffic Update, revision 53

1. Homescreen support for N97 & N97 mini! The homescreen widget will display tweets from the #kltraffic trending topic on Twitter.
2. We’ve REMOVED all traffic feed from DBKL as most if not all cams are no longer maintained.
3. We’ve replaced our advertising network provider. You’ll find more locally relevant ads now.

And update to the keypad version will follow suit, we’re hoping to finally provide compatibility with older devices like the Nokia E71, E63, N96, etc.

We were suppose to post this up right up the Makansutra widget post a couple of weeks ago. Guess it kinda slipped my mind. IS + (pronounced as IS PLUS) was one of the app that we were commissioned to develop for SingTel’s Christmas promotion last year.

What’s the app about? Well if you’re familiar with our local KLUE magazine, they are something like that. Hit the read more link to read more about this app.

About IS+

“I-S Magazine is the No. 1 guide for busy professionals to get the most out of Singapore, distributed at more than 500 of the city’s best restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. With comprehensive and up-to-date details of what’s going on, what to do, where you should (and shouldn’t) be seen, it’s the indispensable source for fun.

The I-S+ widget on Nokia touch devices now gives you the ultimate going-out guide in the palm of your hand. Catch the coolest performances, be seen at the hippest openings, and party at the hottest bars and clubs with I-S+.

For more great recommendations from I-S Magazine, visit www.is-magazine.com.”

This widget is pretty straight forward. Basically it lists down all the latest happenings in Singapore, AND tells you how to get there using Nokia’s OVI maps. Here are some screens of the widget.

The loading screen

The splash screen, auto checks for latest updated widget

The main screen

The main screen is divided into 2 sections

We have the calendar ribbon that shows the user selected events that’s happening in the next 7 days. Right at the lower section we have the different even categories.

The submenus

Pressing on anyone of the event categories we’ll have the submenus. This will bring you to the even listings itself, see below.

Anyone remember James Ingram?

Selecting any one of the items available will load a detailed view of the said event.

Are they planning to come to Malaysia?

Here you’ll be able to call for more information or just save the contact to your phonebook. Clicking on show on Map will load up the Ovi Maps application and shows you the location of the event. You can use the map’s feature to direct you to the event.

Homescreen view is available for the Nokia N97 and N97 Mini

If you own an N97 or N97 Mini, there’s a homescreen widget as well. Basically it tells you the available events that’s happening around your area by tapping into the phone’s GPS system. As you can see, we’re pretty far away from Singapore …

In the weeks to come, we’ll be sharing a few more projects that we’ve been working on. If you know of any Malaysian content provider that would like to have their content translated for mobile consumption, don’t be shy, give us a call :)

This has been a feature that’s been asked before and we’re proud to announce that the widget has passed the Ovi Store QA process and is now available for download!

Hit the read more link to find out how you can download your copy.

KLTraffic S60 3rd Ed

The widget retains all functionalities as the touch based one.

The main screen

The traffic feed

Twitter integration, trending topic #kltraffic

Currently the widget only supports devices that has Nokia’s Webruntime 1.1. Supported devices are listed below.

1. Nokia 6700 Slide
2. Nokia E72
3. Nokia 6730 Classic
4. Nokia E52
5. Nokia 5730 XpressMusic
6. Nokia E75
7. Nokia 6720 Classic
8. Nokia 6710 Navigator
9. Nokia E55
10. Nokia 5630 XpressMusic
11. Nokia N86

We’re working to support the following phones that has the older Nokia’s Webruntime 1.0 installed.

1. Nokia E71
2. Nokia E66
3. Nokia E63
4. Nokia N78
5. Nokia N82
6. Nokia N85
7. Nokia N95
8. Nokia N96
9. Nokia 6210 Navigator

Yes, we’re disappointed too that the popular E71 and E63 are not support at the moment, we’re working on it. Do let us know if you manage to get the app running on devices that are not listed here. Do leave a comment below on how we can improve this app :)

Get the download here!

Finally, we’ve updated our KLTraffic app. This update took a while to release due to the number of outsourced projects that we undertook. There are a number of changes to the interface as well as new features that we hope you guys  be please with.

Hit the read more link to find out how you can update or download a copy. KLTraffic remain FREE as usual.

KLTraffic Update, revision 41 (internally it’s known as r41)

The main screen & new menu icons.

We’ve added new traffic cams sourced from JPBDBKL. Unfortunately, traffic cams are still constrained to Kuala Lumpur only for the moment.

Traffic feed view

Traffic feeds now have an icon letting users know where the feed is sourced from. Feeds are now from ITIS and JPBDBKL. If you see feeds not working, you’ll know where it’s sourced from, so notify the relevant authority about it :)

Twitter integration

We’ve integrated Twitter feeds into this update. You’ll be able to read crowd-sourced traffic updates straight from Twitter. We hope this is useful for the most of you … well … it’s as useful as what’s posted.

Be a citizen reporter!

You can now tweet from KLTraffic!  So if you already have a twitter account, do share with the rest of the community the traffic condition in your surrounding area. All tweets will be posted with the #kltraffic hash topic tag on Twitter. Oh and please, do not tweet while you’re driving.

Sign in to Twitter

Enter your Twitter username and password here if you wish to tweet from the widget. We do not keep your Twitter login credentials as these are kept on your phone. For the techies that are out there, we’re using BasicAuth for this, hence all tweets coming from this widget will have the ‘from API’ (see screenshot below).

from API

Yes, it would be great to have it as ‘from KLTraffic’, that is possible, however that also means we would need to use OpenAuth. There’s no mobile version of the authorisation page on twitter for OpenAuth yet. If we were to use OpenAuth, you guys will have to

1. Click on a button on the widget to authorise KLTraffic which will …
2. load a non mobile website that will generate a PIN number from your default mobile browser
3. Copy that PIN
4. Go back to the widget
5. Paste that PIN
6. Click Authorise on the widge.

My goodness, what lousy user experience. We’ll save you all the trouble and use BasicAuth instead. Enter your username and password, save it in the widget and we’re done.

Enough talk! So, how do I update?

Ah, it’s pretty simple actually. In the previous version of the widget, we’ve already built in an auto update feature which is located at the ‘About Us’ section. See screenshot below.

Update from version 1.0

Change revision log

1. Revised user interface
2. New traffic image feed from JPBDBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Hall Urban Transportation Department),  THANKS :)
3. Twitter integration
4. Widget will now check for new updates each time it loads, so users will no longer need to manually check for new updates

What’s in the oven next?

1. Nokia n97 and n97 mini homeview screen. We haven’t had the time to include this feature in but will do so in the new revision.
2. Road list might be too long for some and require scrolling, we’ll think of something.
3. It’s been asked for a while now … so, we’re working on a keypad version of KLTraffic. More announcement on this at a later date. We’ll be targeting S60 3rd edition devices.

We value your input!

So, if you have any ideas or suggestions in helping us improve this widget, do leave us some comments below :)

Get it here.

What? You haven’t got a copy of KLTraffic yet? Grab it from the Ovi Store now!

Note: The updated version of KLTraffic is still under QA and would probably take a while for approval, just download the old copy and run the autoupdate mentioned above.

A couple of weeks ago, we were commissioned by SingTel and Nokia to develop 2 widgets for their upcoming Christmas promotion. Particularly, for the brand new Nokia N97 mini, the Nokia X6 (yes, you’ll get it pretty soon in Singapore) and the Nokia 5230.

One of the content provider that we had the opportunity to work with was, Makansutra. Makan what? Makan-suuuuutra, you know? Like Kamasutra? Hit the read more link below for the full write up.

About Makansutra

The “Food Guidebook Maven”, says New York Times. CNN calls it the “Guru of Grub”. Makansutra began life in 1997 with a simple mantra – “die die must try” in its quest to celebrate Asian Food Culture. This multi-discipline food company is the brainchild of photojournalist KF Seetoh who says, “eat the food and digest the culture”, and the guide is now available for your Nokia smartphone.

Find the favourite Makansutra listings right near you, or anywhere in Singapore and beyond, and discover new restaurants and street food gems! For more information, surf over to www.makansutra.com.

There you go, that’s the official write up. This was one of the most complicated widgets that we have developed so far, with features that took advantages of the phone’s hardware.

Enough talk, here are some of the screens.

The splash screen and main menu

The loading screen

The main menu. Shake the phone here and you'll get a random eatery recommendation. Ignore the pointy finger, just to illustrate the press state of the buttons :)

Looking at the menu, ‘Our Picks’ will load 10 random recommended eateries, while ‘Listing’ will list all the food type that’s available from their guide in alphabetical order OR by photo. ‘Offers’ will show users a list of available discounts or offers from eateries. ‘Makansutra TV’ as the name suggest, will list selected video content by Makansutra. Pretty cool stuff, you get to watch food reviews on your phone!

‘Around Me’ is another feature that we took advantage of the on-board GPS receiver. The widget will display 10 nearest eateries that is around your location. ‘By Location’ will list all eateries according to their geographic location. Ahhh … too much info? You’ll get the full picture after viewing the rest of the screen I hope.

Our Picks

Shake your phone here to get another 10 random eateries

There are icons indicating the nature of the eatery, whether they are restaurants, hawker stalls or whether the establishment sells halal food.

The eatery detailed view, 213.2km, yes, we are that far away

... scrolling down ...

You’ll be able to contact the restaurant through the widget by pressing the Call button or simple save the number into your phone book. ‘Show on Map’ will basically load up Nokia’s OVI Map to show you where the eatery is. From OVI Map itself, you’ll then be able to follow the turn-by-turn guide (car, walk, cycle, flying, zorbing, scuba diving, teleporting, etc).

Listings

"Easy as abc ... 123" ... sorry, no 123.

Anyone tried African street food?

I rather look at pictures

A short writeup on the selected food type. Pretty informational.

By Location

Did you know Singapore is divided by North, South, East, West and Central? I didn't know that!

Yes, you see Malaysia there. Currently the content on the widget is heavily Singaporean, but they do have content for Malaysia, particularly for Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and …. Penang. It’s not the full content, perhaps there will be a full Malaysian version in the future, who knows? ;)

Around Me

Around me, not you.

So, you’re in a hurry and absolutely no idea where to makan. Isn’t this a cool feature to have on your phone? Now you’ll know what recommended eateries are around your vicinity. Personally, this is pretty useful.

Oh yeah, this widget has the n97  homescreen feature.

Alright, that’s all the screens that we have. We’ve been trying to record a video walk through of the widget, these screens don’t do justice. The Nokia N97 doesn’t have auto-focus when in video mode … so, we rather not record any videos if we can’t see the details on screen. We’ll try to get hold of a video cam and do a run through of the widget in action.

Oh, how do you get hold of this widget? Well, if you’re from Singapore, the widget is preloaded on all new Nokia N97 mini, the Nokia X6 and Nokia 5230 … and is exclusive to SingTel only. We’ll keep you guys updated when it’s freely available … but since the lot of you are Malaysians, I don’t see how this is useful unless you frequently travel down to Singapore.

Any Malaysian food guide wanna do something similar? ;)

Earlier on I mentioned we were commissioned to do 2 widgets. I’ll post the other one up some time later this week. We have a few more widgets that are in the oven … but there’s only 2 handsome young men working on it so it will probably take a while before it’s properly baked and ready for consumption.

Yeah, we know it’s been a while … but we’re hard at work on several awesome projects at the moment. Due to the NDAs we signed, can’t really talk about the nature of it.

Anyways, here’s an update for KLTraffic that we’ve been working on. We’re still putting minor touches to it and hopefully it should be up and running sometime soon (hopefully). Hit the ‘read more’ link for some feature update and screens.

KLTraffic Update 1.2

Reworked interface and new icons for new features. Yes, that's twitter there.

Yeap ... Twitter.

Here's the main screen where we use crowdsourced information on Twitter :) Sharing is caring, right? Oh, ignore the tweets, fake *cough*

... and you'll be able to tweet traffic conditions through the widget now

Now, the question that is probably on your mind is … will there be MORE traffic feeds? Well, that’s a Yes and a No. We’ve added in more feeds for KL (close to 20+).

But what about the rest of Malaysia? :( Aha! We’re working on something, so hang in there.

Update: The new update is now live, read it here.