Nokia has released an S60 Symbian version of the popular Apache web server. Called Raccoon and bundled with mod_python and other goodies, it will  run a web server on your mobile phone through a special gateway and open source BSD licensing means developers can freely code products with the Webkit Open Source Project . Besides just sounding "cool" there are many practical advantages to such a product.

The product really is designed for mobile devices:

"Features of the browser include the capability to work well in low-memory situations , a mouse pointer for a similar navigation experience as on the desktop, and support for dynamic HTML and Ajax. Developers will be able to create their own user interface for the browser, a key way for them to differentiate their products..."

It validates the importance of mobile devices:

"We believe that being able to run a globally accessible personal website on your mobile phone has the potential of changing the Internet landscape. If every mobile phone or even every smartphone initially, is equipped with a webserver then very quickly most websites will reside on mobile phones. That is bound to have some impact not only on how mobile phones are perceived but also on how the web evolves."

Allows websites to offer true interactive and location dependant content:

• Remote interactive picture taking.
• Use the phone as a webcam.
• Find other mobile web sites in the proximity.
• Find out the location of a mobile website (cellid)

Unfortunately the software is only compatible with S60 Series 2 devices although that should change soon. Nokia has excellent setup and usage instructions on its mobile server project pages as well as some benchmarks on gateway setup and capacity. 

Download a copy from our filebase today. 

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