I apologize for being slow. I have searched this site as well as the Symbian site and cannot find the answer (in simple words).
I have a N70. had it for a year or so. Switched to a Palm 680 and started downloading software. Good stuff. However, it is a horrible phone and worse camera. So I switched back to the N70.
Tried to download some software for the N70 (a chinese-english dictionary) and found out I was on a earlier operating system. Okay. Time for a new phone.
But I am now confused as to OS version (8.1 on the N70 vs 9.1 on the possible N73) as well as platforms S60 (2nd vs 3rd editions, S series, etc.).
Can someone please clearly explain the difference to me? Should I be looking at phones based on OS version or based on platform? Can either be updated once the phone is purchased?
Again, I apologize for such a basic question ...
Yokie Kuma
Shenzhen
The difference between platform and OS is something like this. On Symbian there are 3 distinct versions:
1 - Symbian OS v6.0 and v6.1
2 - Symbian OS v7.0, v7.0s, v8.0 and v8.1 (a and b)
3 - Symbian OS v9.0 ... v9.5 (announced in march this year, I think)
Platforms on which Symbian runs:
- Series 60 (or S60)
- Series 80 (Nokia 9210, 9300, 9500)
- Series 90 (Nokia 7710)
- UIQ (Sony Ericsson P990, Motorola A1000 etc)
- MOAP (in Japan mostly)
Now, while applications designed for first version were compatible with second version on the same platform, this compatibility stopped when the pass to v3 was made. This means that the aplications designed for v1 and v2 will not work on v3.
So, when you look for software, is better to look for both Symbian version and platform.
Now that's a bit of a pain in the butt.
OS is the software. Platform is the hardware. I need software that is compatible with both.
Thanks for the info. It makes things clearer and more complicated at the same time!
Now for the tricky question (which definitely proves my simpleton-ness), how do I determine what my phone (N70) is running? Web research says it is a S60 with OS v8.1. Does this ever change? Can it be upgraded?
The reason I ask: there is chinese-english software that requires v9.0. Ugh.
Yokie K
The phone, when designed and manufactured, uses a version of Symbian and S60 that the designers choose to use. It will not change for the lifetime of the device (there are firmware updates, but that's mainly for fixes, seldom new features, and never - so far - to upgrade Symbian/S60).
The N70 is based on S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 3 (S60 v2.8) and Symbian OS 8.1a.
There are no devices using Symbian OS 9.0; all the Symbian 9.* devices are 9.1 or later. All the S60 3rd Edition based devices, or later, are using Symbian 9.1 or later. If you have an app that works only on Symbian 9, then you need to get another device than the N70 to run it.
Excellent. This is getting clearer by the day. Thanks all for your patience. I'm sure these question come up over and over again.
But I do have just 1 more ....
If the software says S60 3rd Edition Symbian OS 9, will it run on a N73 (S60 OS v9.1). The specs for the N73 say S60 not S60 3rd Edition.
Yokie
Yokie Kuma wrote:
If the software says S60 3rd Edition Symbian OS 9, will it run on a N73 (S60 OS v9.1). The specs for the N73 say S60 not S60 3rd Edition.Yokie
It will sure run; N73 runs S60 3rd edition (Symbian OS 9.1)
Thank you. This has been most helpful.
How do you find out so quickly what platform a phone uses?
Yokie
Wirelessly posted (Nokia N72: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Symbian OS; Nokia N70/5.0706.4.0.1; 9424) Opera 8.65 [en])
you can visit phone section of this site or visit www.s60.com where you get all details.
Yokie Kuma wrote:Thank you. This has been most helpful.How do you find out so quickly what platform a phone uses?
Yokie
From the AAS forums, Nokia, S60 etc. It's not very hard.