S60 5th Edition - touch and sensor enablers, enriched Internet and multimedia

[slitchfield]

Today sees the formal unveiling on S60 5th Edition. The new version of S60, built on Symbian OS 9.5, adds touch enablers to the platform, which means it is possible for licensees to create devices that use finger touch and/or stylus interaction. Other additions and improvements include the new sensor framework (adds easy integration of sensors, such as accelerometers into the platform) updated web technologies (WebKit version updated, Flash Lite 3 as standard) and enhanced multimedia functionality (support for widescreen displays, image and video editors as standard). Read on for more details.

Read on in the full article.

Sticking a touch layer to a 8 years old softkey based OS: guaranteed mess. They should have redesigned it from scratch.

[ajck]

Alas poor iPhone, I knew you well.... ;-)

Why are comments disabled on the 5800 announcement story?

[Tzer2]

Sticking a touch layer to a 8 years old softkey based OS: guaranteed mess. They should have redesigned it from scratch.

The Symbian OS is not softkey based.

There have been touchscreen versions of Symbian since it began, Symbian UIQ was touchscreen based and Nokia's very own Symbian Series 90 was touchscreen based too.

S60 has used buttons until now, but there's no reason to think it cannot make the leap to touchscreens.

As for designing a platform from scratch, that would mean throwing away compatibility with a massive userbase (the largest of any smartphone) and many network operators who use S60 to deliver their own services. It would also probably mean abandoning compatibility with button-based devices which still make up the vast majority of phone and smartphone sales.

[Sergey Zak]

Number 4 is "unfortunate" in some cultures, that's probably why they decided to skip it.
>>I wonder if any non-java apps for N95 (S60 3ed) will install/work on Tube, too.<<

Originally Posted by Tzer2

The Symbian OS is not softkey based.

Well, then those Option/Back buttons at the bottom of the screens are just optical illusions... The same old softkeys with menus/submenus/subsubmenus.

The OS has always supported proper touch - right back before it was even called Symbian. The fact that S60 always has two softkeys has no relevance to the OS.

[svdwal]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Sticking a touch layer to a 8 years old softkey based OS: guaranteed mess. They should have redesigned it from scratch.

They didn't have to. Symbian OS has supported touch interfaces since 1995 when it appeared as EPOC on the Psion Series 5. The UIQ UI has always been touch-based. Even the original S60 UI could handle some touch events on the emulator.

What Nokia did not do was change the existing UI, the touch stuff has been added to the UI, not replacing bits of it. And rightly so, because this keeps existing apps compatible with S60 5th edition. Nokia already gets plenty of flak because of the lack of a proper appstore, they don't need more flak because of a new major compatability break.

Originally Posted by svdwal

What Nokia did not do was change the existing UI

That's the point, genius.

[svdwal]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That's the point, genius.

Sigh. Nokia changing the UI is equivalent to Nokia killing their developer ecosystem. Nobody is that daft.

[moonshot]

Thats a large stylus

[irfanil]

@Tzer2: still not able to comment on 5800 page

for me, i'm very happy to see what nokia has launched today... it is worth waiting for it... now anxiously waiting for it's review...

i was going to buy N82 next week but now i've to wait for it's review...

this is certainly going to be a competition to iPhone... n i think it should be compared with iPhone... in the categories of music, camera and OS (usability)

but there are few things that i'm concerned about:
1. how is the tactile feedback?
2. will it support to play current nGage games?

[architengi]

Very good OS and very good the SDK was also launched at the same time.
Maybe the SDK launch should be more stressed out along with the launch of the device, the Nokia 5800.

Also a special launch should be done in U.S. because there are a lot of developers that emigrated in U.S. from Europe, Asia, etc. and those should be the target of the revamped and full of features OS/SDK.

If you ignore the "giant" U.S. which is the top software producer, and the top multi-media producer (and also the top news producer) you are out of the game of mobile industry leaders in the long term. A special focus shoul have been accorded to U.S. market and penetration of Nokia 5800 and Symbian in general. I don't understand this, Nokia cannot sign a deal with T-Mobile or with AT&T? Right now, Nokia N95 is for sale only unlocked in U.S. for 800$, where in Canada it is sold for only 79$ with a contract.

Almost nobody in U.S has a Nokia or a N95 because of the lack of partnership between Nokia and AT&T or T-Mobile. I think AT&T has a signed exclusivity with Apple iPhone which prevents AT&T to sell any Nokia (N95 or else), and I see T-Mobile has an agreement with Google G1 Andorid - so Nokia is just left out of the U.S, market ? If this is true, and it seems to be the case, then Nokia will have a BIG problem in the future, because most of the media is coming from U.S. This could be the end of the dominating position for Nokia in mobile industry and the raise of Apple with its iPhone.

[N/A]

Originally Posted by irfanil

2. will it support to play current nGage games?

All the current N-Gage games need/use keys and/or a directional pad (rocker). They're not going to run on this one which has neither.

[ajck]

I'm still not able to comment on the 5800 story either - vbulletin says I may not have correct permissions etc.

Anyway, this is in response to that story

Looks like the 5800 is a good initial touch-experiment phone. It seems to be missing Nokia Haptikos, which gives near perfect haptics, see here:
http://www.redferret.net/?p=9533

Also, no TV out which is interesting, and clearly a marketing ploy. Still, it's a good handset. I hope the high end touch device next year (presumably) will have proper haptics, and multitouch (oh that would be so nice!), VGA tv out all the time (not just for real player and gallery), a 5MP camera, Xenon flash, etc.

Still this is good competition for iPhone nonetheless, the HW is immediately much better than their lame 3G attempt.