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Nokia
unveils its smartphone
Market
leader launches Nokia 5800 XpressMusic first S60 5th Edition
based device bringing new, advanced multimedia and Internet
experiences with touch user interfaces and sensor technologies
Nokia
recently introduced the S60 5th Edition, the latest release
of the world’s leading, open smartphone platform, S60
on Symbian OS.
The S60 5th Edition has the most advanced set of features
that enable new innovations and new experiences for consumers
that want to fully embrace the use of smartphone products.
With S60 5th Edition, the user interface is extended by the
introduction of touch and with full support for tactile feedback.
Enhanced display resolution support and a new Widescreen mode
further compliments the touch UI and enables engaging visual
experiences. Also, for the first time, the platform includes
a framework for the use of advanced sensor technology. This
all allows S60 device manufacturers to create innovative new
device concepts for a wider range of user segments, while
preserving the rich capabilities of the existing software
platform. The first S60 5th Edition based device, designed
for music lovers, was announced today - the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
S60 software continues to lead in the support for and use
of internet technologies, and includes the Web Browser for
S60, which supports desktop-quality browsing with Adobe Flash
Lite 3. With the touch enabled products and S60 5th Edition,
Internet browsing is made more convenient by enabling scrolling
Web pages and interacting directly with Web content by touching
with a finger or the use of keys or stylus. The ecosystem
now has more options, and user experiences are further enhanced
with touch optimized toolbars and easy access to browser and
internet application options.
Sensors enable very intuitive and smart usability for the
key S60 applications. For example, silence the phone ringing
by turning the phone upside down. The sensor framework in
S60 5th Edition provides easy integration for wide range of
sensors into vendor’s devices, and enables them and developers
to take advantage of sensor data to create new exiting and
intuitive applications and features.
S60 5th Edition’s new features continue to provide a
complete solution for multimedia experiences. New image and
video editors in the S60 5th Edition make it simple to capture
and edit pictures and videos directly on the device, before
sharing them with others. Users can for example decrease red
eye, crop image highlights, adjust image quality or add text
and graphics to pictures. With the video editor, users can
quickly cut and merge videos and sound directly on the device.
Support for large, high resolution displays makes it possible
for users to better enjoy widescreen multimedia and these
features.
“S60 5th Edition’s new features and added functionality
significantly enhances the products that intend to provide
rich multimedia and Internet experiences for consumers.
Intuitive sensor technologies, interactions via touch, and
tactile feedback creates delight and excitement for consumers
and unparalleled innovation opportunities for developers and
internet content providers,” said Lee Williams, Senior
Vice President, S60 Software, Nokia. “With this release
we will see manufacturers create and extend their portfolio
of products with new types of devices addressing a broader
range of consumer needs.”
The implementation of the S60 Web Runtime in S60 5th Edition
adds support for S60 Platform Services, which enables creation
of personal and context aware Web widgets. Platform Services
gives these Web standards based applications access to numerous
applications and features of the S60 platform, such as calendar,
contacts, GPS, messaging, audio, and video. Widgets can also
mash-up information from the Internet together with selected
information from the user’s mobile device. These Platform
Services are easily accessible to Web content developers and
service providers via new JavaScript and Adobe Flash Actionscript
extensions. All of these capabilities continue to provide
the user with the most control over security and their own
private data.
To lower the barrier to entry for new innovation, S60 5th
Edition is also expanding its support for open source technologies
through integrated support for Open C++. This support brings
the Standard Template Library and other popular platform-independent
C++ libraries to the S60 platform, extending the Open C offering.
Together, Open C and Open C++ create opportunities for developers
to utilize existing skills and code from other platforms in
their S60 development projects, including open source components
that run today on Linux and other open platforms.
“The versatile developer support offered by S60 5th Edition
enables developers to write applications in a range of languages
that they are already very familiar with,” said Tom Libretto,
Vice President, Forum Nokia. “That familiarity and being
able to arm developers with the tools and technologies that
best suit their needs will allow for further innovation of
new applications and services, not only for S60 5th Edition,
but also for S60 3rd Edition Feature Packs 1 and 2.”
Developers are encouraged to leverage touch UI functionality
in application design to get the full consumer advantage of
touch in their solutions and create the best possible user
experience. From today, S60 5th Edition SDK and tools are
available to download via Forum Nokia.
“The S60 5th Edition SDK presents an exciting opportunity
for mobile application development,” said Erik Abair,
senior vice president of engineering and co-founder of Kyte.
“Development on this new platform will advance touch
technology, provide more flexibility to create new user interfaces
for our mobile application, Kyte Mobile Producer, and improve
the overall user experience for consumers.”
“Over the years, SHAPE Services have observed an astounding
evolution in Nokia mobile platforms and development environments
which have been further revolutionized by the latest Symbian
S60 5th Edition SDK,” said Igor Berezovsky, CEO, SHAPE
Services GmbH. “It is great to see that Nokia was able
to keep the original spirit of the S60 platform while continuing
to provide compatibility for previous editions of S60. This
allowed for quick and easy porting of Shape Services’
IM+ All-In-One Instant messenger to the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.”
The global smartphone market is growing. Almost 180 million
S60 devices have already cumulatively been shipped by S60
licensees by the end of June 2008. More than a third of these
are fully web-capable S60 3rd Edition devices.
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