An Evening with S60…

March 16th, 2007 · 21 Comments · gadgets and technology, marketing

I had a great time at the S60 event last night at the Nokia Flagship store in NYC. Thanks to Phil from S60 for setting the whole thing up and to the warm hospitality of the Nokia store team!

It was great to geek out with Nokia staff and other enthusiasts! I really enjoyed meeting quite a few new people as well as actually speaking in person to a few familar bloggers: Darla Mack, Mark Guim and Stefan Constantinescu. The S60 brought out all the new and upcoming goodies so we got to really check out the 6110 Navigator, E61i, E65, N75, N76, E90, N93i and the N95 which seemed to captivate most people who were there.

I got a great overview of Feature Pack 2 (s60v3 fp2) which has some very slick animation transitions, awesome customization and of course media capabilities. I think Mikko finally resolved the issue for me with Feature Packs not being installed through firmware updates — A feature pack is an extension on the platform, that usually requires new hardware to run. The average lifespan of a device is about 2 years and the development path is tough to intersect — even for a total Nokia package (software and hardware). It’s quite a bit more difficult for S60 devices not manufactured by Nokia…

It’s clearly a business decision not to support things beyond the more “basic” updates which are generally to squash bugs or make smaller enhancements. We are actually lucky Nokia even supports that as it’s far from common for a handset manufacturer to enable end-user updates. While the hardware will be more powerful when FP2 ships, it will also be easier to use — meaning you’ll actually see in the UI that you can adjust a setting (obviously) and that multiple apps are running so that the capabilities are more easily understood. Now the audience last night was far from the average user and Nokia is making a move with FP2 to enable a broader suite of devices to become more capable rather than just relying on their ultra high end stuff…

I’m looking forward to the browser release which should arrive within the next 1 month. Apparently, the user voices have been heard and the browser will be pulled out from the FP updates so we’ll all be able to take advantage of the progress that’s been made without having to drop some serious dough on a new phone — just to take advantage of the browser…

Some pics I snapped are on flickr and include some GPS coordinates from my trip as well as a few shots inside the store. The flickr pool from last night has a bunch more. Phil also shot some video from last night which should eventually make it on YouTube…

Again - The night was a lot of fun and I hope we’ll have other opportunities to get together.

BTW — Congrats to the lucky winner of the N95 last night — I missed your name and stopped paying attention once I realized it was not me.

Technorati Tags: N-Series, N93i, N95, New York, Nokia, S60, Symbian

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21 responses so far ↓

1 Evening With S60 New York Recap at the Nokia blog // Mar 18, 2007 at 1:30 am

[...] The S60 team was there to answer questions. Johnathan Greene from Atmasphere spent some time with Mikko Röntynen, Head of S60 Platform Marketing, to ask about Feature Pack 2 and why we can’t upgrade. Read his post for Mikko’s response. I asked Ganesh Sivaraman, the Product Manager for the S60 Browser,why I can’t watch YouTube videos within the browser. To keep it simple, YouTube uses Flash 9 while the latest Flash in S60 is compatible only up to version 7. Yuck. [...]
2 Momchil Karabulev // Mar 21, 2007 at 3:43 pm

good news!
3 All About Symbian - News, Reviews, and Software for Symbian, Series 60 (S60) and UIQ phones // Mar 21, 2007 at 5:50 pm

S60 insider telling blogger Jonathan Greene that the requests for version 2 of the S60 Safari-based Web browser have been heard
4 Darla Mack // Mar 21, 2007 at 6:31 pm

Last weeks event was the proper time to ask questions about FP2 and like so many other attendee’s I got sidetracked. I did however try to bug Mikko during dinner but even at that time there was so much going on! Thanks to Jonathan Greene we have the educated response: I think Mikko finally resolved the issue for me with Feature Packs not being installed through firmware updates — A feature pack is an extension on the platform, that usually requires new hardware to run. The average
5 Domain Cloaking Error // Mar 21, 2007 at 6:31 pm

Last weeks event was the proper time to ask questions about FP2 and like so many other attendee’s I got sidetracked. I did however try to bug Mikko during dinner but even at that time there was so much going on! Thanks toJonathan Greenewe have the educated response: I think Mikko finally resolved the issue for me with Feature Packs not being installed through firmware updates — A feature pack is an extension on the platform, that usually requires new hardware to run. The average
6 A Curious Blindness // Mar 21, 2007 at 10:18 pm

to tie the browser releases to the hardware upgrades, i.e. the upgraded FP1 browser would only have been available with the the purchase of the E65 or N95. Much protest resulted, and the community’s voice seems to have been heard. Jonathan Greene, reporting on the ‘Evening with S60′ event, seems to indicate that Nokia has decided to release the browser update separately. It’s apparently due as early as next month. Despite the initial uproar, no one seems to have picked up on this tidbit and there hasn’t
7 sam gonzales // Mar 22, 2007 at 11:14 pm

good news indeed… the though of having to upgrade my e61 for a new device because of FP2 was just not worth it.. much like upgrading to e61i because of the flashless camera
8 Jonathan Greene // Mar 22, 2007 at 11:15 pm

There’s no update to FP 1 or 2 - sorry if that was confusing. The browser (in FP1) will be something available as a separate download…
9 TheBlueNile // Mar 23, 2007 at 12:04 pm

atmaspheric | endeavors » An Evening with S60… “I’m looking forward to the browser release which should arrive within the next 1 month. Apparently, the user voices have been heard and the browser will be pulled out from the FP updates so we’ll all be able to take advantage of the progress
10 Nowa przeglądarka również dla Nokia E61? at mobil.E61 // Mar 27, 2007 at 3:47 am

[...] Link (via All About Symbian) Informacje [...]
11 Symbian-Guru.com // Mar 27, 2007 at 4:42 am

I was already bummed that I missed out on the Evening with S60 event recently held at the Nokia Flagship Store in NYC. I’m even more bummed to know that I missed out on the great conversations that were had. Of note is this snippet from Jonathan Greene’s Atmaspheric | Endeavors blog, who commented on the reasoning behind the Feature Packs requiring new devices, as well as the availability of the new S60 browser as a downloadable installation: I’m looking forward to the browser release which should arrive within the next 1 month.
12 Symbian-Guru.com: New S60 Browser To Be Available To Download Soon? // Mar 30, 2007 at 5:02 am

[...] to know that I missed out on the great conversations that were had. Of note is this snippet from Jonathan Greene’s Atmaspheric | Endeavors blog, who commented on the reasoning behind the Feature Packs requiring new devices, as well as the [...]
13 S60 3rd Edition Ohjelmat - Sivu 43 - MATKAPUHELINFOORUMI // Mar 30, 2007 at 3:16 pm

[...] mukaan FP1:sen paranneltu webbiselain olisi tulossa erillisen� .SIS:n� S60 3rd ed. puhelimille. http://www.atmasphere.net/wp/archive…ing-with-s60-2 __________________ E70 + 2GB Transcend, AD-46, DCV-14 & Sennheiserin [...]
14 Ring Nokia // Apr 2, 2007 at 4:53 am

. How many does Nokia have? Does Nokia push its employees to blog? Nokia N95 Retail boxes in Singapore have more accessories than other retail boxes. That case in particular looks very nice. An Evening with S60 post follow ups: John Greene’s coverage Phil, from Nokia Mark’s recap Darla Mack’s insights Video: This is THE video to show your friends if you want to demonstrate the S60 browser.
15 S60 Web version 2 to become available for existing devices - ŵ��E70��̳ - ��ֻ��̳-Symbian��ֻ��Ż�վ // Apr 2, 2007 at 9:40 am

[...] 2 to become available for existing devices from All About Symbian - News Interesting to see a S60 insider telling blogger Jonathan Greene that the requests for version 2 of the S60 Safari-based … and that it will be made available separately from Feature Pack 1 - i.e. that it’ll be an SISx file [...]
16 S60 FP1-��(2� ��) �� FP1 - �� Mobile-Review.com // Apr 3, 2007 at 12:43 am

[...] �� FP1 �� S60 - � �� , �� "�� Safary-based �� S60 3rd Edition FP1 �� [...]
17 atmaspheric | endeavors » Live Nokia audiocast - S60 Browser from FP1 to be available! // Apr 15, 2007 at 7:58 pm

[...] will be one month to the day tomorrow from the evening with S60 and exactly when I was informed the browser would be available to download… at least [...]
18 S60��Web Browser�°��ж��汾 - Smartphone - Hi!PDA Hi!PDA - Powered by Discuz! // Apr 22, 2007 at 2:35 am

[...] Pack��һֱ�ڲ��ϸĽ��ˡ� ��Ϣ��Դ��http://www.atmasphere.net/wp/archives/2007/03/16/an-evening-with-s60-2 HONEY��ǽ��ɡ� ��ʹ��˫�ع��ߺ߹��٣� [...]
19 Nowa przeglądarka również dla Nokia E61? at mobilE61 // Aug 11, 2007 at 7:23 pm

[...] Link (via All About Symbian) [...]
20 FrockImmoke // Nov 22, 2007 at 12:05 am

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21 mypicst // Apr 12, 2008 at 8:04 am

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