Great article that's been around for a while, but may not of been read by many members, so for anyone who wants to know about their
N95's Operating System, and its roots, from when Symbian S60 3rd Edition was first launched, to when Feature Pack 1 followed, to why its important to have certain applications signed for your devices IMEI, check this out, and get to know your devices OS even more..
The revolution is here
S60 3rd Edition, built on Symbian OS, has introduced new standards in performance and security to the smartphone market. It offers mobile developers unparalleled opportunities for creating rich, robust, and successful smartphone applications and content.
S60 3rd Edition was announced at the 3GSM World Congress in February 2005, with the first commercial device -- the Nokia 3250 phone -- shipping more than 1 million units in the four months following its release in March 2006. To date, Nokia has shipped more than a dozen device models based on S60 3rd Edition, and several new S60 device models from Nokia, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and LG Electronics Inc. are due to ship soon.
The first feature pack for S60 3rd Edition was formally launched in October 2006, building on the platform's market-leading features.
By October 2006, Nokia alone had shipped some 70 million S60 devices, and the company expects that by 2008, the smartphone market will exceed 250 million units per year.
Since the release of S60 3rd Edition, consumer interest in third-party software has surged. Handango reports that between May and October 2006, its sales of S60 3rd Edition applications increased 400 percent, and that users of the Nokia N80 multimedia computer and Nokia E61 smartphone purchased the most software.
An impressive range of applications is being developed for the S60 platform. Many of these applications were represented in the recent Forum Nokia S60 3rd Edition Challenge. Developers submitted more than 115 applications to that worldwide competition in the categories of enterprise, music, Flash Lite from Adobe, and location awareness.
Performance beyond pocket-size
S60 smartphones are small, but that does not mean that their performance is limited. Two key performance improvements were introduced in S60 3rd Edition: a real-time kernel and the Application Binary Interface for the ARM® Architecture.
The significance of the real-time kernel is in the way smartphones are built. Historically, smartphones have relied on two processors: one to deal with communications and a second to process application code and data. This reliance created a built-in cost penalty. Obviously, two processors are more expensive than one. The introduction of the real-time kernel allows S60 3rd Edition smartphones to use a single chip and deliver optimum performance in less expensive devices. The lower cost means more sales of S60 3rd Edition devices, which increases the opportunities for third-party developers.
The second performance improvement is the introduction of the ARM ABI binary. This binary instruction set offers significant improvements in application processing while maintaining the power consumption requirements vital for a smartphone. The result is that S60 3rd Edition applications run faster than their predecessors, opening up opportunities for developers to create more-sophisticated applications.
"We're finding on S60 [3rd Edition] that applications seem to run a lot faster, and we're really pleased," says Joel Shafer, vice president of product development at Quickoffice, Inc., winner of the enterprise category in the S60 3rd Edition Challenge. "This is allowing us to introduce more-complex features, such as the ability to open large Microsoft PowerPoint files and then manipulate the graphics in presentations, just as you would on a PC."
Quickoffice Premier for S60 is integrated in seven S60 3rd Edition devices that are already shipping, and implementations are expected in many future S60 3rd Edition devices.
A consequence of introducing the new binary is that applications written for earlier versions of the S60 platform need to be recompiled for S60 3rd Edition. However, developers migrating applications to S60 3rd Edition should consider another factor: The introduction of platform security has brought about changes in the platform APIs.
Security to assure developers, operators, and users
S60 3rd Edition enhances platform security. While the S60 platform has always provided perimeter security -- allowing installation of only the applications the user specifically requests to be installed on his or her S60 device -- platform security goes further, with APIs that can be accessed only by certified applications and data caging.
Data caging provides each application with its own secure storage space, hiding application configuration information and application data from other applications and the device user. This enables developers to create a new generation of secure applications for enterprise users and consumers.
"With data caging, we can now be confident that private data remains private," says Shafer. This has enabled Quickoffice to introduce Quickmanager, which allows users to update and upgrade their software and purchase complementary applications. "Data caging means that we can now rely on S60 3rd Edition to keep our application DRM [digital rights management] secure and eliminate piracy."
Within S60 3rd Edition, accessing certain APIs requires the application to have what is known in platform-security terms as a capability -- which can be obtained through application certification. Such APIs might affect user data or fundamental aspects of a device. During installation of applications, the device user can grant capabilities to applications that use the most basic secure APIs, for example, those that access such user data as calendar and contact information. For more-advanced APIs, applications must be certified through Symbian Signed, while the most advanced APIs require certification from a device manufacturer.
Platform security means that mobile consumers and operators can be confident that applications are using only the features they are expected to use. This protects the consumer from malicious code that might try to secretly access the Internet or send short message service (SMS) messages.
The introduction of platform security means a break in source code compatibility with earlier versions of the S60 platform, because some APIs were changed. As a result, S60 2nd Edition applications that make use of features requiring capabilities may need modification before they can be launched for S60 3rd Edition. In addition, some applications may require Symbian Signed in order to deliver their full potential to S60 3rd Edition device users.
The benefits of application signing
Symbian Signed is an industry-supported process for signing Symbian OS applications, such as those for S60 3rd Edition. Using an independent test house or, for larger developers, an in-house certification process, an S60 3rd Edition application undergoes to a set of tests to ensure that it meets key reliability and usability requirements. Once the application has passed these tests, it is signed and can be installed by S60 3rd Edition device users without invoking a security warning or asking the users to allow the application access to certain device functions.
Not all applications must be Symbian Signed. Some 60 percent of the S60 3rd Edition APIs are open, and for some APIs that require certification -- such as those accessing user data or the Internet -- capabilities can be granted by the user. For these types of applications, developers can use a simple self-signing process.
This is the approach taken by Augmentra Ltd for its application ViewRanger, which was the winner in the location category of the S60 3rd Edition Challenge. "We ported our application to S60 3rd Edition and released it using self-signing with no restrictions on functionality," says Mike Brocklehurst, technical director at Augmentra. "We are looking to obtain Symbian Signed at some point; it will improve the installation process and allow us to access the location APIs available on the forthcoming Nokia
N95 [multimedia computer]."
For many developers, there is another compelling reason for considering Symbian Signed. Since it provides basic quality checks, an increasing number of retail channels -- particularly those that allow users to purchase applications directly from their devices -- require Symbian Signed.
Find out more about the benefits for developers of platform security and Symbian Signed »
Do more, faster
The S60 platform has always offered developers a leading-edge set of C++ APIs that enable the widest possible range of applications. S60 3rd Edition continues to make additional APIs available, aided by the fact that Symbian Signed allows an even wider range of APIs to be made available to trusted developers.
Among the APIs introduced in S60 3rd Edition were: location information, instant messaging (IM), Web services, optical character recognition, OpenGL, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
It is not just in the platform APIs where C++ development has improved. Support is now provided for exceptions. "This has been revolutionary for us," says Quickoffice's Shafer. "It has allowed us to start using STL [Standard Template Library] in our applications, which in turn has provided an improvement in software stability."
The best support yet
S60 3rd Edition has brought significant improvements to the documentation and support for the S60 platform. "The SDK documentation has been improved greatly, which makes our job easier," says Augmentra's Brocklehurst. "In addition, the example applications appearing each week on Forum Nokia are really valuable. They have helped expand our knowledge of the S60 APIs and shown us elegant solutions to some of our coding requirements. The Forum Nokia blogs and message boards are providing useful information, too, and are a healthy sign of what is clearly a thriving developer community."
This is echoed by Quickoffice's Shafer, who says, "The support we have received from Nokia has been extraordinary."
More development choice
The S60 platform allows developers to create applications in a number of languages. The native language for the S60 platform is C++, but applications may also be created using Java™ Platform, Micro Edition (Java™ ME), Flash Lite, Microsoft Visual Basic (using AppForge Crossfire), and Python.
The availability of Flash Lite 1.1 was key to S60 3rd Edition Challenge winner Foreca Ltd.'s decision to take its services mobile. The Finland-based company has been providing global weather information since 1996.
"From the start, we saw mobile as an important channel for our weather information," says Marko Moilanen, director, business development at Foreca. As a result, Foreca has been delivering weather information by SMS since the late 1990s. More recently, the company has been using Flash from Adobe to offer services on the Web.
"We see S60 users as a significant audience for weather information," says Moilanen. "As we have five years' experience in creating Flash applications, Flash Lite on S60 3rd Edition is the obvious choice for taking our applications mobile. Using Flash Lite, our developers were able to transition to the mobile world almost overnight." Moilanen points to Nokia's promotion of Flash Lite on the S60 platform as a significant benefit for developers. Flash Lite also allowed Foreca to deliver a mobile application whose look and feel is similar to its Web offering, without the expense and inconvenience of outsourcing development.
Right tools for the job
To enable C++ developers to take advantage of S60 3rd Edition, Nokia offers the Carbide range of tools, based on the open source Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). Carbide.c++ Express contains all the basic tools required to write, test, and deploy noncommercial S60 3rd Edition applications, and it is available free of charge. Carbide.c++ Developer Edition offers commercial software developers all the features of Express, with the added benefit of on-device debugging and a powerful UI designer that greatly simplifies the process of designing interfaces for S60 applications. Carbide.c++ Professional Edition builds further on the Developer Edition, providing tools for investigating application performance.
In addition, Nokia offers support for S60 application development through Carbide.vs to developers who have chosen Microsoft Visual Studio as their development environment.
In addition to IDE support, developers are finding that improvements in the S60 emulators are making life easier. "The ability to switch between all the supported screen sizes is proving to be a real benefit," says Quickoffice's Shafer.
Variety brings success
While the technical improvements in S60 3rd Edition have enhanced the opportunities for developers to create more-advanced applications, the increased range of devices is stimulating interest in third-party applications. "You can now get S60 devices in almost every form factor, and that is increasing consumer interest," says Augmentra's Brocklehurst. "Our application is for users with an active outdoor lifestyle, and the Nokia 5500 Sport [phone] has proved particularly popular with them. We also are actively looking at how we might use its sensor feature to enhance our application. We have also seen a lot of interest from [Nokia] E61 [smartphone] users, who seem to appreciate the large, clear screen for viewing maps."
Because S60 3rd Edition is licensed to several phone manufacturers, users have a growing choice of devices available. "The fact that Samsung and LG are developing S60 3rd Edition devices is also something I see as positive," says Brocklehurst.
The time is right
The opportunities presented to developers by S60 3rd Edition are hard to ignore. Robust tools allow applications to be created swiftly; the rich, secure platform enables a huge variety of applications; and Symbian Signed means increasing support for direct-to-user sales from operators and global content aggregators. As device sales continue to grow, there is an increasing audience of users who want to make the most of their S60 3rd Edition smartphone's capabilities.
All in all, there has never been a better time to start developing for S60 3rd Edition.
Learn more about S60 3rd Edition
Now you know, all there is to know, about your
N95's Operating System
Source
New article on SF..
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/00...s_for_2008.htm
Additional information from 2nd September 2008
http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ma...n-c-developers
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