Nokia S60 Touch Interface Seems Godly

  I discovered a demo of the new Nokia S60 Touch interface through Pocketnet on Twitter. I am completely blown away and it comes at a perfect time for me because I’m looking for something to replace my Motorola Q. However, I want a PDA/Smartphone that will also own up in more ways than one to the iPhone. Why not just get the iPhone? Because I’m not trying to get locked into AT&T AND pay dam near $70 for a phone that I only want to use the internet and text messaging on. If they had a plan for the iPhone like T-Mobile does for the Sidekick, I’ve have gotten one instead of the other.

Back to the point, the S60 Touch Interface video demo is godly! It supports Flash to some extent (Youtube anyone?), you can use your fingers or a stylus, and it’ web browsing experience is going to be a blast to try out. I hope so! Do check it out and leave your thoughts on the video or anything you may have heard about the new UI!

From Engadget:

The press release is out and with it, more information about the new S60 software: existing S60 3rd Edition apps will run on touch-enabled devices unmodified (but can be further enhanced, natch); generic proximity and light sensors supported; a UI Accelerator Toolkit enables "impressive" graphical effects; and Flash Video will be supported in the S60 web browser. Available to S60 device manufacturers "during 2008." A bit more specificity please, Nokia?

The Engadget article about the Nokia’s new S60 Touch UI was dugg and there were a lot of complaints about it supporting the stylus. I must say, I don’t see what the big deal is. The stylus is NOT out of style! Quite frankly I like the option of being able to use both; less fingerprints on the screen! The user "piwy" noted the following on Digg:

No no no no no. Bad Nokia. What’s with the flip phone to silence calls? That shit is gonna happen all the time in people’s pockets. An while you can use it either with a finger or a stylus, a stylus is still bad juju.

In the video, it’s noted that you can silence an alarm by flipping the phone face-down. I’m not sure if they mean phone calls or an actual alarm you have set on the phone, but the video says silence an alarm not a phone call. That would be a problem though, and a really big one. Still, I don’t see what’s the big problem with allowing a stylus to be used. You get the best of both worlds! Get out of here with that crap! Another Digg comment by "popothebright":

Ouch. The S60 is a disaster.

Here’s where Nokia failed:

1) Tiny pulldown menus and checkboxes (on a touch interface? LOL)
2) The entire interface designed for stylus. (Huh? Look everyone Nokia just reinvented the Palm Pilot)
3) No keyboard. Seriously — the near universal sentiment among iPhone owners is that the onscreen keyboard seems like a cool idea until you use it and realize it actually sort of sucks. Nokia could have pwned Apple with a slide out keyboard.
4) The "S60"? Nokia is neck-and-neck with Microsoft for having the worst branding talent in the technology world.

Nokia already has a kicking line of smartphones (I have an E61 which rocks). This pathetic game of Me Too just makes them look like they’re lost. They should take the initiative and push forward with true workhorse, professional grade products instead of serving up a weak iClone (Did I just come up with that?)

Come on Nokia. You can do so much better than this.

 

Now these are much better points. However, I think the phone seen in the demo is just a "concept device", as stated by Engadget, and not necessarily what they will be shipping the UI with. Go check out the Digg article and read the comments! But I have to say, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for this!

Digg Article – Nokia’s S60 Touch UI

Engadget  Article

Nokia S60 Touch Interface Demo Video