14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Nokia announced the launch of two new mobile phones, namely the Nokia X7 and the Nokia E6, both of which run under a brand new flavor of the Symbian operating system, dubbed Symbian Anna.
The mobile operating system has been spotted at large before, in a series of leaked videos, though nothing was official on it until today, when Nokia announced that it would arrive both on the brand new devices, as well as on older ones.
The new flavor of Symbian, called Symbian Anna, sports a new user interface, along with a series of changes under the hood, meant to provide users with an enhanced experience.
Some of the main changes that the new OS flavor would arrive with include new, fresh icons, along with usability enhancements, such as a split-screen view while typing, along with a faster browser, or a virtual portrait QWERTY for fast typing, as well as refreshed Ovi Maps.
As stated above, the new software would be preloaded on the Nokia X7 and Nokia E6 smartphones, though it would also be delivered to older handsets, including the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6 and Nokia E7, which would receive it as PR2.0 update.
A quick look at the screenshots attached to this article would offer you an idea of what the changes are all about. More can be found in the video embedded at the bottom of this article.
Some of the specific enhancements the new OS would arrive with include: Enhanced Browser (v7.3): high value touch UI improvements, including URL entry bar, always visible ‘Go Back’ and extended toolbar buttons and search-integrated address field; better user responsiveness, faster history navigation and page loading, split screen virtual Qwerty keyboard.
Enhanced Ovi Maps (v3.06): smarter search; Check-in to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquareor local social networks; ability to share places via email and SMS, and also with friends using non-Nokia phones; public transport network lines view; update and download full country maps via WLAN
Enhanced Ovi Store (v2.06.xx): improved search, including auto-complete, spell-checking and Internet search engine optimization and error fixes; increased file size limits for downloading over WLAN
Enhanced Social (v1.3): status updates in contact card, ability to retweet and view follower list in Twitter, higher resolution image uploads, ability to add caption to images
Enhanced Ovi Suite (v3.x): works seamlessly with the latest version of Ovi Suite to update the device software, download free street maps, download new music and discover the latest mobile apps, back up the device to keep content safe, and sync content with Ovi.
At the same time, we should note that Symbian Anna comes with instant messaging with Microsoft Communicator Mobile, which should prove a great option for business customers. They would also appreciate full meeting request support and hardware-accelerated device encryption.
Flashlite 4, Java Runtime 2.2, Qt Mobility 1.1, and Qt 4.7 are also included into the mix, targeted at application developers, Nokia notes.
“In coming months the software update, [...] will also be available as standard on newly shipping Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01 devices, as well as available to download on previously purchased models of those same smartphones,” Nokia announced.
