Wendong’s Smart Phone Weblog

In today’s Nokia Forum news letter, Nokia introduced a new language option for S60: Open C:

Last week Nokia announced the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 that includes Open C, a collection of POSIX and C libraries that will make it easier for developers from various disciplines to create mobile applications and services. This SDK is based on S60 Developer Platform 3rd Edition and Symbian OS 9.1 and includes documentation, API references, an emulator, and a collection of POSIX and C Libraries for mobile application development.

It is definitely good news for mobile developers. Although it is the most popular smart phone OS, Symbian is “infamous” for its “crippled C++ support”. Symbian’s C++ is so different from standard C++ that it is very painful for a beginner to do even basic stuff like string handling.

The good news is that you have more options. All Symbian phones have Java support and can be considered high-end Java devices. More languages are supported either from open source projects or commercial products: Python, Ruby, ActionScript (Flash Lite), Visual Basic (AppForge) and more. In 2004 I wrote a post about porting .NET Compact Framework to Symbian, Palm OS and Mobile Linux. Today it has became a reality on Symbian platform.

Mobile world is very exciting, huh?

Via MobileViews Blog

Information Week has a table that summarizes the road map of major mobile phone operating systems, including Symbian, Linux, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Mac OS X:
Road Map For Smartphone Operating Systems
Full article: How Smartphone Platforms Compare

I don’t think SavaJe should be in the Linux category. I do not recall SavaJe is related to Linux. At least all the marketing effort of SavaJe was that it is a Java-based platform. Initially it was not Java ME (neither MIDP nor PP) but Java SE, and that is where the company name is coming from (SavaJe -> JavaSe).

Linux in the mobile world apparently is very diversified. The most successful Linux mobile phone manufacturer is Motorola. It has launched many devices in Asian market, including ROKR E6, a ultra thin phone with 2 MP camera and touchscreen. Other major manufacturers include E28, Haier, Lenovo, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung. Mobile Linux vendors include ACCESS, MIZI, MontaVista, Trolltech and more.

Some other recent news about smart phone OS:
Windows Mobile Pocket PC/Smartphone will be renamed to Windows Mobile Professional Edition and Standard Edition.
ACCESS renamed Palm OS to Garnet OS.

Google Maps now is available for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile. I installed it on T-Mobile Dash. It works pretty well. Comparing to the 347 KB WLS (Windows Live Search) Mobile, this application is a little larger (607 KB). And actually I like the WLS Mobile UI better. Both of them seem be able to pair with a bluetooth GPS receiver. But I don’t have one so I did not get the chance to try.