Nokia Rolls Out S60 Symbian 5th Edition

To coincide with its first major foray into the touch-screen market, the 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia introduced the latest version of the S60 on Symbian operating system.

S60 5th Edition builds upon the multimedia and Internet experiences of previous builds, and it adds touch user interface and sensor technology, Nokia said.

"With this release we will see manufacturers create and extend their portfolio of products with new types of devices addressing a broader range of consumer needs," said Lee Williams, Nokia's senior VP S60 software, in a statement.

The latest S60 has enhanced display resolution support and a widescreen mode to enable engaging visual experiences, Nokia said. There's also video and photo editing lets users decrease red eye, crop images, and more directly on the handset.

The 5th Edition also has a framework for incorporating advanced sensor technology, which developers can use to create motion-based applications. For example, this could potentially let end users silence their phones by turning them upside down, as well as lead to motion-based games.

Nokia said it wanted to lower the barrier of entry as well, and the S60 5th Edition expanded its support for open source technologies through integrated support for Open C++. This brings the Standard Template Library and other C++ libraries to the S60 platform, Nokia said.

"The S60 5th edition SDK presents an exciting opportunity for mobile applications development," said Erik Abair, senior VP of engineering and co-founder of Kyte, in a statement. "Development on this new platform will advance touch technology, provide more flexibility to create new user interfaces for our mobile application, Kyte Mobile Producer, and improve the overall user experience for consumers."

The S60 5th Edition SDK and developer tools are available now at the company's Forum Nokia Web site.