Hasta La Gadget!

While Symbian might be good as dead to most Engadget readers, Nokia must continue supporting the millions of S^ wearing faithful until it can fully transition to a Windows Phone smartphone shop in 2012. So we were interested to hear Marc Driessen, Nokia Benelux product manager, spill some details about a few previously unannounced Symbian updates for 2011. As you’ll recall, S^4 as a product had been canned months ago, but the scheduled UI updates were still part of the Symbian roadmap. According to Driessen, Nokia is targeting a major UI overhaul in the fall, an update rumored to include a dedicated pull-down status bar up top; new iconography; new flexible widgets; a simplified navigation bar below; and better menus throughout that don’t require a scuba suit to navigate. While Nokia HQ won’t confirm the dates or details to us (we asked), the fall timeline does match with what we’ve heard elsewhere. Dutch site All About Phones is also reporting that a smaller update for N8 and E7 users might come as early as this summer. Of course, those owners are still waiting for the first real S^3 update that was promised for early 2011, so hopefully Nokia can squeeze in the split screen text input, portrait QWERTY, and improved browser before March is done.

Symbian UI overhaul scheduled for the fall? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We saw the Nokia E6 first leak a little over a month ago, suggesting that Nokia had plans to add a touchscreen into the portrait QWERTY formula pulled off so well in the E71… but there was a problem: the screen was off. Where’s the fun in that? Now another shot of the apparently upcoming Symbian device has leaked — this time in a darker shade — showing an updated user interface with icons that look just big enough to comfortably fat-finger. That’s all we’ve got for the moment, but for E71 owners still waiting for their knight in shining armor to swoop in and offer a worthy replacement, this might end up being the closest thing — assuming, of course, it hasn’t been canceled and you’re still okay going with Symbian for your next phone.

Nokia E6 spied again, shows off its touchy Symbian UI originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia E7 up for pre-order in the states with presumed April delivery originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perched behind Nokia’s head of smart devices, Jo Harlow, at a recent event in China is what appears to be a new home screen on an N8, yet more evidence — hot on the heels of the company’s MWC event — that Espoo still has plenty of love in the wings for its dead-platform-walking. Notably, it appears they’re looking at migrating key information to the top of the screen to create a dedicated status bar, which would presumably stay visible as you navigate from screen to screen — akin to most other platforms on the market — accompanied by a string of soft button icons at the bottom. Interestingly, the UI in some respects mirrors what we saw on the leaked shots of the apparently killed N9 — small black status bar and icons along the bottom — which would seem to tell us one of two things: either the N9 was a Symbian device all along, or the company had planned on standardizing UI elements between its future Symbian and MeeGo roadmaps. Either way, this looks like a nice improvement… and in all likelihood, a far cry from what we’ll see when these guys start busting out Windows Phone 7 devices.

Nokia sneaks a look at new Symbian UI during China event originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s fighting an uphill battle to retain its community of developers as it switches focus to Windows Phone and Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Tools from what was a joint Symbian / MeeGo smartphone strategy unified under the Qt development framework. As such, Espoo just notified its Launchpad members that they’ll be receiving about $1,000 in free hardware in the form of Nokia’s new flagship E7 QWERTY slider and a “Nokia WP7 device” just as soon as it’s available. Nokia’s also tossing in a few other incentives like free access to the next Nokia World / Nokia Developer Summit, three months free tech support for all Nokia technologies (limited to 10 tickets), a free User Experience evaluation for one app, business development assistance, and help publishing apps on the Ovi store. This is also great news for us as the chance of seeing leaked pics of that first Nokia WP7 device have just increased dramatically.

Nokia giving developers free E7 and Nokia WP7 handsets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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