Nokia posts proposal for next year's smartphone UI
Details are beginning to emerge regarding what Nokia wants to see in the next-gen Symbian user interface. Developed for Symbian 4 - sorry, 'Symbian^4' - Nokia's proposal for the UI calls for a redesigned display in which a standard titlebar at the top of the screen with the remainder managed by the application in the foreground …
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Are my feet getting wet?
Nice rearranging of the deck chairs guys.
Innovation? I've heard of it....
Come on guys, I thought WinMo was playing catchup! I remember when Symbian was good... it was called EPOC then.
O/S != UI
Symbian is still quite good - it's the Series 60 UI that generally lets it down.
Nice to see
That this is all being discussed in the open and not behind closed doors.
that which does not kill you
Come on, Nokia make stylish handsets with powerful features but with an outdated UI.
Some other manufacturers make mp3 players with poor features (such as the telephone part)and a kick ass UI.
Surely if they keep all the strengths, and address the weaknesses, that's a good thing?
@AC
Sweden may well have but Finland, where Nokia comes from, may not.
Re: Back to the drawing board...
Finland you mean, surely.
I always liked the usability of Symbian OS. It just needs to be refined to be more fluid and have less oddities.
Leave the turnips alone.
Nokia is from Finland, not Sweden, that's Ericsson.
Sweden?
I'm sure they have - Sony Ericsson have an Android phone. Oh you meant Finland
Ericsson was from Sweden
Nokia are from Finland. But yes, they probably saw them back before Maemo was released.
Nokia font
I hate it. I really do. Especially when it's large like it is in the title bar. Apple may have nabbed Lucida for OS X desktop (mostly, except iLife) and Helvetica Neue for the iPhone, and something sane like Tahoma may remind too many of WinXP, but even Verdana (or even DejaVu Sans) would be better than Nokia's font of fail. They should try to be classy and use something nice like Frutiger.
On that note I wish Apple would decide whether they want to use Lucida or Helvetica Neue in as their UI font.
Don't like it, change it.
If its anything like Maemo, don't like it, just change it.
Like it
Hah, I was just looking at those screen shots and wondering where I could get that font to use on my desktop...
That was my first thought too
Font is too elongated and really makes me think 1980's. Its vaguely early Apple Mac but not as iconic.
Then again it is the only thing which says "Nokia woz here" to me on those screenshots.
Symbian is still the only...
Platform for those who like good cameras. Android might have a few 5 MP cameras, but only the Samsung Galaxy had a flash and even then, it still wasn't a patch on something like the N95 which was 3 years older.
Symbian as an OS is still fantastic, the only problem is that the touch UI was a bit mediocre, because things that made perfect sense with buttons didn't translate perfectly to "touch this bit".
New UI brings Symbian right back to the top of the pile as far as I'm concerned.
looks like the GUI styles will be same/similar to Maemo
So it looks like the GUI styles will be same/similar to Maemo. Which would fit, if they are both to be based on QT. I for one would be extreamly happy with that.
So, what are they playing?
Beefing up the old OS?
Switching to Maemo?
Or beef up the old UI to represent Maemo, so that old users wont even notice the change?
It is a duck if ...
... it waddles like a duck, it quacks like a duck and it swims like a duck then it is a bleedin duck! Got it Nokia?
Symbian is so past its sell by date. The right thing would be to just put it out of our misery.
Symbian ... So Yesterday!
Being the proud owner of a Google phone, as well as a Palm Pre, Symbian's features are looking dated and likely a last breath.
Move on, use a new OS.
Doesn't matter...
... how good they make the new UI - they will still just rush the first phones out with buggy-laggy software - then reviews will pan it, people will form negative opinions of it, then a month later they will release an update that fixes all the problems and makes it half decent... ofcourse by this point it will be too late and the world will have moved on.
All this has happened before, and it will happen again.
What's wrong with buttons?
While I accept that Nokia think they need to produce an iPhone knock-off, I hope this doesn't mean that they will give up on the keyboard. I'd hate be stuck with only RIM as a choice.
On the up side it looks like new "feature" phones will offer all of the necessary functions without the lipstick/mascara/blusher (cosmetics) of the touchpad UIs, so it will still be possible to buy a handset designed to be a phone rather than a design accessory.
Flog
The words "horse", "dead" and "flogging" come to mind.
Only about 5 years late
Symbian has been without a touch screen UI for phones for years. Sony Ericsson filled the gap with UIQ for a while but that died.
I seem to remember them designing Symbian Touch in 2007? but from what I could see you still needed a silly stylus for some things (screen too small).
So why they delay in competing with Apple and Android? perhaps this is why Nokia is suing Apple, it's mere jealousy and publicity?
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