Nokia Working On An Update To The S60 Calculator!
Through the Nokia Conversations site comes the news today that Nokia has finally noticed that the S60 calculator needs a facelift and an improvement in speed and usability. It took a software update to the iPhone to make them notice that the S60 Calculator hasn’t been touched since the beginning of the century, but well, as Machiavelli once said “the end justifies the means” so we won’t bother with the how/when/why/what as long as we get what we ask for.
As James mentions it, the guys over at Nokia decided to port the existing S40 Calculator to S60, instead of coding for a new one, since they noticed that the S40 calculator is fast and efficient. The application is now in Alpha Labs, meaning it’s sort of on the doorstep of Beta Labs, waiting to be pushed to the public and tested in real-time.
How does that S40 calculator function? Well as far as I remember from my very very old 6610 days, the * key worked as the function key, and pressing it repeatedly would insert the following + – / * functions. Correct me if I’m wrong. It isn’t as fast and intuitive as Calcium for example, oh how I wish they would work on something like that, but it also isn’t as slow as the current S60 Calculator.
Well, we should be grateful that they noticed it in the first place, now how ’bout lookin’ at dat Calendar application people? And while doing that, could you also drop a new line or two of code in the Messaging and the Contacts applications?
Anyway, what do you guys think? Do you believe that anything faster than the current S60 Calculator cuts it, or do you think that Calcium is still the way to go? What other applications would you like to see revisited, and what functionality would you like them to bring?
I think they should buy Calcium and build upon it.
Don’t get me wrong – I love the uber-simplicity of Calcium, but some days I want more advanced features and I want them as easily accessible as the basic features Calcium does so well
:-)
Since 2008 seems to be year for Nokia to put more effort in the software department, I too think they should (HAVE TO) improve many areas of S60 that NEEDS to be improved:
- Better calculator ? Definitely a need. Should be easier to use, à la Calcium.
- How about some integration between Contacts and Calendar ? Like automatic birthday reminders to begin with…
- Talking about Calendar, it should be divided into two area, with the second one showing the appointments of the selected day (à la Handy Calendar or UIQ Calendar).
- Put somewhere in the Log or Messaging app the total number of messages inbox/sent
- The converter app is a little useless as it is as far as currency conversion is concerned. There should be some ‘template’ rates defined by default (how about an ‘update rates’ feature ?)
- Last but not least, why isn’t there any sort of timer/stopwatch in S60 ?!
To tell the truth I do not understand why S60 is lacking in these points whereas UIQ does not. Perphaps we should raise funds to buy the Nokia S60 guys a UIQ device for them to see how well it is balanced ‘basic features wise’, OUT OF THE BOX.
“the * key worked as the function key, and pressing it repeatedly would insert the following + – / * functions”
s60 does that too!
Why not make a Calcium-like calculator the default one that comes with S60 and make a more advanced calculator with scientific functions,etc. an add-on via the Download! app.
Steve and Craig,
I do agree with you, that’s why i always use cCalc, it’s a freeware that acts like Calcium for basic functionality, but has a very nice and HUGE array of scientific functions, that are almost as easily accessible.
I believe if Nokia should map anything, it should be cCalc :)
Merlin,
I am nodding to all your suggestions, and I feel there is much more. Hm, maybe a post for tomorrow.
louis,
woops never noticed it :s hm that leaves me perplex as to what they implemented :s
I think Texas Instruments should develop applications that are ports of calculators to cellphones. I’d pay for a TI-89 S60 (or IPhone) emulator.
I agree with Merlin on the issue of basic applications in S60. Out of the box, a user gets Lifeblog on the handset, but no Stopwatch/Timer? This is the strangest thing possible in a smartphone platform, I believe. BTW, while I don’t use calculator that much, still, navigating in the calculator app needs tweaking. Let’s see what Nokia can do.
[...] poses the question however of whether this is the best solution? For calculator alternatives, there’s Calcium, which is a very popular simple calculator app [...]
You still think that S40’s calculator is 6610 style? Do a little googling first!
http://www.ringnokia.com/images/2007/04/05/dsc07271_605.jpg
I say AYE to the Texas Instruments proposal! I drool over the idea of having the venerable Derive on my S60v3!!
Heh. Great discussion. Who ever thought a calculator could cause such passion?
I myself use Calcium. But I long for a good calculator like the HP-12 RPN. Yeah, a real calculator geek!
(Please note that the calculator we mentioned and is the title of this article, really is just an experiment. If all goes well, it’ll get to Beta Labs and maybe even be released. We’ve got a ton of interesting things going on inside the company and not all of them make it to the public or to the platform. But, I think the guys working on this little app will be happy to see such a positive demand from all of you.)
Please you gurus, do calc that I can command via voice. And it answers via voice.. S60 may do that! Who can write this tiny program? Nokia or you gurus? Who is first?
Tero,
Well we are no coding/developing geniuses, so I don’t think you should expect it from us, but dang that is a nice idea! I sure hope someone is still paying attention to this thread :D
[...] few months ago, we brought you news that Nokia was working internally on an update to the dull and deadly slow S60 Calculator. You [...]