The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, the largest in the world by volume, has seen rumors of dropping Symbian in favor of Google’s own Android operating system and even replacing the aging OS with its more up-to-date Maemo OS found on the Nokia N900 device.
But Nokia has reiterated its dedication for Symbian, which it bought in 2008 for a reported $410 million, in the latest technology preview this week. Nokia announced plans for a dual SIM phones in 2010 and also a Maemo 6 powered device. The highlight of Nokia’s presentation though, was a preview of the upcoming iteration of Sym
The first noticeable change in the Symbian version (seen in the image above; click to enlarge it) is the support for multiple home screens. Users of Symbian touchscreen devices have been craving this feature since the N900 (running on Maemo) was launched, but the wait will be over soon. The small circle indicators at the bottom let you know which screen you are on. The circles function similarly to the iPhone home screens, but the widget interface is similar to Google Android’s.
Symbian’s video player (click to enlarge the shot) is getting a facelift as well, with support for semitransparent graphic layers, as seen before on the iPhone. The next version of Symbian will also support HDMI output and can play files larger than 2GB in size.
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