Smartphone OS Smackdown: iPhone OS 3.0 vs. WebOS vs. the World
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Nokia Symbian S60 5th Edition
How it works: Like an aging platform that's been updated to reflect the iPhone era. For instance, it still has applications that make you navigate with tiny scroll bars--logical enough for an OS driven by a keyboard and a stylus, but tough to accomplish with your fingertip.
How it looks: Decent enough, but icons, typography, and other interface details lack the refinement of the ones in Android, iPhone OS, and WebOS. It's serviceable, not beautiful.
Third-party stuff: The Symbian OS has been around for so long that a wealth of useful software supports it, but most of these applications haven't been updated to take advantage of 5th Edition's touch-centric approach. Nokia's on-device software store, Ovi Store, launched in May, but it's not yet available in the United States, and reviews have been lackluster. Symbian software remains available from other app purveyors, such as Handango.
Bottom line: 5th Edition advances Symbian part of the way to where it needs to be to compete successfully with the young whippersnappers among mobile operating systems. But this OS requires more than a fresh coat of paint to stay relevant in 2009 and beyond.
Palm WebOS
How it works: Overall, really well--it's responsive and fun. In some respects--such as in the way it uses multitouch input to let you resize Web pages and photos--it feels like the iPhone OS. But it also introduces features and concepts not found on the iPhone; most notable among these is the ability to multitask with various applications and manage them using "cards" that appear on your desktop.
How it looks: Lovely. This is the first mobile OS to compete with iPhone OS for sheer aesthetic splendor, and it appears crisp and elegant on the Pre's relatively small screen. Ultimately, I'd give iPhone OS 3.0 the edge because it's less cluttered and more consistent. But WebOS finishes a close second.
Bottom line: WebOS boasts more fresh ideas than any new operating system since iPhone OS; and once you've used cards to leap between multiple running apps, it's hard to go back to anything less. Let's hope that WebOS helps propel Palm back to robust health--and that the company puts the OS on a range of phones aimed at different kinds of folks.
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