The Guru’s Guide To S60 5th Edition – Input
Yesterday we started out easy, taking a peek at the different PIM functions included in S60 5th Edition, using the emulator that’s included in the new S60 SDK, which is normally for developers to use. The emulator runs in a window on your computer, giving a view of the core OS. Today I wanted to showcase the new input methods that touchscreen support has brought us, and why I think they’re brilliant.
Unfortunately, since this is simply an emulator, and not an actual device, I’m unable to comment on the haptic feedback or using this on an actual device. That being said, I think we can get a great picture of how easy and convenient it will be to enter text on any touchscreen S60 5th Edition handset, such as the 5800 XpressMusic, or whatever comes next.
The video’s below, and tomorrow we have a sneak peak at the new web browser, which also got a few really cool updates!
cool deal… did you find out anything about copy / paste?
This looks very ugly, slow and inconvenient. I’m not impressed at all and nokia should fire their whole software team.. Seriously!
I believe the copy and past was shown briefly in the previous video. It’s there :-)
@Peter Pan – Could you explain exactly what about it is ugly, slow, and inconvenient? I think it looks rather nice, very simple and clean, and it’s incredibly convenient to have the option of whichever of 4 different input methods I want to use.
Of course, the video is slightly sluggish, it’s also not a real device, as is mentioned several times. It’s an emulator, running in a window on my computer.
Personally, I found each input method (with the exception of handwriting recognition, which I wasn’t really able to test out) to be really convenient, and you really can’t fault S60 for giving you plenty of options, unlike other touchscreen phones that limit your input options.
[...] emulator for the S60 5th Edition and have been playing with it very extensively. Following up with a video he recently posted about the various input methods for text fields, it seems a lot of people are curious as to how the [...]
For anyone curious, I just wrote a post on my site about how to copy and paste on 5th Edition devices with screenshots using the same emulator. I don’t have any fancy screen recording software like the Guru. :)
@JonnyBruha – nothin fancy – http://www.jingproject.com/. Obviously anyone can download the SDK and emulator. It’s a rather big install, though, and I figured most people didn’t care to install the whole thing just to get a few details. Great write up on your site, too, though!
From one of the press photos/videos they gave me the impression that the mini-QWERTY may be iffy. The 5800XM is “narrower” than the iPhone so Nokia is forced to make the “keys” pretty small. The pictures/videos I saw imply that you need to use the included guitar plucker or the stylus to use that mini keyboard!?
This can be a concern and we can only find out with a real device in hand.
@Flying Fox – the size of the device is obviously going to have a big effect on the usefulness of that keyboard. However, when I use my N800’s smaller onscreen keyboard, I’m able to (mostly) use my finger, even though it’s clearly designed for a stylus. The new miniQWERTY seems as though the buttons are *slightly* bigger than that, so it should be usable with your finger, as long as you press and don’t mash, if that makes sense.
Regardless, BOTH of the QWERTY keyboards should have the predictive text that the E71 has, without any excuses. There’s absolutely zero reasons to not have that feature, and I hope to see it on the 5800 AND on any future touch device.
Ricky, any luck on the alerts behaviors?
@christexaport – the alerts behaviours are basically the same as S60v3, from what I can tell. This is no an entire rewrite of the system, but more of an evolution. There’s a big familiarity when using it.
That being said, I noticed that, in most screens, that top notification bar is always present, so you would see the envelope icon there at all times, and can click on it.
excellent news and exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks Rick.
All have been looking very nice until now.
The only thing left here I guess is to have an actual
handset to see how it all works.
Great job putting those videos up :-)