A new user interface for the Symbian OS is coming to Nokia handsets, MyNokiaBlog has found. Images from a press conference in China reveal the company's flagship N8 running the new software. Believed to apply mostly to existing Symbian^3 devices, a new homescreen moves the battery, signal, time and carrier symbols to a small bar atop the screen to save space.
The widgets aren't confined to a rectangular area with six per screen like in past interfaces, and there are three new soft buttons at the bottom of the screen, believed to represent the call, options and menu functions.
During the presentation, Nokia also promised completely new devices, improved hardware performance, updates delivered over the air and an ongoing Qt development. Installation of new software is promised to be easy and controlled by the user.
Overall, the new interface is said to look more like Android OS and may be an attempt to court users during the transition over to Windows Phone.
