Why S60's Touch demo DIDN'T suck...

Its not so much a regional opinion in my eyes, but its a noticable one. UIs built for touch from the get go are better than ones where the touch layer is grafted on. Yes, I totally understand and even agree that with what Nokia is doing in making the Touch UI as it is. That doesn't mean that its the best way. Unless the applications themselves are designed for touch input first, then button input, it will seem disconnected still.

In my opinion, the UI of Nokia phones is ok until the featureset of the device grows. It does not scale very well, and I'm pretty sure that Nokia knows this and is trying to address this in small steps. Low end phones are fine, they don't do much; but a device like the N82 becomes a hassle when in order to make it functional, you need to add several buttons and other UIs in order to exploit them. Simiplicity is something you build from teh ground up, not layer on.

In my personal opinion, S60 needs to be simplified for TS input if this is to be a major feature; and UIQ needs to be redesigned in terms of User flow in order to be a profitable implementation. Both have pluses in their approaches, but to add new paradigms, layers are only best if you want to maintain teh status quo.

ARJWright wrote:
In my opinion, the UI of Nokia phones is ok until the featureset of the device grows.

The S60 UI is for phones with a large featureset. S40 is for low end phones without. I can't see how it could be any simpler to use. I mean you put your frequently used stuff in the fast access features and it's done. It seems that many modern humans would rather complain about it than think about it and now expect to be spoon-fed.

In my personal opinion, S60 needs to be simplified for TS input if this is to be a major feature; and UIQ needs to be redesigned in terms of User flow in order to be a profitable implementation. Both have pluses in their approaches, but to add new paradigms, layers are only best if you want to maintain teh status quo.

In my personal opinion, S60 doesn't need TS. Nokia needs it because people think they need it. I really hope the substance doesn't get overlooked for all this fluff and hot air.

Unregistered wrote:

And you try to configure the iPod Touch email app. It's actually impossible to do so, without syncing your IPT with Outlook. Nice one Apple.

It is actually very easy to set up email on the iPod Touch, you certainly don't need to sync with outlook to set.

The problem arises because by default the iPod Touch tries to set up your email using secure pop (as used by gmail) you simple need to change the outgoing (smtp) port from 587 to 25.

This fact you mentioned syncing with outlook does however highlight another issue with S60, if Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch can sync with email mailbox settings with outlook, then why after six years isn't S60 doing the same, I am not talking about exchange servers here but plain old pop.

As much as I agree that I prefer to have the S60 interface (with or without touch) But I think Nokia can learn a lot from Apple on usability, especially as others have mentioned with access points, my N95 8GB and E51 are connected all day everyday when I am in my office to Sipgate and Truphone, why then does every other application, Email, Web etc etc etc feel the need to ask me to choose an access point. S60 should be at the very least intelligent enough to think 'he is connected to wifi already, i'll just connect'.

S60 and Nokia lead the market at the moment with their smartphones, but i'm not sure this will always be the case. They take too long to react. Six years ago with the Nokia 7650 I moaned about the fact that birthdays added to contacts didn't show up in the Calendar. Guess what, after countless devices and 3 versions of S60 (not to mention feature packs) they still don't. It is things like this make the 'Smart' in Nokia Smartphones look silly.

Tab on an address in Address Book on an iPhone, iPod Touch or even on a Mac using leopard and it will immediately open Google maps and show you it on a map. This is the stuff Nokia needs to be integrating into Contacts/Nokia maps now, not in another six years, it will be too late.

I love S60 and am looking forward to seeing the touch devices, but instead of adding more and more advanced features like TV etc. fix the ones that have been overlooked.

"It is actually very easy to set up email on the iPod Touch, you certainly don't need to sync with outlook to set.

The problem arises because by default the iPod Touch tries to set up your email using secure pop (as used by gmail) you simple need to change the outgoing (smtp) port from 587 to 25."

The problem we had was that the Touch kept trying to test the new mail account using SSL; because it kept failing, there was no way to access the advanced settings...

And we were not alone in this, as there were plenty of posts in the iPod forums about just this topic. What took me about 20 seconds on my E90 took about 20 minutes on the Touch; definitely not one of Apple's better moves...

Ratkat wrote:... especially as others have mentioned with access points, my N95 8GB and E51 are connected all day everyday when I am in my office to Sipgate and Truphone, why then does every other application, Email, Web etc etc etc feel the need to ask me to choose an access point. S60 should be at the very least intelligent enough to think 'he is connected to wifi already, i'll just connect'.

While I agree that S60 should actually do this on it's own, I do recommend you try devicescape. It creates a 'virtual access point' and switches the real one used behind the scenes.

In my office building, in addition to our office wifi network (secured), there are several open access points at various coffee shops and what not. I have set up these in devicescape and now I can walk around my building (or even have a coffee) and it automatically switches between the various networks, keeping me online.

One of the coffee shops is by the lifts (US:elevators) and when I am waiting for a lift to arrive (on my way into work in the morning), it picks up my mail for me so I can take a quick look at it while I wait and in the lift, if I feel like it.

Works pretty well, and it seems to be getting better (wrt to free and open access points, for example).

Max.

Unregistered wrote:"It is actually very easy to set up email on the iPod Touch, you certainly don't need to sync with outlook to set.

The problem arises because by default the iPod Touch tries to set up your email using secure pop (as used by gmail) you simple need to change the outgoing (smtp) port from 587 to 25."

The problem we had was that the Touch kept trying to test the new mail account using SSL; because it kept failing, there was no way to access the advanced settings...

And we were not alone in this, as there were plenty of posts in the iPod forums about just this topic. What took me about 20 seconds on my E90 took about 20 minutes on the Touch; definitely not one of Apple's better moves...

When you setup your email and press save it will say 'Cannot connect using SSL, do you want to try setting up account without SSL' It will fail (because the SMTP port is wrong, 587 should be 25), click save again and it will ask you if you wish to save anyway, click save, then goto Settings/Mail/your email account name/Advanced you can change it there, took me less than 5 minutes to set up three email accounts on my touch.

I wish it did take 20 seconds on the E90 etc, (and I wish you could export/import email settings on S60 too)

davidmaxwaterma wrote:While I agree that S60 should actually do this on it's own, I do recommend you try devicescape. It creates a 'virtual access point' and switches the real one used behind the scenes.

In my office building, in addition to our office wifi network (secured), there are several open access points at various coffee shops and what not. I have set up these in devicescape and now I can walk around my building (or even have a coffee) and it automatically switches between the various networks, keeping me online.

One of the coffee shops is by the lifts (US:elevators) and when I am waiting for a lift to arrive (on my way into work in the morning), it picks up my mail for me so I can take a quick look at it while I wait and in the lift, if I feel like it.

Works pretty well, and it seems to be getting better (wrt to free and open access points, for example).

Max.

I already use Devicescape, and think it is great.

However it doesn't solve the problem because I also use 3G/GPRS when I am out and about to check email browse web etc, therefore I can't set the default access points to be Devicescape.

S60 just needs to be intelligent enough for example if I am using Web and decide to check my email to think, 'hey this guy is already browsing the web, I don't need to ask him to choose the same access point again, i'll just use it'.
You even have to choose the access point again when you send an email, even if you are still connected to your inbox.

Devicescape sadly doesn't cure these scenarios, I wish it did.

Basically it needs to think, 'Is device in range of a known wlan, if yes connect, if no use 3G'

When you setup your email and press save it will say 'Cannot connect using SSL, do you want to try setting up account without SSL' It will fail (because the SMTP port is wrong, 587 should be 25), click save again and it will ask you if you wish to save anyway, click save, then goto Settings/Mail/your email account name/Advanced you can change it there, took me less than 5 minutes to set up three email accounts on my touch.

While it's good to know that it is possible, it's hardly what one would call obvious... (definitely a slip up by Apple here).

And setting up my E90 to connect to the mail server on our home network did only take 20 seconds....

Ian

S60 demo with touch�so it�s basically a Symbian with just another input method� but nothing iPhone�wait a second�you mean it�s like the �other� Symbian with touch, the UIQ 3?! OH, UIQ3 is NOT s60, it's just Symbian with touch. SO the S60 touch is for those who like touch input on S60, but not the touch input on UIQ3 apparently, and of course, dislike iPhone's "fancy" uses of touch interface. Great market segmenting Nokia!

Hi, I'm trying to set up my email account on my Itouch, and Im trying to sync it with my Outlook Express one on my computer. After I enter the info, it says "cannot Connect Using SSL- DO you want to try setting up the account without SSL?"

1) What is SSL?
2) How do I finish creating my account, because once i click "yes" it doesnt work.

please help!

nevermind the above post. i got it working :]