Symbian releases news at developer conference

LONDON-Symbian was busy releasing news in conjunction with its Exposium03 developer conference held in London this week.

Symbian released the Symbian OS v7.0s, the latest version of the Symbian operating system that includes new third-generation (3G) telephony and networking capabilities, Java MIDP 2.0, a new multimedia framework and support for Arabic and Hebrew languages. The new system has already been delivered to current Symbian operating system (OS) licensees.

Symbian also announced the formation of several new partner programs:

• The Symbian Enterprise Advisory Council will bring vendors together to develop Symbian OS solutions. Solutions from SEAC members Adobe, iAnywhere, Certicom, Extended Systems, IBM, InfoWave, Oracle, RIM, Synchrologic and XcelleNet will be shown at this week’s show.
• The Companion Technology Program will enable the delivery of new technologies to Symbian OS licensees. Beatnik announced it will be a member, and its mobileBAE audio software will be included in the program.
• The Affiliate Partner Program offers support for companies that offer applications, services, content and technologies to add after market value to Symbian OS devices and services.
• In addition, several companies have recently joined the existing Symbian Platinum Partner Program, including Spontaneous Technology, Electrobit and Intel.

Symbian also said it is making its Open Programming Language available to the open source community under LGPL licensing terms.