S^3 smartphone OS gets the video preview treatment

Filed under: OS Updates, Symbian, Mobile

With all the hubbub over Windows Phone 7 Series at Mobile World Congress this week, you'd think it was the only upcoming mobile OS previewed at the event. And you'd be wrong for thinking that, because the folks at Symbian gave us the first look at the upcoming Symbian S^3 platform as well.

Symbian S^3 will be the first version of the platform to be fully open source. Any handset maker will be free to license the software for use in their phones.

But it's not just the licensing agreement that's new. Symbian S^3 also features a completely revamped user interface. It's very multimedia-centric, and like most mobile operating systems on the market today, the OS supports multitouch gestures and finger-friendly actions such as pinching and flicking.

Symbian S^3 also supports 1080p HD video playback and HDMI output. Phones running the operating system won't hit the streets until the second half of the year. But you can get a good idea of what Symbian S^3 will look like by checking out the video at the top of this post.

[via Engadget]

S^3 smartphone OS gets the video preview treatment originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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