Symbian Anna, formaly known as Symbian^3 PR2

Al een tijdje in de pijplijn, nu allemaal officieel: PR2 gaat een aantal aardige verbeteringen brengen voor Nokia gebruikers. Mits je natuurlijk een highend Nokia hebt zoals de C6, C7, E7 en N8. Of straks een E6 of X7, de twee toestellen die vandaag dan eindelijk officieel werden geïntroduceerd.

Wat ook nieuw is, is de naam: Symbian Anna. Het is duidelijk een trend om je release een lieve naam te geven. Ik ken het vooral van Ubuntu en Android. Nog meer nieuw:

• New fresh icons, delivered as part of a new theme. The icons are derived from the existing icongraphy, but with rounded edges, giving a more contemporary look and feel.
• Improved text input usability through the introduction of a portrait QWERTY keyboard and widespread use of split screen input. Split screen overlays text entry input boxes on existing screen elements and works in both portrait and landscape orientations. For example, in Maps a search can be entered and auto-completed results seen as you enter text. Similarly in Messaging, when you reply to a message in Conversations view you can see previous messages in the thread.
• Updated Web application with a more intuitive user interface and faster performance. This includes a standard location for the address bar at the top of the page (with improved auto-complete, which benefits from the new split screen text entry), visual back button accessible at all times (bottom left), and a redesigned and more responsive quick menu access floating button (bottom right). Performance of page rendering has been improved with an updated version of WebKit and improved scrolling and page navigation performance. The Web application continues to be based on the Symbian WebKit code base. A QtWebKit-based browser is likely to be one of the components delivered in the next software update.
• Ovi Maps 3.6, which is already available for existing devices (it recently graduated from Beta Labs). The major features in this version are improved search, public transport overlays to map view and the ability to download country maps on the device.
• Improved enterprise and security features. This includes the provision of six new security policies (for Microsoft Exchange), including enablers for the capability to turn encryption on remotely from Exchange device management tools. The update also includes Microsoft Communicator Mobile for corporate IM and presence (currently available via Ovi Store for selected devices).
• The latest version of Qt (4.7.3) and Qt Mobility (1.1.2), to improve developer productivity. This includes support for Qt Quick and a significant number of API improvements.

All About Symbian

Om een compleet beeld te krijgen wat er nu gaat komen adviseer ik een bezoekje aan "Announcing Symbian Anna aka ‘PR2’".