Build an app in 60 seconds
If you have ever tried building an app for your blog for distribution through Apple’s App store, you know the drill. First, it requires you to have the technical know-how, you need an Apple developer account and, if you are writing the app on your own, you also need to have a Mac.
With Nokia’s Ovi Store, a person with no programming skills can build an app in minutes through an online wizard – all they need is a blog with an RSS feed. There’s no fees involved and your Ovi App created through the wizard can be downloaded on almost all Nokia devices except for some of the recent ones.
The wizard offers limited customization options – you may change the background and text colors but nothing beyond that. If you have more than one feed, you may publish them all in a single app without having to merge them separately.
To give you an example, we created this mobile app for PC Tech Magazine using the wizard, it got approved by the Ovi QA team in about a day (they need to confirm that you own the content) and now anyone, anywhere may download the app on their mobile through the Ovi Store.
How is the app any different from directly reading an RSS feed on the phone? Well, the biggest advantage is that the Ovi app optimizes your blog images for the mobile screen and thus the entries should load a lot quicker.
Also, when people have your blog installed as an app on the home screen of their mobiles, they’re probably going to check it more frequently.
