For those waiting for a definitive reference on Symbian C++ development for Series 60, this book fulfils all expectations. Series 60 is currently the best selling mobile platform, being deployed on devices from manufacturers such as Nokia, Siemens, Samsung, etc. It is difficult to find a topic not covered by this book, and given the lack of documentation provided by the SDK, it becomes a must-have in your bookshelf.

The book could be split into three parts. The first part comprises basic stuff such as building and deployment process, Symbian fundamental APIs and application framework (comparable to the MVC pattern). It is fundamental to understand these chapters to understand the rest of the book.

The second part refers to UI gadgets, starting with an explanation of basic controls, event handling, menus, etc. Following chapters provide description of dialogs, lists, notes, editors and many other system widgets.

Lastly, more advanced stuff, such as communications programming (sockets, TCP/IP, IrDA, Bluetooth, HTTP, messaging and telephony), multimedia framework, system engines and views, and finally testing and debugging.

Of course, no book covers all possible topics. The information you will find on some chapters (communications is an example) is the essential you will need to get started. For other advanced topics, such as client-server architecture, multithreading, etc. you will need to look for other material.

One of the things I liked most of this book is the quantity and quality of examples (which are available online) which feature working applications, so they are ready to build and run on your emulator and smartphone.

If you are on your first steps with Series 60 development get this book, you will not be disappointed. As I read somewhere, it might well be considered the "Charles Petzold" for Series 60 platform development.