Symbian in Motion

Tips & Tricks: Accessing Hidden Apps (Navigator, Landmarks, etc)

by Zach at 11:55 am | February 15th, 2007 | Category: Tips & Tricks

This came up in a conversation with Ricky and as it turns out from checking around several forums, this little trick isn’t as well known as I thought. Did you know that there are several applications on your s60 3rd device that you can’t access? I would think that this will vary from region to region but I have yet to see a device with apps like Navigator, Landmarks, and Positioning freely available in a menu. Why? Don’t ask me. Enough people have been ranting lately so I’m not going to go there…

Using an excellent (and affordable) payware task manager called Best Taskman by Smartphoneware, you can access and launch the various preinstalled apps that Nokia didn’t want to share with you. By the way, in my opinion Best Taskman is certainly true to its name and is by far the best task manager currently available for s60 3rd.

Once you’ve installed Best Taskman you must first enable “Show hidden apps” from within the Misc -> Options menu.

Now simply scroll over to the “Installed” apps view and take a look around. You’ll find a bunch of unfamiliar apps listed there - some can be opened and some can’t.

Landmarks might be an interesting app for some. Using landmarks along with a bluetooth GPS receiver you can record your GPS position and then message it to another s60 3rd device user (or you can enter a position manually). They can then use your “landmark message” to navigate right to your position! Pretty neat when you’re trying to find your friends at a bar across town or meet someone in an unfamiliar city.

You can also save your landmarks, categorize them, and use them for a variety of things. An example is in Handy Weather by Epocware. If your city is not listed in the database you can add it using a landmark instead of having to manually import the lat/long. There would probably be a myriad of creative landmark integrations that developers would come up with if this app was more accessible.

One last thing to note is that some people may have experienced problems when trying to use apps that require an external bluetooth GPS receiver. Within s60 3rd devices there is an app called Positioning that allows you to enable/disable your GPS methods. My N80 for example, shipped with bluetooth GPS disabled and I wasn’t able to use any navigation apps with my Nokia LD-3W until I enabled it.

Perhaps once Smart settings for s60 3rd is released we’ll have an easier way to access these apps but for the time being, Best Taskman is it.

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