Lessons from Series 40 and Maemo

I remember once I was playing with a Samsung non-smart phone (dont remember which one). I started keying in numbers on the standby screen and the phone instantly gave me possible matches / suggestions from the phone book and the recently dialed numbers on the basis of the 3-4 numbers I had keyed. To me this was really impressive.

I know this is something small, but IMO very convenient. Something that a "smart"phone should definitely be having.

Something else small, but worth having - how about converting text smileys in the text messages to the graphic ones? Looks very nice. I know Nokia S40 phones do this. I have seen it on the 6300.

Something else small, but worth having - how about converting text smileys in the text messages to the graphic ones? Looks very nice. I know Nokia S40 phones do this. I have seen it on the 6300.

Good point, that's been a feature of many S40 phones since 2006 and it does generally make messages easier to read.

It would probably be very easy to do, and if people don't like it they can switch it off from the Messaging options menu (or it could be switched off by default, with the option there for those who want it).

I started keying in numbers on the standby screen and the phone instantly gave me possible matches / suggestions from the phone book and the recently dialed numbers on the basis of the 3-4 numbers I had keyed.

That feature is in the latest Eseries devices, the E66 and E71, but I agree that it should be something the entire platform has to have.

series 40 has a much easier process for the end user to download, install and assign a graphic as a wallpaper or screensaver. Series 40 also makes it easy to assign a graphic in the gallery to wallpaper or screensaver from the options menu while viewing the graphic in the gallery.

While, you can preview content in the gallery from s60, you cannot assign it to wallpaper or screensaver from the gallery. You must go through the personalization menus which are quite deep.

The process for downloading, installing and assigning this type of phone content should be the same on s60 as it is on series 40. s60 is too cumbersome.

Something else that is small but vital is the way S40 handles Profiles.

Scenario: A person visits a place of worship/meeting.

S60: Power button>Toggle down to "Silent" and "Select". And at the end of the meeting the user has to manually set it back to General etc.

S40: Profiles: "Silent" but here you can decide how long you want the phone to be in that profile (Silent) so if meeting starts at 11:45 and is supposed to end at 12:15 you can easily set it to be SILENT TILL 12:20 (Just to be on the safe side ;�).

That to me is smart; it cuts out the need for me to remind myself that the meeting is over.

While, you can preview content in the gallery from s60, you cannot assign it to wallpaper or screensaver from the gallery

You can do that with the latest S60 phones

I've got a 5320 in front of me and its gallery includes a "Use In" option, which lets you assign an image as wallpaper, or as a contact's image.

The Nseries version of gallery also has this option.

That to me is smart; it cuts out the need for me to remind myself that the meeting is over.

Again, the latest version of S60 does allow timed profiles.

When you select a profile in the Profiles application on the 5320 there are three options: Activate, Personalise or Timed.

It seems that Nokia has already been learning some lessons from S40! 😊

good article. I'd agree with the vast majority of your points, but tones, at least on fp1 devices now have their own sub menu in "settings/personalisation/tones"

How about something we have all been wanting since a long time (I am not sure if it exists in S40, just pointing it out as a smart phone must have) - you key in a birthday in the phone book, and the S60 phone should set a reminder in the calendar.

BTW - the latest version of Handy Calendar has this feature. So while my smartphone does not offer me this, I am happily enjoying this convenience by installing handy calendar. 😊

Tzer2 wrote:You can do that with the latest S60 phones

I've got a 5320 in front of me and its gallery includes a "Use In" option, which lets you assign an image as wallpaper, or as a contact's image.

The Nseries version of gallery also has this option.

I'm pretty sure this has been in S60 for a while.

On my E61i, in the Gallery thumbnail view, one of the options is "Set as wallpaper". I'm sure my 7610 had the same option.

Tzer2 wrote:Good point, that's been a feature of many S40 phones since 2006 and it does generally make messages easier to read.

It would probably be very easy to do, and if people don't like it they can switch it off from the Messaging options menu (or it could be switched off by default, with the option there for those who want it).

In the SMS menu of S40, you can copy the content of the sms directly to the calendar without doing a 'copy&paste'. By choosing that option 'Copy to Calendar', the sms is immediately copied to a new event in the calendar for you to update. Neat! I especially love this function when someone sends me an sms to notify me of something that needs to be done or some meeting details.

Ironic, all S40 suggested improvements were present in UIQ3. Too bad it's ended.

All of the advantages of Maemo (except the online "upgrade", more on that below) are not courtesy of Nokia, but of the user community. The USB host feature is a non-Nokia enhancement, the same as full Bluetooth was enabled by users in the original 770 tablet (Nokia considered it unnecessary); the virtual memory that is limited to a 128 MB swap file out of the box can be set to an unlimited swap partition if you use one of the community howtos to install the OS on a memory card; even the repositories are one giant mess, until you check out a community site like gronmayer.com (and I'm not even mentioning the incredible unstable mess that is Application Installer and how it can barf on a single repository being temporarily offline).[*]

Oh yes, the online "upgrade". I'm one of the unlucky who tried that "upgrade" and ended up with a tablet that is not only not upgraded, but stuck in the old formware, with only the option of -- once again -- reflashing the tablet and installing everything from scratch.

There is indeed much to learn from Nokia's Maemo. Unfortunately, most is how to not do things.

____

[*] Well, obviously I did just mention it. So there.

Chris V wrote:Something else that is small but vital is the way S40 handles Profiles.

Scenario: A person visits a place of worship/meeting.

S60: Power button>Toggle down to "Silent" and "Select". And at the end of the meeting the user has to manually set it back to General etc.

S40: Profiles: "Silent" but here you can decide how long you want the phone to be in that profile (Silent) so if meeting starts at 11:45 and is supposed to end at 12:15 you can easily set it to be SILENT TILL 12:20 (Just to be on the safe side ;�).

That to me is smart; it cuts out the need for me to remind myself that the meeting is over.

All of the advantages of Maemo (except the online "upgrade", more on that below) are not courtesy of Nokia, but of the user community.

I'm sorry but that's just hyperbole.

Nokia and the Maemo community aren't two separate things, Nokia is part of the Maemo community. They don't just sit there cherrypicking the hard work of others, if they did that no one would contribute to Maemo at all.

Many of the applications in Maemo Garage were written by full-time Nokia employees, and AFAIK the Hildon interface was written entirely by Nokia employees.

The USB host feature is a non-Nokia enhancement

Actually that's not true, the USB host feature is built into the tablets themselves. Nokia hasn't advertised it, but it's still there.

The only thing that third party apps like USB Control do is switch host mode on, but you don't need them if you use a USB adaptor that has the correct power layout to activate host mode.

even the repositories are one giant mess

I don't know which repos you've been using, but the official ones work fine.

If you stick to the official ones (the ones that come with the firmware by default) they work very well, and the update system works well too.

You don't have to use the App Installer to get apps, at least not directly. You can browse installable apps at maemo.org/downloads and install them just by clicking on the green arrows next to them.

Oh yes, the online "upgrade". I'm one of the unlucky who tried that "upgrade" and ended up with a tablet that is not only not upgraded, but stuck in the old formware, with only the option of -- once again -- reflashing the tablet and installing everything from scratch.

I'm sorry to hear that, but it worked absolutely fine for me on both my N800 and N810. And even if OTA didn't work for you, the flashing should work, so you will get the update one way or another.

However, you're completely missing the point the article is making. It's not about the update method, it's about the update being available at all:

When OS2008 was made for the N810, Nokia also made it available for the N800 and (in an unsupported "hacker's edition"😉 for the 770. In other words all maemo tablet owners were able to use the latest version of the platform.

This kind of thing just does not happen with S60. When S60 3rd FP2 came out, Nokia didn't make FP2 available for FP1 phones, even though FP1 phones had very similar hardware.

Chris V wrote:
S60: Power button>Toggle down to "Silent" and "Select". And at the end of the meeting the user has to manually set it back to General etc.

Simply holding down the # button in standby mode will switch between the Silent and General profile. That's always been a function in S60, hasn't it?

How about being able to set a full-screen wallpaper... S60, unlike S40 devices, doesn't allow you to set a wallpaper/picture on the entire screen; there will always be two bars (at the top-indicator icons- and bottom-softkey names- of the screen) that have the default theme style.

There were roumors that Nokia would enable an FP2 update for the N82... would be really nice... probabily improve battery consumption + some eye-candy for those who want it...

#1 advantage S40 has over S50, the ability to contact frequently used numbers.

I have solved this issue. About a year ago I got annoyed by the same problem. So as a Symbian developer I set about solving it. The solution is TextQuick, an application I've written.

You can download a one month trial from:
http://www.mind-flip.com/textquick/download/

While I've got some sympathy with the poster who's struggling with Maemo - it's a fantastic OS and general environment but not exactly friendly to new users - it is the only Noklia platform at present that gives the user complete freedom.

If Nokia can merge the simplicity and ease of S40 for basic phone functions with Maemo's ability to offer a full universal computing environment, they will genuinely have cracked the smartphone problem: that current phones (ALL of them) aren't smart enough to genuinely serve as mobile computers.

I recall Steve writing recently that phones had hit the apogee of functionality and that it's now all about design, UI and so on. I disagree only on this point - phones have all the hardware they need. What they don't offer the user is flexibility and freedom.

Hi,

@malerocks,

Try T9Nav at www.t9nav.com - this behaves similarly to the Samsung feature you described, but does way more.

Mark.

UIQ3 did not end...yet. And even when SE transitions to Symbian Foundation, they surely will implement the stuff that already exists on current UIQ3 phones (and A200, the dumphone platform) that make them different from nokia offerings

All this just shows how once again the worse tech (s60) won over the best (UIQ)

Rafe: Sufficiently fired up by your list I skipped the other comments:

1.1) Nokia is nicely exploring possible improvements. There is betalab's conversations and the N82 has its caroussel with Quick contacts. Most recent callers/sms'ers are top in you call log or inbox anyway. Admittedly, sorting your dialled log by frequency instead of time might be a nice option to have in conversations and your call/sms log.

1.2) If I download a ringtone (openatyourownrisk), it asks, do you wish to make it your new ringtone?

1.3) Not to loose your specific mutations on a specific theme (background, font, etc...)

2.1) Yes, I'd really be interested in 'firmware OS upgrades'. Part of it might come with S60 becoming open source. Surely they will split it into modules with propriety hardware driven modules and open-source modules. Allowing to buy a phone for its hardware and then select softwaremodules to fit your needs as buisinessman, consumer or media producer...

2.2) Have you forgotten Nokia's implementation of demand paging for memory starved N95's? And I prefer sufficient RAM instead of memory paging any day! The N800 has way to cramped memory for its screen size and applications. So did the N95?

2.3) USB-host support is not default available on the N800/N810. It needs additional 3rd party software and some special cables/connector to be acquired. USB drives and memory sticks feed from your mobile's battery life. Bluetooth is for wireless devices and NFC and carries its own powersupply.. In general USB is useful for AC or larger battery capacity devices like laptops.

And yes a decent package browsing and update system for S60 would be great. Unix had it for years, as such for OS X and thus the iPhone it was a logical choice to implement. It is a valid part of the mandatory growing steps Symbian needs to make to become a solid smart-OS.

Lunch is over, back to work.

Are'nt there any Series 80 phones in development to warrant a comparison?