Moving to Symbian S60: Useful Utilities

After many years as a Palm OS user, at the beginning of this year I switched to a smartphone running Symbian S60. This is a big undertaking, and I know it's one plenty of other people are contemplating too, so I'm doing a series of editorials on my experiences.

In these last months, my respect for what Nokia has been able to do with its devices has grown. There's a lot of power in the operating system, and the third-party software is impressive.

There are several system utilities that make it faster to get to functions and features. One of the more interesting ones is SkyeQuiKey, which indexes all contacts and applications, and then allows you to launch them from the Active Standby screen simply by typing the name in.

In terms of sheer efficiency, SkyeQuiKey takes many tasks from 3-7 clicks and knocks those to 1-3 max. One of the more interesting aspects happens to be the way it seems to "remember" those contacts you reach out to most, and continue to refine the list of available applications each time it's used.

SkyeQuiKey is $21.55, and there's only a one-day trial, but it took me only a few hours to ensure that this would be on my device.

• SkyeQuiKey

An application that just seems to make too much sense not to have been part of the OS is called FlipSilent. This uses the built-in accelerometer in the N95 (or other Nokia smartphones which have one) to silence calls and alarms by simply flipping the device over.

Now, I admit, FlipSilent has basically turned into the best snooze button ever, but its so simple how could it not. This is a freeware application, and definitely on the must-have list.

• FlipSilent

A second accelerometer-based application that I have been using is called RockNScroll. This adds the auto-screen rotation ability featured in the iPhone, some HTC devices, and later Nokia devices. In addition, it adds the ability to do other actions such as tilting the device to scroll and a push/pull method which lets you select screen and menu items.

Now, some might ask why would something like this come in handy? For me, I spend a lot of time reading long web pages and the Bible, and to be able to just tilt the device to scroll makes for less stress on my fingers than actually pushing buttons. For some web pages, I'm even using this application to make it easier to navigate the browser. In some respects this has replaced my need for a touchscreen. It's pretty slick.

RockNScroll is currently a beta application, but the final version is nearing release and will have more refined features.

• RockNScroll

Another accelerometer-based application from the developers of RockNScroll that I've been playing with is called Hi-N-Bye. This is similar to FlipSilent in that it lets you ignore a call by flipping the device, but it also adds the ability to accept a phone call, switch to speaker phone, or even take a call in the mist of another call, all without touching any buttons.

Admittedly, I've not had as much time with Hi-N-Bye, and so I'm totally clumsy with it. It's like I am treating my N95 like a snowglobe, but at the same time the actions do make a bit of sense.

Hi-N-Bye is still undergoing some beta testing, but it can be seen via demo at the Keynetik website.

• Hi-N-Bye