Mobile Industry Review » UIQ

Nokia phones don’t like SMS

Steve Kennedy — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:10:17 +0000

Various models of Nokia phones are susceptible to a remote exploit by receiving a specially crafted SMS. Phones running Symbian 8 through 9.2 and S60 v2.61 through 3.1, SonyEricsson phones running UIQ are also exploitable.

The attack is “invisible” to the user and causes various problems including the phone refusing to accept further SMS messages and general instability. Soft resetting the phone doesn’t help either, though some versions will work again after a factory reset (which means all user data is lost).

The flaw was reported by the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.

UIQ on last legs

Steve Kennedy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:50:16 +0000

UIQ which was the user interface on top of Symbian developed by SonyEricsson and Motorola, both companies are concentrating on other operating systems and the UIQ business unit has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The main competitor is Nokia’s S60 (which also sits on top of Symbian) and it looks like the Finns have won the user interface race, though there’s still a chance someone may buy the UIQ unit, though it’s looking unlikely especially as Symbian is being made open source.

Nokia is trying to regain it’s market position in the smartphone/touchscreen market – and their phones run Symbian/S60. They just need to ensure they keep it advanced enough so it can compete with Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberries.

Is UIQ going the way of the dodo?

Ewan — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:33:34 +0000

Here’s a question that needs a decent answer. I know we’ve got a heck of a lot of developers reading here on Mobile Industry Review so I’d welcome your perspective:

Is the UIQ platform still viable for developers to support?

Given that its split between UIQ2 and UIQ3 — there are only 20 devices, with the P800 starting things in 2002. With the upcoming S60 touch interface, will UIQ go the way of the dodo?

Or, is it dead already?