Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia’s Asha line of less-expensive smartphones, not developed on Microsoft’s Windows Phone but Nokia’s own proprietary OS, is getting a new boost of attention today. The company is unveiling a new (and free) premium developer program for Asha developers. Modelled on a premium program started for Lumia developers last year, those participating will get extra developer resources, credits towards promoting finished apps in Nokia’s app storefront or via advertising in other apps, and a free device, so that they can boost numbers in the Nokia Store for content made for the Asha line of phones. Nokia tells me that there are now 130,000 apps, ringtones and wallpapers for Asha in the Store already, without breaking out the number of apps compared to other content.

Not only will this help to boost the number of apps in the Nokia store, but it furthers the idea of Asha as the “other” smartphone line being pushed by Nokia — and not just another high-end feature phone. As IHS analyst Ian Fogg noted after seeing the news: “Nokia builds the case for Asha to be considered a smartphone.”

Nokia says that for developers to be considered, there are some criteria to be met. For “stage-one productivity membership” (this includes extra developer support, the free device and expanded remote access), a developer need to have at least two apps built for any mobile platform and currently in any mobile store (not just those run by Nokia itself). For “stage-two” membership (this includes the promotional options of either app store placements or $500 worth of advertising), the developers need to agree to develop and publish at least one app for the Nokia Store to work on an Asha device.

The Lumia premium developer program, Nokia says, has proven to be its most successful developer program ever.

But if Nokia’s Lumia line is considered its “flagship” fleet of smartphones, then the Asha devices are the company’s ever-essential workhorses.

In Nokia’s Q4 results that it reported in January, the company announced 9.3 million Asha devices sold, more than twice the number of Lumia devices (at 4.4 million). While Nokia has been working hard to create Lumia handsets that are stretching ever further into the low cost segment — the most recent being the $180 520 handset unveiled at the Mobile World Congress this year — Asha devices were already there, with devices going for under $100 already unveiled last year.

This fact makes the Asha and ever-more important link in the chain that Nokia has to be careful not to break as it tries to bring its vast population of users in emerging markets on to Nokia smart devices, rather losing them to the rival Android ecosystem as led by Samsung, Huawei and dozens of other handset makers. Samsung in particular has approached the market with an aggressive device strategy across virtually every mobile handset price point (and feature set).

The developer program and its stated purpose to create apps for Asha devices is very much part of that strategy. As Apple has very conclusively proven both with the iPhone and iPad tablet, one of the biggest draws to a particular piece of hardware is the software that you will be able to use on it.

The idea, of course, are for those apps to be quality as well as in quantity. “We want to reward apps that really engage the user,” Kenny Mathers, director of developer programs and monetisation at Nokia, said in a statement. “We’ll be looking for high-quality graphics and user interface, plus great user reviews, with a minimum rating of four stars from at least 25 Nokia Store user reviews.”

We’ve all heard the horror stories behind children who rack up hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on in-app purchases on Apple’s iTunes App Store, leaving parents furious, and even more so when Apple refuses to refund them. While Apple is currently working on helping certain customers get their refund on accidental/unintentional in-app purchases, they have refused to refund the purchases of a 13-year old boy who managed to rack up a bill of around $5,600. Taking place in the UK, Apple refused to give the family a refund, causing the kid’s dad, Doug Crossan, to take rather drastic measures.

According to Crossan, Apple argued that it was the responsibility of the parent to lock their iOS device to prevent such things from happening, and with parental controls available as part of iOS, to a certain extent we can see Apple’s point. So what Crossan did was he reported the action to the Action Fraud Hotline, and what this means is that his son could possibly be arrested and face charges. The goal here is to lodge the complaint as criminal so that his credit card company would have to foot the bill, instead of himself.

A spokesperson at the Home Office who runs the Action Fraud stated that it does not sound like fraud has taken place, and according to the Daily Mail’s legal source, they doubt that prosecutors would bother charging the kid anyway.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone Available On T-Mobile April 12 Starting At $99, Apple Updates MacBook Pro with Retina Tagline As A Result Of Chromebook Pixel,

It can be scary mustering developer support for a brand-new app platform — just ask BlackBerry. Microsoft may feel slightly relaxed, then, if MetroStore Scanner‘s unofficial estimates are on the ball. It sees over 50,380 active Windows Store apps as of this writing, which isn’t bad for a shop that reportedly had less than half this amount back in November. Whether or not you consider it progress compared to the rest of the market is another matter: the tally is a big leap over the estimated 14,000 apps in the Mac App Store, but it won’t make either Apple or Google break out in a cold sweat when compared against the six-digit app counts of their mobile app stores. Microsoft currently declines to confirm the numbers, although the company tells us that the app count may vary from country to country. For now, it’s safe to presume that a fair number of app writers are onside with Microsoft’s tile- and touch-driven vision of the future.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: MetroStore Scanner

Lately I’ve been thinking about the multitasking experience on Android and I feel like there’s still a lot to improve. I love how the thumbnails come up, but in 4.2.2 they made it so that the current app joined the list of “Recent Apps”. This looks great on phones and small-sized tablets, but it looks really bad on large tablets (ie. Nexus 10) in landscape mode. Here’s how to make it better. More »

Earlier this month, Digg announced plans to build a replacement to Google Reader after the search giant revealed plans to shut down the service on July 1. Many people were excited for Digg, but were they really going to come through with an alternative? It turns out the company is pretty serious about it and has revealed further plans for its Google Reader replacement.

In a blog post published today, Digg penned some details on what its RSS news reader would look like and how it would function. The company has four points that they’re wanting to focus on with this new project, thanks to community feedback from Digg users. Digg wants to “keep it simple,” and make it “really fast,” as well as allow it to “synchronize across devices” and “make it easy to import from existing Google Reader accounts.”

Digg said that they’ve always wanted to build an RSS news reader, but with the recent announcement of the shutdown of Google Reader, the company couldn’t find a better time than now to start on the project. They said that they received over 800 comments on their last blog post, which announced plans to build an RSS news reader.

As for a release timeline for the Digg RSS reader, there’s no specific release date for it. However, the team says that “building a Google Reader replacement in a few months is a massive undertaking,” so don’t expect the company’s Google Reader replacement until the summer time at least. Until then, you can still enjoy Google Reader for now, but if you want to switch over to an alternative right now, we suggest these five options.

Digg details its plan to build Google Reader replacement is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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