iOS Siri

Siri is an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator which works as an application on supported devices. The service, directed by the user's spoken commands, can do a variety of different tasks, such as call or text someone, open an app, search the web, lookup sports information, find directions or locations, and answer general knowledge questions (e.g. "How many cups are in a gallon?"). Siri was updated in iOS 7 with a new interface, faster answers, Wikipedia, Twitter, and Bing support and the voice was changed to sound more human. Siri is currently only available on the iPhone 4S and later iPhones, the fifth-generation iPod Touch, the iPad Mini, and the third-generation and later iPads.

Android Interface

Android's user interface is based on direct manipulation, using touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects.^[48] The response to user input is designed to be immediate and provides a fluid touch interface, often using the vibration capabilities of the device to provide haptic feedback to the user. Internal hardware such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and proximity sensors are used by some applications to respond to additional user actions, for example adjusting the screen from portrait to landscape depending on how the device is oriented, or allowing the user to steer a vehicle in a racing game by rotating the device, simulating control of a steering wheel.Android devices boot to the homescreen, the primary navigation and information point on the device, which is similar to the desktop found on PCs. Android homescreens are typically made up of app icons and widgets; app icons launch the associated app, whereas widgets display live, auto-updating content such as the weather forecast, the user's email inbox, or a news ticker directly on the homescreen. A homescreen may be made up of several pages that the user can swipe back and forth between, though Android's homescreen interface is heavily customisable, allowing the user to adjust the look and feel of the device to their tastes. Third-party apps available on Google Play and other app stores can extensively re-theme the homescreen, and even mimic the look of other operating systems, such as Windows Phone.^[53] Most manufacturers, and some wireless carriers, customise the look and feel of their Android devices to differentiate themselves from their competitors.Present along the top of the screen is a status bar, showing information about the device and its connectivity. This status bar can be "pulled" down to reveal a notification screen where apps display important information or updates, such as a newly received email or SMS text, in a way that does not immediately interrupt or inconvenience the user. In early versions of Android these notifications could be tapped to open the relevant app, but recent updates have provided enhanced functionality, such as the ability to call a number back directly from the missed call notification without having to open the dialer app first. Notifications are persistent until read or dismissed by the user.

Windows mobile features

Most versions of Windows Mobile have a set of standard features, such as multitasking and the ability to navigate a file system similar to that of Windows 9x and Windows NT, with support for many of the same file types. Much like its desktop counterpart, it comes bundled with a set of applications to perform basic tasks. Internet Explorer Mobile is the default web browser and Windows Media Player is the default media player used for playing digital media. Microsoft Office Mobile, the mobile versions of Microsoft Office, is the default office suite.Internet Connection Sharing, supported on compatible devices, allows the phone to share its Internet connection with computers via USB and Bluetooth. Windows Mobile support virtual private networking (VPN) over PPTP protocol. Most devices with mobile connectivity include a Radio Interface Layer (RIL). RIL provides the system interface between the CellCore layer within the Windows Mobile OS and the radio protocol stack used by the wireless modem hardware. This allows OEMs to integrate a variety of modems into their equipment.

The user interface has changed much between versions but the basic functionality has remained similar. Today Screen, later called the Home Screen, shows the current date, owner information, upcoming appointments, e-mail messages, and tasks. Taskbar shows the current time and the audio volume and of devices with a cellular radio the signal strength.Windows Mobile has supported third party software the original Pocket PC implementations.

Palm OS Applications

Starting with Palm OS version 5.2, Palm created customized versions of the common PIM application. Some new features have been added, e.g. support for Address categories, Ringtone associations to users, longer memo texts, etc.. They were also renamed to reflect designations from Microsoft Outlook, thus Address became Contacts, Datebook became Calendar, Memo Pad became Memos and To do list became Tasks.Blazer is a web browser for Palm handhelds. The versions 1.0 and 2.0 run on Palm OS 3.1 or higher handhelds, but they needed a proxy server which has been shut down, so they can no longer be used. Version 3.0 is used on the Treo 600 smartphone. The current version of Blazer is Blazer 4.5, which is compliant with most major standards. It is generally bundled with newer smartphones and newer Palm devices capable of accessing the Internet.

Note Pad

Palm's Note Pad can be used for quick drawings. With neat handwriting, 20-30 words will fit on one page; for more text, Memo Pad is the better choice. There are three sizes of pen width, plus an eraser and a background color change feature in some models. It is possible to draw a very simple map. The more "advanced" desktop version saves the Memo pad drawings to the desktop.As of 2006, most new Palm handhelds include Photos, which creates a digital photo album used to view pictures on a Palm OS device. As with all the other photo programs, photos can be beamed to other mobile devices. Each photo can be labeled and organized into separate photo albums. A slideshow can also be shown for a specific album, and each photo in the album will be shown full screen.

Photos can be edited with the Palm Photos PC software (Windows only), and when the photos are transferred to the handheld they will contain all changes made to the photo.The Palm Photos software is available in the Zire 71, Tungsten C, Tungsten E, Tungsten T2, Tungsten T3 and several others.With the support for Video, Palm Photos was later renamed to Media and even later to Pics& Videos.Some models feature the ability to make voice recordings which are synced using the Voice conduit and can be viewed on a desktop with the Voice Memo application which is part of the Palm Desktop Suite.

Symbian QT Applications

As of 2010, the SDK for Symbian is standard C++, using Qt. It can be used with either Qt Creator, or Carbide (the older IDE previously used for Symbian development). A phone simulator allows testing of Qt apps. Apps compiled for the simulator are compiled to native code for the development platform, rather than having to be emulated. Application development can either use C++ or QML.

Bada OS Apps

With the release of the Samsung Wave, Samsung opened an international application store, Samsung Apps, for the Bada platform. Samsung Apps has over 2400 applications. This store is also available for Android and Samsung feature phones.

Phones with BlackBerry email client

Several non-BlackBerry mobile phones have been released featuring the BlackBerry email client which connects to BlackBerry servers. Many of these phones have full QWERTY keyboards.

• AT&T Tilt
• HTC Advantage X7500
• HTC TyTN
• Motorola MPx220, some models
• Nokia 6810
• Nokia 6820
• Nokia 9300
• Nokia 9300i
• Nokia 9500
• Nokia Eseries phones, except models Nokia E66, Nokia E71
• Qtek 9100
• Qtek 9000
• Samsung t719
• Siemens SK65
• Sony Ericsson P910
• Sony Ericsson P990
• Sony Ericsson M600i
• Sony Ericsson P1