Slashdot Mirror
Domain: s60.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to s60.com.
Comments · 16
-
Re:After 20 minutes of use...
> and even Symbian (aka Nokia).
Er, not quite - or at least misleading.
You most likely mean S60 which, while developed by Nokia, is not only available on Nokia phones - Samsung being the most notable current other company manufacturing phones running S60 (but also LG, Lenovo, and Seimens).
In any case, S60 is now being 'ramped down' and merged into the Symbian Foundation.
So, "Symbian" is not "also known as" Nokia. While there was a period of time after Nokia bought Symbian Ltd. when you could make some kind of argument, such a phrase has little meaning in general and certainly no meaning at all in the context of webkit (iinm, even Samsung phones use the same web browser developed by Nokia).
BTW, Nokia developed their webkit based browser, commonly known as "Web", and were shipping before the iPhone was even on the market[1].
[1] According to wikipedia, "Web" was released Nov, 2005; iPhone, Jan, 2007.
-
Re:After 20 minutes of use...
> and even Symbian (aka Nokia).
Er, not quite - or at least misleading.
You most likely mean S60 which, while developed by Nokia, is not only available on Nokia phones - Samsung being the most notable current other company manufacturing phones running S60 (but also LG, Lenovo, and Seimens).
In any case, S60 is now being 'ramped down' and merged into the Symbian Foundation.
So, "Symbian" is not "also known as" Nokia. While there was a period of time after Nokia bought Symbian Ltd. when you could make some kind of argument, such a phrase has little meaning in general and certainly no meaning at all in the context of webkit (iinm, even Samsung phones use the same web browser developed by Nokia).
BTW, Nokia developed their webkit based browser, commonly known as "Web", and were shipping before the iPhone was even on the market[1].
[1] According to wikipedia, "Web" was released Nov, 2005; iPhone, Jan, 2007.
-
Re:Awareness...
Not ass kicked perhaps and iphone is still a complete prison compared to Symbian and even Windows mobile but one must admit that iPhone changed lots of things at Nokia and Symbian scene.
When you enter http://www.s60.com/ , it says "Open to new features" which is exactly true. Now Nokia and Symbian is way more open source friendly and they even ship a POSIX framework and openly support Pyhton development which already creates wonders. Nobody would even imagine Nokia releasing a web server running in mobile phones along with all open source frameworks. As owner of the first ever Symbian hit, 7650 I can easily tell you.
What they had to do is discipline the known 3rd party commercial developers and popular symbian shops to prevent them from shipping trivial software for ridiculous prices. The open source Symbian will generate a flow of good quality software to the OS and their smart phones.
-
Re:Security
Right, because every other platform that lets you run your own applications has been subject to malware that has actually existed in the wild, right?
Oh, what? They haven't?
Sorry to say, but this story smells apocryphal, given that you explicitly mention she had a "high-end" Nokia, which would be running S60. No S60 "viruses" ever existed that sent MMS messages. If you can find one and identify it, I'd be interested in seeing it. The only S60 viruses that have ever been shown to exist in the wild propagated over bluetooth and did nothing but propagate.
The "Security" issue IS a red herring. The iPhone has been wide open to anyone who runs 3rd party software on it for nearly a year now, and yet there is NO iPhone malware. If the concern is over security, then implement a granular permissions system like S60, where you can decide what each app can do at install time, but keep in mind that no phone virus that causes monetary harm has ever been proven to exist, for any mobile platform.
The security handwaving is a bullshit reason for Apple to make damn sure they control exactly what you run on the phone. No VOIP, no SSH clients, nothing that will use too much data, nothing that might bite into a revenue stream Apple wants to create. They can couch it in terms of "it's for the security of the network!," yet somehow, every other network and every other device can run whatever apps you want on it and there's no problem.
-
Re:You sure about that?
Let me just point out that WebKit, the Apple HTML rendering engine, which is based upon KHTML, the origional KDE HTML rendering engine, has a Subversion repository from which you can download code, that you can submit patches just like you can for Firefox, and that the code is now used by KDE, AtheOS, Apple, and
NOKIA.
WebKit
Ars Technical article about unforking of KHTML and WebKit
Aplications Using WebKit
Nokia S60 website page for WebKit based web browser (yeah, the registrant for that website is Nokia).So, you see, things are a lot more complicated than some folks seem to think.
-
Yet another 'shootout' without Nokia/SE..Call me when the iPhone can do the following-
- allow you to use any song from your collection as a ringtone.
- allow you to share content-be it tones, music, pictures or video-over wifi/bluetooth with other devices/smartphone users.
- Let you simply use that entire 8 GB storage as a portable drive and copy whatever stuff u want onto it.(can it?)
- allow you to use any operator you like without having to be shackled to AT&T
- allow you to use any 3rd party application WITHOUT having to hack the firmware or do anything out of the ordinary.
Or, check out Advanced Call Manager, that provides sophisticated control over who can contact you and when, and what recorded message to play for them. Or take Agile Messenger, that lets you chat on AIM,Yahoo,MSN,Google,ICQ and Jabber. There are several such companies offering hundreds of applications for smartphones and there's no limit to what you can find for your phone. Oh, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to use these applications, many average joes use them!
I agree that not everyone might want all these applications. But doesn't the same argument hold for your PC as well? You can customize a PC any way you want in terms of hardware, operating system, or other software. It's upto you- what you want and how much you're willing to pay for it.
It's about CHOICE. Putting choice in the hand of the consumer, based on the assumption that the consumer knows best what they want out of their phone. As opposed to something that's pretty to look at but strictly locked down, based on what Steve Jobs thinks you should be allowed to use, besides extorting money every step of the way.
Since this was about browsers-Check out the S60 browser as well as the response to the Reality Distortion Field regarding the iPhone's browser!! Finally, as an aside, what's up with depending on the operator to provide handsets? No wonder you get armtwisted into paying for ringtones and phones with crippled features. Or do you also buy your cars from the highway department? Nokia sells over the counter handsets, so all you need is a GSM SIM card. At least you'll get a fully featured phone that doesn't have features disabled! -
Yet another 'shootout' without Nokia/SE..Call me when the iPhone can do the following-
- allow you to use any song from your collection as a ringtone.
- allow you to share content-be it tones, music, pictures or video-over wifi/bluetooth with other devices/smartphone users.
- Let you simply use that entire 8 GB storage as a portable drive and copy whatever stuff u want onto it.(can it?)
- allow you to use any operator you like without having to be shackled to AT&T
- allow you to use any 3rd party application WITHOUT having to hack the firmware or do anything out of the ordinary.
Or, check out Advanced Call Manager, that provides sophisticated control over who can contact you and when, and what recorded message to play for them. Or take Agile Messenger, that lets you chat on AIM,Yahoo,MSN,Google,ICQ and Jabber. There are several such companies offering hundreds of applications for smartphones and there's no limit to what you can find for your phone. Oh, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to use these applications, many average joes use them!
I agree that not everyone might want all these applications. But doesn't the same argument hold for your PC as well? You can customize a PC any way you want in terms of hardware, operating system, or other software. It's upto you- what you want and how much you're willing to pay for it.
It's about CHOICE. Putting choice in the hand of the consumer, based on the assumption that the consumer knows best what they want out of their phone. As opposed to something that's pretty to look at but strictly locked down, based on what Steve Jobs thinks you should be allowed to use, besides extorting money every step of the way.
Since this was about browsers-Check out the S60 browser as well as the response to the Reality Distortion Field regarding the iPhone's browser!! Finally, as an aside, what's up with depending on the operator to provide handsets? No wonder you get armtwisted into paying for ringtones and phones with crippled features. Or do you also buy your cars from the highway department? Nokia sells over the counter handsets, so all you need is a GSM SIM card. At least you'll get a fully featured phone that doesn't have features disabled! -
Re:Funniest Thing I've Read All Day
You missed out the most populous phone operating system, S60 :
http://forum.nokia.com/main/resources/tools_and_sd ks/index.html -
Re:'soon'?
It's proving very popular. I only have experience of a pre-production unit, but even that was really good. I haven't played with the GPS, but everything else was functional. I was sold on it and planned to buy one, but now my wife and I are planning on buying a flat, so it's not an option any more, as well as that nice flat screen TV
Of course, the power of S60 comes with all the app you can put on it ("Open to new features"). There's some really neat stuff out there, and becoming more and more easy to program for (widgets/OpenC).
The N70 is a pretty old S60 2nd edition phone. It was better than the previous ones and not as good as the newer ones. The N95 UI is much prettier, but it's essentially the same thing - nothing particularly revolutionary there, IMO.
Of course, S60 itself has proved popular, I think, or at least popul*ous*. They've sold over 100 million phones that run S60.
I know a few N70 owners and they seem to be pretty happy. Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on what you found to be awful about the N70? -
N95!Yes, Nokia N95! Highly recommended.
I'm using my own N95 http://www.nseries.com/n95/ as:
- an IRC client: http://mirggi.net/ (native Symbian software)
- a SSH client: http://s2putty.sourceforge.net/ (Putty is ported to and runs on Symbian natively)
- a podcast player: Nokia Podcasting (http://blogs.s60.com/nokiapodcasting/). I can download new episodes on the fly and listen to them when I want. I don't need a computer to download the episodes. MPEG-4/H.264 video podcasts work too.
- an Internet radio (Shoutcast) client: http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/s60internetra dio/index.html All the Internet radio stations just when I want. Open Source.
- an FM radio and MP3/AAC player. Any headphones with a 3,5mm plug work fine.
- a 5 megapixel digital camera: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/nokia/n95/
- a 640x480 30fps MPEG-4/AAC video camera.
- a modem for my laptop. Thanks to HSDPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsdpa) I get about 120kB/s downstream and 44kB/s upstream (yes, kilobytes) with the current 1,8Mbps HSDPA network. 90ms pings. I have an unlimited packet data contract from my mobile operator. The operator is currently software upgrading the base stations to support 3,6Mbps HSDPA, which doubles the downstream speeds.
- a SIP VoIP client: The SIP standard is supported by the device natively. And the Internet call functionality is well integrated to the user interface. I can use the normal phone book to call via the Internet. Instead of normal voice or video call, I just select Internet call from the menu. Internet calls work over 802.11g 54Mbps WLAN at home, and over the mobile packet data network on the go, thanks to HSDPA. Works great with Gizmo (http://www.gizmoproject.com/), for example.
- a web browser and RSS feed reader: RSS feeds are supported by the excellent S60 web browser, which is based on Apple Webcore/KHTML: http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/. It's a full featured web browser and not a toy. Web sites can be zoomed in/out to fit the screen. Opera can be installed on the device too.
- a gaming device: I'm not a enthusiastic gamer though. I'm just playing the preinstalled games. btw. N95 has got hardware accelerated OpenGL by PowerVR: http://www.imgtec.com/PowerVR/Products/Graphics/MB X/index.asp
- a Push-email client. I receive email as soon as it is available on the IMAP server. I can open ZIP attachments, Word/Excel documents, PDF files and view them on the device.
- a GPS and a map: N95 has got an integrated GPS receiver. Nokia Maps software is preinstalled on the device. Free detailed maps for over 150 countries are available. And Google Maps works on it too: http://www.google.com/gmm/. I also use N95 to track my work-outs with Nokia Sports Tracker http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/Sports Tracker/.
I can install any S60 3rd edition and Java ME software on this phone. No restrictions. Also the SDK is available freely: http://forum.nokia.com/ Symbian is also fast, and supports multitasking of applications natively. I can program it even with Python (http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/PyS60) if I want.
Hot-swappable 2GB Micro SD cards work as stora
-
Re:Again /. readers miss the point.
IMO, most of your points are valid, though probably arguably. I'd especially question that the touchscreen has yet to prove itself viable since I and many others prefer keys especially when using single handedly on the move.
However, IMO, this one isn't valid :
> The promise of web browsing in your hand that sctually renders real web pages correctly.
While it does promise what you say, S60 has had this for a while. It even uses the same engine as Apple's Safari, IINM. It's compatible on most(?) of it's 3rd edition phones. I downloaded it from Nokia's Europe web site and installed it on my 3250 - works like a dream and much better than the shipped WAP browser (which is probably similar to the ones you're complaining about). -
Re:You're right...
And webkit is open source (www.webkit.org), and derived from khtml from the kde project (www.kde.org).
btw: where can I download that webkit browser for my S60 v2 nokia 6600. It was promised by nokia a couple of months ago, but it looks like they want you yo buy a new phone first (but I kinda like the 6600). I searched, but only found press release-type stuff, and now I just find 'opendarwin shutting down' stuff... Just sdk stuff, and links to other places, circular references, like this http://opensource.nokia.com/projects/S60browser/in dex.html but nowhere a package that builds to a binary, nor a binary. this place only lists a few phones, and my s60 is not in the list http://www.s60.com/business/productinfo/applicatio nsandtechnologies/webrowser/
Does webkit do anything, or is it just a bunch of websites linking to press releases? -
Re:If it works, it sounds great. Quad Band?
In case you don't know: your phone is one of the "series 60" phones, which means it is capable of running Python programs. This is the real killer feature of this phone in my opinion. So... Happy Hacking!
-
Re:Symbian Signed making symbian Open Source harde... and even where it will, it won't be allowed to do interesting things (write to filesystem, talk to network etc). If you want to get your code signed, you have to have an expensive verisign certificate, and pay a bunch of cash to have your app reviewed.
FUD. You can use self-signing and still make use of most features - file system access and opening network connections included.
-
It depends on your phone
If you just take the free phones your provider offers, then games won't be that great. But if you get a decent phone and have a decent provider there are plenty of free games. There are ports of Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Frozen Bubble. There are also free or cheap emulators for the Genesis, the NES, and the SNES.
-
Re:This is very true
http://www.s60.com/browser
I'm by no means saying that that's the level browsers in mobile devices are today. That's obviously the absolute latest and greatest. But it shows where things are headed. It's Safari based, supports HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, with full support for JavaScript (including AJAX-stuff), frames, forms, etc. etc.. Hell, it even supports SVG and Flash, as well as the Netscape plugin API. Most devices that will feature that browser (or feature it already) have screen resolutions of QVGA or higher and many of them have WiFi.
The mobile world is catching up quite fast! The low-end is roughly at the level Netscape 2 was on back in 1996 / 1997 or so. The high-end is more or less caught up to the state of the art of PC browsers.
Peppe