S60 5th Edition - touchscreen devices with sensors, advanced multimedia and Internet experiences

Oct 03 S60 5th Edition - touchscreen devices with sensors, advanced multimedia and Internet experiences
Found in:Nokia, S60, 5th edition, OS, Mobile News, Symbian,

Here is the official birth of the S60 5th edition and its first baby, the recently announced Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. 5th version of S60, built on Symbian OS 9.5, adds touch enablers to the platform. Also it include support for 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).

Key highlights of S60 5th Edition

* Based on Symbian OS 9.5, which brings a host of OS level improvements, which should increase performance and battery life. The OS is also the enabler for many of the technologies described below.
* Adds touch enablers and tactile feedback to S60. The UI is designed to be used with finger touch or a stylus. The UI and base applications have been optimised for touch usage. Tactile feedback gives a physical signal to the user (buzz/vibrate) when an on screen interaction takes place.
* Standard S60 applications have been extended and optimised to take advantage of touch interactions.
* In order to help enable touchscreen devices there is enhanced support for higher resolution displays and a new 'widescreen' mode.
* Adds a framework to enable the use of sensors in the UI and by third parties. Such sensors might include accelerometers, which enable functionality such as 'flip to silence' or 'shake to unlock'. Third party access is enable by APIs which are available in the software development kit.
* Enhanced support for Internet technologies, including an updated Web browser (more recent version of WebKit) and Flash Lite 3. The browser has been optimised for touch usage, including the ability to scroll around the screen using a finger and finger touch-friendly toolbars and controls.
* Adds S60 Platform Services to the S60 Web Runtime (also known as WRT 2). This enables the creation of personalised and context-aware widgets. This gives widget developers access to many features of the S60 platform, including GPS, contacts, calendar, messaging, audio and video. These are accessed via custom javascript and actionscript API calls.
* Adds new image and video editors (i.e. now standard part of platform), making it simpler to edit media on the device. The image editor functions include red-eye reduction, cropping, image adjustments and the ability to add text and images. The video editor lets you cut, merge and add sound to videos stored on the device.
* Adds Open C++ (following on from Open C) to the platform. This brings the Standard Template Library (STL) and other popular platform-independent C++ libraries to S60.

Press Release

Today sees the introduction of 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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