The 6600 OS could be better...

That is just your oppinion. There will always be people that want more features and people that want less features (or don't use all the features). The job of the company is only to satisfy its shareholders and the way to do that is to make money.

Lets discuss some of your points.

Automatic email polling.
No thank you. I will connect when I want to. I don't want to receive this enormous cell phone bill.

Ability to download the first xxx bytes of every email message and not just hearders or all messages & attachments.
I specifically want to only download the headers.

Improvements to the calendar. Why put events before 8am? They should be at the TOP of the page.
I have not play with the 6600 yet, but there use to be a option in earlier versions of Symbian OS where you could specify the time for displaying events. Did you check to see if this is still the case?

Added an MSN/Yahoo/AOL/ICQ messaging client.
Don't use any of the above. Why would I want it?

Better synching software with the ability to sync using Microsoft's Outlook categories ........
I don't use Outlook. Why would I want this?

The comments are not meant as a flame or an attach on you. I hope you can see that different people have different needs and that yours are not neccessary those of the majority of people.

Hi.

Thanks for your comments cmatthee.

To continue:

Automatic email polling - should be an option then you are happy and so am I. (I have email polling on my phone at the moment - every 15 mins the first 1000 bytes of each message are downloaded and I receive about 150 a day. My bills are fine). It is so convenient that when I take my phone out of my pocket the emails are there. No messing about.

Ability to download the first xxx bytes of every email message - again should be an option then you are happy and so am I.

Improvements to the calendar - I have read the manual as I as see it events are listed at 8am. Very strange. Why not just at the top of the page?

Add chat client - If you don't need it don't use it. More and more phones will include it as standard.

Better synching software - I would have thought Outlook was the main PIM client at the moment. If you used it and used more than 1 phone to sync to outlook you would appreciate my suggestion. Even if you do not use Outlook, it should be able to sync categories to your desktop PIM.

I see you appear to agree on a few of my suggestions though 😉

I appreciate these are only my opinions, but in the long run customer opinions do count as I'm sure all shareholders know only too well.

I don't know what's all the fuss about when you can get every one of those features trough a very well integrated,high quality third party application.Why bloat the OS will ICQ clients when,like cmatthee said,not everyone uses them.

-Edit-

What really matters to me is how the core of the OS is designed.In the case of Symbian,its fast,reliable,open and stable.The features that are not embeded in the OS can be easily integrated trough third party offering a high level of user customization which is the real plus.

Ok fair comment about the MSN/ICQ thing, but I feel my other suggestions were valid and they are already built into several other business-type phones from big name manufacturers.

It's interesting to see that the 3650 and Ngage which are aimed at a different customer base with different needs to the 6600 both run an OS that is 99% the same.

I'm in no way "dissing" the Symbian O/S - just offering my opinions for improvements that's all.

Nothing will ever get better if we don't offer suggestions.

My opinion is that a good working third party software is another feature of the S60 phone. Even though its not on your phone when you buy it, you can install it and that makes it just as all other pre-installed apps, a feature of your phone.

They can install all sorts of apps when they release a phone, but they install basic apps wich are normally used and the rest is up to yourself.

example: if people say that 3650 camera doesnt have zoom. I say, yes it has. Because i installed photographer, so it does have zoom. Its not there when you buy it, but it is a feature. 😉

C++ and java developement will get better and better year by year. Better apps will be availeble, when time goes by. Possibility's will be endless. every S60 phone is different (except from people who dont understand symbian😊 ).

I never said that you were dissing the OS.Just said that IMO in a mobile OS like Symbian its better to have just the basics embeded so that the user can choose what he really needs.I agree that some things like a decent HTML browser should be built-in but the best thing here is that you have a choice although it might mean spening extra bucks for applications but i think that anyone who can afford 500+ euros for a phone can afford another 50 for applications. 😉

I dont think a HTML browser should be included as standard. This is because there are 3 browsers for series 60 (NetFront, Doris and Opera) all with different features usability and price, they are being enhanced all the time. If there was a supplied browser it would probably kill the others as people won't want to pay out for another one. You would end up with the same situation as the MS Smartphones where they only have the one browser with no choice of any others and probably have to wait for the next OS version to get an upgrade (probably have to buy a new phone as well).

Not bundling software with the devices encourages creativity and innovation by developers.

Originally posted by langdona
I [b]dont think a HTML browser should be included as standard. This is because there are 3 browsers for series 60 (NetFront, Doris and Opera) all with different features usability and price, they are being enhanced all the time. If there was a supplied browser it would probably kill the others as people won't want to pay out for another one. You would end up with the same situation as the MS Smartphones where they only have the one browser with no choice of any others and probably have to wait for the next OS version to get an upgrade (probably have to buy a new phone as well).

Not bundling software with the devices encourages creativity and innovation by developers. [/B]

Absolutely true, and the same goes for the IM app.

But that email polling feature would have been a real good thing.

The MS Smartphone has several applications built in that are still produced by 3rd parties:

MSN built in - Agile Messenger and IMov - 3rd party
Ibox built in - Several other mail programs available from 3rd parties.
Task manager built in - Several other programs available from 3rd parties.
Media Player built in - Several other programs available from 3rd parties.

I think if the software is built in, developers will still develop for the platform regardless.

Regarding integration - try installing Active Today/Desk & Active Mail. They are developed by the SAME software company, but they do not truly integrate with each other. While built applications will always integrate with each other.

I think this is one of Symbians strength but also one of it weakness'. Symbian champion the ecosystem (i.e. encourage other comapnies to work with them). They dont want to do everything. The web browser example is a very good example of this. We've got more choice and the competiton between the software companies can only be a good thing.

The ecosystem that build up has advantages aside from the obvious (choice / competition). By keeping companies small ish and focused on a particular software area you tend to have more dynamism and innovation.

I think Symbian attitude towards the ecosystem is facinating because in one sense it is not how we think a normal business should behave. However I think that what basically amounts to co-operation between firms is something that is partially an emerging trend in Europe. Some people see it as the antithesis of the US domiate everything strategy. Whether this is going to be sucessful is open to debate (inevitably there are some problems - fragmentation and communication I imagine being the worse).

What I would like to see more of is Operators including browsers or similar at their level. (IIRC Opera has done this in Porugal).

To come back to the original post - yes I agree some thins might be included, but it important to remember there shouldn't be a knee jerk - we should have this included reaction. I think possibly e-mail polling is the one thing I agree with you on. I wouldn't use it, but its popular in the US (perhaps a symptom of Symbian European outlook?). The others I disagree, especially on something like IM and browsers.

On the other hand I think perhaps Operators would do weel to think about this at their level. How much more attractive would a phone be if they included say Opera or one of the browsers, an IM client and maybe a couple of other small programs as extras. At the moment possibly not a lot of difference, but in the futrue i think this might become increasingly important.

Rafe

Originally posted by Pagemakers
The MS Smartphone has several applications built in that are still produced by 3rd parties:

MSN built in - Agile Messenger and IMov - 3rd party
Ibox built in - Several other mail programs available from 3rd parties.
Task manager built in - Several other programs available from 3rd parties.
Media Player built in - Several other programs available from 3rd parties.

But surely that implies that the built in software is not that good?

Originally posted by langdona
But surely that implies that the built in software is not that good?

Ehrm, can I imply that as well?

Ooh I love a good debate!

Rafe - I agree with you.

Langonda - I sort of diagree with you. To quote you: it shows "creativity and innovation by developers. "

There are several 3rd party apps that are the same as Symbian's built in ones. Your quote again: "But surely that implies that the built in software is not that good?"

Originally posted by Pagemakers
Langonda - I sort of diagree with you. To quote you: it shows [b]"creativity and innovation by developers. "

There are several 3rd party apps that are the same as Symbian's built in ones. Your quote again: "But surely that implies that the built in software is not that good?" [/B]

I was not trying to say that Symbian software is perfect its not (I think technically you may be refering to Nokia's Series 60 software but its not importent). I was just saying that if people are willing to pay for software to replace that supplied with a device the supplied software can't be that good. Once the bundled software becomes of an acceptable standard then they wont upgrade. IE on the PC is a good example of this and look at the arguments that that caused.

So back to the original point. Whats the point of bundling software if its not good enough to do the job? I would assume you'd want a good HTML browser/other software?

Originally posted by langdona
So back to the original point. Whats the point of bundling software if its not good enough to do the job? I would assume you'd want a good HTML browser/other software?

Seems there will be an HTML-browser (and other 3rd party apps) with the 6600!:

"The N6600 Total Product Offering demo presents the N6600 - a powerful, intelligent and compact imaging terminal. Additionally covered are applications available on the 6600 MMC card, stimulating imaging and web viewing usage by providing a rich choice of 3rd party applications options. This demo also introduces key 6600 enhancements, including image to print via Kodak & HP solutions."

http://www.nokia.com/nmic2003/1_1_1.html

Don't see how this demo works

Shame the Symbian OS didn't have email features likes these (from the Treo 600 Palm):