Tuesday, July 10, 2007

What is UIQ3

UIQ is a Graphical User Interface for the Symbian operating system, a popular OS for "smartphones" (mobile phones typically equipped with office applications, multimedia capabilities, and other programmable PDA-like features).

UIQ stands for "User Interface Quartz", and the name is derived from the codename of "Quartz" given to the first touchscreen interface developed for Symbian.

UIQ3, as the name suggests, is the third iteration of UIQ. UIQ1 was a test system and never commercially released, whilst UIQ2 was used to great success in Sony Ericsson's original "P series" of smartphones - the P800, P900, and P910 - in addition to a handful of Motorola and BenQ handsets.
On which devices do I find it?

UIQ3 is used in the Sony Ericsson P990i , M600i , W950i And New Upcoming P1i and W960i.

In February 2007 Motorola introduced the MotoRizr Z8 which also features UIQ3. Release is scheduled for April 2007.

Like Nokia's Series 60, UIQ3 is a User Interface (or front end) for Symbian OS v9.1. Originally, the key difference between the two was the use of a touchscreen in UIQ, as opposed to entirely keypad-based input in Series 60, but this distinction is now blurred as UIQ3 is also appearing in phones without touchscreens (such as the MOTORIZR mentioned above). The intention with UIQ3 is to have a single, binary-compatible UI that can be deployed across a range of very different handsets and form factors.
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