Professional Quartz Programming

Book excerpt: Quartz is an operating system from Symbian designed specifically for palm-type devices, which use a pen interface and no keyboard, but additionally have a telephone capability. Quartz devices are more than just PDAs - they are communicators. They can be used as a phone, while the user is still browsing or entering data. This could be done using a typical speakerphone approach, or a separate headset using wired or Bluetooth connection to the device. This combination of functionality opens up a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities in application development. Devices using this system are expected to be released from manufacturers (such as Ericsson) in mid-2001. Quartz is part of the EPOC family of platforms, which also includes Crystal, for communicators with keyboards, and Pearl, for smartphones.