Jaikido Blog

The fast-moving folks at WidSets, the Nokia-backed mobile Web widget app, have announced a Jaiku widget as part of their social widget bundle. According to the Jaiku Widget download page it has already been downloaded over 40,000 times.

WidSets, which passed the 1 million registered users milestone last month, is a handset manufacturer-independent Java application that enables users to download and create widgets that deliver up to date Internet content to mobile phones.

According to Nokia, WidSets works on a wide variety of mobile phone brands and is compatible on more than 300 mobile devices. That means you can use the Jaiku widget not just on Nokia phones, but also Blackberries, Motorolas, Sony Ericssons, and other mobile devices that support Java MIDP 2.0. For a complete roundup, see the list of compatible devices.

I’ve found myself using the widget quite a bit because it is lightweight, updates automatically, and the UI is so smooth. Judging from the comments on Jaiku other Jaikees like it too. You can sign in with your Jaiku screen name and password (no API key needed).

To get it, you need to first download and install WidSets on your phone. I found that the app downloads pretty quickly (it is only 159kb in size). Point your mobile phone browser to the mobile site at get.widsets.com – or go to widsets.com/social on the Web and click “Download”.

Once you’ve downloaded the Jaiku widget and signed in to your account, you can browse the following streams:

• Overview (this is the latest from you and your contacts, identical to the Overview page on jaiku.com when you are signed in)
• Your Jaikus - Jaikus by you. Identical to same on the Web
• Explore - latest public Jaikus from everyone
• Jaiku Team - news and updates from the Jaiku team
• Jaiku Support and Ideas channel - latest posts to the support channel
• Devku channel - Jaiku developer channel. New 3rd-party applications tend to be posted here first
• TWiT channel - the backchannel for the popular This Week in Tech netcast by Leo Laporte and friends.

To post a new Jaiku to your stream, select Options -> Post a Jaiku. To set your location, select Options -> Set Location.

The widget has some nice details: for instance, it displays the Jaiku icons and Flickr photo thumbnails. You can also set the phone to beep when a new Jaiku is received.

The most important feature, however, is the broadening of the range of handsets for which there is now a slick, usable Jaiku client.

I’m already looking forward to next releases of this widget. The top 3 features on my wishlist are support for commenting, posting to channels, and browsing contacts.

Keep up the great work, Nokia!

Posted by Jyri | Permalink

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.