Symbian, Qcom, demo mediaphones:
Symbian to unveil multimedia cell phones
Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:05:48 GMT
Andrew Orlowski, IT Week
The Symbian consortium is set to unveil two new classes of Internet-smart cellular phones that stream multimedia content.
Symbian -- the consortium of cellular manufacturers Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Matsushita and Psion Software -- will demo "Quartz," a colour tablet-style device that shows streaming multimedia over existing GSM phoneworks, and "Crystal," a more PDA-like handset, at the Symbian Developer Conference and Exhibition, which starts Tuesday in Santa Clara, California.
A third Symbian device, code-named Pearl, will not be shown. The BBC, meanwhile, has already begun working with Ericsson to deliver content to the Quartz device.
Quartz, Crystal and Pearl will all use Release 6 of the EPOC operating system. Symbian is also expected to update its Java support and plug several gaps, including IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) support, in the package. The consortium claims that the number of registered EPOC developers has exceeded 20,000, up from 1,200 at the time of Britain's Symbian Developers Conference in June 1999.
In a keynote, CDMA flag-bearer Qualcomm, which withdrew from manufacturing handsets last year, is expected to give details of CDMA chip sets optimised for EPOC. The initial trickle of EPOC devices, led by Ericsson's R380 smartphone, is expected to soon become a flood, with more than 30 devices available in the next 12 to 18 months.
zdnet.co.uk |
