wubbahed.com

So I’ve been playing around with the new Widgets / Web Run Time for S60. It’s a great tool because it allows you to write what seem like native S60 applications when in fact they’re built entirely with a combination of HTML and Javascript.

Web apps are okay, but they really become powerful when you can tap into the phone’s features directly. Luckily, the S60 Widgets give you some capabilities in this area, and I put together a small widget to demonstrate. This widget is a text-to-Morse Code translator. The widget takes any text you type in and turns it into Morse Code either through beeps, flashing lights, or vibrations in your device.

I think I’ve got this working fairly well, but alas, the N95-3’s firmware doesn’t support these types of widgets yet so I can’t do a real world test. I’ve only been able to test in the S60 emulator and while the beeps work just fine, I can’t test the vibrations or the lights. If you have the N95-1, the N95 8GB (global), or some other newer Nseries models, then you can run this widget with the latest firmware.

If you happen to be one of the lucky people with a WRT compatible device, then you can download this widget directly to your device via this link, or this mobile code and try it out:

I’m curious what kinds of experience people have with this. Yes, I realize if you’re stranded on a desert island the last thing you want to do is waste your battery life buzzing out Morse Code to yourself, but it could be a good helper tool for people wanting to learn Morse Code.

Once I’ve confirmed that the widget works well on some real devices, I’ll post it along with its documentation on the Forum Nokia Wiki as a learning example. In the meantime, here’s a video preview of what the interface looks like.