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12

Nokia flies Virgin Atlantic on wireless charging

Virgin Atlantic

Discovering you have a flat battery on your phone as soon as the plane has landed is never the best way to start a holiday.

A new partnership between Nokia and Virgin Atlantic, which will see wireless charging facilities being installed at the airline’s Heathrow Clubhouse, will allow passengers to charge their phones before their flight, so they’ll be ready to go on arrival.

The exciting news follows hot on the heels of Nokia’s unveiling of their innovative new Windows Phone 8 flagship device, the Lumia 920, which has wireless charging built in.

Another new Nokia smartphone, the Lumia 820, can also be charged wirelessly with the use of a removable and exchangeable shell.

Nokia’s executive vice president of smart devices, Jo Harlow, said:

“Virgin Atlantic is putting passengers first by removing a major anxiety, particularly for business travellers – how to keep their phone charged throughout a long day.”

She added that Nokia hopes to make wireless charging as ubiquitous as WiFi.

Lumia 920 and wireless charging

The Qi standard

Certainly, the launch of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 is a major catalyst to help develop an ecosystem for wireless charging.

Nokia and other industry partners are supporting the Qi wireless charging standard to build and create the infrastructure that will make wireless charging a common and convenient part of our daily lives.

As well as the handsets themselves, Nokia also unveiled several accessories, such as the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker and the Fatboy™ Recharge Pillow, which can be used to charge up the handsets wirelessly. 

Flying high

Speaking to Conversations in New York just moments after the partnership with Nokia was announced, Sarah McIntyre of Virgin Atlantic said:

“A lot of our travellers come into the Clubhouse, they’ve got a couple of hours and they want to do some email work, they want to catch up with friends and family, they are checking their devices and obviously they don’t want to arrive at their destination with a dead phone.”

She described wireless charging as a ‘perfect opportunity’ to enhance the Clubhouse experience for Virgin Atlantic’s customers.

The wireless charging facilities will be in Virgin Atlantic’s London Heathrow Clubhouse later this year. Nokia and Virgin Atlantic also plan to install the facilities at New York’s JFK airport at a later date.

Image credit: markyharky


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
Tags: None

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12

Social Innovator of the Week: Candy Chang

It’s relax time, so please feel free to stop what you are doing for five minutes to absorb the wonderful working world of our new social innovator for this week: Candy Chang. It’s all about clearing your mind, forgetting all of your troubles and enjoying this exploration of Candy’s projects. 

Candy is a US based artist who specialises in making city spaces more contemplative; smashing the worlds of public space and personal well-being together to create some heart-warming results.

She attended Columbia University and achieved a BS in Architecture, a BFA in Graphic Design and a Masters in Urban Planning before moving on to design for the New York Times and help community groups in New York, Nairobi, New Orleans, Vancouver and Johannesburg (you can find a full biography of her life right here).

Last week I featured Alok Appadurai, a man with a wide array of passions and titles attached to his name (how could we forget the Urban Farmer!). Candy has a similar number of titles attached to her name, but all of hers have been awarded! I dare you try and not be impressed by these: TED Senior Fellow, “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero by Oprah Magazine, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and the Tulane Urban Innovation Fellow. 

“Through a series of large-scale projects that combine installation art with social activism, Chang has encouraged people to engage with public spaces to let their voices be heard.” - O, the Oprah Magazine

Even Oprah Winfrey has given her an award! You know when you’ve made an impact on the local community as soon as Oprah knocks on your door. 

Examples of Candy’s work

Here are some of Candy’s street projects, they will help you realise why she is being honoured with our very own social innovator title this week:

New York Street Vendor Guide

Street vendors in New York City are sometimes fined up to $1000 for small violations of vending law, so Candy decided to help them all out with a simple guide to proper conduct on the streets (which included text and imagery in English, Bengali, Chinese, Arabic and Spanish).

The guide included everything from the distance a stall should be located away from the curb edge, to how products should be stacked on or around the stall. She even illustrated a section on ‘know your rights’ when selling on the street.

Before I Die….

Candy lost somebody close to her and had trouble coming to terms with death, so she decided to find out what was important about life to the community around her in New Orleans. She found a house that was boarded up (post-Katrina) and turned it into a peaceful place for people to express exactly what they wanted to do before they died.

Half the house was covered in a black chalkboard and the words ‘Before I Die….’ acted as a signpost for people to contribute their thoughts.

Here is Candy talking about the project at the TED conference this year. If you take time out to have a listen, you’ll understand the context of the pirate image below, but I think it’s just as funny on its own.

 

The project didn’t just end in New Orleans, Candy decided to design a Before I Die Tool Kit to be sent all over the world after she had requests from lots of nations to take part. The idea eventually spread to Kazakhstan, South Africa, Holland, Mexico, Australia, Portugal, Italy and Argentina (to name but a few).  

I Wish This Was

I can guarantee you’ve seen some disused retail space in your home town recently. Empty store fronts have been the natural by-product of recession and e-commerce all over the world, but how can a community of people make a difference?

Candy recognised that a simple sticker campaign in New Orleans would help town planners think twice about offering retail space to organisations without listening to the community. 

People were asked to write what they thought the empty space should be turned into on some bespoke ‘I Wish This Was’ stickers. Let’s just say there were lots of different comments!

There were some serious ones…..

and some not so serious ones….

 

What a fantastic way to get the message over to the authorities and empower a township of people. I have something to confess, I could sit here and write about all of Candy Chang’s work for the next day or two. I simply decided to touch on three of her projects for you today, so make sure you head here to look at all of her ideas, I promise it will be a great way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

You can find Candy and Nokia Connects on Twitter. Please do let us know your thoughts about this post. I would love to hear your perspective on her work, after all, you all know mine!

Also feel free to drop me a link to a social innovator you admire in the comments section below, I will do my very best to write about them for the rest of the community in the coming weeks.

[Image credits: Candy Chang, Randal Ford for Fast Company]


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
Tags: None

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12

Watching YouTube apps on the Nokia Lumia

YouTube is one of the wonders of the digital world. If something has been filmed, whether it is a music video, a political speech or a home movie then the chances are it’s available to watch on YouTube.

The numbers alone are enough to make your head pop. According to YouTube’s own statistics:

  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watch each month
  • 72 hours of video are uploaded every hour

Mobile devices have played a big hand in these numbers as well. Over 20% of all YouTube’s views are from mobile devices and three hours of video is uploaded to the video-sharing site from mobile devices every minute.

YouTube on your Lumia

Your Nokia Lumia smartphones, with their fantastic screens, are an ideal way of watching YouTube when you are on the move – or even when you’re just sitting around the house!

There is an official YouTube app in the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia but it is little more than a link to the mobile web version of YouTube. It works well enough and it’s fine for watching videos but it’s just not very exciting, is it?

You are left with the feeling that the app could be so much more. Thankfully, that’s where the independent developers come in. Here’s a pick of some of the third party YouTube apps for your Lumia. Happy watching.

easyTube, £.079p 

This is a paid for app, but you can also try it out without any limitations on its features but you will see ads.

easyTube has a slick interface, supports your YouTube account and there is also integration with social networks so you share clips with friends. Perhaps best of all is that you can download clips to your Lumia and arrange them in different folders.

You can also record your own videos within the app and then upload them to YouTube. 

Metrotube, FREE 

Metrotube is everything you wanted the official YouTube app to be. It is a beautiful app that chimes perfectly with the Windows Phone interface.

Once you’ve logged in with your YouTube account you could be mistaken for thinking that this is the official YouTube app. You can watch your favourites, your subscription videos or your playlists – all of which you can also pin to your start screen. 

Sometimes an app just works and you don’t need tonnes of fancy features to be impressed by it. Metrotube is such an example. There’s no downloading or uploading, but for just watching YouTube, it is a delight.

PrimeTube, FREE 

PrimeTube is a cross between Metrotube and easyTube. It has the great Windows Phone-style interface of the former with some of the added functionality of the latter.

Again, this app serves you better if you do have a YouTube account so you can access all your favourites and subscriptions. Particularly useful is that your subscription videos get their own screen (most viewed and trending are the others) when the app starts up.

You can also record and upload videos, although you can’t download them. You can pin videos, playlists and authors, with live tile support, to the start screen.

Tube Pro, FREE 

Tube Pro is another app that supports recording and uploading of your own videos to YouTube. You can also download videos to your Lumia.

There are a few nice features that set it apart, such as different themes and backgrounds and the location function, which shows you the videos in your area. If you are listening to a music video or concert recording then the app will play the audio underneath the lock screen.

Udownldr, FREE

I like this app purely on the basis that it doesn’t feature the word ‘tube’ in its title. As its name suggests, Udownldr has been developed in mind to make it easy for you to download, as well as watch, YouTube videos.

MP3 Tube, FREE

This is a YouTube downloading app with a difference. It downloads YouTube videos and converts them into MP3 audio files. Dare I suggest that this could work quite well for music videos? 

Within the app, you listen to the MP3 and create a playlist of your downloaded files. You can also edit your MP3 files to create ringtones for your Lumia.

MegaTube, FREE 

MegaTube does not currently support your YouTube account login or video uploading, but the developer says these will come with future updates.

What MegaTube does allow you to do is search, watch and download videos. Perhaps the one thing that sets this apart is the choice of feeds – you can see the most shared, most popular, most recent, most discussed, trending videos etc. 

Reading the comments or browsing through the author information while you are watching a video also works well on this app.

phoneTUBE, FREE 

This app takes a somewhat niche approach to the abundance of content available on YouTube. It has selected the full-length movies that are available on the site and essentially created a free film service for your Lumia.

It’s a good idea in principle but you may become frustrated at the limited choice on offer, although the developer has promised to keep his list updated.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, then you might want to give Crackle a try.

What’s your favourite YouTube app on your Lumia?


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
Tags: None

wrz

12

Nokia flies Virgin Atlantic on wireless charging

Virgin Atlantic

Discovering you have a flat battery on your phone as soon as the plane has landed is never the best way to start a holiday.

A new partnership between Nokia and Virgin Atlantic, which will see wireless charging facilities being installed at the airline’s Heathrow Clubhouse, will allow passengers to charge their phones before their flight, so they’ll be ready to go on arrival.

The exciting news follows hot on the heels of Nokia’s unveiling of their innovative new Windows Phone 8 flagship device, the Lumia 920, which has wireless charging built in.

Another new Nokia smartphone, the Lumia 820, can also be charged wirelessly with the use of a removable and exchangeable shell.

Nokia’s executive vice president of smart devices, Jo Harlow, said:

“Virgin Atlantic is putting passengers first by removing a major anxiety, particularly for business travellers – how to keep their phone charged throughout a long day.”

She added that Nokia hopes to make wireless charging as ubiquitous as WiFi.

Lumia 920 and wireless charging

The Qi standard

Certainly, the launch of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 is a major catalyst to help develop an ecosystem for wireless charging.

Nokia and other industry partners are supporting the Qi wireless charging standard to build and create the infrastructure that will make wireless charging a common and convenient part of our daily lives.

As well as the handsets themselves, Nokia also unveiled several accessories, such as the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker and the Fatboy™ Recharge Pillow, which can be used to charge up the handsets wirelessly. 

Flying high

Speaking to Conversations in New York just moments after the partnership with Nokia was announced, Sarah McIntyre of Virgin Atlantic said:

“A lot of our travellers come into the Clubhouse, they’ve got a couple of hours and they want to do some email work, they want to catch up with friends and family, they are checking their devices and obviously they don’t want to arrive at their destination with a dead phone.”

She described wireless charging as a ‘perfect opportunity’ to enhance the Clubhouse experience for Virgin Atlantic’s customers.

The wireless charging facilities will be in Virgin Atlantic’s London Heathrow Clubhouse later this year. Nokia and Virgin Atlantic also plan to install the facilities at New York’s JFK airport at a later date.

Image credit: markyharky


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
Tags: None

wrz

12

Social Innovator of the Week: Candy Chang

It’s relax time, so please feel free to stop what you are doing for five minutes to absorb the wonderful working world of our new social innovator for this week: Candy Chang. It’s all about clearing your mind, forgetting all of your troubles and enjoying this exploration of Candy’s projects. 

Candy is a US based artist who specialises in making city spaces more contemplative; smashing the worlds of public space and personal well-being together to create some heart-warming results.

She attended Columbia University and achieved a BS in Architecture, a BFA in Graphic Design and a Masters in Urban Planning before moving on to design for the New York Times and help community groups in New York, Nairobi, New Orleans, Vancouver and Johannesburg (you can find a full biography of her life right here).

Last week I featured Alok Appadurai, a man with a wide array of passions and titles attached to his name (how could we forget the Urban Farmer!). Candy has a similar number of titles attached to her name, but all of hers have been awarded! I dare you try and not be impressed by these: TED Senior Fellow, “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero by Oprah Magazine, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and the Tulane Urban Innovation Fellow. 

“Through a series of large-scale projects that combine installation art with social activism, Chang has encouraged people to engage with public spaces to let their voices be heard.” - O, the Oprah Magazine

Even Oprah Winfrey has given her an award! You know when you’ve made an impact on the local community as soon as Oprah knocks on your door. 

Examples of Candy’s work

Here are some of Candy’s street projects, they will help you realise why she is being honoured with our very own social innovator title this week:

New York Street Vendor Guide

Street vendors in New York City are sometimes fined up to $1000 for small violations of vending law, so Candy decided to help them all out with a simple guide to proper conduct on the streets (which included text and imagery in English, Bengali, Chinese, Arabic and Spanish).

The guide included everything from the distance a stall should be located away from the curb edge, to how products should be stacked on or around the stall. She even illustrated a section on ‘know your rights’ when selling on the street.

Before I Die….

Candy lost somebody close to her and had trouble coming to terms with death, so she decided to find out what was important about life to the community around her in New Orleans. She found a house that was boarded up (post-Katrina) and turned it into a peaceful place for people to express exactly what they wanted to do before they died.

Half the house was covered in a black chalkboard and the words ‘Before I Die….’ acted as a signpost for people to contribute their thoughts.

Here is Candy talking about the project at the TED conference this year. If you take time out to have a listen, you’ll understand the context of the pirate image below, but I think it’s just as funny on its own.

 

The project didn’t just end in New Orleans, Candy decided to design a Before I Die Tool Kit to be sent all over the world after she had requests from lots of nations to take part. The idea eventually spread to Kazakhstan, South Africa, Holland, Mexico, Australia, Portugal, Italy and Argentina (to name but a few).  

I Wish This Was

I can guarantee you’ve seen some disused retail space in your home town recently. Empty store fronts have been the natural by-product of recession and e-commerce all over the world, but how can a community of people make a difference?

Candy recognised that a simple sticker campaign in New Orleans would help town planners think twice about offering retail space to organisations without listening to the community. 

People were asked to write what they thought the empty space should be turned into on some bespoke ‘I Wish This Was’ stickers. Let’s just say there were lots of different comments!

There were some serious ones…..

and some not so serious ones….

 

What a fantastic way to get the message over to the authorities and empower a township of people. I have something to confess, I could sit here and write about all of Candy Chang’s work for the next day or two. I simply decided to touch on three of her projects for you today, so make sure you head here to look at all of her ideas, I promise it will be a great way to spend 10 minutes of your day.

You can find Candy and Nokia Connects on Twitter. Please do let us know your thoughts about this post. I would love to hear your perspective on her work, after all, you all know mine!

Also feel free to drop me a link to a social innovator you admire in the comments section below, I will do my very best to write about them for the rest of the community in the coming weeks.

[Image credits: Candy Chang, Randal Ford for Fast Company]


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
Tags: None

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12

Great times ahead for all Nokia Lumia smartphones

Lumia 800

After introducing the first smartphones in the Nokia Lumia family to be built on Windows Phone 8, there is one message that needs to be made loud and clear: existing Lumia owners also have plenty to look forward to and are definitely not being left behind.

The current Lumia range of smartphones will continue to be supported by Nokia with a new updated user interface, new features, apps and upgrades.

In short, there is everything that you currently love about your Lumia, plus new developments coming in the future to help ensure that your Lumia experience will remain the envy of your friends!

Support from day one

Lumia 900

Ever since the Lumia handsets were first launched, Nokia has delivered a series of updates that have improved the battery performance and introduced exciting new features. 

Recently, we have brought Internet sharing, Flip-to-Silence and Camera Extras to the whole Lumia range.

There have also been new apps such as Contact Share and PlayTo and updates to Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia Transport and Nokia Music. 

In the pipeline

Brand new, compelling updates are in the pipeline. Nokia City Lens, launched just last week to make exploring surroundings more intuitive, is already available in the Windows Phone Marketplace for Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900, as is Nokia Counters, to help you keep an eye on your phone usage.

We will also bring Cinemagraph and updates to Smart Group Shot to the existing Lumia devices with some additional surprises to make photo shooting and sharing as easy as possible. Additional new features for all Lumia devices will include:

  • A new Start screen look and feel, familiar from Windows Phone 8, giving you a whole new look the moment you unlock your phone
  • Ringtone maker app to selected markets to create a personal ringtone
  • Contact share app updated to support sharing over Bluetooth in addition to SMS and email
  • Bluetooth file transfer to send media files via Bluetooth from your Lumia device to any other phone 

The rollout of these updates for the Lumia 610, Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 smartphones will be phased, and we will share more details closer to the start of delivery.

New and exclusive apps continue to be launched in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Coming up, there is Zynga’s smash hit games Draw Something and Words with Friends, new apps from Bloomberg, WhatsApp, Groupon and a whole lot more.


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
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12

Watching YouTube apps on the Nokia Lumia

YouTube is one of the wonders of the digital world. If something has been filmed, whether it is a music video, a political speech or a home movie then the chances are it’s available to watch on YouTube.

The numbers alone are enough to make your head pop. According to YouTube’s own statistics:

  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watch each month
  • 72 hours of video are uploaded every hour

Mobile devices have played a big hand in these numbers as well. Over 20% of all YouTube’s views are from mobile devices and three hours of video is uploaded to the video-sharing site from mobile devices every minute.

YouTube on your Lumia

Your Nokia Lumia smartphones, with their fantastic screens, are an ideal way of watching YouTube when you are on the move – or even when you’re just sitting around the house!

There is an official YouTube app in the Windows Phone Marketplace for your Nokia Lumia but it is little more than a link to the mobile web version of YouTube. It works well enough and it’s fine for watching videos but it’s just not very exciting, is it?

You are left with the feeling that the app could be so much more. Thankfully, that’s where the independent developers come in. Here’s a pick of some of the third party YouTube apps for your Lumia. Happy watching.

easyTube, £.079p 

This is a paid for app, but you can also try it out without any limitations on its features but you will see ads.

easyTube has a slick interface, supports your YouTube account and there is also integration with social networks so you share clips with friends. Perhaps best of all is that you can download clips to your Lumia and arrange them in different folders.

You can also record your own videos within the app and then upload them to YouTube. 

Metrotube, FREE 

Metrotube is everything you wanted the official YouTube app to be. It is a beautiful app that chimes perfectly with the Windows Phone interface.

Once you’ve logged in with your YouTube account you could be mistaken for thinking that this is the official YouTube app. You can watch your favourites, your subscription videos or your playlists – all of which you can also pin to your start screen. 

Sometimes an app just works and you don’t need tonnes of fancy features to be impressed by it. Metrotube is such an example. There’s no downloading or uploading, but for just watching YouTube, it is a delight.

PrimeTube, FREE 

PrimeTube is a cross between Metrotube and easyTube. It has the great Windows Phone-style interface of the former with some of the added functionality of the latter.

Again, this app serves you better if you do have a YouTube account so you can access all your favourites and subscriptions. Particularly useful is that your subscription videos get their own screen (most viewed and trending are the others) when the app starts up.

You can also record and upload videos, although you can’t download them. You can pin videos, playlists and authors, with live tile support, to the start screen.

Tube Pro, FREE 

Tube Pro is another app that supports recording and uploading of your own videos to YouTube. You can also download videos to your Lumia.

There are a few nice features that set it apart, such as different themes and backgrounds and the location function, which shows you the videos in your area. If you are listening to a music video or concert recording then the app will play the audio underneath the lock screen.

Udownldr, FREE

I like this app purely on the basis that it doesn’t feature the word ‘tube’ in its title. As its name suggests, Udownldr has been developed in mind to make it easy for you to download, as well as watch, YouTube videos.

MP3 Tube, FREE

This is a YouTube downloading app with a difference. It downloads YouTube videos and converts them into MP3 audio files. Dare I suggest that this could work quite well for music videos? 

Within the app, you listen to the MP3 and create a playlist of your downloaded files. You can also edit your MP3 files to create ringtones for your Lumia.

MegaTube, FREE 

MegaTube does not currently support your YouTube account login or video uploading, but the developer says these will come with future updates.

What MegaTube does allow you to do is search, watch and download videos. Perhaps the one thing that sets this apart is the choice of feeds – you can see the most shared, most popular, most recent, most discussed, trending videos etc. 

Reading the comments or browsing through the author information while you are watching a video also works well on this app.

phoneTUBE, FREE 

This app takes a somewhat niche approach to the abundance of content available on YouTube. It has selected the full-length movies that are available on the site and essentially created a free film service for your Lumia.

It’s a good idea in principle but you may become frustrated at the limited choice on offer, although the developer has promised to keep his list updated.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, then you might want to give Crackle a try.

What’s your favourite YouTube app on your Lumia?


Category: NOKIA EUROPA | Leave a Comment
Tags: None

wrz

11

Ubezpiecz swojego kochanego smartfona w Play!

Bezpieczny Telefon to oferta Ubezpieczenia przygotowana dla Abonentów Play we współpracy z firmą MetLife Insurance Limited. Usługa kierowana jest do Klientów, którzy zakupili telefon w sieci Play w związku z zawarciem lub przedłużeniem umowy o Świadczenie Usług Telekomunikacyjnych. Celem Programu jest zapewnienie Tobie spokoju i poczucia pełnego komfortu oraz bezpieczeństwa w użytkowaniu telefonu. Ubezpieczenie oferowane [...]

Category: PLAY | Leave a Comment
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11

Ubezpiecz swojego kochanego smartfona w Play!

Bezpieczny Telefon to oferta Ubezpieczenia przygotowana dla Abonentów Play we współpracy z firmą MetLife Insurance Limited. Usługa kierowana jest do Klientów, którzy zakupili telefon w sieci Play w związku z zawarciem lub przedłużeniem umowy o Świadczenie Usług Telekomunikacyjnych. Celem Programu jest zapewnienie Tobie spokoju i poczucia pełnego komfortu oraz bezpieczeństwa w użytkowaniu telefonu. Ubezpieczenie oferowane [...]

Category: PLAY | Leave a Comment
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11

BacklogTool – new open source tool for backlog management from Sony

BacklogToolFeatured

BacklogTool is a web based planning tool that we’ve developed internally to keep track of backlogs. Since we like it so much we have now published it on GitHub to give you the chance to use it, and to help us improve it. BacklogTool is great to use with well-known development methods like Scrum, as well as on its own. In this blog post, software engineer Gustaf Lundh explains the benefits of this tool and how it is used. Read on for the full story!

Gustaf Lundh

Gustaf Lundh, Software Engineer at Sony Mobile.

BacklogTool is a web based, light weight planning tool that allows users to plan their daily work and easily rank their tasks using drag and drop. Unlike many other available tools, our BacklogTool is decoupled from the development process and works well with different kinds of methods such as Scrum, Kanban and others.

Backlog items can be inserted in the BacklogTool using a hierarchical structure consisting of themes that are divided into epics, stories and finally tasks. These items can be viewed in three different views for a good overview of the project, namely theme-epic, epic-story and story-task. It’s very easy to edit items in the backlog by double clicking on them, make some changes and press save. The changes you make will be pushed out in real time to all other users viewing the same area as you.

Why create a new backlog tool at all?
A while ago, we saw the need for a new backlog management tool in my department. Looking at all the great tools in this area already available out there, we asked ourselves a few questions:

  • Is it open source? This is important since we need to be able to tweak and enhance the tool according to our needs.
  • Does it support the LDAP authentication mechanism?
  • Can we deploy it internally? Due to security reasons, we need to host the data ourselves.
  • Does it fit management and engineers equally well?

The last requirement was something we put extra effort on as we wanted to provide transparency for ourselves and our internal customers. However, all stakeholders are not interested in all the details so we wanted to be able to provide information on different levels by using a hierarchical backlog that presents a very general overview with a possibility to dig deeper into details if needed. To meet all these requirements, we decided to create something ourselves.

Nicklas Nilsson and Fredrik Persson

Nicklas Nilsson (left) and Fredrik Persson (right), developers of BacklogTool.

The main use cases in BacklogTool
BacklogTool was mainly developed by Fredrik Persson and Nicklas Nilsson, and it’s designed to be open and easy to access, which means all users can view all created backlogs without being logged in.

Each backlog is stored in a custom area, which can be created by logged in users on the main page. Once an area gets created, the owner can specify what users should have edit rights, and what users should have admin rights for a specific area.

In order to make BacklogTool fit every team with their own requirements and their own way of working, the information fields for user stories are dynamic and possible to modify in many ways. By default, a field named “Status” will be created and have options like “ongoing” and “finished”, however this can easily be changed. You can easily add more options including custom icons through the admin page for each area.

BacklogTool supports login using existing LDAP user accounts, which means you can use LDAP logins with the same credentials as you do for your other LDAP supported systems.

Now looking at BacklogTool, the main use cases are to:

  • Organise and follow up your backlog by creating areas, themes, epics, stories and tasks.

Story-task view

  • Print stories or tasks for use on a Scrum or Kanban board.
  • Customise your area.

Customise area


Try out BacklogTool
BacklogTool is intuitive and easy to use, and we will add more user guide documentation on GitHub in the future. Try it out for yourself by downloading it from GitHub where it is available together with code, binaries, user guide and installation instructions. In the “readme” file, displayed on the project front page, there are instructions on how to start using the tool as well as on how to start contributing to the code. If you have any questions or comments, drop us a line below. We are looking forward to see patches, forks, user stories or perhaps a suggestion for a better name!

More information

Category: Sony Ericsson | Leave a Comment
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