10 Things S60 Needs To Learn From WM
7 months ago, I decided I really had to get a Windows Mobile device. Why? I needed medical software for my hospital trainings and S60 3rd offerings weren’t good enough. I was looking for a low-end device, but ended up getting a Qtek 9100, also known as iMate KJam or HTC Wizard. After having blissfully enjoyed S60 3rd for a year by then, I had to re-think everything I was accustomed to in order to work with a Windows Mobile 5 device. I enjoyed the ride at times, hated it at others. Hardware-wise, I loved the WiFi and the built-in Qwerty, hated the camera and the fragility. But it is in terms of software that I noticed the bigger differences.
Today, having spent 7 months so far with WM5 and 1 year and 7 months with S60 3rd, I can now tell the weakness and strength of each platform. That’s what I am bringing here. There are many aspects of both devices that I don’t use now, so don’t expect me to cover every single point of divergence between both. After the break you will find 10 points I think S60 3rd, and Nokia being the major supplier with devices running this OS, can learn and improve from WM.
Before I start, I will stress that these are my own impressions, and that I am mostly talking about S60 3rd (not FP1) and Windows Mobile 5 (not the newer WM6). So here they are: 10 improvements S60 needs to learn from WM.
1 - Use the screen estate better
You will probably agree that this is due to the lousy QVGA resolution. But even with QVGA, I can’t help but think that the screen estate can be used better, way better. Take for example the messaging, the settings, the gallery. Every option in the OS seems to have a huge icon, with a name next to it. Most of my screen space is blank.
2 - Customizable standby screen
Every single person who has used WM for a while can tell you just how versatile, how useful, how customizable is the Today screen (WM equivalent for standby screen). It’s not a matter of picking which shortcut icons are on display. It’s a matter of which modules or items are displayed. And the modules? They range from the silliest to the most useful: date and clock, calendar, notifications, user ID,… those are the silliest. The most useful? Well, it depends on your needs. Developers can create today plug-ins to applications. You can have a module for displaying shortcuts to your favorite software, another for activating connectivity (BT, IR, WiFi, 3G), another for showing the number of your unread feed items and even displaying some titles, and it goes on and on. Just take a look at the post Zach made comparing the S60 standby to the WM today. And that’s just scratching the surface. I have the most unclustered today screen ever, with only 2 raws: SPB Pocket Plus and SPB Mobile Shell and frankly, I can access everything, EVERY SINGLE THING, on my device using only those. I simply forgot how WM operates out-of-the-box. Quite impressive, ain’t it? I would like S60 to let developers access the standby screen. I’d like to be able to customize it to display what I want.
3 - Standardization
Every WM professional (touchscreen) device ships with each function in the same place. If I pick up my friend’s HTC Touch or my trainer’s HTC TyTn II or someone’s iMate Jasjar, and wanted to change the theme, activate bluetooth, launch Word, get Help, I know EXACTLY where to look. If I take my friend’s N73 or my other friend’s N76 or the other’s 6120, it will take me a while to find my way around the menu. Even out-of-the-box. If you owned 2 S60 devices, you’d know what I am talking about. For God’s sake, the N95 had 2 Media folders in different places! I beg you S60, stop the non-sense. Follow one configuration, and by one, I mean One, Une, Uno, Wahida, and if that’s not good enough, I can get you a translation in each language on earth. From my experience with devices so far, I think the Nokia 6120 has the best menu layout: it is the one that makes most sense except for the My Own folder that should be named Applications.
Talking about standardization, we need some standard menu heights in S60. The standby screen has one height, the menu another, applications another. It’s crazy!
4 - Automatic Access Point
Pretty simple. Once I connect over WiFi on WM5, it doesn’t ask me what access point i would like to use in every single connectivity demanding application, over and over and over and over… That’s not smartphone-like, that’s dumbphone. Just stick to the access point I am using. And if I am on wap, gprs, 3g, tell me there’s another viable option around, like WiFi.
5 - Get the connection from my computer
When I connect my WM device to a laptop or computer that has an on-going internet connection, the connection is routed to my device. And best of all, it doesn’t ask me questions, doesn’t need settings, it just works, out-of-the-box.
6 - Gimme shortcuts
On WM, when I press Options, I get a list of actions with one letter underlined (on qwerty based devices) or one number underlined (on 12key devices), pretty much like the menus in Microsoft Windows. If I press the underlined key, the device performs the action. No need to scroll up or down. Simple and efficient.
7 - Start on boot
In WM, like on the desktop, there’s a Startup folder where you can put shortcuts to all applications that you want to launch when the device boots. It’s splendid. I can choose which built-in apps don’t launch and which 3rd party software do. S60 needs to give the user the option to do that himself without having to rely on a developer’s generosity to implement it in the software.
8 - Contacts look-up improvement
It’s Adam from pocketnow who opened my eyes to this. Apparently when you start typing on a WM standby, it opens the contacts but looks them up in a T9 way. For example, if you type “2″ it will look for contacts with a name/family name with an a, b or c. If you type 23, it will look for those with da, db, dc, ea, eb, ec, fa, fb and fc. You get the picture. It works the same way as SkeyQuiKey. I would love to see it implemented in S60 itself.
9 - Tell me my free RAM
In WM, I have access to see my free RAM. Why don’t I on S60? This is a major performance booster. Plus I would love to see ALL my running software, and not just those that kindly appear when I press the menu button for a while. Like for example, why don’t the Log, Gallery, Music Player, Contacts, show in there as running, when they show up in any other task manager?
10 - Let me choose what folders load in Gallery
The picture viewer in WM functions the same way the file explorer does, which means it will only display the My Pictures folder, when it’s first opened, showing the pictures and videos captured by the built-in camera. But I can navigate through my real folders in order to see what images are kept in these. That’s the way it should be, I think, in S60. If not, let me pick some “banned” folders, which images are not displayed in the gallery.
Bonus - 11 - Profession-axed software
I have said it, over and over again. S60 needs to be recognized as a professional operating system. That would mean getting profession-axed software : engineering, medical, law, graphic design,… Just for example, there’s a mobile version of Autocad for WM, that’s the software engineers use. When profession-axed software are available for S60, it will get a wider adoption. Not having this acknowledgment now is, in my sincere point of view, the major thing holding S60 back. Many of you will probably disagree.
These are the 11 improvements I believe S60 could use in order to achieve better user experience. What do you think? Is there anything you’d like to add to the list, or retrieve? Do you believe any of those will ever make it to S60, and if so, do you believe it’s due in the near future? Or will my grandchildren one day come to me and say “look, granny, I can see my free RAM! I bet that’s something you couldn’t do!”. JK, you get the point.
I do hope that Nokia apply what you are saying, and especially Number 4 and 5
s60 is dumb - thumb based. Never build for qwerty - at the moment its some kind of build up of ideas which came with time = chaos.
S60 needs a re design - s80 was a great step - but as with all good - died.
Have an e90 and you know what i talk here. And nokia will not change - too much money spend for s60 - not soo easy to change.
Ciao
I think the automatic access point selection and the customizable active standby screen are the two biggest for me…the iPhone REALLY spoiled me with automatic switching between EDGE and wifi as I walk out the door.
Actually, the better use of screen realestate would be nice too. A number of apps have a menu with 5 items (say, Messaging) consisting of an Icon and a label. The problem is there’s a bit of blank space between the items because the phone allows me to set a bigger font…but I want a smaller font, and I want more items on screen not more white-space (so to speak).
Rita, Great post and some very valid points. I hope S60 does take note of most of the suggested improvements / additions, in particular the gallery, I’ve mentioned it many times, even in my recent post on the N81, put it on the Beta Labs also, still not response or any hint of an upheaval.
I hope S60 does start to sort it out and takes note.
I just received a T-Mobile Wing this week for my work and it’s my first windows mobile device. I’ve a been an e62 user and have actually loved the device. However, one thing I noticed is how well the contacts, calendar, and outlook email on the device work sooo much quicker and integrate so much better with our exchange server than MFE does. I know people are going to say get an e61i but I really can’t believe that the user experience for MFE is any more quick on that device. I was planning on swapping out the sim on my work phone and putting it in my unlocked e62, but after using the Wing for a week, I plan on keeping it because it’s integration with exchange is better.
Great list! Two things, though:
I’d disagree with #1 — just because there’s empty space on a screen doesn’t mean it HAS to be filled.
And with regards to #3, isn’t that because HTC ultimately manufactures every single WinMo handset themselves?
AC,
No, what Zach posted is the today screen from HTC as it comes, then what he added to it. Even if ur WM device isn’t an HTC (mine isn’t) u can customize the today screen. Actually to be more specific, HTC took the ideas from the SPB pocket plus and SPB mobile shell software, and implemented them on their today screen for all users. So the today was customizable before HTC came and changed it. And yes, u can do many many things on WM without relying on the good will of htc.
excellent points. couldn’t agree more..
Excellen points on every account.
My biggest gripe with S60 is the lack of solid applications as well. I myself have been looking for good and sensible checkbook application. It simply does not exist. I’ve been still carrying around my Treo 650 without a SIM card in it just to use the excellent FREEWARE application called MyCheckbook which to me I simple can’t live without.
Erik,
Have you tried SymbianGuru’s Expenses app? http://www.symbianguru.com/expenses-1-1-for-series-60-v3-business-and-private-expenses-manager.html
They’re not connected to me at all, but it’s the only one I know of.
Actually Dotsisx, your KJAM is built by HTC. Good points raised in your article, but a few things leaped out at me. WM5 touchscreen is slow slow slow. I used to have the same device. The Smartphone (non touchscreen) is better and more stable, but I still come back to my N80. I don’t know if the additions you mentioned would slow down s60, but if so, its not a trade I’d make.
All in all WM touchscreens (and the hacked WM6 roms I played with) make for nice pda’s, but for a phone I prefer s60.
@Erik
Expenses tracking is not the same thing as a Personal Finance app.
@The Guru
There is a FREE Java app, JABPlite written by Malcolm Bryant and actively supported by him, available from http://www.freepoc.org/viewapp.php?id=58, which will do the job on almost any platform, including S60 3rd Edition and with specific support for the E90’s wide screen if you need it. In combination with JABPfile, it imports/export QIFs, allows regular payments and transfers to be set up, etc.
Julie
Every since item that you posted above were determining factors in me staying with WM. I seriously considered an N95 but when I couldn’t find the same level of applications that I have come to rely on using WM and Non-customizable standby screen sealed the deal for me.
Great list, being an WM and S60 user I think every one of these are correct, some more than others.
I think Series60 needs to start thinking more like a computer OS (ala WM) than a phone OS.
Bittermormon,
I know the qtek 9100 is also the HTC Wizard, but I was implying that it wasn’t built by HTC as it is now (separate from iMate) and it doesn’t have the today screen that the Touch and the TyTnII are hooked up with now.
Great article.
After years of EPOC, then UIQ use I finally had to purchase a Series 60 phone…because Sony Ericsson no-longer offers a UIQ device that supports the US Bandwidths and is 3G (c’mon Z10 or - better yet - P5).
So I purchased an E62. Short story - I used it for 3 weeks. Couldn’t handle the absolute decrepit slowness of the thing compared to my beloved but fried P910. I also hated that fact that you couldn’t do much in the way of customizing. After 3 weeks, I moved to a Cingular 8525 running WinMob 5. It was better than the E62 in terms of speed and the fact that it sync’d categories with Outlook, but certainly not stable and nowhere near as fast and stable as had been my P910a. I have since moved to an ATT Tilt. It is much more stable and highly customizable. There are some fantastic 3rd party apps that leverage all of the goodness (HA!) of Outlook and apps made for outlook. All-in-all it is a pretty good experience. It isn’t a P910 and the slide-out keyboard is not as efficient as the thumboard was and it only has a 62k color screen (unforgivable) but it is stable and the unit is well built.
All of you, though, who complain about Nokia Sync or the old SE phone suite…let me tell you…I run XP and ActiveStink is just that and no-better - perhaps worse - than Symbian synchronization stability…and WM5/6 doesn’t support SyncML.
1 very happy with icons and names.
2 partly right
3 right
4 I can have automatic hookup for SIP and other applications. I still do like to choose the network
I get, sometimes I need 3G because services like tv-streaming are there but cost money. Sometimes I want plain wifi… However it would be great to create proxy networks access points that have listings of prioritized access points to use and hide the others. Reducing the network listings. It is actually what ‘easy wifi’ in Nokia’s Download apps’ does.
9 Yes please, as a feature of the taskswitcher. Going to Nokia’s device status app is a lot of work.
10 Got something to hide
11 Get the screen first fixed to VGA…
I’d like to expand point number 10. Its not just gallery but affects applications that use sound/pictures.
*Rant mode on*
Example if I wanted to just a thumbnail for a contact the system has to list EVERY picture in the phone/memory card. Thats plain dumb. Especially in phones like N95 8GB or even my E90 equipped with 4GB microsd. I have a lot of pictures and this is ridiculous. Same goes for selecting ringtones / messagetones. They have to list everything. If you have a lot of both it takes ages while the system builds the list. Again incredibly stupid.
I’m using hacks where I store my photos/songs in hidden folders just so the system doesn’t see them. But this is probably beyond the average users. I know non tech chaps using N95 that just don’t bother adding thumbnails or custom ring tones because their phone appear to “hang” while its trying to build a list of songs/photos.
I can’t believe they still haven’t fixed this since S60v2. Don’t they have testers? Haven’t they tried to get someone to fill that 8GB with hundreds of photos and lets see them try to locate one. Remember the system builds a simple list and doesn’t allow you to select specific folders so your just seeing everything.
*Rant mode off*
hi,
what a great article, i had a WM device once, but i have to give it away as my development was requiring S60 device.
the list you made out here are exactly what i miss in S60 after switching from WM.
i’m a S60 and WM developer as well, and in development i find myself resitricted as well by hard-coded UIDs, PlatSec etc.
howerver, things looks a bit changing lately, like addition of Open C, so it a bit easy to understand and work with as compared with S60 C++
// chall3ng3r //
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