S60 Touch UI Announced
It’s taken me most of the day to round up all the coverage across the internet of this awesome new announcement (that once again, no one saw coming. I’d bet that it’s fun to be an "inside" Nokian that knows what’s going to be announced and when and where, and be able to sit back and watch to see what stuff gets leaked and what doesn’t). I’m still taking it in, thinking about it. I’ll probably have more thoughts to post later, but for the meantime I wanted to give you guys some resources that I’ve found.
First and foremost is the video that Rafe from AllAboutSymbian shot while watching the vid. I have to say that I love Nokia’s presentation videos. They really work to get you excited. I still get goosebumps when I see the 4th screen video.
Also, Phil over at the S60 Blogs, always one to be on top of things, already has a new Voice of S60 podcast up and rocking, and guess who his guest is? Yep, Minna Karvonen, Product Marketing Manager for S60 UI and UI Customization. She answers some of Phil’s questions regarding this new touch UI.
You can listen to the podcast here, or head to Voice of S60 to subscribe and look through past podcasts.
Last but not least, Darla Mack was able to score the sweet picture and Rita over at Dotsisx has some interesting questions on her blog regarding this new announcement.
nice to hear that the framework enables all sort of devices from touch-only to touch + qwerty. I think my favourite combination would be Standard touch + softkeys + 12-key. I’m not shure whether i’d like a d-pad ore not.
This is so worth waiting for. Normally, I’d get a new phone early next year, but I’ll wait this one out. I must have this touchscreen S60.
Guys, i suggest not to get to excited.
Can you see the resolution of the screenshot posted? Its clearly a WQVGA Screen. That means only about 400×240 resolution. And since this baby is coming out in 2008 and will stay for at least some years that means we will see the WVGA 800×480 that are available in Japan phones since last year in Nokia phones in the next decade.
Really, i could cry instead of being to excited. Nokia doesnt get it that people actually need a good display resolution for browsing the web. :(
Hi Ricky, hope all is well. About the touch screen, I saw it coming. In fact I believe Nokia had no choice but to deliver it.
Read these articles:
http://www.simplysymbian.com/2007/09/17/the-future-of-mobile-user-interfaces-and-the-post-iphone-era/
http://www.simplysymbian.com/2007/10/01/nokia-nolonger-holding-back-symbian-uiq/
Anonymous informer, are you trying to tell me you were able to count the pixels on the screen? Are you also trying to tell me that you know this exactly the UI AND device that will come out?
LOL.
Viipottaja,
While most people can’t count exact pixels, it’s easy to hit resolutions on the head if you do a little bit of calculation based on widget sizes and other common elements.
I don’t know if Anonymous Informer did that, but to my untrained eye… he’s probably right.
LOL indeed!
Anonymous – My question would be, is any OTHER mobile phone manufacturer pushing the limits in terms of high resolution screens? Outside of Japan? I didn’t think so. It would seem, given the loads of consumer research that Nokia (and I’m sure the other manufacturers) have, that higher-resolution screens aren’t really on the top of most consumer’s minds. I know personally, it doesn’t bother me. I’d MUCH rather them work on other aspects.
I gotta agree. WQVGA is fine for me–and less of a battery drain. The 16 million colors Nokia uses offsets any disadvantage, sharpness-wise, of QVGA.
[...] If you remember, the news of the touch UI made it’s way through a couple of first-day posts, gathered here by Ricky and then the excitement drove all the way down the extinction road until a couple of weeks [...]
One more thought. I’m guessing the thing about handwriting and penmanship is tickling Nokia’s fancy. I think they like the idea, which is good because there’s nothing I like better than a handwritten note or a sketch done on a touchscreen phone. Speaking of which, maybe when the thing comes out, there could be a sketch application as standard issue. Oh yeah, maybe they can do something with the mechanism like sensing the force of the tap, i.e. when you tap lightly, something happens like selecting an object or scrolling over a webpage; but tap a bit harder and it does something else: opening an object or selecting a link.
[...] CTIA, all have come and gone without us hearing a single new word about the new platform that was announced in October 2007 and we know that the Finnish giant always likes to announce their products a lot earlier than their [...]