S60 Platform and Device SDKs for Symbian OS

Version 1.0 of the Nokia N97 SDK is now available, offering:

* Features specific to the Nokia N97 mobile computer in the SDK emulator, including the look and feel of the Nokia N97 device and emulation of the home screen.
* New C++ APIs, including the Homescreen Publishing API and Out-of-Memory Monitor API.
* Java Runtime 1.4 for S60, which adds Mobile Sensor API (JSR-256) and Nokia UI API 1.3.

The new version provides:

* Improved support of home screen features.
* Updated SDK documentation.
* Support for the Chinese version of the full keyboard.
* Updated example applications.
* Updated default emulator theme.
* Fixes for all other important bugs.

Supported runtimes

The all-in-one S60 SDKs support development of applications for the following runtimes:

* Symbian C++.
* Open C/C++.
* Java™ technology.
* Web Runtime (WRT).
* Python (using the Python for S60 SDK plug-in).

Supported editions, feature packs, and devices

All-in-one S60 SDKs are available for the following editions, feature packs, and devices:

* Nokia N97 mobile computer.
* S60 5th Edition.
* S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2.

Nokia N97 Device Details

he Nokia N97 is a S60 5th Edition mobile computer with a large 3,5“, bright nHD (640 x 360 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratio) TFT color display with resistive touch screen and tactile feedback. The device provides excellent user experience for internet and entertainment by combining qwerty keyboard with touch UI and Home screen functionality. Use the N97 to connect to mobile broadband using WLAN or HSDPA (3.5G). Find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps. Additional features include game titles with N-Gage, a 5 mega pixel camera with dual LED flash and automatic geotagging of images and videos.

Device variants:

* RM-505 Global. WCDMA, HSDPA (Cat 6 max.3.6 Mbps) 900/1900/2100 and EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 + WLAN
* RM-506 China. EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
* RM-507 Americas. WCDMA, HSDPA (Cat 6 max.3.6 Mbps) 850/1900/2100 and EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 + WLAN

The main Tools & SDKs page www.forum.nokia.com/tools provides all the tools & SDKs in an easy to access form. The page also includes Getting Started -articles giving an overview of the tools and SDKs.

Carbide.ui Theme Edition
Carbide.ui Theme Edition enables the creation and editing of themes for S60 and Series 40 devices. Carbide.ui provides professionals and hobbyists alike with access to more than 1,000 customizable elements in the S60 UI, which makes the S60 UI the most customizable UI available.

Carbide.c++
Carbide.c++ is a family of powerful mobile-application development tools built on the Eclipse framework, which are available free of charge to all Symbian C++, Open C/C++ and Qt developers.
Recommended SDK(s)

S60 Platform and Device SDKs for Symbian OS
Now including the 1.0 version of the Nokia N97 SDK, the all-in-one S60 SDKs enable application development using C++, Open C/C++, Java technology, Web technology, and Python (using the Python for S60 SDK plug-in). The SDK includes all the key resources needed for application

Nokia N97 software update 2.0

Nokia N97 Demo

Over two years ago we thought we knew what Nokia had in mind for their secret N97 phone. And we thought we had pictures too. Boy, were we wrong but then again nobody else had any facts about the future N-series handset. How were we to know that Nokia will launch its N97 only on December 2nd 2008? Here's what we wrote back then:

Well now, what do we have here? This device is rumored to be N97 and only time will tell if its Nokia's latest offering or a result of someone's Photoshop skills! According to the rumor mill, the handset is equipped with a 3 inch display and will in all probability have a 5 Megapixel camera with 20x digital zoom! The N97 promises both fun and functionality and will also include a miniSD card and 20GB of internal memory! We shall keep you updated on this one!

In the mean time Nokia surprised everyone with the touchscreen slider N97. It’s like an iPhone or a Storm. But dare I say... better? Nokia saw what people want nowadays and adapted. After trying out their first touchscreen on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the Nokia brainiacs where ready for the next big thing. The Nokia N97 will certainly be the flagship smartphone of Nokia for quite a while. Here are some of its features, which will make you choose it:

* a 3.5 inch widescreen 16:9 touchscreen
* haptic feedback
* full QWERTY slideout keyboard
* 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash
* up to 32 GB of storage
* up to 16GB additional memory via microSD
* Symbian S60 5th Edition
* up to 37 hours of music / up to 4.5 hours of video
* A-GPS and GPS
* HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth connectivity
* a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Phone will cost 550 Euros before taxes and subsidies and it will be launched in the first half of 2009. What do you think? Like what you’ve seen so far? Don’t forget to check the video below too!

Nokia N97 camera review

The Nokia N97 comes with a 5-Megapixel camera built-in that supports dual-LED flash with high quality Carl Zeiss optics. It’s not just a stills camera, as you’ll find a front facing video camera for use in video conferencing and the main camera supports 16:9 and DVD quality video capture. We’ve been playing with the Nokia N97 camera for a few days, so check out our Nokia N97 camera review…

The Nokia N97 camera is a 5-Megapixel snapper that is more than capable of taking images at 2584 x 1938 pixels. The 3.5-inch touchscreen is used as the viewfinder and you’ll find a dedicated capture button, along with zoom controls on the right-hand side of the Nokia N97.

You’ll need to manually open the lens cover, otherwise when you open the camera app it will default to the secondary camera and you’ll find yourself staring back at you!

By default you can load the camera up either by pressing the capture button or using the widget button on the Homescreen of the Nokia N97. Once loaded, you’ll find the interface is the same as the one used on the Nokia 5800, which we were more than satisfied with. However, it does come with the option to switch to the Nokia N97 secondary camera – something earlier versions of Nokia 5800 lacked - it has since been included with update V20.

The interface is easy to get to grips with and is made even easier by being touch-enabled. Mode selection is also the same as with the Nokia 5800, so you can choose from the standard Scene and Video modes, as well as Colour Tone, White Balance and Exposure.

One new feature is the ability to switch between Single Shot and Sequence mode, with the latter allowing you to capture up to 18 snaps one after the other. This feature is great if you want to pan around an object or take a number of similar shots and choose the best one.

Getting the most from the UI means playing with it, as some of the features you’ll use often, such as macro (known as Close-up) take two clicks to activate instead. It pays to spend a little time checking out the various functions, as the Nokia N97 camera is more than just a basic point-n-click affair.

Nokia N97 Web browsing

The Nokia Nseries devices always impressed with their Web browsing ability, and the Nokia N97 does an admirable job, but the transition to touch hasn't added any new features, and some of our favorites are now missing. The mini map is gone, replaced by a simpler zoom slide that adds an extra couple of steps to browsing long Web pages. T-Mobile's G1 uses a touchable sort of mini map, and we wish Nokia would have gone this route. The browser rendered pages very nicely. Our own homepage looked perfect on the phone's screen. Still, both CNN and the New York Times refused to offer up their full desktop versions to our Nokia N97 review unit, and there was no way to change the way the browser describes itself (desktop vs. mobile) in the settings. Though pages loaded quickly, whether we were using the 3G HSDPA network or our own home Wi-Fi umbrella, we still wish the browser was more responsive. Flicking through pages or double-tapping to zoom in on text always produced a slight lag, and we wish these gestures would simply spring to action.

The Nokia N97 comes packed with Flash Lite 3.0, which means the phone can play videos directly from the YouTube Web page. In fact, though the phone seems to come with a dedicated YouTube app, this was only a link to the YouTube mobile page. Viewing the desktop version of YouTube in the Nokia N97's browser, we were able to play videos within the Web page itself, and the Nokia N97 did a better job handling Flash content than any other mobile phone we've seen. Pages still slowed to a halt while a video was playing, but video playback was completely watchable, if not smooth.

For GPS navigation, the Nokia N97 uses Nokia Maps. It's a nice mapping app, and it works well for turn-by-turn directions, but it clearly isn't ready for the N97's touchscreen. First of all, the globe on the opening Maps screen spins the wrong way when you touch it. Overall, the maps were not very responsive to touch input. The road headings were also clipped on the phone's screen, so that we usually didn't know if we were supposed to take a highway heading east or wes

Nokia N97 Messaging and Keyboard

As the top of the line phone in Nokia's Nseries arsenal, and the first with a full QWERTY keyboard, it is surprising that Nokia doesn't ship the Nokia N97 with more messaging options onboard. There is support for a very basic SMS and MMS client. There is no threaded text messaging to help keep track of conversations; this is a simpler wireframe app with no frills. There are no instant messaging clients on board. Usually we suggest downloading a third-party app for IM on Symbian phones, but the Ovi Store, so new to the platform, doesn't contain a single instant messaging application that will work with the touchscreen Nokia N97. There is a Facebook app that works with widget on the phone's homescreen. We wish there were more of these social networking apps for messaging, especially dedicated Twitter and MySpace Widgets for our homescreen, as well.

The best messaging feature on the Nokia N97, for us, was the Mail for Exchange app, but even this doesn't come close to the Exchange experience on a Windows Mobile phone. We couldn't dig into our subfolders, view HTML e-mail or quickly manage and delete useless messages.

The keyboard on the Nokia N97 is nice and wide, and was plenty easy for typing. We think Nokia could do better, but between this and the similarly side-sliding Nokia E75, we prefer the keys on the Nokia N97. Even with the 4-way button, the keyboard is still plenty large, and each letter gets its own soft and rubbery key. The space bar is strangely pushed off to one side, but we got used to this layout surprisingly quickly. If anything, we'd wish for more keys, with some shortcuts and perhaps a dedicated number row. But the hardware keyboard was the best part about the messaging experience on the Nokia N97.

There are software keyboards available onscreen if you don't want to open the phone, but we'd suggest avoiding them at all costs. The worst of these was a split grid of keys, arranged alphabetically, not in QWERTY fashion, that divided the letters among 2 pages. It was easily the least useful onscreen keyboard we have ever used on any phone.

nokia N97 and iPhone

1. It does 16:9 video. The iPhone doesn’t even do video. So, how can you go to a Daft Punk concert and record it to taunt your friends?

2. It has a 5 megapixel camera. The iPhone only has 2, and the quality isn’t even close. The camera also has a dual LED flash, so you can take pictures in the dark where the iPhone can’t.

3. I can type three Facebook status messages on the N97’s nice QWERTY keybord in the time that I can type two on the iPhone.

4. It does copy and paste, so you can copy URLs to send to your friends. The iPhone can’t do that.

5. It has replaceable batteries so you can charge up three batteries and Facebook for days, while the iPhone needs to be hooked back up to the wall for recharging after a few hours.

6. The GPS device does turn-by-turn and has a built in compass, so you’ll get to your parties faster than with the iPhone, which doesn’t have a compass and doesn’t do turn-by-turn.

OK, so how else does it compare to the iPhone? It has a touch screen, with a cool customizeable home screen. You can add a Facebook component and can drag and drop different components with your finger. You can also use gestures so you can “flick” through your photos. That part is very similar to the iPhone, so you can see that Steve Jobs had a big influence on the user experience.

The device itself has only one button and you can see Jonathan Ives’ challenge taken up all over the device. Close your eyes and touch the device and you don’t feel buttons or other things protuding. Smooth.

Nokia N97 soon in Pakistan

The highly anticipated Nokia N97, Nokia’s flagship mobile computer has been announced Saturday in Pakistan after its global launch in 75 countries worldwide. Along with a tilting 3.5" touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customisable home screen, the Nokia N97 will offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services. The N97 is expected to be sold in Pakistan at a retail price of Rs 58,000.
The device was announced at a press event where two European models brought the phone at the venue and the Finnish First Secretary, Deputy Head of Mission H.E Miia Rainne handed over the phone to the GM Nokia Pakistan Imran Khalid Mahmood. Also present at the ceremony was Henri Mattila, Head of Category Marketing, Nseries Middle East and Africa.
Speaking at the occasion, Imran Khalid Mahmood, GM Nokia Pakistan said, Delivering on Nokia’s vision and thought leadership based on mobile convergence, Nokia Nseries has aimed to present the best in class mobile computers to its internet savvy consumers. Today, we take great pride in introducing the newest addition to Nokia Nseries Nokia N97. We have combined the most-advanced smartphone capabilities in this device to enhance the internet entertainment for our consumers and at the same time ease-of use with one-touch access to their favourite online content.
“The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience,” Henri Mattila said. “Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.”

note:courtesy by Nation pakistan

Nokia N97 arrived

THE wait is over. Nokia has finally begun selling the much anticipated N97 in Malaysia.

At an event to ­showcase the phone to the media and invited guests last week, the company said that the N97 is designed to be a computer in your pocket, focusing mainly on the mobile Internet and web content.

With a 3.5in touchscreen display, 32GB of on-board memory, personalisable home screen with widgets and a full Qwerty keyboard with slide and tilt capability, this model certainly seems to be as close to a real desktop PC as it gets.

Nokia also confirmed that it is negotiating with local telcos to offer data packages.

“Since this phone is designed for the Internet, it only makes sense that there should be Internet ­packages available to make sure people can get the most out of the N97 without breaking the bank on data charges,” said Nokia Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei general manager Vlasta Berka.

“We are also working on a local Ovi store that can provide more regional content to add on to our existing products and services.”

The Ovi store is Nokia’s mobile storefront which offers a variety of content including games, videos, widgets, podcasts and other personalised content.