Panda Route is a Web Runtime (WRT) widget developed during the 24-hour Hackathon at Nokia’s Developer Summit 2009 in Monaco.

I was invited by Nokia and went there having never developed a WRT widget before and won 2nd runner-up price in the Hackathon. Quite a positive outcome, especially taking into consideration we were the only team with only one developer!

This also meant I had to present Panda Route on the big stage in front of Nokia executives on very short notice:

Challenge

The basic idea behind the widget is that you have all your important travel data with you while you are on the go. It works pretty easy: before you start your journey, you enter all the details of your upcoming trip that you need to remember (e.g. airline, flight times, hotel address, rental car reservation number etc.). Then the widget shows you the current step of your journey with all the needed information depending on the current time. On your Nokia N97 home screen this information will be shown too. So you have access to this information without interaction with the application and even when not connected to the Internet.

There is also a Twitter feed matching the location of your upcoming destination - This is a great source for any kind of information, such as events, news, things to watch out for or people nearby; and you know what is going on there before you arrive.

This all was developed in more or less 24 hours (we did not miss the party that evening and got some sleep).

Responsibilities

• development of the widget
• UI design and flow
• preparation of hackathon material
• presentation of final product

The widget is free and available for Nokia N97 on the Ovi Store.