Nokia Beta Labs has announced the availability of a S60 client enabling access to MOSH. While it is little more than a browser front end Nokia is hinting at it becoming a rich client over time.
MOSH has been designed by Nokia to be a device agnostic, user-driven distribution channel for mobile applications and other mobile content. While it can be used from a desktop Web browser, it is really intended to be used on mobile devices. Currently users have accessed MOSH via their devices browser and that does not change much with the MOSH client.
While the MOSH client allows you to upload and share various types of content (applications, games, audio, images, and video) it still does it through the Web Browser for S60. The client simply provides an entry point to various key MOSH pages, upload, search, browse, and your statistics.
One nice feature is that the installation provides is the option to add MOSH to the idle screens application shortcuts. This is a trick not yet employed by many developers (but likely to be more common from now on perhaps?)
The fact that the client simply drives out to the Web Browser for S60 creates the application's biggest current shortcoming. If you select a feature then navigate away from the first page returning to the MOSH client is a little awkward. If you stay on or return to the first page you can return to the client by selecting Close, navigate away from this page and you need to select Exit. It's not a big issue but while it fits with browser style functionality it is counter intuitive if you think of the MOSH client purely as an application.
The whole point of Nokia's Beta Lab is to get application "out there" and involve the users in guiding the next generation of the application. However, while the MOSH client may be of interest to MOSH fans, it is perhaps a little too beta at this stage offering not much more than the pure Web version.
I'll await version 2 with interest.
The MOSH client can be downloaded from www.nokia.com/betalabs/mosh and MOSH accessed at either mosh.nokia.com or mosh.nokia.mobi and don't forget to check out the SymbianOne MOSH account.
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