The jury has reached the verdict. And the Nokia Beta Labs Contributor of the Month, November 2007, is …. *drumroll* …. Graham Oldfield!!!

Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Hooray!!!

Justification: responding to my grand challenge and turning Nokia N95 into a blazing Light Sabre, with respectable beta spirit: making quick improvements in a direct dialogue with the users.

Prize: the one-and-only Darth Vader helmet, with easy-on velcro straps. Graham: please send me (tommi dot vilkamo at nokia dot com) the address where to ship the helmet!!

To get a jedi-impression yourself, install the following files in the specified order: note: works only with N95 and some other new models with built-in accelerometer.

1. n95accelerometerplugin.sis
2. lightsabre_s60_3_x_v_1_3.sisx

If you don’t have a compatible device, you can get comfort (about not making a dork out of yourself, like the rest of us) watching this video of Ricky Cadden from Symbian Guru running amok with the earlier version.

Previous Nokia Beta Labs Contributors:
October ‘07: Max Waterman
September ‘07: Ed from eseries.org
August ‘07: Stefan Constantinescu

Here’s some good thinking by Simon Judge about Nokia Content Discoverer, and about our advertising-powered Download! Client under beta.

I agree, there must be ways to use Catalogs/Download! more effectively.

Your thoughts? (of course, UK people might want to submit their thoughts here instead, to win a Nokia E65)

Nseries PC Suite 2.0 beta is currently our most popular Beta Labs application, measured by the web traffic or by the number of downloads*. Now, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you have tried the application already, please go and fill in our Nseries PC Suite beta survey. If not, try the application first, and come back later to fill in the survey.

The survey shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to fill. And it would be extremely valuable for our Nseries PC Suite team and for Nokia’s future PC software development.

Many thanks in advance!!

* = some people have complained about sluggish download speeds from Nseries PC Suite web installer. Sorry about it. The team is currently investigating the situation, hope to get faster download speeds soon…

Darn, I missed the scoop, as Eseries.org and All About Symbian broke the news already. Yeah, it’s true: significantly improved Nokia Sports Tracker beta is out. And it’s good.

You can try it at http://sportstracker.nokia.com/.

We haven’t updated the Beta Labs page for Sports Tracker yet, I’ll try to get it done tomorrow. However, feel free to start sending us feedback already now!! It’s still in beta, and the team is actively improving everything based on your feedback.

In the meanwhile, check out the presentation by Jussi Kaasinen, one of the main guys from the Sports Tracker team: (starts from 5:42)

We just got the (first beta version of) Advertising powered Download! client for S60 ready. So now, my UK friends, please give us feedback, and win a Nokia E65!!

Compatibility: Available in United Kingdom only. Nokia 5700, 6110, 6120, 6121, 6290, E51, N76, N81, N95.

Download here.

Nseries PC Suite 2.0 is back with a vengeance. During the last two months, the team has worked extra-hard, achieving significant improvements:

* Improved and more user-friendly installation: web installer - no need to download every time the whole package, only selected applications
* Nokia Photos integrated
* Single-click sync for more user-friendly synchronization
* Significantly improved stability

Download here. And please tell us what you think!!

Click the images to enlarge

Ladies and gents, let me introduce Nokia Internet Tablet Video Converter, the first Beta Labs application for Nokia Internet Tablets. That’s right, Beta Labs is not for S60 and S40 devices only: we are going to have lots of cool stuff for Internet Tablets such as Nokia N810 and Nokia N800 in the future too!! (I wonder if we should set up a dedicated section for these).

Anyway, all you N800 and N810 owners, try this out:

With Nokia Internet Tablet Video Converter, you can easily convert your videos – the ones you shot yourself and the ones you downloaded from the Internet (legally of course) – into an optimized format for your Nokia Internet Tablet. All you need to do is drag and drop your videos into the application, which automatically converts them into a size and resolution that are just perfect for your Internet Tablet.

Download here.

Please tell us what you think about the application, and how we could improve it! As always, send your feedback either (1) privately to the feedback form, (2) publicly to the comments section of this post, or (3) by writing your thoughts at your own blog - just link back and we’ll hear about it.

I’m sure you have tried the built-in Download! Client (or “Catalogs”) on your phone. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the Nokia application that enables you to buy apps and content directly from your phone. Right now, we are experimenting with an advertising-supported business model, and thinking about how to include advertising to the Download! Client. In the best case, everyone would win: more discounted/free applications for you, a good targeted-advertising channel for the advertisers, and more money for the developers and our beloved shareholders.

Please help us figure out the right concept!!

We just launched the first beta version of advertising-powered Download! client under Beta Labs. The focus of this initial pilot is the UK, and the advertising links will not work yet in other countries. To encourage you to send feedback, we arranged a little competition: UK people are eligible for a prize draw to win a beautiful new Nokia E65. Yay!!! Of course, non-UK people are welcome to send their comments too - we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Compatibility:
- Download! Java application: available now for Nokia 6300, 5610, 5310, 7900, 6500 Classic, 6500 Slide.
- Download! for S60 3rd Edition: coming very soon.

Download here. Go and play around with it, and give your feedback and enter the competition

Deadline for the competition = 20 December 2007.

Nokia Audiobook Manager, the PC application for Nokia Audiobooks concept, has been updated to 1.03.

Based on your feedback, the team has made a few improvements and bug fixes:

Change log V 1.03:

- Progress bar works now correctly also for the first converted file

- Corrected CD ripping problems: retry did not work

- Audio volume of converted books is increased for having easier listening in noisy environment

- “Audiobooks” directory now created to memory card if it does not exist, this was causing false error for not having enough space in memory card

Download new version here.

On behalf of Nokia Audiobooks team, thanks everyone for your feedback!!

Minor changes done here and there:

- Supports Chinese language

- Auto updates & download via GPRS, 3G or WiFi

- Small enhancements

- Bug fixes

Download here.

Thanks for your feedback, keep it coming!!