Symbian OS, one of the biggest mobile platform thanks to Nokia has just gone open-source with its latest iteration – Symbian^3(S^3). This latest version is touted as a “feature complete” mobile platform with major features such as increased usability and advanced interface, faster networking capability, 3D graphics support and 2D acceleration engine and more.
As early as now, members of the Symbian community such as device manufacturers, network operators, hardware and software developers and other stakeholders have started engaging with Symbian S^3 with the first device sporting the new platform expected to be released in Q3 this year.
So as mobile phone users, what should we expect from the newly open-sourced Symbian S63 platform? There are several innovations actually such as:
- HDMI support – lets you watch 1080p movies from your phone to your LCD TV
- music store integration embedded within the radio – allows you to identify a song, learn more about it and purchase it directly via a “buy now” button
- more efficient memory management – lets you to run more apps in parallel providing you with faster multi-tasking experience
- new 2D and 3D graphics architecture – takes full advantage of hardware acceleration for delivering faster and more responsive user interface.
- 4G networking architecture – balances individual application needs such as bandwidth, latency and jitter.
- one click connectivity – simplifies the process of connecting to the Internet and allows you to configure platform-wide behavior.
- usability enhancements – allows adoption of a direct “single tap” interaction mode to make it easier to do common tasks on your device, include multi-touch gestures.
- enhanced phone homescreen – supports multiple pages of widgets and simple flick gesture navigation
Symbian Foundation hopes that interested parties will continue to create more compeling products and services now more than before as Symbian S^3 is now easier to deploy and accessible to all.