UIQ is Alive - New UIQ 3.3 Has Been Unveiled

Today UIQ Technology announced the availability of UIQ 3.3. It's based on Symbian OS v 9.3 build, making it possible for mobile phone manufacturers to produce different kinds of phones on the same software platform.

It looks like that the new version of the long awaited Opera Mobile 9 will be incorporated in UIQ 3.3. New UIQ includes an extensively enhanced version of Opera browser (9.5) with an improved user experience of browsing on the mobile phone including faster page loads, a new layout engine and a new intuitive user interface including page overview and panning. It also includes a Widget Manager making it possible to see, run, download and remove widgets on the phone.

Some new abilities of the UIQ 3.3:

Full web experience: Opera Mobile 9, with its fast page rendering and its Pan & Zoom functionalities, offers the web experience of a full-scale browser in a mobile environment

UIQ Dashboard: UIQ 3.3 is prepared for mobile widgets and features a dashboard, accessible system wide by pushing the widget button

Opera Widgets: Opera widgets run on UIQ 3.3, offering the user direct access to content and opening up for new mobile services

Unified Messaging Platform: integrated communication experience
Java JSR 248 MSA Fullset: Developers can create and deploy a wide range of applications using the Mobile Services Architecture (MSA)

Except of those new futures, UIQ 3.3 opens some new opportunities for developers too.

Antony Edwards, Vice President Developer Product Marketing, Symbian, said:

"UIQ 3.3 will bring a host of new opportunities for developers wanting to innovate on a powerful user interface platform, including new APIs such as SQL. Symbian OS v 9.3 strengthens the offering for handset manufacturers with its robust and scalable OS, enhanced phone performance and hardware capabilities, allowing them to bring differentiated phones to market more quickly."

The beta version of the SDK for UIQ 3.3 on Symbian OS v 9.3 is already available for downloading on developer.uiq.com

I'm glad that we have some news from UIQ - new user interface with new abilities, I only hope that it will be available not for only new Sony Ericsson handsets, but for some old ones, for example for P1i, I really hope...