Today at the Symbian Smartphone Show Nokia showed S60 running with a touch interface. The touch interface will support both finger and stylus input, has full multi lingual support, has support for tactile feedback (haptics) and is backwardly compatible with the existing S60 platform. Read the full story for and to view the video showing S60 Touch running on some concept devices.

Read on in the full article (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/6089_S60_Touch_Interface_Launched.php).

Finally!

I hope they are smart enough to allow (at least in a near future) Flash UI and total customizatin of it, beeing one step ahead of other TS UI's.

I like TS and today is a good day! :)

Please 2008, come fast.

o. m. g.

What exactly is tactile feedback?

Interesting! Big day for S60 and Nokia. What I was surprised with was how traditional it looks in the demo in terms of using so much stylus input. Hope they will always provide a finger based option as well for all applications. Having to fiddle with a stylus is so... hmm.. SE? ;)

Hehe, Samsung, HTC, and hordes of nameless Chinese manufacturers to follow...

I waited to see if Steve Jobs was going to come out. Only 9 months to pull this together since the iphone's launch. Well done. Pity Nokia couldn't have thought of this themselves. This looks simply like spoiler tactics. I hope not as I prefer touchscreen.

Extra brownie points to whoever though of the flip-to-silence.

That S60 touch UI looks great, lets hope its not too long before it comes to market. I wonder how it will compare to Apple's touch UI. By the way, the video of the new UI was shot in Porvoo, Finland about 50 kms from Helsinki. I know that because I live there.

Unregistered, LOL, you seriously think they have been working on this for only 9 months?

It's obviously/of course/as has been well known in the road map for at least a couple of years now. Sure, they have accelerated efforts and fine tuned the pitch after iPhone was announced, but iPhone was not the first touch screen device out there.. even Nokia had a few devices with TS before the iPhone.

TS UI - I always liked the S90 7710. Looking forward to the TS Communicator :)

So what does this mean for UIQ? How different is this as an experience as compared to UIQ on Symbian? Can we assume that Nokia is out to give good competition to UIQ owners (read Sony and Motorola)?

I suspect UIQ4 will have more iPhone type ergonomics and this is why Moto are interested. Relatively quick way to acquire an advanced TS UI phone range.

Can we assume that Nokia is out to give good competition to UIQ owners (read Sony and Motorola)?
What competition? Do you see UIQ selling anywhere as many phones as S60?

Langdona it's called haptic feedback. The device shakes a litle when something is pressed.

Does anyone have a link to a video where the S60 touch is demoed please?
Thanks in advance.

So, the last smartphone platform - the one I was sticking with so that I didn't have a dirty screen or random buttons pressed during the call - goes touch screen. Well, I guess no more smartphones for me!

Check Phil's interview (voice of s60) with the Marketing Manager.

I think Phil might be in some trouble when he gets back to Espoo ;)

So, the last smartphone platform - the one I was sticking with so that I didn't have a dirty screen or random buttons pressed during the call - goes touch screen. Well, I guess no more smartphones for me!

I very much doubt if they are only going to produce S60 devices with touch screens its only an option for manufacturers. I think there will still be devices with phone and qwerty keypads. I used to have a P900 but have not missed the touchscreen much since I got my E61.

I think touch would have to be an additional option - providing an environment more like a desktop / laptop computer. In well-written desktop software, most things can be done using either keyboard or mouse, according to preference. I see no reason why S60+TS shouldn't be the same.

If S60 is primarily a keyboard device with TS as an add-on for some models, at least developers won't be able to be lazy about not providing keyboard access to functions (as many desktop programmers are), since they can't rely on touch being available.

Then we can have the best of both worlds.

There are some things (e.g. web browsing) where some sort of direct pointing capability / mouse replacement is useful, and others (e.g. data entry) where it's a positive pita ... which is why I switched from Windoze Mobile to Symbian (E70 / E90) - I realised I just couldn't live without a keyboard, and a qwerty keyboard at that, on a device that I use primarily as a PDA. On the other hand, just occasionally, being able to point directly at a point on the screen and/or have a scroll bar or scroll wheel would be really useful.

Julie

Yesterday, came out an app that lets .net apps run on s60 phones and today s60 gets a touchscreen.

This reminds me of an article called 'The Last Smartphone' that i read on AAS a few months ago.

All platforms are starting to become so similar to each other. :redface:

It's sad that Nokia are so out-of-touch with the market, that it takes Apple to knock some sense into them. (People have been demanding touch-screen Nokia's, especially Communicators, for years but Nokia seemed to think the lack of a touch screen was what defined their phones.)

But the Nokia 7710 was a touch screen device and with a BT keyboard it was a good Communicator like device. Nokia claims it could afford to run 3 UI systems: S60, S80 & S90. So it decidec to merge S60 and S90 a while ago.

thats nokia's version of the Iphone. Wats new? Oh its called the Nphone.

N stands for Nothing New

N series

Nokia

Never buy.

Sounds like a move in the wrong direction to me. I don't want a smeary screen either, and I don't want anything much bigger than my N95 in my pocket, so my fat fingers will have to stick with a bluetooth keyboard.

I would like a bluetooth mouse to go with it, and what about a bt joystick with feedback and a large roll away screen for the TV out?

s.

As was summed up in a recent N95 versus Iphone : N95 was for creating content, Iphone suited to consuming content. Following that guideline, Nokia would to well to makes sure that all content can be 'consumed' via the touch method, while the stylus method reserved only for 'creating' content. The technical challenge they will face is discriminating between stylus/finger/face - which is crucial if you don't want to hang up the call while you're talking :)

Glad that Nokia have taken the competition from the Iphone seriously and are rising to it to create a more user-friendly and appealing user interface, which will make their phones more pleasant and easier to use, but still hopefully being able to preserve their superiority for the power users.

Dunc

Whow Nokia shot in Porvoo, where i live. Nice!

Good on you Nokia, but where is the new E90 firmware!

Nika4Gena

See next post

Hi all,

I really find it hard to believe that anyone here can seriously believe Nokia have done all this in just 9 months and just as a reaction to Apples iPhone. The thing about Nokia is they appear to be able to to not only react and change to what the market wants and needs but to some degree see what's coming.

Remember OVI and Nokia's vision for the future was only announced a short while ago and obviously this is the next step in the evolution they see happening. As only recently have we started to see devices with powerful enough processors and graphics along with the greatly improved Data speeds that HSDPA offers. These are the things which will enable us to have a full Internet and Media rich experience on our mobile devices. The next generation OMAP Series 3 chips will not only bring processor speeds between 600mhz to 1ghz but also greatly improved graphics capabilities. As Touch screens have got larger and their quality has improved what really could be better for a rich and full Internet and media experience maybe it's just the time is right now for them and why they are now starting to implement them in their range. Apple may of beaten them to launch but I'm pretty sure which will offer better spec's and functionality for the user.

Marc

Hehe, sure, Nokia will abandon all buttons from now on... NOT! Use some common sense, folks (some of you that is). ;)

Guys, i suggest not to get to excited.

Can you see the resolution of the screenshot posted? Its clearly a WQVGA Screen. That means only about 400x240 resolution. And since this baby is coming out in 2008 and will stay for at least some years that means we will see the WVGA 800x480 that are available in Japan phones since last year in Nokia phones in the next decade.

Really, i could cry instead of being to excited. Nokia doesnt get it that people actually need a good display resolution for browsing the web. :(

I think the 'selective touchscreen' is a great idea. This would be similar to the UIQ in the P series of the earlier SE phones.

The phone works as a normal S60 phone (without TS and flip closed mode of the SE P Series) where you can handle the most common apps like the contacts, messages, calendar without the need of the touch screen. But for the media related stuff, you can have an option of activating the touch screen (similar to flip open mode of the SE P Series). Here you can really have fun exploring media like the web browser, images and video in gallery, music (maybe put in touch screen jog dial like the ipod) and lots more.

I guess we will have to wait and see if this really happens...

Not too convincing. Notice the use of a stylus for most of the actions. Didn't we have that already years ago? The user interface elements look way too small to be used with finger touch (scrollbars anyone?) I wonder when Nokia gets it that their S60 UI has limits, already the E90 should have made that obvious.

Guys, let's not claim that we can count the pixels from a shaky video shot on a N95... and let's not assume that's exactly the device and interface that is coming out first.

Four words - too little, too late.

when I see in the movie that:
* they're using at the same time a finger and a stylus as the pointing medium
* the keyboard is so small it requires the use of a stylus
* when you're scrolling down, the text is actually going up !!!
Apple's iPhone will have a bright future. Nokia still doesn't understand what "User Experience" means...

Regards,

Arnaud

No thanks. Why do I want to start using two hands? The thing that puts me off smart devices is the image of the nurdy suited person poking one hand with the fingers of the other (or worse a stylus). Big reason to go with S60 is the small form factor and one handed operation. So much less embarassment that way.

Leave the touch interface to the apple geeks.

Nice fake video. The scroll did not match the speed on the screen, and the screen did not move when the hand did. If you lose your pen, you lose the ability to use your phone. Looks like Windows.

its an iphone rip off set to a roots rip off.

i love it ! !

al3xandr3
you discribed haptic feedback as when the phone shakes. I have a sony k850i and this shakes when i use the 3 touch screen buttons. Is this the same thing and is this how i could expect this new touch screen too react.

its an iphone rip off set to a roots rip off.

i love it ! !

I dont love it and it was soo obviously going to be the next move from Nokia. I agree its an iPod rip off and some one has already fitted a touchscreen to a nokia n95.

N95 w/touchscreen (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RRXXxf053do).

Edit : Seems that the touchscreen N95 is a fake or is it??

This phone is amazing can't wait for more info i want a fully customizable, touchable phone with sexy interface but will this phone fully work with a mac?