S60 Browser Extends Platform Services Support To Latest S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 Devices

Nokia has recently introduced the new version of its Mobile Web Browser for S60 devices.

This new mobile browser is based on the WebKit 525 and adds features and updates contributed by Nokia and other members of the WebKit open source community.

The latest version of the browser brings number of improvements, bug fixes and new features including the ability to define the function of shortcut keys and also providing the users with the option to automatically switch to the full screen mode by hiding the status bar and softkey labels.

For developers the introduction of S60 Browser 7.1 delivers full support for Flash Lite 3.0. It also extends support for WRT API 1.1, which offers S60 Platform Services to selected S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices.

The new browser is already offered in the following S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices: Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia N86 8MP, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, and Nokia E72. Other selected S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices will gain S60 Browser 7.1 through firmware updates.

Early versions of the Web Browser for S60 7.1 were released without support for onKeyPress to capture select and navigation key events. For full details, see the Knowledge Base entry in the Forum Nokia Wiki: TSS001451 - Key event handling in S60 Browser 7.1 and S60 WRT 1.1. This omission affects both Web and WRT widget code. Later versions of the browser will correct this omission.

Symbian admits Trojan slip-up

The Symbian Foundation has acknowledged that its process for keeping malicious applications off Symbian OS-based phones needs improvement, after a Trojan horse program passed a security test.

The botnet-building Trojan, which calls itself "Sexy Space," passed through the group's digital-signing process, Symbian's chief security technologist Craig Heath said Thursday. Heath said the group is working on improving its security-auditing procedure.

"When software is submitted, we do try to filter out the bad eggs," Heath told ZDNet UK. "When apps are submitted, they are scanned. We are looking at how they could be scanned better."


Developers must submit the mobile applications they build to the Symbian Foundation for checking for the applications to be accepted by handsets with the Symbian operating system. Once the submission has been accepted, the applications are digitally signed by Symbian. Digital signatures, which are cryptographic security features, are designed to provide an amount of assurance that software for download comes from a trusted source.

The first stage of Symbian's signing process, antivirus scanning, is done automatically using an antivirus engine. Once an application has been submitted and scanned, random samples are then submitted for human audit.

In the case of the low-risk Sexy Space Trojan, which was disguised as a legitimate application called ACSServer.exe, the Trojan had not been subjected to human scrutiny, Heath said.

The Symbian Foundation became aware that Sexy Space was a Trojan two weeks ago, and the signature was revoked then, Heath said. However, an error on Symbian's servers meant the application was available for download until this week.

On the Symbian Signed Web site, the group's antivirus-scanning provider is identified as Finnish company F-Secure. Mikko Hyppönen, F-Secure's chief research officer, told ZDNet UK on Friday that the malware authors had probably tested their Trojan against the F-Secure antivirus engine to circumvent security measures.

"Virus writers scan their malware, and keep modifying it until it passes the filters," Hyppönen says. "Obviously, the signing process can be and has been circumvented."

Symbian uses graded signing processes for mobile applications, according to Hyppönen. The Sexy Space malware went through its express signing process, which is designed for freeware. "It shows the express signing process is not foolproof, but it's still much better than the apps not being signed at all," Hyppönen said.

Symbian is in the process of upgrading its automated scanning processes, Heath said, adding that human auditing is also going to be improved. However, human auditing will probably not be expanded, as this introduces cost and time delays into the process, he said.

The group is looking to automate more of the work involved in publishing applications. "Today, most of the processes behind (Symbian) require manual tasks," the organization said in a blog post on the launch of its new Symbian Horizon program. "Our goal for the near future is to develop a system that will automate this work allowing us to scale the program to include as many apps as possible."

The Symbian Horizon program intends to select applications submitted by developers and then support them through their development and submission to mobile app stores. Symbian said that one of the aims of Horizon was to automate the publication of apps as far as possible.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Symbian to develop mobile apps

Applications for all mobile operating systems are proliferating


Symbian, the operating system on nearly half the world's smartphones, is to become involved in the development of mobile applications, or apps.

Symbian will be a one-stop location for app developers, standardising and testing software and then making it available to existing app storefronts.

Called Horizon, the approach follows the lead set by other operating system makers such as Microsoft and Apple.

The not-for-profit Symbian Foundation will launch the service in October.

The announcement of Horizon follows Apple's statement on Tuesday that its App Store has seen 1.5 billion app downloads in a year, showing that a significant market exists for a centralised source of application software.

Handset manufacturers, mobile network operators and independent sites have opened their own application stores, but Horizon will aim to provide a centralised, smooth route to market to solidify Symbian's place in an increasingly crowded operating system market.

Content catalogue

"We have a thriving application developer community right now, with a number of ways to develop them and we have a number of our partners producing stores to get those applications to consumers," said Shaun Puckrin, who heads the Horizon project.

"What this programme is doing is making the combination of developing your application and getting it into the store as easy and with as little hassle as possible," he told BBC News.

"And it's a service to the stores, which is to say: 'Hey, we've got this great catalogue of content that you should have in your store.'"

The centralisation of application development and distribution could present credible competition to Apple's iPhone Dev Center and App Store, which until now has set the bar for application variety and sales.

The Symbian Foundation now hopes to raise the profile of the Symbian platform, making its capacity for applications as widely known as that of its competitors.

"What the iPhone has done is woken up the consumer to this kind of content and the ability for applications on phones," said Mr Puckrin. "We've always had a lot of innovation and great applications and services on Symbian; all we're doing is providing an easier channel to get them to a keen consumer base."

New economy

John Delaney, a research director for analysts IDC, sees the move as part of a natural progression the technology community has seen before.

"Handsets are starting to turn into general purpose devices rather than special purpose devices," he told BBC News.

"In many ways it's analogous to what happened to the PC industry. The hardware has become increasingly generic and the value of the device is in the software. The reverse has been true for most of the mobile phone's history and that's likely to change."

As the market focus shifts from hardware functionality to software availability, the new economy of application sales and brand loyalty is still to be worked out.

"What isn't clear yet is how much people will be willing to pay for those applications and the extent to which being a source of those applications gives you a grip on the customer."

Samsung I7110 Symbian Smartphone with Pedestrian Navigator

Samsung Electronics today announced the I7110, a slim smartphone based on S60 and Symbian OS.



The I7110 offers a 2.6-inch AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen and geo-tagging and navigation capabilities. With Pedestrian Navigator, the handset functions in pedestrian and driving modes in 10 cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Rome.

The FM transmitter lets drivers receive voice navigation via car speakers.

Users can take high-resolution photos with the 5.0-megapixel camera with auto-focus, LED flash and Smile Shot and Blink Shot functions. It supports advanced video recording and play features in multi-codec formats such as DivX.

The I7110 is based on Symbian OS v9.3 and S60 3rd Edition. Users can choose from thousands of applications from the S60 applications library. An 8-way optical mouse offers convenient mobile browsing.

The smartphone has HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, 50MB of internal memory with a microSD slot to store content up to 16GB, and a 1200 mAh battery with up to 11 hours of talk time.

"The introduction of I7110 is a testament of our strategic focus on the open OS phone portfolio," said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung Mobile. "With a strong partnership with Symbian and the increased momentum in the smartphone market, Samsung will continue to offer a wide selection of mobile phones meeting the needs and lifestyles of today's consumers."

The Samsung I7110 will be available in Russia from November 2008 and other markets shortly thereafter.

Symbian Foundation launches beta website

Code, tools, documentation and forums can be trialled by new members

CTIA, Las Vegas - 02 April 2009 - The Symbian Foundation today announces the start of its beta website test programme marking a significant milestone in the launch of the Symbian Foundation. Community involvement is paramount to the evolution of the Symbian Foundation platform and as such several thousand friends and members of the Symbian community are being invited to feedback on the website which will launch as a public beta in this quarter.

The website will include a full developer offering which includes platform release information, council charters, wikis, forums as well as access to the SDK, code repository, tools, documentation, wiki, bugtracker and forums.

The foundation continues to receive encouraging support from companies across the industry. Since the membership programme first opened in February, 81 companies have applied for membership and are either going through the formal process or have become members, 50 of which are first time endorsers.

Members will be entitled to the following, royalty free:
to license, modify and distribute source code
to gain access to council meeting plans and deliverables
to participate in Working Groups & annual member meetings
be eligible for Board and Council seats
to foundation support incl. branding, marketing, legal, and business development

At CTIA in Las Vegas today, Symbian Foundation team members are engaging with its rapidly growing ecosystem of developers, hardware manufacturers and other partners. Symbian Foundation is exhibiting on stand Central Hall (C1/C2) # 4814 from 1-4th of April and participating in activities throughout the show, including the WIP Jam Developer session and the AT&T Dev Central Consumer Fast Pitch. The foundation’s Executive Director, Lee M. Williams, will also share his view of open source in mobile (details below). We invite you to come and join us or follow us on blog.symbian.org

"We’re excited to be working with our members and community friends on the public launch of our beta site - their feedback is extremely important in helping us evolve and develop our offering," said Lee. "With partners already contributing projects to the platform, members continuously showing their support, and the launch of our new beta site, we’re really excited about the next steps."

"The foundation stands for collaboration and for community, and CTIA will provide an excellent forum to meet and share ideas, perspectives and insights with new and existing supporters of the Symbian Foundation community. Our role is to help create a mass technological movement towards open source for mobile, and to support a community in creating the most powerful software platform the world has ever seen," continued Lee.

As previously announced, the foundation plans to move the foundation platform to open source in the next year. This will make the platform code available to all for free, bringing additional innovation and engaging an even broader community in future developments.

The foundation software licensing model and governance structure have been selected to secure transparency, encourage contribution and maintain platform consistency. The foundation will promote collaboration, contributions and active participation, and will operate as a meritocracy.
Symbian Foundation at CTIA Spring, 2009:
Symbian Foundation stand
Central Hall (C1/C2) # 4814
AT&T Developer Summit (March 31)
Symbian Foundation to take part in roundtable discussion on platform fragmentation
AT&T Dev Central Consumer Fast Pitch Contest (April 1-2)
Symbian Foundation to sponsor the event and take part in judging the finalists
Lee Williams on panel discussion (2 April)
The Blueprint of Convergence, Applications Operating Systems for Devices
Location: Room S 223
WIP- Developer Jam Session / tenpin bowling event (April 2)
Symbian Foundation sponsored topic - What should an app store look like?

###
Notes for editors

Symbian Foundation and all Symbian based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Symbian Software Foundation. Until the Symbian Foundation has become fully operational, Symbian Software Limited retains exclusive responsibility for all licensing and marketing activities related to Symbian OS. 
About The Symbian Foundation

Symbian Foundation and all Symbian based trademarks and logos are trademarks of the Symbian Foundation.

The Symbian Foundation together with its ecosystem is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform which is based on Symbian OS and contributed software assets from DOCOMO’s MOAP(S), Nokia’s S60, and Sony Ericsson. Symbian OS is the leading open mobile operating system that has shipped in over 250 million mobile devices to date.

The foundation plans to move the platform to open source over the next year, and has selected to use the Eclipse Public License. This will make the platform code available to all for free, bringing additional innovation and engaging an even broader community in future developments. 

The foundation software licensing model and governance structure have been selected to secure transparency, encourage contribution and maintain platform consistency. The foundation will promote collaboration, contributions and active participation and will operate as a meritocracy. 

Symbian Foundation now occupies offices in the UK (London) and US (Foster City), and will soon have regional operations in China (Beijing) and Japan (Tokyo). 

For more information visit www.symbian.org or blog.symbian.org. 
Media contacts
Global

Karen Hamblen
tel. +44 (0)20 7154 1707
e. karen.hamblen@symbian.com
UK

Katie Buckett
tel. +44 (0)20 7592 1200
e. Katie.Buckett@brands2life.com
US

Val Breslow
tel. +1 858 337 4217
e. valbreslow@earthlink.net

Symsource Joins the Symbian Foundation

LONDON - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Symsource Limited today announced it has become a member of the Symbian Foundation, which, together with its ecosystem, is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform. The platform is based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces. Portions of the source code are already being moved to open source, under the Eclipse Public License. By mid-2010, this process will be complete. 

“We are delighted to join the Symbian Foundation,” commented Tim Ocock, VP of Business Development, Symsource, “The Symbian Foundation is a great way for the well established Symbian ecosystem members, such as Symsource, to be even more closely and publicly involved with development of new and exciting mobile applications. This enables Symsource to continue to be a leading contributor to the thriving Symbian Foundation community” 

As a member of the Symbian Foundation, Symsource gains the immediate right to license the Symbian Foundation platform, royalty free and without source code fees; to participate in working groups and in the governance of the foundation; and to participate in joint marketing and branding campaigns. 

Symsource Ltd. has built a strong successful application development track record on the Symbian platform, having worked in the past to deliver complex applications for the S60™ and UIQ™ platforms. The company is well equipped and ready to adapt rapidly to the new technical and commercial framework offered by the Nokia™ Ovi™ Store. Symsource is also at the forefront in supporting the creation of new reference designs and product categories, such as netbooks, that can be based on Symbian. 

About The Symbian Foundation 

The Symbian Foundation, together with its ecosystem, is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform, which is based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces. Symbian OS is the leading open mobile operating system, which has shipped in over 250 million mobile devices to date. 

Portions of the source code are already being moved to open source, under the Eclipse Public License. By mid-2010, this process will be complete. This will make the platform code available to all for free, bringing additional innovation and engaging an even broader community in future developments. 

The foundation software licensing model and governance structure has been designed to secure transparency, encourage contribution and maintain platform consistency. The foundation promotes collaboration, contributions and active participation and operates as a meritocracy. 

The Symbian Foundation now occupies offices in the UK (London) and US (Foster City), and will soon have regional operations in China (Beijing) and Japan (Tokyo). 

Symbian Foundation and all Symbian-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of the Symbian Foundation. 

For more information please visit www.symbian.org or blog.symbian.org.

Symbian Foundation Bolsters Leadership Team with Two New Hires

Larry Berkin and Dietmar Tallroth join the foundation as Head of Alliance Management and General Counsel, respectively

Issue date: June 1, 2009

Who: The Symbian Foundation, together with its ecosystem, is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform.

The platform is based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces. Symbian OS is the leading open mobile operating system, and has shipped in more than 250 million mobile devices to date.

Portions of the platform’s source code have already been moved to open source, under the Eclipse Public License. By mid-2010 this process will be complete, making the platform code available to all for free, and bringing additional innovation and engaging an even broader community in future developments. The role of the foundation, which acts as a meritocracy, is to promote collaboration, contributions and active participation in the platform and community.

What: The Symbian Foundation is today announcing the addition of two seasoned, senior executives to its management team: Larry Berkin, former vice president, Mobile Ecosystem & Corporate Business Development at ACCESS (formerly PalmSource) and Dietmar Tallroth, former Director of Legal for Nokia’s Open Source and Java.


Larry will now serve as head of Symbian’s US office and will be charged with expanding its partnership alliances and developer ecosystem. Dietmar will serve as Symbian’s general counsel and will be based in Finland.

Both Larry and Dietmar join a burgeoning team of newly hired talents, including:
Robert Ackland, formerly of Panasonic and Motorola, now Technology Manager for Application and UI layer technologies
Paul Beusterien, formerly Director, CTO Projects at Wind River, joins as Team Lead for Tools
Richard Collins, formerly of Orange, The Cloud, and Vodafone, joins the Connectivity Technology Management team
Oliver Gunasekara, formerly of ARM, joins the Alliance Management team
Daniel Rubio, formerly of Sendo, NEC and Motorola, will serve as Chief Architect and chair of the Symbian Architecture Council
Lauren Sarno, formerly of ARM’s marketing communications group, has joined the Member Programs Team
Bill Washburn, formerly Executive Director of the OpenID Foundation, joins as Companies Community Manager
Scott Weiss, formerly of Human Factors International and Usable Products Company, is now UI Technology Manager

When: Larry Berkin begins working on behalf of Symbian Foundation on Monday, June 1st. Dietmar recently began working for the foundation.

Why: According to Symbian Foundation’s Executive Director, Lee Williams, “Symbian is strengthening its executive team with talented individuals, including Larry and Dietmar, both very experienced, passionate and already well-entrenched in the open source movement. Their contributions will enable the foundation to continue its efforts towards growing a thriving ecosystem, comprising a strong network of developers, partners, manufacturers and operators, around the Symbian platform."

For further information or to arrange a briefing, please contact:
US

Val Breslow
V.Breslow Communications
tel. +1 858 337 4217
e. valbreslow@earthlink.net
UK

Katie Buckett
Brands2Life
tel. +44 (0)20 7592 1200
e. Katie.Buckett@brands2life.com

For more information visit symbian.org or blog.symbian.org

ProfiMail: A look at the cutting edge of S60 email

ProfiMail has been around on all the Symbian OS sub-platforms for longer than I can remember. But did you know that the developers have been making great strides recently with full on IMAP Idle support and better integrated file and attachment browsers? Nick Anstee's been using ProfiMail for ages on his Nokia E90 and presents details of his personal email client quest, together with a detailed list of pros and cons for this quirky application from Lonely Cat Games.

New version of Commodore 64 emulator Frodo, now with accelerometer support

The C64 emulator Frodo for S60 3rd Edition has been updated to version 1.5, and now includes support for accelerometers in selected phones, which lets you tilt the phone to simulate a joystick or steering wheel (you can see a demo video below). There's also an on-screen keyboard and vibration support. Frodo comes in versions available for older Symbian devices too such as S60 1st and 2nd Edition, Series 80 and UIQ, just scroll down the same page. Apparently Frodo for S60 3rd Edition should work in theory on the 5800, though it may run very slowly as the application hasn't been optimised for S60 5th Edition yet. (For more S60 3rd Edition emulators, see AAS's special feature.)

Asphalt 4 out now on N-Gage platform

The arcade racing game Asphalt 4: Elite Racing is now available on the next gen N-Gage platform. To see it, go to the Showroom tab on the far right, select "Options", then "Update Now". It should be visible in the "Latest Games" section, or alternatively click on "Available Games". (Also worth noting that the prequel, Asphalt 3, is still available on N-Gage and has been reduced in price to 7 euros.)

Age Of Empires III announced for N-Gage

Third party publishers Glu have announced Age Of Empires III for the new N-Gage platform, based on the PC real time strategy game set in the glory days of various European colonial powers. UPDATE: This has now been confirmed by Nokia, though they say that the release date in the press release is wrong and it's actually due some time in the first half of 2009. (Thanks to "brain" on the N-Gage blog's comments section)