Widgets!

Back with some good news. I've developed an application simply called "Widget Runtime" for the N9 that allows you to run your favorite web widgets on your favorite device. To be more exact, it currently supports widgets created for Symbian (.wgz file extension) and any W3C widget standards based widget (.wgt, such as ones created for Opera or Tizen). The application will come with a manager interface and a few bundled example widgets. It's still currently in a BETA stage so it will contain some bugs, but I'm working to make it better when ever I have the time. It will appear in the Nokia Store shortly.

Where are we on compatibility? Currently the focus is on W3C standards as well as basic support for Symbian widgets. At the moment here are the supported standards:

• W3C compliant widget packaging will be installable (I've reached 97.05% pass rate in W3C test suite)
• Widget Interface specified by W3C (100% pass rate!)
• W3C Geolocation API
• Widgets created for Opera runtime should mostly work, including "Live Icon" support (API compatibility reached, though there might be some issues left)
• Install and run basic Symbian widgets (some APIs are supported, but not the platform services)
• WAC2.0 Viewport Feature

Some things that are planned for future releases:

• Proper view-mode support (currently it is only supported through webkit prefixes)
• WAC2.0 compatible platform services
• Symbian compatible platform services
• Better architecture where each widget is ran on it's own process

I was for a long time very frustrated that Google Maps wasn't available to the N9 as I prefer it's maps to Nokia's. With my Widget Runtime, I was able to create a basic touch-enabled widget (see the screenshot below) in just about an hour! This widget comes bundled with the Widget Runtime and might get expanded features in the near future as well. Sadly, however, the widget crashes randomly due to a bug in QtWebkit that plagues the device :(