Symbian in Motion

It’s no mystery that SkyeQuiKey is one of my favorite S60 apps - I’ve mentioned it plenty of times here on SiMo. Long story short, it’s a contact / application / game / bookmark / new message launcher that allows you to type directly from your Active Standby screen to pull up and launch your desired item. Thanks to a post from Stefan on Jaiku I’ve learned of a new SQK competitor that is currently available as a free beta. The following are my thoughts on T9nav as found in Stefan’s thread.

It’s a nice attempt at a competitor IMO but it has some big flaws… Here’s how they match up in my eyes:

T9nav Wins…

1. Less RAM consumption: ~265KB (T9nav) vs. ~965KB (SQK) [of course in modern S60 phones the impact is minuscule]
2. Ability to save a number to contacts: This is important and it’s basic functionality that SQK should have had from day 1.

T9nav Loses…

1. No history: SkyeQuiKey maintains a history. For example, because I visit my ESPN bookmark often, when I press 3 for “E” SQK places ESPN at the top of the list.
2. Slooooow to launch: Indexing media files was a horrible idea. Who launches a track but clicking on it in a menu? The first time I launch T9nav it takes over 2 minutes before my search results are shown. Fail. They should add settings to choose which categories should be indexed.
3. Slooooow to use: While keying in digits and navigating around, there are a lot of pauses and jumps.
4. Tabs: In one respect, separating categories into tabs is nice because the app indexes so many things. On the other hand, it eliminates the possibility of dpad shortcuts. I prefer shortcuts - ie: with SQK I can press left with a contact highlighted to open a new SMS to the contact or right to open a new email.

In my eyes, SQK wins by a long shot. It’s infinitely faster and much smarter. T9nav is five times better than digging through menus and apps, but SQK is 10 times better. The app is still in beta though so it is likely being actively developed. Looking forward to future versions…

To check out T9nav for yourself click here

SlingPlayer Mobile by Sling Media

In terms of using my handset for entertainment purposes, my needs begin and end with SlingPlayer Mobile (aside from music of course). I’m not much of a gamer - in fact I think the only game I have on my handset right now is mBounce’s “The Big 2″, a Chinese card game. I can’t even read a word of it but I always did enjoy that game as a child so I play it from time to time. So when it comes time for me to get my entertainment on, I look to SlingPlayer Mobile.

Again, for the full skinny on this awesome app you can check out my review. It lets you stream your home TV, DVR, Tivo, etc directly to your S60 handset as long as you’ve got an internet connection handy. The quality is surprisingly clean and the content is as varied as your TV service provider’s catalog. WiFi and 3G are optimal of course but I have gotten it to work fairly well over EDGE in portrait mode. There is a hardware element as you’ll need to install a slingbox between your cable / satellite box and modem, but the entry model will only run you $130. Well worth it - especially now that baseball season is in full swing! Also if you have an N95 NAM here in the US, SlingPlayer Mobile can be downloaded and used for free from the Download! catalog. Sweet!

SEVEN by SEVEN Networks

There is absolutely no question that above and beyond all other functions, I use email more than anything else on my handsets. More than SMS, more than web and most definitely more than voice calling. As such, it is of the utmost importance that I have a solid email app on my phone. Ease of use, quality of the product, reliability; these are all important factors.

For a long time I settled on Emoze’s solution and even recommended it in my article on AAS a while back. Since that article was written however, SEVEN has made a lot of changes to their product and after just a few days of testing I knew it was now the best available solution for me. Emoze is still the fastest - by far - but the limitation to one account was a big problem for me. At one point in time I was using Emoze for my exchange account, the S60 email client for two IMAP accounts and ProfiMail to pole three POP accounts because ProfiMail doesn’t support IMAP idle but the S60 email app only supports automatic retrieval for two accounts. Ridiculous, I know.

Sure there are still a few issues with the SEVEN email solution, but nothing is perfect. The latest version of SEVEN’s beta is truly terrific though. I have all six of my main email accounts loaded up and it handles them in stride. Exchange, Lotus Notes, POP, IMAP; it pushes them all to ensure your email is in your hands in a timely fashion, regardless of protocol. It syncs my contact with exchange, supports a variety of great functionality and to be frank it’s essentially the only available solution that meets my needs at the moment.

So there you have it. There were plenty of additional apps that came close to making the cut but I wanted to keep the number at five to avoid going on for days. These five have a special place on my handset though and without any one of them my S60 experience would be extremely lacking.

Psiloc’s LBS offering is finally taking shape. While it’s still in early development, features are starting to get flushed out now and the big picture is starting to form. Perhaps most importantly, Locatik has exited closed beta! Users can now go to the website and register or simply go to m.locatik.com to download the latest version and register a new account right from within the app during the setup process. As I’ve said before, I can’t wait to see where Psiloc takes this app.

New features in version 0.97:

• New GPS algorithm implemented - major improvements to battery life
• Messaging feature added -Exchange messages with your friends from within the app (messaging not yet supported on the website)

Also, place support has been added since I last mentioned the app here. You can now go to the Locatik site and add details to your tiks so that all of your friends can see the info you add and the places you mark. If you’re unfamiliar with Locatik, you can check out my earlier mention or just go to the site and check it out.

Best Profiles by SmartphoneWare

Profiles couldn’t be more important to me. As much as I did enjoy my iPhone, it is and was absolutely insane to me that Apple would even consider issuing a handset without profile functionality. S60 on the other hand, provides profiles with relatively flexible settings but no profile management. That is where Best Profiles comes in. You can read my initial review to get a good idea of what the app does, but plenty of functionality has been added since version 1.

Best Profiles essentially manages your profile settings and erases the manual element. The app can change your profile according to a schedule, calendar event, location (cell-based) or even when you plug in your charger. What’s more, Best Profiles can automatically start or close applications with a profile change, enable / disable bluetooth, change the theme and more. The possibilities are nearly endless and if you haven’t experienced the convenient of automatic profile management I highly suggest you remedy the situation with this app.

JoikuSpot Light by Joikusoft

Tethering is sooooo last year. Who wants to deal with the burden and limitations when it comes to getting connectivity on your data-isolated devices? JoikuSpot Light was the first option to offer a better solution for S60 and while it might not be the most diverse, it suits me just fine. JoikuSpot Light transforms your S60 handset into a portable WEP-enabled WiFi hotspot. Using your 3G (or EDGE / GPRS) connection, JoikuSpot Light broadcasts using from standard S60 WiFi and allows any device to connect with ease.

The alternative to this app, WalkingHotspot, is preferred by many but to tell the truth I haven’t been able to get it working on any of my handsets for even a second. Oh well, like I said Joikuspot Light suits me just fine. This app comes in use all the time - I connect to it from my laptops, my fiancee makes use of it with her MacBook in the car on trips, my tablet loves it on the rare occasion I dust it off, and I even used it often with my iPhone before getting rid of it. Just this past Monday in fact, my cable and internet service went down for over three hours. Within a minute or so of the initial outage, I had my home PC connected to 3G via JoikuSpot Light on my N95 8GB and I was up and running.

A recurring question that I always seem to face is “what is your favorite S60 app”? People ask me in person, over email, over IM and even on various social networks. I always have an extremely difficult time answering this question because truth be told, there are tons of apps that could be considered “my favorite” at one time or another. It all depends on the circumstance. If I’m lost on my way to a new destination, Garmin Mobile or Nokia Maps is my favorite app because it gets me where I need to be. If I’m getting close to my monthly SMS limit, UniMessaging Pro is my favorite app because it lets me quickly reply to SMS messages via email without losing the train of thought. If I need to rock out then MyStrands Social Player does the job better than any other mobile player I know. And so on…

The beauty of S60 is that there are hundreds if not thousands of apps to accommodate an amazingly wide range of needs. No two people are the same and in a similar vein, no two S60 users are the same. All of this is well and good but of course it’s a cop-out with regards to the question at hand. “What is my favorite app?” The simple answer is I don’t have a single favorite app. What I can offer however, is a list of five apps that I find myself using most consistently. I would go so far as to say that my S60 experience wouldn’t be anywhere near as rich without any one of them. They’re in no particular order and Nokia apps that ship with the phone (Browser, etc) are omitted.

This post ended up being a bit longer than expected so I’ve split it up into three parts that will run one at a time. Today is the part 1 and includes the first of five apps. Tomorrow will include apps two and three, and Friday will have apps four and five.

SkyeQuiKey by Skyestream

Of all the apps on my handset, SkyeQuiKey has probably done the most in terms of changing the way I use my device - for the better. If you’re not familiar with this great app you can read my review but in a nutshell, SkyeQuiKey give you instant access to all of your contacts, applications and bookmarks right from your standby screen. Simply begin typing the name of your desired item (using T9 on 12-key handsets, qwerty on full-keypad handsets) and SkyeQuiKey will instantly appear and drill down your options as you type.

It also tracks popularity so for example; because I am constantly accessing the Jaiku mobile site through SkyeQuiKey, so when I press the 5 key from standby the Jaiku mobile bookmark is right at the top of the list. There is plenty more functionality in there so hit the full review for more detail. I’s a fantastic app though - I can’t even remember the last time I opened a menu or my contact list…