RIP Symbian, Hello iPhone 4

The joint announcement from Nokia’s Kai Öistämö and Microsoft’s Andy Lees last month had formally declared the death of Symbian. The new N8’s and E7’s may well be the last emperors of the Symbian dynasty.

In reality, the Symbian applications community has been languishing for a long time, far behind the new comers. Trying to find a decent internet radio software today, the only option I could find was Nokia Internet Radio. I installed in on my N95 and it soon crashed my phone and caused it to reboot. Such problems have been reported back in 2008. Yet, it seems that nothing has been done.

On the other hand there are far more software in the iPhone and Android communities. Take internet radio for example, TuneIn supports just about any mobile OS except Symbian. It has access to over 40,000 stations and runs very smoothly on my new iPhone 4. It’s a far cry from the pathetic Nokia Internet Radio.

I had never owned any Apple product until yesterday – after some nagging I bought a white iPhone 4 for Rose. I always thought Apple products were for women and children for two reasons:

1. they look cool
2. they are easy to use

But after playing with the iPhone 4, I changed my mind – it’s not easy to use at all! It’s just as bad as any other products, if not worse.

First of all, you cannot even start using the iPhone without a MicroSIM card. At least, my trusted N95 could work without SIM card and function normally except for telco services. So the first hurdle for me was to cut my normal SIM card with scissors and make it into a MicroSIM. I was amazed that it actually worked!.

After that, I had to register on AppStore by providing my private information. Even if you want to install a free software, you are still required to put in your credit card detail - what the heck?!

Then I found that the iPhone refused to load any of my music files that were accumulated over the years – not even the polyphonic ring tone that I have been using for years. That was the final straw. I had no option but to jailbreak, after which the whole user experience became much more acceptable. At least the process was much easier and quicker than cracking my N95.

Now the women and children in my household can better enjoy the over hyped iPhone 4 before they get bored with it, just like the old XM5800.