Just the other week I was thinking to myself how great it would be if I could write a blog entry on my phone and upload it either through a GPRS connection or an open WiFi connection that I might find.  What a great app this could be for anyone running a Symbian powered mobile phone such as a Nokia N80!

The primary language for Symbian OS is Carbide.c++.  This is a great little language for people that can work in it alot, but unfortunately for me, it’s not something I’ve had the opportunity to really work with.  So it came as a bit of a surprise when I learned that RedFive Labs has made available a .NET mobile framework for the S60 Symbian devices.

For the last few years I’ve been working extensively in .NET, with most of my work being done in VB and only a few projects requiring C#.  I have worked a bit in Java and some other languages, but my fundamental skillset is with the Microsoft platforms (for now … I’ll likely be using more and more Ruby on Rails as time passes).  This will now provide a great bridge to empower programmers like me to build apps in an ever-growing market.

A large portion of Japan’s cell phones use Symbian and I’m always seeing positions for mobile programmers on job sites like GaijinPot.com, so hopefully this can be another avenue of opportunity as I make my way into the Japanese market.

I’ve yet to test this framework on any S60 devices (since I just downloaded the Community Technology Prefiew of the framework today), but I’m looking forward to what this framework can provide.  According to the RedFive press release, Symbian devices should operate with the same performance under this framework as they would under any other program written in Carbide or J2ME language.

Depending on how my testing goes, I might just have a few applications that can enable people to update their blog from anywhere their mobile phone has signal.