Nokia's iPhone, No Seriously

Several readers have written to tell us that Engadget has a look at Nokia's visions for the future. "It was presented during Nokia's GoPlay event this morning as a glimpse into the future of Nokia interface design. Oh, and it's due out next year. When pressed during the Q&A about the striking similarity to the little Cupertino device, Anssi Vanjoki — Nokia's Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia — said, 'If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.' Well, ok then."

Comments

This is S60 4.0

[Eugenia Loli]

This will be based on Symbian's S60 4.0 new version btw, not Linux. It's just the evolution of their S60 smartphone platform.

Re:This is S60 4.0

[digitalchinky]

No, it will be more expensive, have an illogical and clunky user interface, and take 8 firmware revisions before it becomes remotely stable enough to use. (I used to be a nokia fan boy, though I stopped with the N80 which cost me around $750 US when first released) As has now become tradition, nokia will require that every single piece of software be signed before installation, though they will find a way to screw that process up even more than they have now. The operating system will spend more time chatting to the TPM chip than all previous symbian versions put together, DRM will be significantly enhanced and soak up any remaining CPU cycles such that it takes at least 3 seconds for any key press to register, followed by another 4 seconds to update the screen. (And that's on a good day)

Until nokia pull their heads out of their collective arses and ease up on the pointless file system restrictions, symbian 3rd edition was the last straw not only for me, but a good many others going by forum chatter. I will not be buying nokia at all.

The alternatives aren't much better, but at least most have already been broken by 3rd party solutions. BB5 is still hit and miss.

Re:This is S60 4.0

[pyrrhonist]

Because Apple were categorically the first company ever to release a pocket device with a touchscreen.

Actually, the Casio PB-1000 was the first to have this feature in 1987.

Apple also had competition in the PDA market when it first introduced the Newton in 1993. The Casio Z-7000 "Zoomer"/Tandy Z-PDA were introduced a couple months later. These devices also featured a touch screen with handwriting recognition.

Re:This is S60 4.0

[Yetihehe]

Please, read parent carefully: "Companies like Palm who made small touchscreen devices, looked into the future, predicted the iPhone and copied the concept years before Apple did it first". So is this still +5 insightfull, or rather +5 funny?

But it's not OpenMoko!

[WamBamBoozle]

I'm just waiting for OpenMoko to finish their beta.

Re:Turn it on its head

[nine-times]

Noah Wylie, while playing Steve Jobs said that "good artists copy, great artists steal"

That quote is stolen from Picasso, I believe.

Re:Can't anyone see it's a joke/hoax?

[bob_dinosaur]

It's no hoax.

Nokia had a huge launch event in London on the 29th to announce a US 3G version of the N95, the N81, the new version of the N-Gage platform, the Ovi brand (maps, games, & other services), as well as to demonstrate the touchscreen S60 interface mentioned in this article.

Re:Can't anyone see it's a joke/hoax?

[Nazlfrag]

No, this is legit, it's coming from the London GoPlay launch event. There's a pic of it from a live blog here.

Phone interface

[Enderandrew]

I agree. My favorite interface for a phone seemingly died ages ago, though I hear iPods offer it. I miss the jog-dial. With it, I could easily operate my phone with my left hand while doing something else. I really love my Samsung slider, though I wish the buttons offered even more in the way of tactile feedback. For instance some phones have tiny ridges on some of the numeric keys to act almost as home-keys, so it is easier to avoid mis-dialing a phone number when you're not looking.

Re:Turn it on its head

[gkndivebum]

Actually, the quote is from Igor Stravinsky. See http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky

Re:The Newton Irony

[edwinolson]

The page below provides evidence that "standing on the shoulder of giants" was a common turn of phrase since the 12th century. Newton's variant is particularly pithy, and was indeed in a letter to Hooke, but I don't see any reason to think that he was mocking Hooke.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0162 b.shtml