10. Auntiwiv
9. Nikhilchawla
8. domon07
7. Furie
6. jobber99
5. ruslan
4. ritesh
3. gomcoite
2. Zanmato
1. kukalubo

Thank you for sticking with the program and sending in your often amusing reports about turning friends and family on to "Widset Pets". Our rewards for this program are your choice (1) of either Nokia MD-5W BT speakers, the Nokia DT-22 Tripod, the Nokia Wireless Audio Gateway or the iGo stowaway BT keyboards. Please e-mail Raj with your choice. There are a limited supply of the gateways, we'll handle those on 1st come, 1st serve.

For the rest of you aspiring Ambassadors, remember that you have to sign up for a specific campaign to 1) get your welcome kit, and 2) to be eligible to earn rewards. "Always S60" doesn't have specific rewards associated with it. To sign up for a campaign, go to the Ambassador website, log in, and choose "Campaigns" on the left hand side. We'll have new campaigns to join later this month.

We'll have an even larger contingent of Nokia employees at this event to listen to your feedback and gather ideas about what you'd like and don't like about S60 based products and services.

I acknowledge all of the feedback we got on the "Where Next" post….we are listening to your requests and continue to try to open up the possibility of "Evenings" in new, as-yet-unvisited territories. Hopefully we'll have more news on this in the coming months. This particular "Evening" is happening because it coincides with S60 presence at Web 2.0. We'll have the Nokia employees in the city so we figured we may as well get 'em out into the open where they can meet and greet our fans. Thanks for your feedback and patience as we look into these details.

Okay this time i was queuing at Tokyo DisneySea amusement park to get to the attraction Tower of Terror. The queue was around 1 hour so that gave me a lot of time to do what i always do: Play around with my phone :D I watched a few videos, played a bit on N-Gage and took a look on my pet. So with nothing else to do one local started a conversation with me about my phone so i let him play around with it for a bit while i introduced myself as an ambassador. After that i showed him Widsets and told him about it and showed him Pets. He was interested in Widsets and Pets so i gave him the address so he can download and try if Widsets works with his mobile

Zanmato -- If you can contact Kristina before her leave begins do so! Otherwise we'll figure out another way to get the last loaner N82 to you....

Ambassadors hold tight. We've got a new campaign in the works, and we should be set to announce it on September 17th. Stay tuned and meantime keep the "Always with S60" reports coming!

Like Ricky already blogged yesterday, Maps on Ovi is now also available on the LG KT610 and downloadable from S60.com. With Maps on Ovi you can locate your destination and plan your route street by street, city to city. Maps on Ovi also provides car navigation with turn-by-turn visual and voice guidance, plus added real-time traffic feeds and dynamic re-routing in addition to turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation

To the trial section we have added Advanced Device Locks Professional Edition for Nokia S60 3rd edition by WebGate. Essentially, Advanced Device Locks protects important information and personal data that you have stored in your phone. With ADL Pro you can restrict access to certain applications, protect sensitive information and delete it remotely in case your phone is lost or stolen. ADL Pro comes with a password-protected secure storage where you can place your confidential files. The app also alerts you if the SIM card on your phone has been changed by sending a notification SMS to a predefined number. Trial period for this app is 7 days.

Another nice addition to the trial apps is Handy Calendar by Epocware. Handy Calendar helps you organize your schedule and offers useful features such as: 4 different views: Month, Week, Day and Tasks; 2 modes to open and preview any entry: anniversary, all day event, task or appointment; Identification and highlighting of contact names, phone numbers, e-mails and URLs and the possibility to use them directly from Handy Calendar. Handy Calendar also features "Hot keys" for all important operations and zooming text size for better visibility and larger screen capacity. Trial period for Handy Calendar is 14 days.

At the freeware section we've added several new apps from Dr. Jukka Silvennoinen. One of them is Profile Scheduler, a free app that allows automated profile changing with timer scheduling.

You can also right-click on a process in the debug view and "Terminal/Disconnect All". This will take everything down but we've discovered a couple issues with this command that we still need to fix for Carbide 2.0, so for now I recommend terminating each process individually.

When we started the Agile process a year ago we had only a single day of training and some book reading to get started. These new efforts were first seen during the Carbide 1.3 development cycle which led to more frequent beta releases, improved communication with our customers via the opening of our Bugzilla bug database, nightly builds for faster feedback on bug resolution, and a host of internal process changes that made things more efficient, more reproducible, and more accountable. Even with all the changes behind the scenes Carbide 1.3 was easily the least stressful release we had ever produced.

Needless to say, we were hooked.

As the WidSet Campaign is coming up on its last week, we have the ultimate Final Head to head Challenge: Kukalubo vs. our own Mini Ricky. With their meters at full capacity, both contenders have been sporting those “Saturday Night Fever” outfits for weeks. Below they are starting off with almost the same scores, and wearing their black fighting attire:

Come back frequently during the week to check the status of our contenders…. “Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!”
Mini Ricky:

Kukalubo:

You can find this and other videos at: http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Carbide_Training_Videos

Got ideas for screencasts you'd like to see? Leave us some feedback here and we'll get on it!

It was after our work at the office and on the way to our team building destination in a hot spring spot here at the south when I decided to pull out my wireless keyboard from my bag and started browsing my widsets on my phone. My friends from the office noticed what I'm doing and they started giving me questions about it. I explained them how to use it and they gave me a good feedback. One of my officemate at the back shouted out telling them that I'm a s60 Ambassador that's why I know all about it. He told them that I'm like one of the voices of s60. To break the seriousness of the topic, I decided to login my widset pet and showed it to them. And as I expected, they all started laughing after seeing my distorted face in an cartoonish look. I told them that it is part of the s60 campaign and I am responsible for educating people about s60. I explained them how to use it and they easily get the point coz some of them already have a facebook account. They wanted to make a widset pet of their own for a little stress reliever so I told them my facebook account and gave them an instruction on how to do it. It's a very tiring day but a very successful s60 talk for all of us.

Congrats, domon07! Great job there on educating your colleagues while keeping things fun with your Widsets Pet widget. A loaner N82 will be on its way to you soon.

Just one more week to go before the Widset Pets campaign ends. So send in those reports quick!

With a strong lineup of multimedia features, the Nokia N85 is taking the world of mobile convergence to the next level. Gaming, photos, navigation and music blend together with the newest Ovi and third party services via 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity to make discovering and sharing experiences quick and seamless. The Nokia N85 is expected to begin shipping in October 2008 with an estimated retail price of EUR 450, before taxes and subsidies.

The Nokia N85 is pre-loaded with at least 10 made-for-mobile N-Gage gaming titles that jump off of the screen thanks to the dazzling OLED display and a voucher to activate one full game license. The phone also features a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and bright dual LED flash captures clear, sharp images as well as DVD-quality videos at 30 frames per second. Combined with A-GPS it is possible to geotag favorite pictures to see where each photo was taken using the Nokia Maps application or online sites such as Share on Ovi or Flickr. Find out more from www.s60.com

The Nokia N79 offers a full range of multimedia experiences including integrated navigation, music with FM transmitter, high-speed connectivity, superior web browsing, at least 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games and an advanced 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. The Nokia N79 is expected to begin shipping in October 2008, with an estimated retail price of EUR 350, before taxes and subsidies.

Nokia Maps makes it easy to explore and navigate new surroundings by accessing more than 15 million points of interest (POI). In-built A-GPS providing turn-by-turn navigation - for walking or driving - comes with a three month integrated license on the Nokia N79.

A Friendster widget will also be made available for the Nokia N79 via the WidSets service. This will allow people to browse Friendster friends' profiles, view and post shoutouts, upload pictures taken with their handset, and browse their own and friends' photo albums. Check out www.s60.com for more info.

Nokia N85 and Nokia N79

Auntiewiv:

Kukalubo:

Can Kukalubo hold on to his title? Next week he will face off with Mini Raj (aka runny from the Ambassador team). Below is Mini Raj’s starting stats, which is not looking too promising at the moment…

For many people, the iPhone 3G is perfect. I thought that it meant "game over" for all the other handset makers. But Nokia is a fantastic company and they weren't going to give up that easy. Their new E71 is a fantastic phone, clearly inspired by the competition, and the game is not over.

I'm happy to see some encouragement from the heart of iPhone-land. Maybe he'll come back to the flagship store for the Evening With S60?

Sign up here!

Here's ILikeMyNok's winning report:

First when I heard about the Pets app I doubt it would work for me, but after a short conversation with Ricky I thought I would give it a try and maybe tell someone about the Pets app to continue spreading the S60 word.

I had a clue what Pets was about but not completely, after I read the complete description I realised It worked with Facebook!! That is great for me because I love Facebook, recently I moved from my country to USA, I had all my friends in my homeland and the only thing that keeps me connected is Facebook, I thought Pets could enhance the experience. Later I discovered I was right !

I started to tell all my old friends about the Pets app, and most of them started using the Pets app !! It was a THRILLER !! it spread like sand in my Facebook's network. Suddenly I and all my old friends were enjoying the great experience Pets brings!! I felt like if I were hanging out with them and I felt them closer, much closer. I was really happy. And they were also happy.

The pets was a big hit, but now as a S60 Ambassador I had to tell all my Facebook's network about the program and my status as a S60 Ambassador, so I sent messages to all my friends and I wrote in BIG letters '' Im a S60 Ambassador'' Right away my Inbox was full !! All my network and other people were asking me what a S60 Ambassador was, I had a really long session of questions, I was like 4 hours sitting in my desktop answering questions about S60 and its capabilities, people could not believe a phone could do many things, (camera, gps, wi-fi, great browser, dvd quality, 3d n-gage games etc..) I also told to all of them that they could use Pets on the GO with a S60 device. Many of them liked the idea that much they were looking for buying a S60 device. They all congratulate me of my S60 Ambassadors status, and some of them were thinking of getting S60 devices for christmas or birthdays. I recommend a specific device for each friend, knowing their needs.

Now all my old friends know about S60, none of them knowed because when I lived in my country I still didn't know about S60, but now they all know I'm a S60 Ambassador and they all know what a S60 device is capable of. As a S60 Ambassador this was a great success. !!

We like you too, ILikeMyNok! :) A shiny new N82 smartphone loaner is on it's way to you. Thank you for taking all that time to answer your friends' S60 questions. 4 hours! Wow.

Just two more weeks to go before the Widset Pets campaign is over. So get all those pending reports in, quick!

A comment I have heard often is that the content from a Mobile Web Server should be available also via various feeds, to be imported into other services. For Blog entries and Gallery items we have already added these via RSS (see Forum Nokia Wiki for more information). These work for me in Jaiku for example, have you tried the feeds in other services?

One interesting addition would be to add Presence information such as calendar status and location as an embeddable feed. This way you could share your whereabouts automatically from the phone, without having to update or sync anything.

What do you think, is that worth pursuing? Do you have any other comments (technical or not) about the current feeds we have? Also which of the social services would you like to see getting "MWS enabled"?

Thanks for your comments in advance!

-Jukka

Once you've set it up, all of your Facebook friends will have direct access to your public files (private ones are still kept private) in your Share on Ovi account! If you're already using the new Facebook look, you can set Share on Ovi as a tab, so that visitors to your profile can quickly access it. All of your public channels show up, along with previews of the first 6 photos/videos on that channel. You can also manually select which of your public channels show up on your Facebook profile, and which ones don't, if you'd prefer.

You can click here to add the Share on Ovi Facebook application to your profile. If you don't already have a Share on Ovi account, don't worry, there's a handy link for you to create one, as well.

If you missed out on the Share on Ovi S60 Ambassador campaign, you can still get in on the Always S60 and Widsets Pets campaigns by signing up here. We're working on a few ways to make submitting your reports even easier, as well, so stay tuned!

I also cleaned up an assortment of minor issues with the Executables View and added a "Remove" button to let you easily remove executable files you import for debugging. You can only remove the ones you import since the others reflect the files generated by the projects in your workspace.

Auntiewiv:

Kukalubo:

This battle might get real ugly… so close your eyes for a second if you can’t bear to watch!

What's interesting about this set of applications is the diversity of both the apps and the development environments used to build them, and the fact that all deliver what we believe to be a unique and compelling user experience to S60 device users - these are not time-wasters or novelty apps, they are much more substantive:

Qik (native S60)- live video streaming to the web from video-camera enabled devices such as N95
Hava (native S60) - TV place-shifting - watch your live TV content or recorded DVR conent on your S60 device anywhere with a 3G or WiFi connection
JoikuSpot (native S60) - turns your S60 device into a mobile WiFi hotspot
WebMessenger (native S60) - secure, enterprise grade mobile IM integrated w/Microsoft OCS
Plusmo (WRT) - mobile widget platform
Whrrl (Java) - Location based social discovery
UbiSafe (Java) - Location/GPS tracking
Backup Pal (hardware appliance) - backup, copy, and restore contacts without software or a PC.

If you don't see the videos immediately above, go to http://share.ovi.com/channel/Forum_Nokia.Innovation

I'll be updating this list on a regular basis with more new cool S60 apps from Forum Nokia developers.

Although the WidSet pets application is the main focus of this campaign I have also used it as an reason to show people around The WidSets application as a whole.

For example recently while on a delayed train with a friend (a sadly all too common occurrence in this part of the world), I took the time to show off WidSets. Firstly letting her know that I was an S60 ambassador and quickly explaining what the meant (as well as showing off my Bluetooth Headset from The Share on Ovi campaign. First of all I started The WidSets application on my phone and showed her The WidSet pets feature of The WidSets application, she found the idea interesting but to be honest she found the other features of the WidSets application such as the Widgets concerning News and Weather Forecasts more interesting and more relevant to her. She was excited by the idea of widgets on a mobile phone and the ability to take in lots of information very quickly.

Just goes to show there is something for everyone even in S60 even if its not what you expected it to be.

He is so right! The Widset Pets app is just a fun window into the many useful widgets available via the WidSets service. Check out the Widgets Library - its got 6411 widgets available already. Now there's something for everyone!

sigma421 your loaner is going to be in the mail shortly - an N82 ought to complement that Bluetooth Headset nicely. :-)

The current idea is roughly this:
- there will be a single 'Add access rights' page under Settings that includes all of the applications and their features
- within that page you can choose Users or Groups, and add rights to some or all applications (or clear all rights to start from fresh)
- there will be another page where you can check the current access rights for any given User or Group

The challenge with these new settings is that the amount of data requests must be kept to a minimum for speed and efficiency reasons, hence the two different pages for adding and checking the rights.

How does that sound? Any further ideas? Thanks in advance!

-Jukka

Advertising to our segment, let us be honest for a second, it simply doesn’t work. Thanks to Adblock Plus the advertisements I once never clicked on are now removed from my peripheral vision. Posters at bus stops and metro stations are something I used to look at to pass the time, but now they too are ignored since my head is tilted down towards my screen. If we early adopters are ignoring so much of what external forces are trying to bombard us with, how do we find out about anything?

We’re not passive, we’re aggressive. We know what we like and we spend all day scouring the net trying to find out about what the latest and greatest is. We ask our friends in real life, we ask our friends online, we ask strangers in online forums, we Google until our eyes bleed, but once that new shiny piece of metal and plastic touches our mitts then we know that the culmination of our efforts has been rewarded with something we’re guaranteed to enjoy.

Welcome to the social, to steal a Microsoft marketing slogan, it is here right now and the only way to survive in this new market is to simply make something worth talking about, worth making people like us want to share with our friends. Advertising in this age isn’t about selling any material thing; it’s about gaining the trust of people and hoping they like your message or product enough to spread the word.

People like me are increasing in number, we’re never going to be 100% of the market, and that’s OK, but we will be that person our friends trust us with for guidance with their next purchase or download. The whole 6 degrees of separation thing, it always works out that someone comes to an “early adopter” for advice.

Now this isn’t new information to many of you, but for a lot of you who don’t blog, who don’t post comments, who simply enjoy reading everything the net has to offer. To you, the majority of internet users, I thank you for keeping us in mind when considering your next purchase or recommend our stuff when queried by your friends, family or even strangers. You don’t get enough praise and that’s a shame, which is why we set up the Ambassadors program.

You don’t have to be a rock star blogger or forum member with 5,000 posts. Those guys are cool too, we have separate marketing efforts dedicated towards that category of net citizen, and I even have the pleasure of calling a few of them my friends since I was once in their very same spot. You simply have to be passionate about the product. Passionate enough to be consuming information about S60 because you actively choose to do it. Passionate enough to tell us about your experiences with sharing information about S60 based devices and the services we highlight here on this blog.

That’s what being an Ambassador is all about, that’s the future of advertising. Why are people afraid of it? Because you can no longer make a mediocre product and throw a huge marketing budget towards promoting it and have guaranteed success anymore. Those days are gone. You could be doing so many other things on the internet right now, Tower Defense comes to mind, but you’re here. Thanks.

[Photo from Flickr]