Programming PC Connectivity Applications for Symbian OS is designed to enable Symbian OS applications to be integrated with desktop PCs, and for mobility to be added to Windows PC applications by integrating them with Symbian OS smartphones. It will help you to create PC connectivity applications, based on standard services and APIs, purely by programming on the PC and also to create more specialized applications that involve programming on the Symbian OS smartphone as well as on the PC.
This book will teach readers how to improve Symbian OS applications' usability by integrating them with a PC.  For instance, applications could support a user interface on the PC when the Symbian OS smartphone is connected, or applications could store or archive data on the PC. Alternatively readers could use this book to improve Windows PC applications by integrating them with Symbian OS smartphones. This has been considered difficult and expensive, but, with the information in this book, it can be straightforward. You may be surprised at the quality of integration you can achieve just by creating PC software - for example, you could manage media files such as image, audio and video files just by using the APIs described in Chapters 4 and 5. If your application is more specialized then a small amount of Symbian OS programming may give you a unique service that increases its attractiveness (and therefore its sales).

All the examples are of stand-alone PC connectivity applications, but this is by no means the only way to create PC connectivity applications. This book also shows you how to create:

• a file browser that will provide a convenient user interface to the filing system on Symbian OS smartphones
• an application to read SMS messages on the smartphone and to send such messages by means of the smartphone
• applications to directly read and modify the Contacts and Agenda data on the smartphone

If you are an enterprise or corporate developer this book is also aimed at you. Symbian OS provides a selection of methods to connect a smartphone to a server, of which PC connectivity is one of the cheapest and fastest.

This book shows the potential for creating mobile games for Symbian smartphones such as S60 3rd Edition, UIQ 3 or FOMA devices. It covers various aspects of mobile games on Symbian OS, with contributions from a number of experts in the mobile games industry, including Nokia's N-Gage team, Ideaworks3D, and ZingMagic, as well as academics leading the field of innovative mobile experiences.

The first part of the book discusses the mobile games industry, including why the mobile industry differs from other sectors of the games market, a discussion of the sales of mobile games, their types, the gamers who play them, and how the games are sold.

The second part describes key aspects of writing games for Symbian smartphones using Symbian C++ and native APIs. The chapters cover the use of graphics and audio, multiplayer game design, the basics of writing a game loop using Symbian OS active objects, and general good practice. A chapter covering the use of hardware APIs, such as the camera and vibra, is also included.

Part Three covers porting games to Symbian OS using C or C++, and discusses the standards support that Symbian OS provides, and some of the middleware solutions available. A chapter about the N-Gage platform discusses how Nokia is making the next generation of mobile games, by providing a platform SDK for professional games developers to port games rapidly and effectively.

The final part of the book discusses how to create mobile games for Symbian smartphones without using C or C++, using Java ME, DoJa (for Japan) or Flash Lite 2

• A clear and concise text on how Symbian OS architecture works and the core programming techniques and concepts needed to be a solid, competent Symbian programmer
• Shows how Symbian OS architecture and programming compares with other mobile operating systems (to help transition and for better understanding)
• Provides multiple examples and extra descriptions for areas most difficult for new programmers who are unfamiliar to the unique OS architecture
• Contains many tips and techniques documented only, up until now, by scattered white papers and newsgroup threads
• Describes many details of inner operations of Symbian OS, focusing specifically on those needed to become a competent programmer

The book will cover development ranging from low-level system programming to end user GUI applications. It also covers the development and packaging tools, as well as providing some detailed reference and examples for key APIs.