What do you hate most about Series 60?
By Stefan Constantinescu on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 11:22 AM PST In Symbian
I’m going to take a nap right now, 3 finals down, 2 to go, but in the mean time I’m asking you, my readers, to tell me what you hate most about Symbian Series 60.
Let me make it clear, I’m not asking you about your phone, I’m asking you what you hate about the OS or any of the applications built into your phone. Tell me what makes you go batshit insane. Tell me what makes you wonder what the hell Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was thinking when they implemented this or that. Tell me the things that make you want to throw your phone out the window!
Why? Because once my finals are done (Friday) I plan on writing a long and extensive roast of my Nokia E61. I want the developers and user experience experts at Nokia to read that post and use it as a guide line for further OS developments. I don’t want to miss anything, so feel free to rant on. Of course I’ll give you credit, I’m an academic and strongly believe in citing.
I hate that there is no built in spell checker for email, sms and text documents. I HATE that it’s missing this.
Birthdays don’t always show up in my calendar even if they are in my address book.
The OS or firmware isn’t even close to perfect yet on my E61, to many serious problems.
The built in email program needs some work. I should be able to poll more email address more often and when I delete an email I should have the option to have it dissapear off my phone but leave it on the server. These two things really bug me.
S60 needs better integration with Outlook for example groups should be able to sync over and the ability (this one is obscure but important to me)to sync or have it’s own add in program to sync with ACT!.
That’s all I can think of right now. I really love S60 and think the world of Nokia phones. I won’t buy anything else because I think Nokia is far superior.
Here’s some of my things:
1. WTF did you integrate the To-Do list in the calendar?! I don’t use it anymore cause it’s such a pain to get to, now. Also, on the same note, WTF does clicking on an item bring up an options list? Why does it not mark it as done? There’s a freakin softkey labelled Options. If I wanted Options, I’d press that. The fact that it takes 4 button presses to mark an item as Done freakin kills me.
2. Why is there no option to edit my T9 dictionary? There’s so many words in there that do nothing but make me click one more time to skip past them. Or if I’m adding a word and accidentally misspell it. Now I have to reset the whole damn phone to get rid of it!
3. Why can’t you tell me who an SMS/MMS is from like every other manufacturer? Why can’t I give someone a ringtone and it apply to their messages, as well?
1.I hate s60 for not putting Birthday in Calendar
2.I hate s60 because it has Pictures & Videos on the same folder in Gallery
3.It doesn’t have a proper Calendar with a lot of choices/options
4.It has the apps not very well organized(IM in Messages, Wlan Wizzard in Connection Manager…)
5.It doesn’t have Message (All/SMS/MMS/E-Mail) LOG
6.WTF is Flash Message like in S40 phones
7.I hate when i open a new message that it doesn’t show the number of the person and Date/Time
8.I hate when I go to backup my phone it starts and in the last drop it says that it doesn’t have Enough Memory (show a window at the beginning to tell me how many Mbs is the backup file so I know if I need to delete something)
9.It doesn’t have FullScreen Call/Message ID
10.No RDS in RADIO??? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
11.No recording in RADIO?? Again whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
12.It doesn’t have Scientific Calculator
13.The Recording app doesn’t record all the available memmory and an option to select the Record Quality
14.Timed Profiles???
15.It can’t send Themes to another device via Bluetooth/IrDa
16.Autolock…
17.Option in Settings when we put the headset to play sound both from earphones/mobile’s speakers
18.I hate not showing Time in all Menus like S40
19.I hate when I put an alarm, it doesn’t show the time with the belt icon
20.I hate S60 for not having this simple thing: When you are in StandBy Screen and I press volume up/down for 3 seconds… show me the status of the phone(IMEI, Current software, Ram free, CPU speed, Free Memory-Mobile&MMC)
21.I hate it doesn’t have in ON/OFF button… Restart!!
There is no “notes” field associated with calendar and task items in the PIM. This is like having email support that shows only the email subject and not the email body. This information IS synched to the phone, because you can see the first few words of the field using the nokia “search” application.
Um, Panos:
1. Mine has Birthday in the calendar. Or I can add the field to a contact.
2. Agreed.
3. Papyrus
4. You can move them and put them wherever the f&^$ you want.
5. N73 does (not email but every other message)
6. Are you wanting Flash Message? Why?
7. It shows their name. Do you not read SMS as soon as you get them, thereby knowing the time?
8. Haven’t used the Phone Backup feature.
9. There’s several 3rd party apps that do. You gotta support your developers
10. RDS?
11. What phone does?
12. Again, 3rd party app
13. 3rd party
14. Agreed.
15. In the themes menu go to “Options” “Send”
16. 3rd party
17. Why would you want it from both the earphones AND the speakers? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the earphones?
18. Ok.
19. When I set an alarm, an icon is displayed in the bar underneath the battery.
20. Why do you need to know your IMEI and Current Firmware? You know there’s codes for those, right? And the rest, check out Handy Taskman, it shows all that.
21. What Nokia are you looking at that doesn’t have an on/off button?
Sounds like you need to explore the 3rd party world my friend. That’s what makes Symbian phones so freakin great.
N93 (Europe, UMTS/3G)
- eventhough I have a 2GB memory card and installed everything there, half the time it gives me the ‘lack of memory’ bs while playing (short, under 2 min) videos, asking me to close other running apps when there are NONE other running. Freaks me out when showing off
- slow and sluggish navigation/UI
- T9 is crap, it’s like an infant speaking tongues, on acid. No way to re-adjust.
that’s it. 3rd party apps are indeed a big selling point.
Good luck on those last 2 finals.
Geek –
Agree with your assessment with the exception of Papyrus. Now given that its Papyrus or AquaCalendar in this field, however Papyrus has to be the buggiest pieces of crap I have ever used. The clowns over at sbsh.net rush software out the door rather than test it out properly. I’d say suffer through the builtin app until version 2.x of Papyrus for S60 3rd edition.
Nona
Nona, well, it seems silly to require Papyrus for this simple functionality. It wouldn’t take but maybe 10-20 lines of code for Nokia to fix this.
I tried AquaCalendar and it’s rather convoluted. Papyrus does seem like a more well thought out, if still buggy, program. But their both overkill for me. I just want the details associated with the tasks and calendar items.
@ Ricky:
1.What S60 phone has in Calendar… Options->New Entry->Birthday???
You can put it in Phonebook but it doesn’t give you the ability to set an alarm!!
4.I didn’t mean that… I want to tell that they must put all the apps that are familiar in ONE place (e.g. put IM in Messaging, all Voice functions in one place, Wlan Wizzard in Settings or Con.Man. etc.)
5.N73 has Message Counter in app. “LOG”??? Also it doesn’t show in Data Transfer->Last Send/Received Data!!
10.Yes RDS like in SE phones… it gives you info about several things
from radio stations
15.There is no Options->Send via… in N80,N91,N71 for example(what phone has it)
17.I want to play from both sides because sometimes if you forget or not have the earphones in your ears you miss the call
19.A belt icon appears but it doesn’t show the time you set for the alarm next to it! In that way when you don’t remember what time you set the alarm you have to go in the Alarm app.
20.It is better to have it in StandBy Screen by pressing a button (see free ram and free memory) than going to an app.
21.In ON/OFF button when you press it, it shows Switch off, Lock Keypad… etc.!!Why there is no choice for Restart Device??? I think many people have estarted their phones for several reasons… this feature makes it easier!!
About exploring 3rd party apps… I have this time at least 20 apps in my phone but the matter is not that!!! My opinion is that these simple things must be in-the-box and not loosing time searching for them!!! So where you say in your answer 3rd party app. e.g. Papyrus, I think NOKIA must put them in phones by default!!!
These are some improvements that needs to be done…
http://blogs.s60.com/tommi/2006/09/early_adopters_wish_list_for_i.html
I ‘ve written them long ago for Tommi!!!The 2 last posts down-down!!
You guys I REALLY appreciate this, let the comments keep on pouring in! I want to have a condense roast report.
@ PanosM – I agree at some points but we still need to consider the options. Do we want the phone to get A LOT more expensive in development costs that will affect the prize of the phone so much, when there are already 3rd party applications out there that do the same job?
Also, if Nokia would implement all single function in a phone that everyone would like to have, it make the firmware very complex and hard to rewrite if any “bugs” appears. I think it´s more efficient to let other companies have the oppurtunity to develop applications that can make the life easier for us.
But of course, I also have a lot of small things that I would like to have changed in the OS. Especially concerning the calendar applications since I use it so often. Built-in support for adding notes to a specific date wouldn´t be so bad for example.
Another thing that really bothers me compare to S40 devices, is that the setting for “Writing Language” is located under Tools > Settings > Phone > General instead of under the Messaging application. Since I send a lot of e-mails and SMS’s from my E60 in both swedish, english and finnish it´s really annoying when using the T9 function that you need to go to another menu in the phone to change the “Writing Language”.
Instead it would be good if it could be like in the S40 phones, that you could click “Options” (when writing an e-mail, SMS, MMS, Note, Document) and be able to select “T9 Language settings” or something similar.
@ Jeb – at the top saying “when I delete an email I should have the option to have it dissapear off my phone but leave it on the server”
There is an option for this in your phone under Messages -> Settings -> E-mail -> select Mailbox -> User Settings -> Delete e-mails from -> Phone (header remains).
This way you will keep a copy of the mail on the server, however the header of the e-mail you deleted will not dissappear until you connect to the mail server next time.
@ Henrik – All these implementations that I am writing is not so complex and can be in-the-box by NOKIA!! Consider that S40 phones and some SE have them with no serious problems! IMO someone that is newbie in S60 must not be confused by searcing apps that do the “ordinary” thngs that his/her S40/SE phone did! If there was in-the-box the person would feel more “comfortable” and “familiar” with OS, don’t you think?? I don’t think 100-150 more lines in the code will make the phone suffer from bugs!!
Afterall if these things are implemented into S60 phones by default then the enginners wouldn’t bother making 3rd parties apps for them!! They would give all the attention in making useful and powerful apps for all people!!
Now that I am thinking it cosider this too… when someone puts 3rd parties apps like FS Caller,Message Counter etc. they think that they have done something! But a person with a S40 or SE phone have them without even trying!! Just think about it!
IMHO there must be a minor/major(you decide) upgrade in PIM and give more attention to the details!
1. The alarms is set for one time only, let it does not alwasy work when the phone is off.
2. The call lists would not allow one to see the number (out, in, missed).
3. The delivery reports won’t let you see which exact message was recieved.
4. Oh, yes – I want those emails *gone* from the device once deleted.
5. Impossible to set birthdays from the Addressbook.
6. Autolock.
7. As above – I want time in each every menu – if not, give me for my personal use the occupied space by the headrer.
8. Wallpapers are so square and non full-screeny.
9. I did mention that the one-time-set alarma does not always go off when the phone is off >:[
10. EMS – after all, it’s on the ETSI specs.
I absolutely loathe S60; it is the single most unintuitive UI I have ever used. A total mess. I cannot find anything I want in the phone.
Here’s some specific things I dislike, in no particular order:
1. It took me forever to find out that to change the way half of Active Standby is configured you have to go to Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Standby mode. And that only alters half of it. To change the other half I have to go somewhere completely different.
2. Every screen I go to is laid out differently, for absolutely no reason. Grid views, lists, tabbed lists, lists of icons with text, lists of double lines etc etc Sometimes I have to save settings, sometimes I just press Back and what I changed is saved.
3. Sometimes the way out of a screen is the word ‘Back’, sometimes it’s ‘Exit’. Sometimes that goes back a level, sometimes it goes straight to standby.
4. Almost every screen transition is unbearably slow. Very often they are visually buggy transitions, when the screen flicks from one to another via a different one, and then slowly populating screen elements one by one.
5. Which I wouldn’t mind quite so much if the aesthetics were remotely pleasing – but they are so horribly ugly and dull.
6. To find new applications I finally find that I have to go to a folder called ‘Installat.’ I mean really, is that the most descriptive name they could come up with?
7. Settings for changing cosmetic things such as themes, ringtones, screen brightness etc seem to be scattered around various deeply nested locations.
8. Why is File Manager in Menu -> Office ?
9. Why is setting up APNs the only connectivity option that isn’t in Menu -> Connect. ? But viewing active APNs is in Menu -> Connect. ?
10. Very small one but … the month part of the date can only be shown in numbers; it is far easier on the eye and brain to have the first 3 letters.
That’ll do for now but there’s loads more along the same lines – mainly, that nothing makes sense and the aesthetics are ugly.
Most of the “hates” just personal things. Here are real problems with S60
No notes for tasks
No Outlook Categories
No spell checking
THATS A WARFACE!!!!!!