Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Ok, so Windows Mobile 7 (WinMo7) doesn’t have a heck of a lot to do with Nokia. I could push that its because its Microsoft, and they are now working together, but that would be crap and you would know it. Really the main purpose for my covering this is I’m interested in the UI. I always thought that WinMo had a very outdated UI, and was always wondering why they don’t just redesign it, I mean they have the money for it. Of course help came with the shell updates from companies like HTC with WinMo 6.x, but those were just surface changes. We can actually see a mirror image of that happening with the touchscreen Symbian 5, in that the new version of the software looks kind of like a mask, with the insides still being glitchy and not user friendly by today’s standards.

Well the really exciting part is that Microsoft is actually doing something about it with WinMo7, or so we hope anyway. So that’s why I was quite excited to review the screenshots.

Ok, so the first screenshot is the calendar. Well some good, some bad – the interface is certainly more appealing, however having the time bar at the top would have been useful, but they removed that; and judging by “Pivot Left” and “Pivot Right” buttons on the screen, it would appear that gestures won’t be supported (and if they are then they’re wasting space).

The second, in-call, screenshot seems to be fairly basic, but is done fairly well – no complaints really.

Thirdly, the address book / contacts list (whatever you want to call it) certainly looks appealing, and I’m just hoping that they left the long-press menu option available and will use it to instantly call, create message or email the person.

Calendar

In-Call

Contacts

Inbox, the fourth screenshot, is virtually identical to the contacts list – if the long-press menu’s are there, then we’re good. Of course here some other gestures would be nice too.

The toggle switches and slider bars are certainly an improvement over the checkboxes, but we have to see how they actually implement those in actual menus, since screenshot five is just a sample.

The sixth screenshot, the text message, I have a small gripe with. Its always annoyed me when I have to close what I’m typing just to check on a consecutive message that came in from somebody. Which is why I like the threaded views so much. However, what’s the point of a threaded view if you can’t even see the message above? The keyboard takes up the entire screen and I would say its entirely unnecessary.

Inbox

Switches

Message Composer

Overall, the screenshots are an improvement, but a rather small one at best. There are a lot of things that we have to look at, such as menu structure, in order to find out if its actually going to be any good. And unfortunately, I’m already disappointed with it: there is absolutely no reason why the context menus have to be on there. Its things like that that make me very cautious over Symbian’s progress, however since Symbian is going open source, hopefully we’ll see user-compiled versions with some nice improvements. That is, of course, if Nokia allows users to reinstall the operating system like HTC does at the moment.

PS: if you notice all the screenshots are different, non-standard, dimensions – this tells me that they either didn’t have a very good design structure or made it all to be very scalable. And guess which one I think is the case?

-Nokia FanBoy

via: GSMArena.com (read)

Just read a very interesting article by Switched On about the positions that Nokia and Microsoft have taken in their opposing fields and the implications it may have on their current agreement:

If this month has taught us anything, it’s that Microsoft and Nokia are both determined to play across the full array of mobile devices whether they engage each other with handshakes or hand grenades.

Have a read through it, its quite interesting.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Engadget (read)

Microsoft and Nokia had a teleconference earlier this morning and revealed some interesting, albeit expected, piece of news. The two companies are partnering to develop Office Mobile, Office Communicator Mobile, SharePoint, and Microsoft System Center for Nokia’s Symbian operating system. It is interesting that Microsoft is working with Nokia and not the Symbian Foundation on this endeavor, however it does hint that this will not be available for Samsung, Sony Ericsson, or other manufacturers of Symbian devices. There were hints that this will be an online experience, which raises questions whether this will be strictly for Symbian, or if it will be platform independent, and whether MS Office Live will be supported. Of course seeing this in action will be pretty exciting.

I must say, I’m pretty excited about this little bit of news, and the biggest reason being that it would appear that Symbian, or more specifically Nokia E-series, will be better positioned for the corporate environment. This will give RIM a run for its money, however I imagine that Microsoft will do all they can to protect Windows mobile in this sector, and I can’t really blame them for it. I would, however, like to see an improvement in Nokia’s Microsoft Exchange Server client before they go on to Office and SharePoint (the biggest beef being, of course, email handling – no HTML, folder sync, etc.).

This also seems to correspond to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint becoming closer integrated, so not much surprise to the move. What does surprise me, however is that Microsoft is not partnering with RIM, given the number of BlackBerries out there in the corporate world. I suppose that would require extensive BB Server modifications, whereas Symbian can use the protocols provided by Microsoft.

On the side, Nokia did comment that they will be working with Microsoft on “future user experiences” for Nokia customers, and that they are “deeply committed to Symbian,” and have no plans in developing Windows Mobile devices (thankfully). the future user experience could also mean that they will bring this over to their Maemo platform for Internet Tablets, which would be quite nice given the larger screen and keyboard.

I am very excited to see where this will lead, and whether I will be able to start pointing out more Nokia models in my office.

Update:
Reading over the article from GSMArena.com, I saw the best explanation why this move will appeal to corporate clients, and frankly, why I am so excited about it:

• The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
• Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
• Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
• Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Engadget (read)
and: GSMArena.com (read)