S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (FP2) is the newest iteration of the S60 operating system (OS). It will come installed on probably all Nokia S60 phones that are to be released from this point on. The phones that Nokia announced during the Mobile World Congress (the N96, the N78, the 6210 Navigator and the 6220 Classic) in Barcelona in February also run this version of the OS. It is expected that the other S60 licensees will release FP2 devices this year, however none have yet been announced.
This is a preview of FP2, focusing only on the changes that it brings compared to FP1 (the version running on such devices as the Nokia N95, N95 8GB, N82, N81, 6120 Classic, E90, E51, Samsung G810, i450, i550, i560, LG KT 610, and probably more). This preview is based on the very detailed and comprehensive review of FP2 that Eldar Murtazin from Mobile Review has written. I will post a true review as soon as I get my hands on a device running this version of the OS.
Initial thoughts
This is an evolution of previous iterations, and not a substantially changed product. It will come to the market after quite a long time of it being in development and brings certain improvements that the FP1devices' users have anxiously been waiting for.
More eye-candy
This is nothing functional, it's just that transition effects and some more advanced animations (based on the theme that is used) are now available. This is certainly meant to bring S60 devices to mass-market adoption, as after the iPhone launch, the whole industry has been focusing on creating beautiful user interfaces. Don't expect dramatic changes, though. These are minor enhancements focused on the "eye-candy" aspect. Good to have, nevertheless, although probably not quite a selling point for users of previous S60 versions. Perhaps new users will find S60 more visually appealing this way.
Three Softkey captions
This is also something that doesn't add new functionality. However it does bring existing functionality a little bit more to the foreground. It follows recent trends (S40 has this, Sony Ericsson's A200 as well) in the feature-phone world.
Basically, the function of the center D-pad key is also marked on the screen, as are those of the left and right softkeys. Even if this functionality, for the center D-pad key, is mostly "OK" or "Select", this should improve out-of-the box experience for normobs.
Open Applications
Seasoned S60 users know that a long press on the Menu key brings up the Task Manager, but to those new to S60 this is not quite obvious. Therefore, there is now yet another way to launch the Task Manager. After hitting the left softkey (usually labeled "Options") the first option is "Open Applications". Thus Nokia seems to think normobs will understand the multitasking abilities of their smartphone sooner.
However, I have an issue with this: the name. Open applications. Why not Running applications? "Open" is used a lot as a caption for the now centre softkey (described above). But there the word "Open" means "Start" or "Run" an app. While here the same word is used to describe apps that are already running. Not a good strategy, in my opinion. People might get even more confused by this use of the same term in the menu with two different meanings.
Also of note is that the Task Manager now lists icons horizontally, and apparently there is support for more than one line of apps. Very good stuff for new S60 users, I however will be sticking with 3rd-party Task Managers, as they have loads of options, not just simply switching between apps.
Active Standby
Shortcuts in the Active Standby can now be grouped vertically (they show up on the left), as well as horizontally. When viewed vertically, after selecting a shortcut (just selecting, not actually starting it), more options for that specific utility or app are shown in the rest of the standby space.
Neat, but a lot of people have been looking at the S40 (not a smartphone platform, by the way) Active Standby, where individual plugins (not shortcuts) can be enabled or disabled and moved to the user's liking. Such functionality seems to be missing from FP2, and I sure hope it turns out it is there. Otherwise the Active Standby implementation will be just as crippled as the FP1 version.
This I really do not understand. The whole concept of Active Standby is brilliant if and only if you can throw whatever you want on it. And wherever you want. Aren't smartphone platforms supposed to be all about customization? Strange, strange, strange.
Full Screen Caller ID
This is one of those 'duh' things. More and more I'm beginning to dislike this strategy of leaving things that can easily be found on non-smartphone platforms out of the OS.
Well, thankfully, FP2 brings the amazing feature of Full Screen Caller ID. WOW! The sad part is there still seems to be no Countdown/Timer included in the OS. What is one to do? Shell out ~$10 for a commercial app that does just that. Oh wait, if you're a FP1 user, that's the solution for Full Screen Caller ID as well!
Wallpaper and Screensaver
In both of these you can now set any number of pictures that will be cycled through. Nice touch, another addition based on existing 3rd party apps.
The Menu
The main menu strategy is now that the root menu must not have more than 12 items in it. Therefore, there's more of the folder-in-subfolder thing going on now. Personally, I don't care. I know many other people who have always complained that the menu structure of S60 is not the same on all devices and is also hard to learn by novice users. Again, I don't care. Because there's one thing that everyone should be telling the novice user: unlike other platforms, here, if you don't like how the menu is organized, you can move things around however you like. Whatever suits you best. You can create new folders, sub-folders, and so on, and move apps and utilities wherever you like. Now in my mind, if you can do this, then what importance does how your menu is organized when you first power on the device have? Beyond me. If anything, the "Welcome" app should clearly show how you can do this, and that itself would improve user experience a lot.
Messaging
No more choosing between New Text and New Multimedia message. The phone chooses the format according to what you have inserted (if you've added music or pictures, it will automatically send it as an MMS). Not much to say about this really. Except maybe that Nokia are pushing this "Audio message" thing too far. You now have the option of "Message" (see above) or "Audio message", which is nothing more than an MMS containing something you record on the spot.
Timed Profiles
Another welcome addition, although its functionality is still below par compared to standalone 3rd party apps for this, in that you can set a profile to expire after a certain period of time, but you still can't set a profile to be automatically switched on at a certain time.
Visual Radio has RDS support
Welcome to the 90s! Nokia finally added RDS support for its radio app. This has been missing from previous Nokia offerings because they were trying to push their own Visual Radio technology to the mainstream. Which either didn't go too well, or Nokia understood that giving users the power to choose might be a good thing.
Also of note in the Radio section is that Visual Radio and Internet Radio are now in the same folder. Very nice touch. Needless to say that since this is the case, the Internet Radio app is now included in the OS. That is one of the best apps to come out of Nokia Beta Labs in recent history, and can be downloaded for previous S60 devices here.
Photos
This is what now replaces the Gallery, photo and video-wise. There are quite a few different views, and also a very handy tag cloud feature (like those seen on certain websites). Sorting is done via Captured (all items captured with the device's camera), Months (sorted by month), Albums (by Album), Tags (this is the Tag Cloud - see above) and Downloads (the items not captured with the device's camera). Since GeoTagging is built-in, a Show on Map feature is also present. For handsets with no motion sensor onboard and thus no ability to rotate the picture automatically, the FP2 packs in an option for doing this manually.
Maps
Maps 2.0 is built in. This is (in Beta stage currently) and will also be available for previous devices as a standalone upgrade. I would really like to say more, but unfortunately the map for Romania is very very bad in this app. You can check out Steve Litchfield's review of Maps 2.0 beta over at All About Symbian here. Keep in mind that he reviewed a version that is still under heavy development, so some features will definitely be improved in the final release (that is the one that will also be built into FP2).
Search 4.0
This improves on the functionality of Search 3.0. Basically, from one app, you can search the internet (Google will be the provider), perform local searches (engines are currently different depending on the country you're in, however in the final release I think that it will employ Google's Local Search where that works), and search through anything on the device itself. Just type a few letters and the search is started in real-time, while you type. Very convenient, however I hope that the speed of this app in FP2 will be a lot better than in FP1, where the fact that it takes a few seconds to load and search are making me rarely use it.
Access Point Grouping (Hierarchisation)
This is probably one of the most requested features. Finally it will be available in FP2. You can create an access point group, so the phone will try to connect to the first AP in that group, and if that isn't available, to the second, and so on. Very very handy feature.
USB Speed
According to the N78 and N96 Product Managers (two devices running FP2 that will be available later this year), the USB transfer speed when connecting the phone in Mass Storage mode will dramatically increase, compared to the speed you can reach with a FP1 device, which is now about 900 KB/s. The Product Managers mentioned a five-time increase, however, in his review of the N78, Eldar Murtazin from Mobile Review notes that the speed achieved was about 2 MB/s. I certainly hope that the device he had for review was a pre-production model and thus this is something that will be improved. 4-5 MB/s would really put the S60 Mass Storage mode on par with standalone card readers.
Remote Drive
In the file manager you can mount remote drives on the network (via WiFi or 3G). That means, for example, that you can share a drive on your computer via WiFi and have access to it on the phone, in the file manager. This is a result of Nokia's aquisition of Avvenu, and provides functionality that is now available for FP1 devices via the 3rd party app SymSMB 2.0 by Telexy Networks. It is praiseworthy that it is included in the OS, if the setup is simple this will clearly be a very used feature.
Print Online and Share Online
These are now both included in the OS, Share Online's version being the latest. These are utilities that make ordering prints for photos or publishing photos or videos to Internet services (such as Flickr and Nokia's own Ovi) very easy.
Preview Conclusion
FP2 will bring a lot of features that have been requested by S60 users for a long time. And it will also be the most user friendly version of S60 ever. It adds a lot of eye-candy (well, a lot compared to previous S60 iterations, anyway) as well.
It is clearly thought out to be the bridge between a 'normal', non-touch interface, and the touch interface that will debut...toward the end of this year hopefully. It is the most mature version of S60 and will make power users happy, while not requiring a steep learning curve for those new to S60.
However it still lacks certain elements that are nowdays found in bog-standard feature phones. Luckily, since it is an open platform after all, these are all available as 3rd party applications.
[Source and Image Source: Mobile Review]
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 Preview
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