Symbian Smartphone Show, Day 1 Recap
The Symbian Smartphone Show is upon us, and day one is just over. If you’re feeling submerged by the amount of presentations, press releases, new announcements, live coverage, links, posts, feeds, well then you’re not alone. So are we. Every year, it’s a more challenging task to take it all in and try to get a clear picture of where Symbian is headed. But fear not, we’ll make things easier for you with a recap of everything that has been announced during the first day.
Samsung I7110 and L870
We already covered the Samsung I7110, but apparently missed the second S60 handset that Samsung announced, the L870. If the I7110 was “an N85 in a candybar form factor”, the L870 is “an N78 in a slider form factor”, or well that’s the short version. The long version goes to say it’s slim at only 13.5mm, 2.4″ QVGA screen, 3MP cam, FM radio, Bluetooth, HSDPA. It also comes bundled with apps like an advanced task manager (Checkit), a PIM homescreen, Team manager and a business card recognition feature. [Via Gizmodo] Edit: Seems that the L870 was announced a long time ago, but was pushed again harder by Samsung. The same goes for the Innov8, even if it was announced a few weeks ago.
Samsung Mobile Innovator site is Go!
Samsung seems to be drenched down in S60 now, and we won’t complain. They just made their Mobile Innovator site live, which should be an invaluable tool for developers. It’s free, it contains lots of SDKs and they’re also offering free signing for the first 300 applications to be submitted! Well, that’s a nice welcoming gift. They’re also launching an IQ competition, that’s Innovation Quest, soon. [Via AAS's live coverage]
Loads of Developer tools
Who wants more knowledgeable developers? Less bugs? Less power consumption? Oh you raised your hand, well so did I. So here we have 2 new Symbian books: “Multimedia on Symbian OS - Inside the Convergence Device” and “Common Design Patterns for Symbian OS”. There are also two tools aimed to ease the developing process by tracking bugs and defects in the code, the Symbian Analysis Workbench (SAW) and Coverty Prevent. Another new tool is ARM Profiler which should enable enhancing an application’s function while reducing its power consumption.
Some Symbian Foundation news
Ever since its announcement, we didn’t hear a lot of news about the Symbian Foundation. Today, it has grown to encompass over 50 firms, of which ARM, Scalado, Visa,… just to name a few (Press Release). On a more saddening note, UIQ was declared dead by Sony Ericson’s Patrick Olson (Via AAS’s live coverage)
Qt, new applications, new horizons
Nokia buys Trolltech, Trolltech becomes Qt, Qt allows easier development and porting of applications between different platforms. That’s the situation summary, and as Mike puts it, it means we will have a slew of new applications around summer 2009. The first fruit of this is the new Digia @Web browser, a finger-friendly browser that is supposed to enhance the whole web experience. It should run on Internet Tablets as well as S60 devices [Via SymbianOne]. Other applications announced during the show were the previously covered Dashwire, as well as the UIQ-original DreamLife, a PIM management tool and Riyala by DreamSpring [Via AAS].
Hands-On, Hands-On and more Hands-On
Our on-the-scene Alan Buckley has had his hands on a lot of Symbian devices, and brings us tons of pictures from the floor. Check his pictures in our special Symbian Smartphone Show page.
Dan Carter from World of Nokia has posted the 5800 XpressMusic Intro, you know, the video you find on any new handset from Nokia, the one that explains all the handset’s features? Yes, that one. Taken directly off the 5800 XpressMusic.
The AAS guys have also been busy getting lots of pictures online from the showroom, so be sure to check out this page for all their photo coverage and keep your eyes open for 3 Samsung I7110 pics.
Well, that’s it I think, and boy was it a lot? Did I miss something? I sure hope not.
Comments
- Just to remind you that L870 is released almost a half year ago
by Unregistered
- well you're right. i thought i had seen it before, but didn't look. Note to self: fact check next time you're in doubt. Post edited.
by Dotsisx
- LOL @ the photo of James blogging at the show, true multitasking!
by Micky
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