Now that my region's Nokia N82 v20.0.062 update has been released, I've been very excited to try out the Web Runtime (WRT) Widgets. A lot of news has been generated on this new technology, with some claiming that it might even kickstart a new revolution for mobile phone services and applications. It's all been writing and talk so far, so here's a first take on Nokia WRT Widgets and the sort of potential it holds for the future.

First off, where can one get S60 WRT Widgets? Googling doesn't really reveal much - it's all news and information on WRT widgets, rather than the widgets themselves.

I downloaded Nokia's MOSH Client - a tool that allows users and developers to share all sorts of applications. A quick search of "widget" under the "Applications" category yielded at least 50 hits, and I took the time to test out a few that most users would use.



The currency conversion widget (WorldExchange) shows signs that WRT widgets is still in its early stages. Maybe it's just me, but it just feels very unpolished right now. It's got plenty of potential though, and I find it quite useful. There's a couple of bugs, including the lack of support for the accelerometer, but that should change quite soon with updates from the developer.



Another terrific widget is the weather widget (Mobiweather). It's only in it's beta stage, and again looks a bit unpolished and in it's early stages, but the basic idea is there. There's also a very nice feature of autodetecting the user's location, and considering it's simplicity and user friendliness, it's one of the more well designed widgets out there. Hopefully when it turns final we can see it integrate even better with the browser/phone, in having a full screen, numbered shortcuts, and whatever else the developer can think of.

And so we have here a first look at Nokia's S60 Web Runtime (WRT) Widgets. It displays plenty of potential to be expanded, and since it's more or less a combination of HTML, Ajax, Javascript - I can see a huge developer base for this type of application. Think of it as a more casual application - it doesn't have to be Symbian Signed, it can be easily created and tested - and we'll probably see more of these Widgets in the short term future.

And with Nokia's MOSH acting as a platform to distribute applications and widgets, I see a bright future for the S60 platform.

Shown above is one of the demo widgets shown at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last year. So far I haven't seen any impressive widgets out in the S60 community, but that situation should be changing really soon.

Let me back track a bit. What are widgets? Well, they're just mobile applications which can be developed using XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax. You've probably seen it around since the Mac platform introduced it in Mac OS X Tiger, and the Yahoo! Widget Engine for PCs.

The new firmware for the S60 N-series platform (v20.0.062) enables Web Runtime, which will allow Widgets to run on the S60 platform. I'm pretty sure a huge amount of people have experience in CSS and JavaScript - and since there's no need to Symbian Sign for all the developed Widgets, I'm quite sure there will be an explosion in Widget development in the short term future.