Information on what will be exhibited at Symbian Developer Expo 2002

This piece accompanies a feature of the Symbian Developer Expo 2002 which can be found here. At the Expo many companies will be exhibiting. This is a rough guide to what can be expected at the Expo from non hardware exhibitors. A seperate article will shortly deal with what we can expect to see from the big hardware companies (Nokia, Sony Ericsson and possibly more). Even if you don't intend to go it is worth a read to find out what is happening with Symbian and its partners and what may be coming soon... The list is not comprehensive, buth rather presents the information that I was able to find that was interesting:

EMCC:
EMCC are Experts in Mobile Connected Computing, specialising in providing Symbian OS services. EMCC provide consultancy, development and training to Symbian, its licensees and other companies. We also specify and develop innovative applications that utilise the full potential of Symbian OS, including an m-commerce solution and range of connected games.
Website: http://www.emccsoft.com/

Rafe says: EMCC have been associated with EPOC for a long time and have an intimate understanding of the Symbian OS. It will be interesting to see what exactly they are planning to show. You can be sure though that there development and consultancy skills will be to the fore.

Intuwave:
Intuwave's product, m-Network, enables time-critical enterprise data and business logic to be distributed to a mobile workforce. m-Network is a set of innovative, standards- based middleware components that together provide the levels of application reliability, usability and richness demanded by the enterprise. m-Network provides an underlying environment in which applications can provide facilities such as guaranteed transactions and off-line operation, despite the inherent limitations of wireless communications.
Website: http://www.intuwave.com/

Rafe says: Intuwave m-Network is an important Symbain based corporate solution. It is this sort of software rather than consumer software that will make the difference in the corporate environment. It is this environment in which Symbian has concentrated much effot and it paid off. Symbian represet a very viable solution for corporate groups looking for wireless communications based technology implementations.

Superscape:
Superscape's lightweight 3D graphics engine, currently running in native code on the Nokia 9210, offers mobile phone developers the opportunity to develop services. On display was a 3D shooter, called Cosmic Blast and an innovative 3D messaging application allowing 3D animations to be exchanged between mobile phones. See the screenshot below, but check out the Superscape website for more details. The 3D engine comes in 'light', 'standard' and 'enhanced' versions and the company aims to have a Java MIDP version available for demonstration at Symbian Developer Expo.
Website: http://www.superscape.com/

Rafe says: Games are always the biggest sellers in 3rd party program so to see something like this os good news. Hopeully we'll see plenty of games resulting from the 3D engine. The messaging applications sould like fun, although I'm not sure how fair it get - afterall other mobiles wont be able to recieve such messages. A screenshot of the game is shown below:

PacketVideo:
PacketVideo is demonstrating the brand new pv3 multimedia delivery system, which inludes encoding, transmission and decoding products that enable delivery of audio and visual content to Symbian OS phones. With MPEG-4 based technology, and dynamic rate control, pv3 ensures integrity of data in unpredictable wireless environments and to varying hardware. More than 1,400 developers work closely with PacketVideo's Global Developer Network, building multimedia applications. You can find out more about pv3, which was released 18th of February, at Developer Expo.
Website: http://www.packetvideo.com/

Rafe says: PacketVideo have been a Symbian partner for quite some time. Indeed there technology is already used in the 9210. It is great to see the partnership continue. Undoubtedly multimedia will be one of the key applications of wireless technology and this represents one portion of this.

Beatnik:
Beatnik is headed up by Thomas Dolby, known for a succession of hits in the 80s and 90s. The Beatnik Audio Engine is a highly efficient audio platform that can be integrated into Symbian OS phones. Unlike other sound engines, it is a full midi synthesizer rather than a linear digitized sound player. This delivers high-quality audio in a small file size, delivering a better experience to mobile phone users. MobileBAE is the latest version of the engine, announced 20th of February, and is an open, standard and modular offering designed to enable ease of development on a wide range of form factors. Professional developer tools for PC-side sound composition and editing are expected 1H 2002, along with a commercial version of the new software. Further previews will take place at Developer Expo.
Website: http://www.beatnik.com/

Rafe says: Beatnik is another parts of Symbian's multimedia strategy. With the audio engine built into the OS audio performance is much better than before and offers excellent scope for auido on wireless devices.

Metrowerks:
Metrowerks is demonstrating the first fully-integrated tools for Symbian OS applications and service developers. CodeWarrior development tools for Symbian OS Professional Edition is the integrated development environment of choice for the Symbian community. With native support for C++ and PersonalJava, these tools provide everything to get applications and services to market quickly and with a minimum of fuss. Metrowerks is a Gold Sponsor at Developer Expo and will be demonstrating how to develop, debug, and compile applications, build projects, use mobile phone specific SDKs and improve your development time. Metrowerks staff say that they hope to preview more Symban OS v7.0 development tools at the show.
Website: http://www.metrowerks.com/

Rafe says: The Symbian OS is a complex beast and developing for it is a demanding skill. Metrowerks applications are going to make this easier and bring development for Symbian platform to a whole new group of developers. With programs one of the lifebloods of any device this is of course an important part of the future.

Picsel:
Picsel builds a multimedia delivery engine called Interactive File Viewer, which handles virtually any type of document without the need for repurposing content. Demonstrations of its technology are being run on a prototype Symbian OS device from Sanyo, based on a reference design for pen-based mobile phones. Using an ARM7 processor, it's a lightning-quick demo, showing just how powerful Symbian OS is. Network operators have been showing great interest in Picsel's carrier solution, a client-server technology for packet-switched networks converging email and attachments, web and document browsing, video and games. Picsel staff say they expect to widely demonstrate the Carrier Solution at Developer Expo as Gold Sponsor.
Website: http://www.picsel.com/

Rafe says: More multimedia solutions for Symbian. Something like this is very important. One percieved (if not actual) weakness of the Symbian OS is the fact that it is not directly compatiable with the desktop (but then nor is any mobile OS despite what Micrsoft might have you belive). The software of Picsel means that many multimedia formats are viewable. Also interesting is the fact that this will be a chance to see the Sanyo prototype for the first time in Europe.

Symbian AB:
Symbian AB, which is based in Sweden, has been responsible for the development of user interfaces in Symbian since 1998. Announced 20th of February, UIQ is their latest and most exciting product yet. This Symbian OS user interface for pen-based mobile phones (previously code-named Quartz), has evolved into a product called UIQ, based on Symbian OS v7.0. A key benefit of UIQ is that it is a highly customizable user interface, enabling mobile phone manufacturers to rapidly bring new products to market. Symbian AB is exhibiting this new UI at Developer Expo and beta SDKs will be available there.

Rafe says: This is basically a divsion with in Symbian but through them people visiting the Expo will have a great opportunity to find out more about UIQ (previously Quartz). The SonyEricsson products that are due for announcement shortly (or at least one of them) use UIQ.

NeuVoice:
NeuVoice is demonstrating its speech recognition software, a compact application suite that offers 'command and control' functions to allow voice enabling of applications. Highlights include 'digit dialling' (speaking a number to dial it) and speaker ID (identifying the caller by their voice). Much of the functionality NeuVoice provides is for mobile phone manufacturers at the embedded level, but sdks are available for developing applications and services and the NeuVoice dialler for the Nokia 9210 is being launched 18th of March. NeuVoice expects to demonstrate a new application using the advanced multimedia capabilities of the Nokia 7650 at Developer Expo.
Website: http://www.neuvoice.com/

Rafe says: This could be a really killer solution for Symbian based phones. Voice is the great control mechanism that everyone has. No more fiddling with a small keypad! Due for release very soon!

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