Once Symbian is Open Source

Nokia promised to open the sources for mid 2009, now they say mid 2010. But even when the whole smart phone operating system Symbian OS is opened, it will probably take another year or two before reasonable distributions come out. I doubt that Nokia will release anything close to an environment that runs under Linux and drops a firmware after a run of ‘make N78’...

...what I will change first

• Clock/Alarm
  • snooze off: there is no function to switch an alarm off during it’s snooze time. At the moment you can only wait for the next alarm and switch it off or deactivate it all together
  • off lock: To switch the alarm off, type two numbers, which the phone asks for (this protects against I didn’t hear my alarm (or I switched it off uncontiousness)): klick ‘off’, “Please input 39”: if you do so, it is off, otherwise it snoozes
  • show the seconds of the minute at least somewhere!
  • on the standby screen it seems to be fine, but everywhere else, the clock may show an earlier time: e.g. now 22:07, I go to the menu and it shows 22:03, than back to the standby screen, and it shows 22:07 again...
• Messenger/Contacts
  • The activation and deactivation of T9 is a real hassle. In fact the whole IME is too limited: I need more languages (with dictionaries) and a flexible way to configure all my input methods I need for quick access. E.g. Spanish T9, English T9, German T9, Russian T9, Chinese Pinyin, Chinese Bihua, Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese Wubi (numeric (“22” for “j”) and letters (“j” for “是”) with proposals like in Pinyin), Chinese Cangjie, ...
  • order contacts by creation/modification date (for quick acces to the last contact(s) I just created)!
  • reorder fields (mobile (new) before mobile (old) for example)
  • launch camera directly from contact creation (with buttons: “okay” and “another try” once shot a photo)
  • fast access to correctly rotated full screen view of photo associated with contact, now it is: open -> Image name -> Image -> View -> Options -> Full screen -> Options -> Rotate -> Left
  • force configured SMS service center (there is a bug in the original) for all outgoing messages
  • Allow T9 to understand (hello) and "hello"
  • FULL disclosure of sms details; easy viewing of arrival time, even better “You have 1 new message (arrived 8min ago).”
  • allow AT sms sending interface to request delivery confirmation (or any other interface that can send sms)
  • lift 20 max. limit for SMS (why is that there?)
  • make the delivery log bigger (more than 20 entries); filter for non-delivered; record when I send the message, when it got delivered and when I got the delivery SMS and maybe if it had a delay on my phone (resend after network problem) and allow to view the confirmation in full
  • spare the “From:” when displaying an SMS, instead show more of the name, or multiple lines; I don’t want to see just “Firstname Middlen...”
  • quick access from the simple “From:” to the full blown contact entry with all the numbers, photo, additional notes, etc.; this is even usefull in other contexts, like the log (Who did I call here?)
  • you can assign a group of contacts a special ring tone, but you cannot assign a group to be silent (no ring, no vibration, etc.) for your stalkers; also (as I usually have only vibration on), the phone cannot vibrate differently like a “silent” distinctive call
• Log
  • SMS outgoing filter/counter (do I have still some left in my monthly plan?)
  • repeated alert when I got a SMS or missed a call. (1min, 5, 10, 30, 60min later, etc.); use an optical indicator (the wheel light could start blinking)
  • show how long each missed call was ringing (How hard did they try...?)
  • instead of “1 missed call” show “missed call 4min ago”; similar things for log entries and other time fields (SMS arrival time) possible
• General / Standby screen / Profiles
  • full control over certificate application (manual overruling)
  • the symbols: SD card in the slot and Alarm on is normal, instead show a symbol when the oposite is true, to alarm me of the fact that something is wrong; have a global symbol for vibration on/off and alarm me, when it is OFF
  • events for activating profile masks; e.g. a mask could be: no keypad lock, which can be activated over any profile to modify this behaviour; and new events could be: loudspeaker on, phone charging (plugged in); in both cases I would like to deactive the keypad lock and switch from vibration to ring tones (both cases mean: the phone is not in my pocket anymore)
  • I often add “notes” to a contact, so that I remember who is who, but when I get a call, they are not shown - not very useful
  • a reset option would be nice, not just power-off
  • a “torch”-function: show a bright white screen

Robert.Siemer-nokia(o)backsla.sh
12.11.2009