From Symbian Developer Community

This page provides an overview of the Symbian^2 release. After a brief introduction it dives into an area-by-area spec sheet that summarises the key features in the platform as of this release.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Spec Sheet 2.1 Data Communications 2.1.1 Multi-homed TCP/IP Connectivity 2.1.2 IP app protocols 2.1.3 IP Connection management 2.1.4 Net Protocols 2.1.5 Networking Services 2.1.6 VPN Client 2.1.7 WLAN 2.2 Device Connectivity 2.2.1 Desktop Connectivity & PC Suite 2.2.2 DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) Services 2.2.3 Printing 2.2.4 Remote Connectivity 2.2.5 Remote Storage Framework 2.2.6 UPnP device architecture 2.2.7 Shortlink 2.2.8 Shortlink Services 2.3 Device Management 2.3.1 Remote Management Application Daemons 2.4 Location 2.4.1 Location 2.4.2 Location Based System 2.5 Multimedia 2.5.1 MMF (Multimedia Framework) 2.5.2 MDF (Multimedia Device Framework) 2.5.3 Media Player frameworks 2.5.4 Content metadata manager 2.5.5 Imaging Extension 2.5.6 Others 2.6 Multimedia Applications 2.7 OS Base Services 2.7.1 ARM Processor Family 2.7.2 Power resource manager 2.7.3 FAT performance improvements 2.7.4 XML DOM parser 2.7.5 Symbian SQL 2.7.6 Standard C support 2.7.7 Basic Std C++ support 2.8 Personal Communications 2.8.1 IP Telephony 2.8.2 Real-Time Media Sharing 2.8.3 Telephony 2.8.4 Packet Data 2.8.5 Video Telephony 2.8.6 Quality-of-Service framework 2.8.7 Support for multiple primary and secondary PDP contexts 2.8.8 Third party OTA API 2.8.9 OMA PoC Engine 2.8.10 Messaging 2.9 Productivity 2.9.1 Home Screen 2.9.2 Messaging and Email 2.9.3 IM and Conversations 2.9.4 Personal organizer 2.9.5 Contacts 2.9.6 Utility Applications 2.10 Runtimes 2.10.1 Open Environments 2.10.2 Web 2.11 Security 2.11.1 Security, Privacy and Content Protection 2.11.2 Security Management 2.12 User Interface 2.12.1 Video Outputs 2.12.2 Screen Resolution 2.12.3 Screen Color Depth 2.12.4 Graphics 2.12.5 System GUI Frameworks 2.12.6 Input Methods 2.12.7 Feedback Methods 3 See also 4 Notes

Introduction

Symbian^2 (pronounced Symbian two) is the first open version of the Symbian platform. It extends Symbian^1 with a number of features, including home screen support for embedded widgets, flexible support for different form factors and input methods, and an improved location event framework.

Symbian^2 was marked functionally complete by the Release Council in August and is now focussed on remaining stable but remains open to defect fixes.

Product development kits for Symbian^2 are available here. They are available to developers in member companies only.

Further information is available about:

• The S^2 kit release
• The S^2 Hardening progress.
• The Symbian^2 Proposed API baseline
• The Symbian^2 feature list.

Spec Sheet

This section provides a clear overview of the supported features, protocols and technologies that make up the Symbian Platform as of Symbian^2. This is a full features list rather than a delta, but is necessarily a summary as it is a single page reference. The list is organized by Technology Domain and then Package and provides links to further information about areas and features where possible.

This spec sheet is maintained by the community. If you see a clear error or omission please correct it, and if unsure please use the comment feature or discuss in the forums.

Data Communications

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Multi-homed TCP/IP Connectivity

IP app protocols

• SIP Framework
• SDP (Session Description Protocol)
• Sigcomp (Signal Compression)
• SIP client resolver, SIP profile agent
• SIP plugins, SIP provider plugins
• RTP, SRTP

IP Connection management

• Automatic IP connection
• Contention management  
• IP connection monitoring   
• Always-on service for PDP contexts

Net Protocols

• HTTP 1.1 (as defined by RFC 2616)
• HTTP Transport Framework
• HTTP Protocol Handler Plug-in
• HTTP Transport Plug-in
• HTTP filters
• URI Permission Services
• Bookmark Support
• WAP Base
• Reference ftp and telnet client engines

Networking Services

• Transmission control protocol (TCP)
• User datagram protocol (UDP)
• Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)
• Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
• Point to point protocol (PPP)
• Ethernet network interface
• Dynamic host configuration protocol version 4 & 6 (DHCPv4 & DHCP v6)
• Domain Name systems (DNS)
• Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
• Transport Layer Security (TLS)

VPN Client


• IKE version 1 (IETF RFC 2409)
• IKE version 2 (IETF RFC 4306)

WLAN

• Hotspot Framework
• 802.11 b/g/n
• 802.11e (partially)
• 802.11i
• WMM
• WPA/WPA2

Device Connectivity

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Desktop Connectivity & PC Suite

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) Services

• Home Media application
• Home Sync
• UPnP Framework

Printing

• PictBridge
• Bluetooth
• DPOF
• UPnP (WLAN)

Remote Connectivity

• MTP (media transport protocol) v1.0 ^[1]
• File Management
• PTP support
• Backup and Restore Engine

Remote Storage Framework

• Mapping of remote drives (Internal, External & Removable drives)
• WebDAV support
• SDP Plugin Framework

UPnP device architecture

• Extendable for mDNS/DNS-SD etc

Shortlink

• USB v2.0 High Speed Client
• Mass storage, ACM, WHCM
• Bluetooth v2.1
  • L2CAP, RFCOMM, SDP, GAP and SPP
  • OPP, FTP, AVCTP, PBAP, and PAN
  • Bluetooth stereo headset support (GAVDP and AVRCP)
• IrDA
• Serial Ports

Shortlink Services

• Obex over Bluetooth, USB and IrDA
• HID and DUN over Bluetooth

Device Management

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Remote Management Application Daemons

• Over-the-air firmware upgrade (FOTA)
• OMA Client Provisioning v1.1
• OMA Data Synchronization v1.2
• OMA Device Management v1.2

Location

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Location

• GPS, A-GPS (terminal-assisted / terminal- based) and network-based positioning
• Mobile originated and mobile terminated requests (including emergency requests)
• Network Adaptation plugins
• Data Source modules
  • Built-in AGPS
  • Off-device (Bluetooth GPS) hardware.
• Location Server
• Basic Location Info Display (BLID)
• SUPL^[1]
• Landmarks Engine
• Map and Navigation framework
• Generic positioning plug-ins

Location Based System

• Location Based Triggering

Multimedia

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MMF (Multimedia Framework)

• AV capture and playback services to applications

MDF (Multimedia Device Framework)

• Access to accelerated codecs
• A3F (Advanced Audio Adaptation Framework) layer for easier hardware integration

Media Player frameworks

• playlist parsing
• album art handling
• content listing

Content metadata manager

• Harvester engine for automatically building metadata database
• Querying engine providing metadata services to applications

Imaging Extension

• Image capture
• Image processing
• JPEG2000 codec
• EXIF
• Video encoding

Others

• Thumbnail Manager
• TV Output engine

Multimedia Applications

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• Camera Apps
• Image Editor Apps
• Video Editor Apps
• Multimedia Gallery Apps
• Video Player Apps
• Photos
• Video Center
• Music Player Apps
• Radio Apps
• Voice Recorder Apps
• Image Viewer's UIs

OS Base Services

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ARM Processor Family

• ARM9E (ARM9E - ARM Processor Family)
• ARM11 (ARM11 - ARM Processor Family)
• ARM Cortex A8 (ARM Cortex-A8 - ARM Processor)
• ARM Cortex A9 (ARM Cortex-A9 Single Core Processor - ARM Processor)

Power resource manager

• kernel-side Resource Manager API for managing power-related resources - eg voltage lines, clock lines, power domains

FAT performance improvements

• File server performance improvements from Memory card DMA transfers
• Optimised FAT cluster handling
• alignment of FAT user data area to media block boundaries

XML DOM parser

• DOM parsing provided by libxml2 XML engine

Symbian SQL

• Integrated SQLite client/server database optimised for mobile (performance, robustness on flash media etc)

Standard C support

• Including PIPS and OpenC
• Libc
• libpthread
• libdl
• libm
• Libssl
• libcrypt
• libz
• glib

Basic Std C++ support

• Static linking old STLPort
• Boost libraries
• Real-Time Graphics and Audio (RGA) APIs

Personal Communications

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IP Telephony

• VOIP over SIP

Real-Time Media Sharing

Telephony

• Multimode Etel (2.5G / 3G / 3.5G)
• SMS (3GPP TS 23.040 V6.5.0)
• EMS (3GPP TS 23.040 V4.5)
• SIM Application Toolkit
• SIM and USIM support
• GSM Phase 2+
• WCDMA (3GPP R4, R5 and R6 IMS support)

Packet Data

• HSCSD
• GPRS, classes A, B and C (R97/98)
• EDGE (CSD and GPRS)
• HSDPA / HSUPA

Video Telephony

Quality-of-Service framework

Support for multiple primary and secondary PDP contexts

Third party OTA API

OMA PoC Engine

Messaging

• IM
• MMS+SMIL
• SMS
• OMA Multimedia Messaging Service v1.3

Productivity

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Home Screen

• Swiping mode between Content and Clean HomeScreen
• Dynamic content

• WRT Miniview
• Native control

• Orientation support (Landscape/Portrait)
• Finger optimized customization

Messaging and Email

• Application suite covering:

• Email
• Messaging Center
• Notification dialogs and handlers
• Viewer and Editor UI controls

• Plug-in framework for messaging and email protocols, including implementations for:

• IMAP4, including IDLE support, RFC2177 and RFC 3501
• POP3, implementation compliant with RFC 1939
• SMTP, implementation compliant with RFC 2821
• SMTP Service Extension for Authentication, RFC 2554, Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security, RFC 3207
• Secure email using TLS with IMAP, POP3, and ACAP, RFC 2595

• Application services provided to access messaging features, such as:

• Sending messages
• Accessing messaging store

• Other supported mobile messaging features include:

• OBEX messaging
• audio messaging
• OTA configuration messages
• smart messages

IM and Conversations

• Conversations application

• Integrated IM
• Presence
• VoIP

• XIMP Framework for messaging protocols, including:

• XMPP
• Extensible through extra plugins
• SMS Service activation

Personal organizer

• Calendar
• Clock
• Alarms
• Notepad with SyncML support
• Generic device Search
• User interface controls including:

• Meeting editors used by calendar and email.
• Advanced calendaring features

• vCalendar 1.0 compliance
• iCalendar 2.0 (RFC 2446)
• Support for calendar attachments and location data
• Interoperability with Lotus and Microsoft Exchange servers.
• Flexible customization framework
• Regional plugins
• Extensible search plug-in framework, with data providers for:

• Contacts
• Calendar
• Music

Contacts

• Phonebook
• Call Logs
• Interoperability
• vCard 2.1 compliance
• SIM synchronization engine
• Application Services and APIs for managing contact data
• UI Controls for editing and viewing contacts
• Predictive contact search features based on T9
• Presence cache and buddy list with a simple contact presence API
• Phonebook extensibility to add extra service tabs (XSPs)

Utility Applications

• File Manager

• Including UI controls for file system access.

• Calculator
• About
• Dictionary
• Converter

Runtimes

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Open Environments

• Symbian C++
• Standard ANSI C libraries including partial POSIX support (P.I.P.S)

Web

• HTML & XHTML Over TCP/IP
• OSS WebKit-based browser
• Web Runtime 1.1 (for widgets)

Security

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Security, Privacy and Content Protection

• Application security based on capabilities
• File system data caging using application secure identifiers
• Symmetric encryption: DES, 3DES, RC2, ARC4 and AES
• Asymmetric encryption: DSA and RSA
• Hash and message digest algorithms: MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512 and HMAC
• Cryptographic token framework
• Content Access Framework for Digital Rights Management (DRM)
• OMA DRM 1.0 and OMA DRM 2.0
• IPSec and VPN client support, including IKEv1 and IKEv2
• SSLv3 and TLS 1.0

Security Management

• Secure Software Install
• Certificate management (X.509v3 certificates)
• Revocation checking (On-line Certificate Status Protocol)

User Interface

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Video Outputs

• Single or Multiple Displays
• TV-Out

Screen Resolution

• nHD (640x360)

Screen Color Depth

• up to 24bits

Graphics

• Bitmap font
• Vector font support

• advanced font effects

• 2D and 3D graphics support

• OpenGL ES
• OpenVG

System GUI Frameworks

• Flexible application and UI frameworks
• Control and windowing environments
• Home Screen MiniView

Input Methods

• Touch Screen
• Full Qwerty
• Half Qwerty
• Keypad
• Combined input (Keypad/Keyboard, Keyboard/Touch)

Feedback Methods

• Basic tactile feedback

See also

• Symbian^2 Public API List
• Symbian^2 Compatibility Breaks
• Symbian^1
• Symbian^3
• Symbian^4
• Symbian platform plan

Notes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Not currently available in repositories, but will be before hardening completion

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