10 Augusty 2009
Nixie Watch Gets An Update And
Opens Source Code To PyS60 Community
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*click to enlarge |
Nixie Watch is product of a growing nostalgia for the old technology, designed to emulate a Nixie Tube Clock and instantly transform your Nokia Tube into a modernized old-style nixie tube clock.
Nixie Watch works in portrait, 24 hour mode, with 3 rows of two small Nixie tubes where top row shows hours, middle row minutes and the bottom row seconds.
Although Nokia 5800 is equipped with a great high definition screen it cannot replicate the 3-D effect of Nixie tubes unfortunately and it doesn’t get hot either but it still remind us on the imperfect beauty of the real Nixie Tube Clocks.
All credits for this cool and free Nixie Watch application goes to Jouni Miettunen who is by the way a Python enthusiast and he became a Forum Nokia Champion, mainly thanks to his active participation in Python for S60 community.
Last evening I read Lifehacker interview of Steve Wozniak. He said "I do have a Nixie Tube watch"... Uh, sorry? Was that Nokia 5800, which was codenamed "Tube"? As a watch?
After some googling I discovered an amazing analog watch, in the wrist of Steve Wozniak. I wanted one immediately, but couldn't have. So the next evening I did the second best thing: wrote a Nixie Tube look-a-like application. Hope you like it, too!
The just realeased version of the Nixie Watchis based on the latest version of the Python for S60 (1.9.7) and brings better touch screen support, support for both landscape and portrait mode as well as support for the screen rotation.
In a bid to encourage more development on the platform and to inspire and help developers get started, Juoni has also released the source code of the application which is now available on the game page for free.
For those who don’t know, Nixie tubes were the numeric display technology of choice in the 1960s and early 1970s. Some would call them the pinnacle of the vacuum tube makers art.
They were used as numeric displays in early digital voltmeters, frequency counters and many other types of technical equipment. They also appeared in costly digital time displays used in research and military establishments, and in many early electronic desktop calculators.
Each tube contains 10 individual cathodes, each carefully formed in the shape of a digit. The tube is filled with a mixture of gases, including neon. A high voltage applied to one of the cathodes causes the gas around it to glow in a soft orange light.
Note: Application has to be installed on the same drive as PyS60 (C: for internal memory or E: for external memory) – otherwise the game won't start!
Because each digit is individually formed, they tend to have a more pleasing shape than seven-segment displays. In addition, since the digits are lined up one behind the other inside the tube, there is an extra 3-dimensional aspect to Nixie displays that does not exist with newer technologies. As the digits count from 0 to 9, they appear to march away from the viewer in the tube.
Main Nixie Watch Features:
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Shows current time (it's a watch)
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Portrait screen with 3 rows of two nixie tubes: top row hours, middle row minutes, bottom row seconds.
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Landscape screen with 3 columns of two nixie tubes: left column hours, middle column minutes, right column seconds.
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Screensaver is disabled while app is visible
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Last selected tube color is used by default
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SF Review: Transform Your Phone Into Old-style Nixie Tube Clock
Originally posted: 23.04.2009
Last Updated: 10.08.2009
Author: Teo Bartulovic [a.k.a Apoc' ]
Copyright: Symbian Freak 2009; all rights reserved
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