adonisdemon

So, the New Year is here!

What can we look forward to this year? Probably the same as last but just a gradual natural progression that which we call evolution? Whatever that means!

A few things have changed and will infact progress. My blog on Blogger has changed, Mobile9's Theme Making Challenge 2008 sign-up has started.

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It's official! OS2008 has been released by Nokia. You can grab it from the official Nokia site or download it via Bittorrent, kindly provided by Ricky Cadden (Symbian-Guru and now Tablet-Guru too).

I've been personally waiting for this now for over a month as I didn't want to install the beta version. So I'll be popping home very quickly from the office to attempt this upgrade. (Fingers crossed).

With my new inspiration in theming I decided to give the Mobile9 Nokia Theme Making Challenge a go. The topic was pretty loose and didn't really have any restrictions, the only being it had to be a theme of a famous Brand, which in itself was debatable as to how "famous" it had to be to be classified as famous. As usual, Mobile9'ers discussed this briefly before going about making their themes. As did I.

After contemplating many different brands and websites which included, Dell, Nokia, Jaiku, Carlsberg, Setanta and IBM it was my usual spur-of-the-moment idea (insert light bulb here) that solved the problem.
Recently I've been looking into Linux and learning a bit more, something I've been wanting to do for ages as it would help with other things i.e. Mobile9. I came across the Ubuntu website. After a little while looking at the official site, blog and various other independent sites dedicated to Ubuntu, I found my inspiration overwhelming me. So I decided to get theming before something short circuited somewhere.

After a few hours of intense Photoshopping the results were pleasant, at which point I entered the entry into the Nokia TMC thread and uploaded to the gallery.

The results can be seen below;

full-previews

Zach over at Symbian In Motion has tagged me on the latest meme post. This is the 2nd time I apologise for the last time for not being able to respond. This one is pretty short and easy to respond to so I'll give it a go.

The Rules:

• Name five blogs from different countries that you read
• Those five bloggers are tagged with this meme and should participate (if they choose)

The Chosen 5:

• Yet Another Symbian Blog (India)
• Smartphonin (Finland)
• Antony's Mobile Blog (Canada)
• Symbian-Guru (US)
• Geraner's Blog (Sweden)

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.

It looks like my Theming block which has  a very long time is now gone. Ideas, experiments and Photoshop seem to be more familiar to me again. I'm glad to say my inspiration has also returned with a lot of motivation to match.

First to inspire me has been Peter Romi, (Romek to Jaikuers) his Jaiku's on what he is listening to via LastFM is my first inspiration. I liked the design and the colour of the LastFM website. I took this inspiration and decided to create a theme.

The themes are available in both QVGA Landscape and Portrait versions.

Screenshot0047

Screenshot0252

preview

(Click for a larger Preview)

Thanks again to ZachArye for testing out the Landscape version.

Links below for downloading:

LastFM QVGA 320x240 (Landscape)

LastFM QVGA 240x320 (Portrait)

Finally after some testing, a lot of head scratching. The final versions of the MacOS theme have been completed.
Thanks to my buddy Zach for doing the landscape testing on his E65i.

Screenshot0246

The links can be found below for downloading. Enjoy ;)

MacOS QVGA 240x320 Portrait

MacOS QVGA 320x240 Landscape

It's been a very long time since I made a theme, and even longer since I made an S60 theme. But obviously with my N95 sitting with me and sometimes hinting at me to dress it up I was going to break soon.
So after doing some research and getting some tips from Zach I started my venture back into familiar and some unfamiliar grounds.

• Firstly I had to get used to Carbide, which still hogs system resources but not as much as before, but perhaps my new upgraded PC plays a part in making it a more positive experience this time around.
• Secondly I had to get around to figuring out and obtaining the right software to edit and create SVG graphics. Adobe's Illustrator helped out with this as I'm already pretty familiar with Photoshop CS.
• Thirdly I had to find a subject that would interest me to theme. Being an "otaku" (computer nerd) I decided to go with a Mac wallpaper I picked out from Interfacelift check it out it's got some great wallpapers.
• Lastly I had to sit down and make it, which I can gladly say I've completed. After this the obvious testing for bugs, colour clashes etc... had to be done, after this I decided I didn't like the overall look of the theme, so I decided to change some of the foundations of the theme itself. Standby image, colour scheme and soft keys were totally changed to something a little more sleek and subtle.

Finally the theme is done and ready for all to enjoy. Currently it's only available in QVGA Portrait version. I hope to get the Landscape version done this weekend.

See screen shot below for a preview.

Preview

2 comments

The theme can be found in the Mobile9 gallery located Here (if the link doesn't work, you may need to wait for the theme to be moderated)

As always constructive criticism and bug reports are appreciated.

As usual Symbian-Freak has leaked the change log for the new v12.0.013 firmware for the N95.

Hop on over to their site for the full story, some nice image and camera adjustments are welcomed. A 3.5G HSDPA icon shows when connecting in 3.5G, which I had noticed myself.

A few other things that have also improved are quicker gallery response and loading times, there also seems to be a slightly better battery lifetime.

Read the full change log post HERE

Apologies for not posting for a while, I've been really busy with stuff and also quite lazy, I'm on holiday too, So I hope you'll forgive me.

I've still got to do my Tag post which Zach has put upon me!

But for now a short post on the New Firmware which was released a few days ago. Apart from the AGPS there hasn't been any other significant change or improvement I have noticed. Although I haven't exactly been busy playing with my N95 recently either. But Raymasky over on his blog has already done a few rants on the new firmware, so be sure to hop on over there and read.

With the Firmware update I decided to reformat my N95 and organise it a bit better. Hopefully in the next few days/weeks I'll be able to post more.

Until then I'll leave you with a screenshot of the firmware upgrade.

If you are a Nokia themer, be it S40 or S60 platform and are interested in pitting your theming skills against other fellow themers why not join the Nokia Theme Contest currently being held on Mobile9.com? Nokia Theme Contest

It's free to join and you'll meet many more fellow themers.

The criteria to enter is simple; you must create a theme with the following criteria in mind:

• Theme must be designed for Nokia S40 or S60 platform
• Based on your favourite:
• Animal
• Car
• Cartoon
• Celebrity

More rules and info can be found at the following link: Nokia Theme Contest Rules

The competition ends on 20th July 2007, so it gives you plenty of time to create one.

Note: Deadline for final entries will be Friday, July 20th, 23.00 CET

Hope you can participate.

Adonis.