UPDATE: Now with demo video: Symbian^3 has been in the news a lot in the past couple of weeks. Publication of the entire platform under fully open source licenses hit the headlines, as we made the Symbian^3 codeline available. So how is development of this latest Symbian release actually going, and what is it going to bring once it’s complete?
Symbian^3 is slated to deliver a host of improvements right across the platform, from architectural renewal in graphics and networking to significant advances in usability. The UI gets faster; connecting to the web gets easier; and potentially, you will be able to plug the whole thing into your TV and watch HD movies without a Blue-ray player. Then there’s gaming…. better radio… If I tried to walk through everything new in Symbian^3 this would turn into one pretty long post. As we already have a darn good Symbian^3 overview I’ll try to give you a flavour of what’s coming by picking out three themes: Simpler, Faster, Better.
Simpler: Some notable improvements are coming that benefit all applications. Consistent roll-out of a “single tap” paradigm throughout the touch UI means no more “tap to select, tap again to action”. Navigating the UI just got easier. One-click connectivity benefits all network-aware applications, greatly simplifying the process of connecting to the Internet. New global settings allow you to configure platform-wide behaviour, for example managing transition between cellular and WLAN networks.
Faster: A new 2D / 3D graphics architecture takes full advantage of hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. This framework also opens the door to a whole host of new effects and transitions in the UI. In parallel the core data-networking architecture has evolved to accommodate the differing needs of network-aware applications. This improves the experience of using web-based services, whether uploading large videos fast or listening to internet radio on a jitter-free stream.
Better: Well, this list could go on for a while so I’ll just pick a couple of examples…
The Homescreen, starting point for all user interaction, picks up a few new tricks. Find that you can’t squeeze all the widgets you need onto one page, or want separate pages for personal and work widgets? No problem, in Symbian^3 the Homescreen will support multiple pages of widgets and a simple flick gesture to move between them. Want to show multiple email accounts or weather forecasts for more than one city? No problem, in Symbian^3 the Homescreen supports multiple instances of a widget. Widgets themselves gain the ability to extend their UI, popping up a larger window when selected.
There is also a host of improvements around entertainment. Platform support for HDMI opens the door to watching HD movies on a big TV screen without a Blu-ray player. It could also make on-phone gaming a whole new experience – just plug your Symbian-powered device into your wide screen TV and off you go. The FM Radio app gets interactive, using broadcast metadata to integrate music stores via “More info” and “Buy now” features. Topping this off, a new Podcasts app makes managing podcast subscriptions a breeze and ensures that you’ll always have something new to listen to.
So where is Symbian^3 now, on its journey towards handsets? We expect it to be feature complete on schedule this quarter, though as I write this it’s not there yet. Most features are available in the codeline but stability of the kits isn’t yet where it needs to be and there’s more work to be done. Code and kits are available though, and if you’ve got the skills you could help finish it off all the quicker.
So when will the world see handsets? That’s not down to me to announce of course, but rest assured that device manufacturers are already engaged. A rough rule of thumb is that the first handsets would normally be shipping somewhere between 4-8 months after functionally complete, so look out for announcements soon.
This is just a taster, if you’d like to read about Symbian^3 in a little more depth head on over to the developer website.
Ian Hutton is a member of the Technology Management team at the Symbian Foundation. He chairs the Feature and Roadmap Council and publishes the roadmap for the Symbian platform.
Here is a Nokia video outlining its interpretation of Symbian ^3
[...] Absolutely – with the recent open sourcing of the entire S^3 platform anyone can get their hands on it – just go to the ’Source’ page on the Symbian's developer website. The Video sure looks appealing. That being said there are a couple areas that I know will be improved in Symbian^4. Nonetheless, looking forward to a couple Symbian^3 devices, when they come along ! More info over at Symbian.org and the Official Symbian Blog. [...]
I guess you have to buy a new phone for symbian^3.
Any chance that the S60v5 devices are supported?
Nice post. I am really waiting to see what new developments and technologies in the field of Symbian^3 are introduced at the Forum Nokia Developer Conference in Sydney, Australia on 2nd March 2010.
[...] Symbian^3 has been unveiled today by the Symbian Foundation. The Symbian^3 platform is the first fully open source release since their switch to [...]
[...] has been unveiled today by the Symbian Foundation. The Symbian^3 platform is the first fully open source release since their switch to [...]
Nice! A Maemo+V5+iPhone OS mixed up
As an owner of the Samsung i8910 that’s what I was hoping for but unfortunately it looks like you will have to buy a new phone.
I realise this is a preview but it seems to address many of the UI frustrations that I am currently experiencing. However, many these already exists in Android and the iphone. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what new features Symbian will be bringing to the table.
I am currently looking to get rid of my i8910 and at the moment and for the near future, Android is a far more attractive option. The first generation of Android phones were a bit aneamic in terms of hardware capabilities compared to Symbian. The recently released and the soon to be released Android phones will change that. The factors that determine my choice will be shifted towards the software side. Here are just two reasons why Android is better and what Symbian needs to work on.
1) Regular updates and upgradeability of phone os
2) Easy access to more apps
[...] Para maiores informações visite o Symbian.org. [...]
@solid0snake It’s down to individual device manufacturers to choose whether to offer upgrades to Symbian^3 for existing Symbian-based devices. Historically this has tended not to happen for whole OS releases (due not least to the cost of re-doing Q&A) though individual features do sometimes make it into firmware upgrades.
[...] del cual se espera este completado a finales de marzo. Esta versión se caracteriza por una amplia gama de mejoras, incluyendo usabilidad avanzada, rápido networking y aceleración de gráficos en 2D y 3D para [...]
This looks great and addresses many of the problems that I have with the current (shipping) Symbian platform. Great job!
In terms of writing code for these devices, when can non-Symbian affiliated developers get started? I understand the delay in getting hardware in everyone’s hands, but when will we see robust Symbian^3 emulators that can be used for development and testing. I understand why hardware is in the purview of the Nokias and Samsungs, but I would think that producing a generic Symbian^3 emulator would be a responsibility of the Foundation. I think that Symbian could go a long way towards recapturing developer mindshare by releasing a usable S^3 SDK before any devices hit the market. Look at the success that Apple’s having in seeding the iPad ecosystem by making an iPad emulator a part of (NDA’ed) Xcode.
[...] I am currently experiencing. However, many of these already exist in Android and the iPhone,” wrote Mopedia this afternoon. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see what new features Symbian will be bringing to the [...]
simple, Open Sybian good good. Very good!
@Chris J Karr: Right now we have PDKs available for S^3 (check out Tools & Kits on developer.symbian.org). These primarily target contributors and device creators and as suh are pretty big and not too polished, but they do work for app development too. We dont tend to start shipping SDKs for a release until it’s functionally complete and the stability is good enough to just let app developers get on doing their thing. In the case of S^3 I’d expect that to be during Q2.
[...] del cual se espera este completado a finales de marzo. Esta versión se caracteriza por una amplia gama de mejoras, incluyendo usabilidad avanzada, rápido networking y aceleración de gráficos en 2D y 3D para [...]
is symbian just going to support touch screens now? What’s going to happen so s60v3 on devices like my e63? I love non-touch s60.
@Ian: I’ll try to be patient and wait until Q2. I have my hands full with all the Qt goodness that’s come down the pipe during the last week.
Again, this all is looking very sharp and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
@cb50 – Don’t worry. The support for non-touch/ITU-T/QWERTY devices hasn’t been removed from the Platform (there’s just more focus on renovating the touch-based UI at present).
I’m sure that OEMs will eventually start shipping Symbian^3-based devices in a variety of form-factors and with a variety of input methods, so you’ll probably see a suitably configured UI, too.
Symbian^3 for S60v5 devices looks like a good idea on first glance. I have to wonder if:
1- The hardware required exists in the S60v5 devices.
2- The processor is appropriate.
1-
a.The updates I’ve seen for my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic have run about 128 megabytes. Will ^3 be able to fit in the available OS memory space and still deliver the goods? I believe there are about 256 megabytes available on the N97 and the 5800 XpressMusic. The X6 and the N97 Mini have twice that.
b. The 5800 XpressMusic, N97 and N97 Mini are resistive touch screens. Can these be made to react to input in the way capacitive touch screens react? Some of what I saw in the demonstration video, for example “pinching to zoom” has always been a capacitive screen trick.
c. Is a graphics processor, as is in the N900, going to be the norm for future product? Will ^3 require this sort of hardware to run smoothly? The current crop of S60v5 devices do not have a graphics processor listed as part of their features.
d. Will ^3 be able to run well in an environment that has only 128 megabytes of available RAM? This is the amount present on the current line-up of S60v5 devices.
2- The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, X6, N97 and N97 mini have an ARM 11 processor. Nokia Forum specs the processor at 434 MHz. Will this be enough processor to make this a fluid user experience?
I recall updating from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 without changing any hardware and how unhappy an experience that was. I added more RAM and got a faster processor and it became a better experience. We can’t add more RAM, a faster processor or a graphics chip to our S60v5 devices.
Unless ^3 can run well on the hardware we might be better off without it on S60v5 devices.
[...] all week, with people queuing up to talk to the demonstrators and staff – especially about Symbian^3 and Symbian^4. All of them were amazed and grateful to receive our entire source code for free [...]
[...] http://blog.symbian.org/2010/02/15/introducing-symbian3-simpler-faster-better/ [...]
I’m not interested in purchasing another Nokia device. This needs to go to the N97 because as things stand its still a mess. Only a fool would give Nokia another chance after that.
My GPS never worked, my camera’s flash was transmitting light across the lens cover screwing up the exposure settings and drowning out my captures (till i cut a hole in it) & the OS is just a nightmare. iPhone killer? Not even close.
it crashes all the time, gets sluggish very quickly, there is no kinetic scrolling in quick-office, Accessing the music library is unnecessarily complicated, I can’t load my German study MP3s on the device without them popping up in my music library (Do any of you have any idea how annoying that is?), the back-lit Keyboard does not shut off when you play movies & drains the battery quicker (as if the movie wasn’t already doing a good job at that)& on and on and on. I can go all day.
The N97 was a miserable,contemptibly inadequate return for our investment & showed me that Nokia is clearly clueless. I have no expectations from them and will never repeat this mistake.