Symbian^3 PR 2.0 update will bring a lot of goodies

It seems that the presentation made by Nokia in China, is being implemented as we speak. The following video demonstrates what seems to be the next update for Symbian^3 devices.





The notable changes include changes to the Calendar application that now includes a short view of the events for the selected day (actually looks a lot like what's on the Nokia 5800 and 523X),and the most welcomed and expected, split screen input method. As seen on minute 1:28 of the video, there is a alphanumeric keyboard popping up when typing a message. At min 1:45 you can see the portrait virtual QWERTY in action. FINALLY! It is a welcomed change and a needed one. The keyboard looks a bit primitive, but it will probably be polished and will most likely look at least as good as the Swype keyboard does.

Another welcomed update is the Web browser, which can be observed at minute 3:05 and has now a more modern look and a top address bar like any other browser of today. It seems that it still lacks tabbed navigation, but Nokia is on the right track.

So, Symbian^3 users, you can start rubbing your hands for joy because the wait seems to be over.

New UI updates for Symbian^3 coming up

It seems that Nokia is serious about keeping Symbian alive as Elop said at the MWC 2011 this month. In the next image you can see Jo Harlow presenting a slide with some goodies for the Symbian^3 homescreen.





As it looks, Nokia plans to add various size widgets to the S^3 homescreen. We also notice a redesigned top bar, have a more modern look and occupying a lot less screen estate. Also, the bottom buttons are redesigned. It looks better, I have to say, but as far as functionality goes, I for one was pretty content with the S^3 homescreen functionality. The large size widgets are welcomed of course, as would be the ability to add more than 3 homescreens on your phones.





As you see in the above image, Nokia plans more devices running Symbian^3, and as I recall, Elop mentioned something about "Gigaherz" at MWC. So, we should expect more powerful devices running S^3 in the near future. I have to say that I did not find the 680MHz CPU slow at all the 2 weeks that I had the Nokia C7 for the review. However, it's every boy's dream to have a "Gigaherz" in your pocket, so why not?

Nokia also plans to improve the performance of existing devices trough OTA updates, and it seems they already started, by launching the PR 1.1 update for all S^3 devices. Qt's future is still an enigma if you ask me, because Qt's survival is strongly related to the survival of Symbian. However, if Nokia plays it's cards right, Symbian may turn out to be a hit, and may be continued and used in the mid to low end smartphones. I still think that porting Qt to WP would be beneficial for both Nokia and Microsoft, but that's a different story.





An update of the Symbian menu is on the roll as it seems. It's been a long long time since we've seen any news in this department, so a refreshing change would mean a lot.





It also looks like the top bar may be getting some much needed pull down functionality that may easily expose notifications and connectivity features, and combined with the redesigned bottom navigation bar brings breaks the Symbian 2 buttons bottom bar habit(in a good way).

That being said, let's hope, for all the Symbian fans out there, that these new changes will lead to at least the survival if not the ascension of S^3.