LCG Jukebox. Play FLAC on Symbian

LCG Jukebox is music player for mobile devices, that is designed to suit all your music listening desires. It has excellent sound quality, comfortable playlist management, easy music selection, equalizer, Internet streaming, and more. Additionally it can find album image and song lyrics on the Internet, to enhance your listening experience. Simply everything to perfectly enjoy your music collection. Version 2.17 include unspecified updates.

Want to play FLAC? use LCG Jukebox

Download here

List of All Mp3 Players Available for Symbian

====================================

Mp3 Players for S60 v1.x and v2.x
====================================



PowerMP3 by MobiFactor

PowerMP3 will turn your S60 smartphone into powerful MP3, OGG, AAC and MA4 player. PowerMP3 includes a lot of features: Play music in MP3,OGG, AAC and MA4 audio file formats Create custom Playlists to organize your music

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1546&faq=4

ALON MP3 Player by ALONsoftware

An audio player which supports MP3, OGG and WAV - the most popular audio formats with built-in 3-Band Parametric Equalizer. Main features: Supports MP3, OGG and WAV Audio formats Built-in Equalizer for all supported audio formats

Code: Select all
http://www.alonsoftware.com/products/product10.htm

CubiX MP3 Player by Cube Multimedia

High quality MP3 player which lets you create your own playlist, displays amazing 3D visualizations, provides a 10-Band Graphical Equalizer, skinning and much more. CubiX MP3 Player is compatible with all Series 60 smartphones.

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1484&faq=4

MP3 Base Stereo EQ by Mobile Vault

MP3 Base Stereo EQ is a cool music player for your phone. 10-band equalizer is included for optimized music output. Music can be listened through phone speaker or headset. Playlist view lets user manage playlist and delete songs. Playback, pause, stop, next and previous functions are available to control the player. Total play time, elapsed time and audio information is visible on the screen. MP3 Base pauses playback upon incoming call and continues when call is hanged. The program is Symbian Signed.

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1465&faq=4

MP3 Base by Mobile Vault

MP3 Base is a music player for your Series 60 phone. Music can be listened through phone speaker or headset. Playlist view lets users manage playlist and delete songs. Playback, pause, stop, next and previous functions are available to control the player. Total play time, elapsed and audio information time is visible on the screen. MP3 Base pauses playback upon incoming call and continues when call is hanged. The program is Symbian Signed.

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1386&faq=4

MP3 Gravity by Free Gravity Oy

MP3Gravity is an MP3 music player for NOKIA 3600, 3650, 3660 and N-Gage. You can play MP3 songs stored in the main memory or MMC memory card (recommended) in the phone. Load more skins from web or create your own. Features: Support of MP3 music in 24K/32K/64k/128k/256k/320k bitrates.

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=771&faq=4

UltraMP3 by Lonely Cat Games

UltraMP3 is a music player for your mobile phone. It is a handy application with cool graphical user interface, allowing you to listen to your favorite music on your Symbian mobile device. UltraMP3 loads and plays music in MP3 format, as well as MOD, XM etc?

Code: Select all
http://www.lonelycatgames.com/index.php?chapter=ultramp3

Mp3Player by Viking Informatics

Mp3Player is an MPEG Layer 3 audio player for Nokia 7650 and 3650. Supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-2.5 files, from 8kHz to 44.1kHz, from 8kbps to 420kpbs. Features: plays MP3 files (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-2.5); displays bitrate, frequency and mono...

Code: Select all
http://www.viking.tm/product.php?id=1

MP3Go by m-internet.com

MP3Go for Nokia Series 60 is a MP3 music player running on Nokia Series 60 phone such as Nokia 7650/3650, so you can play MP3 songs stored in the main memory or MMC memory card (recommended) Features: Support MPEG-1 layer 3 file in 24K/32K/64k/128..

Code: Select all
http://m-internet.com/mp3gons60/

OggPlay by Leif H. Wilden

OggPlay is an Ogg vorbis audio player for smartphones. Ogg Vorbis is an audio compression format similar to mp3

Code: Select all
http://symbianoggplay.sourceforge.net/

FIVN Player by Loc Nguyen

FIVN Player is created for easy and simple multimedia playback. It has a lot of functions, settings and it supports many sound formats. FIVN Player uses phone plug-ins to play sound files. Formats that the player tries to check if they can be played are: ...

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?faq=4&fldAuto=1348

AACPlayer by Viking Informatics

Features: plays AAC audio encoded files (in .AAC files or in .MP4/.MPA container), supporting Low Complexity (LC) profile; stereo, 44.1kHz playback (if phone supports it); playlist shows all AAC/MP4 files on phone; displays author, title, bitrate, frequency and mono/stereo

Code: Select all
http://www.viking.tm/product.php?id=37

MultiMedia Player by PSI NT (Psiloc)

MMP is an advanced audio player for Nokia 7650. It supports playlists and recognizes all default file formats: MIDI, WAV, AMR, AU etc. MMP is also going to support MP3 files via external plug-in (available soon).

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=91&faq=2

WMAPlus! by Filamoon Workshop

Finally, here comes a WMA player for symbian phones. WMAPlus! is an advanced music player for Symbian OS 7.0 or higher. It is the first Symbian music player that can support Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format except the Nokia N91.

Code: Select all
http://shop.my-symbian.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=695&jid=4X42A9XXA746XC94AFA7A6C88E2XXX4E&platformId=4&productType=2&catalog=0&sectionId=0&productId=175507

SymbPlayer by CoolTel

SymbPlayer is an MP3 player with nice and graphical user interface. You can customize the screen with skins and images from your device. With Playlist Editor you can rearrange the list of songs, and listen in the order you wish. Features: Plays MP...

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1638&faq=4

EzPlay by S-One Telecom

EzPlay is a music player application that supports AMR, WAV, MP3 formats on Series 60 phones. Selectable skins and multiple play lists are also suppoted. ...

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1318&faq=2

XSound by SymbCode

XSound is an mp3 song player with nice and clear graphical user interface. You can customize how to look like the screen with skins and images from your device. With Playlist Editor you can rearrange the list of the songs, and listen in the order you wish.
XSound has the best sound quality ever heard on cellphones. With trial version you can listen 15 minutes music. After it the application is asking for the registration code....

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/software/applications.php?fldAuto=86&faq=14

Moremedia by Omniaway

Audio and video contents can coexist into a playlist : Moremedia switches automatically to the correct graphic user interface. Player commands are displayed on the fullscreen custom user interface and rapidly accessible through the joystick avoiding menu and softkeys interaction. This brings the user to a real one-hand experience.
Videos can be appreciated at full screen size and the player is skinnable loading the images straight from the mobile device's gallery.

Code: Select all
http://my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1695&faq=4

Muzee Music Player by Thobee

Streams: mp3, ogg, aac, aac+ streams broadcasted by SHOUTcast and Icecast2 media servers are now supported, so it brings you almost all internet radios to your ears... (di.fm, soma fm, Virgin Radio, Club 977, HBR1 and many many more ...)

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1744&faq=4

MusicBox by FoxStudio

MusicBox is a music player for Series 60 phones supporting MP3, AMR, MID, and WAV. Play music in MP3, AMR, MID, WAV audio file formats. Support for MPEG-1 layer 3 with 24k/32k/64k/128k/192k/256k/320k bitrate. Smart interface: manage all functions using simply the joystick button

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1352&faq=4

QuodRings by QuodSoftware

QuodRings is a practical music player application for your smart phone, you can use it to conveniently carry and listen to your music files everywhere you go. But QuodRings is more than a common music player as it allows you to use your music files as rin...

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s60/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1163&faq=4

==================================
Mp3 Players for S60 3rd Edition
==================================

Pocket Ogg for S60 3rd Edition by WildPalm

Pocket Ogg by WildPalm is the ultimate OGG Vorbis music player for your S60 3rd Edition smartphone with easy to use playback controls (and also support for Nokia 3250 hardware music controls), high quality gapless playback and full telephone integration - music automatically pauses for incoming ca.. ..

Code: Select all
http://shop.my-symbian.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=695&jid=4X42A9XXA746XC94AFA7A6C88E2XXX4E&platformId=4&productType=2&catalog=0&sectionId=0&productId=193933

Muzee Music Player by Thobee

Muzee is a music player for S60 3rd Edition phones. Features: files: mp3, ogg, aac, mp4, m4a audio files ID3 tags: artist, album, title, genre,... next info: volume, played time streams: mp3, ogg, aac, aac+ streams broadcasted by SHOUTcast an...

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s60v3/software/applications.php?fldAuto=103&faq=14

===========================
Mp3 Players for S80
===========================

Mp3Player Viking Informatics

Mp3Player is an MPEG Layer 3 audio player for Nokia 9300/9500. Supports MPEG-1/2/2.5 files, from 8kHz to 44.1kHz, from 8kbps to 420kpbs. Features: English, German, Spanish, Hungarian; plays MP3 files (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-2.5, ABR, VBR);

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s80/software/applications.php?fldAuto=776&faq=4

OggPlay by Leif H. Wilden

OggPlay is an audio player for Series 80 devices. Oggplay is able to use standard Symbian MMF plugins. MMF (Multimedia Framework) is a feature of Symbian Operating System (SOS) that allows (among other things) 3rd parties to use audio decoder plugins.

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s80/software/applications.php?fldAuto=646&faq=4

UltraMP3 by Lonely Cat Games

UltraMP3 is a music player for your mobile phone. It is a handy application with cool graphical user interface, allowing you to listen to your favorite music on your Symbian mobile device. UltraMP3 loads and plays music in MP3 format, as well as MOD, XM, IT, S3M. The player has built-in playlist editor, which allows you to arrange music files on your phone, and play them in any order you wish. High degree of customization allows you to choose from one of more available skins, and skin editor ships with application -- in a few simple steps you may create your own skin. Handful of nice skins is shipped already with the application.

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s80/software/applications.php?fldAuto=630&faq=4

MultiMedia Player by PSI NT (Psiloc)

MultiMedia Player (MMP) is an audio player for Nokia 9210 Communicator. It supports a wide range of audio formats: MP3, WAV, RA, AU, SND etc. MutiMedia Player has many advantages over the default system player

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s80/software/applications.php?fldAuto=242&faq=4

===========================
Mp3 Players for S90
===========================

UltraMP3 by Lonely Cat Games

UltraMP3 is a music player for your mobile phone. It is a handy application with cool graphical user interface, allowing you to listen to your favorite music on your Symbian mobile device. UltraMP3 loads and plays music in MP3 format, as well as MOD, XM, IT, S3M. The player has built-in playlist editor, which allows you to arrange music files on your phone, and play them in any order you wish. High degree of customization allows you to choose from one of more available skins, and skin editor ships with application -- in a few simple steps you may create your own skin. Handful of nice skins is shipped already with the application.

Code: Select all
http://www.my-symbian.com/s90/software/applications.php?fldAuto=1024&faq=51[size=12][/size]

Nokia N97 Virtual Keyboard

Virtual Keyboard for Nokia N97

Download Files Here
http://rapidshare.com/files/299837290/DayHand.zip

Nokia E71 and E66 get Ovi Maps free navigation

Nokia today announced the availability of Ovi Maps 3.3 (3.03) for the Nokia E71 and E66. The updated version brings the free worldwide pedestrian and car navigation edition of Ovi Maps to these devices. Nokia says the release is a result of listening to consumer feedback: 'you spoke, we listened', says the press release. The E71 and E66 versions do not include the Lonely Planet guides due to technical constraints, but the core navigation offering is the same as that found on more recent devices.

The process of making the latest version of Ovi Maps available for existing devices is quite involved, but the team managed to include complete navigation functionality. Due to technical constraints in back porting the app to existing devices, unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to offer further premium content such as the Michelin and Lonely Planet guides.

The announcement is a follow on from January 21st, when Nokia announced that Ovi Maps was going free.

In the press release, Nokia note that the E71 and E66 will be "the last of our S60 3.1 and older devices to sport this version of Ovi Maps". This means we will not be seeing free navigation support for the Nokia N95 and other S60 3.1 devices. However, as we noted in an earlier story Nokia have reduced the licenses prices significantly for pre-3.3 versions of Ovi Maps, which means navigation is available for older devices at a very low cost.

Ovi Maps 3.3 (3.03) on the E71 and E66

Ovi Maps is a relatively large install and will be placed on the C: drive, so you will need to ensure that you have enough free disk space (recommended 10MB or more) before installing the new version. It will replace any existing version of Ovi Maps or Nokia Maps that is installed on the device.

In usage there are occasions, as with earlier version on the Nokia E71, when Ovi Maps can feel somewhat sluggish compared to more recent devices. However the streamlined user interface is a significant improvement and the new version is a recommended install for all E71 and E66 users, not least for the availability of free car and pedestrian navigation.



Ovi Maps for the Nokia E71 and E66 will be made available via the maps.nokia.com website. It will also likely appear in the Ovi Store shortly.

Facebook comes to the Nokia E71 and E72

The Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 now has a Facebook application, available right at the Ovi Store.

The application is pretty nifty, and lets you use all the basic features of Facebook.



There are still a couple things missing like the Facebook “like” feature, etc but hey atleast there’s finally an official app now.



It’s basically a non-touch version of the S60v5 Touch app.



To download the app, go on over to the Nokia Ovi Store on your Nokia E71 or Nokia E72 and search for “Facebook” to find the application.



No doubt more S60v3 devices will get the application soon.

Nokia N97 firmware updated to v12.0.024

A minor firmware update, version 12.0.024, has been released for the Nokia N97. The updates fixes a number of bugs and improves performance and stability. The firmware is being made available through both Nokia Software Updater (part of PC Suite) and OTA on the device. The firmware is currently available for SIM-free models; as usual the availability of the firmware will vary by market and device variant.

A bigger firmware update, which will add significant additional function to the device, is expected to be made available in September or October. For example, this may include the Skype software that was announced at Mobile World Congress this year. We may hear more details at the upcoming Nokia World conference at the begining of September.
Details

The N97 device manager software is most easily accessed by entering *#0000# into the phone's dialer. Choose Options > Check for updates and follow the on screen prompts.

As with any firmware update we would recommend backing up the device before applying the update. While user data is preserved during N97' firmware updates, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Facebook App on Symbian !

Symartic, developers of ExtGPS, have announced that they will soon be releasing Symabook, a Facebook client application, for S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition. The application allows you to update your Facebook status and view your news feed, friend list and photos. Symabook has a custom UI which is designed to allow you to view photos more easily and make the best possible use of screen space.

How to convert TS to any video formats,edit ts or ts mac

The MPEG-2 TS Converter is an excellent TS Converter to convert MPEG-2 TS format files. The TS Converter can convert .ts files to all popular format files including avi, wmv, wma, mpg, mp3, mp4 and other common formats respectivly for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP and other digital players with perfect quality and fast conversion speed.

Video_TS Converter is a TS File Converter which can convert the files in Video_TS folder and extract audio from .ts files. The TS Video File Converter supports converting .m2ts, .mts, .mkv, .flv, .mp4 and other supported files.

iSkysoft Video Converter is a professional TS Converter, we can free download and freely enjoy the TS files on iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and other different players with its' help.
TS Converter for Mac is a powerful TS video converting software for Mac users, it's a Mac MPEG-2 TS converter and a Mac MPEG-4 TS converter.

TS Converter for Mac can convert TS, TP, MPEG-TS, M2T videos to popular video formats like AVI, MOV, MP4, FLV, WMV etc.

With this Video TS Editor, you can freely Trim Video, Split video, Add video effect, Apply transition, etc. How to edit TS videos with this TS Editor? Don't worry. Just free download this TS Editor and refer the following guide.

Firstly, Free download and install the TS to WMV Converter and then launch it until the following interface appears.



And then do as the following steps.

Step 1: Load TS files by clicking

Step 2: Select WMV as the output format and use the default folder to save

Step 3: Start converting

Click to start converting TS to WMV automatically.

As you see, just three steps, we can start converting . So easy to convert.! Moreover, with the TS to WMV, we also can enjoy the favorite TS videos on iPod, Mp4, iPhone, etc. They are expected to explore. Free download and have a try.



DOWNLOAD FILE here

Quickoffice 6.0 Update

In the light of last month's announcement of the Nokia E72, which includes the full Quickoffice 6.x editing suite, and of yesterday's news for S60 5th Edition phones, we took time out with Phil Spencer, Director, Busness Development at Quickoffice, to get to the bottom of what exactly has been announced so far for current S60 and Quickoffice users and what's coming up.

Steve Litchfield: Following the recent announcements, what is happening to your S60 products?

Phil Spencer: Quickoffice have been longstanding business partners with Nokia, delivering our office products directly to the S60 platform and to users of S60 smartphones since they first began shipping. More recently, Quickoffice and Nokia have worked closely together to agree a way to provide existing and future Nokia S60 users with easy updates to the latest Quickoffice functionality.

Is Office editing still relevant as our phones get smaller and smaller?

Yes, we believe Office functionality is becoming increasingly important to S60 users on the move. The ability to reliably view and edit office documents with complete confidence, including the latest Office 2007 file formats, is a common use case. Nokia and Quickoffice want to ensure S60 offers a 'best-in-class' mobile office experience to its current and future users in order to further cement its position as a leading smartphone platform.

You're changing things at Quickoffice, I hear. How are these changes being rolled out?

We are ensuring that users of currently shipping Nokia S60 phones have an easy upgrade path to the latest Quickoffice release.

For the following devices: Nokia E51, E52, E55, E63, E66, E71, E72, E75 and E90, we've worked with Nokia to be able to provide users with the latest Quickoffice 6 viewing and editing release, free of charge. From the middle of June 2009, to coincide with the Nokia E72 launch, users of these devices have been able to get the latest Quickoffice 6 releases (including today's latest update) as free upgrades via Quickoffice’s on-device delivery channel called Quickmanager™, part of the Quickoffice application.

For Nokia devices that ship with Quickoffice viewers only, the latest Quickoffice 6 viewers are now also available as a free upgrade via Quickmanager. Users of such devices can update their Quickoffice viewers for free with Office 2007 file support or, as before, optionally purchase the latest editing version as an upgrade.

How do users get these updates?

Users can get their free update immediately in Quickmanager. Quickmanager is Quickoffice’s secure software delivery catalog, built into every Quickoffice product. So, all users have it on their phones already. They just need to launch Quickoffice and select ‘Quickmanager’ or ‘Updates and upgrades’ from the menu. Users will be responsible for any network/data fees (if applicable – e.g., if they do not use WiFi) they may incur in the download process, but there will be no additional charges from Quickoffice to receive these updates.

Over time, the latest Quickoffice version will also begin to appear in Nokia firmware updates for various devices, but the updates will always be available in Quickmanager too.

Can you recap Quickoffice 6's main benefits, for new readers?

The latest Quickoffice 6 release adds many great features over the older versions that most users will find in their S60 handset right now (typically Quickoffice versions 4.1 or 3.8). These features include more advanced document viewing and editing (where applicable) functionality, ZIP file support, password-protected file handling, Excel 2007 chart viewing, multiple usability enhancements and much more. A particular highlight is support for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint ’97 through 2007 file formats.

The latest release available from today is a brand new update to the previous Quickoffice 6 product on offer – this version now adds the ability to view PowerPoint 2007 files for all users. Users of the Eseries devices listed above who already took advantage of their first free update from 15th June onwards might also like to visit Quickmanager again and download the very latest editing build again, also for free.

Another highlight of the newest update is support for editing on S60 5th Edition devices such as the Nokia N97.

Will the update be available in all languages?

Currently, to ensure we can reach as many users as quickly as possible, these first free updates are available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. A fully-localized update will follow in the near future (there is no fixed date, but users can check back in Quickmanager if they wish to receive this later).

What about future versions of Quickoffice?

The idea behind this new approach from Quickoffice and Nokia is that the latest viewing release will always be available as a free upgrade to Nokia phones which include our viewers, regardless of what version is in their phone’s initial firmware.

Certain Nokia devices will also ship with the ability for users to always receive the latest editing versions as well (as long as the device is still shipping). Other devices will ship with the latest editors available at that time, and users will be able to purchase further editing upgrades if they wish to receive the latest versions. Exactly what Quickoffice updates users are entitled to receive on each device will be made clear in the device's product literature, and will also be carried through to the Quickmanager offers tailored for each device.

What about users of non-Nokia S60 phones?

Right now, the changes here are the result of work specifically between Nokia and Quickoffice and are aimed at Nokia’s S60 phones only. We’ll continue to offer Quickoffice product upgrades and support to other S60 device users exactly as we do now. For example, the latest Quickoffice 6 release (which now supports editing on S60 5th Edition devices) is also available for Samsung Omnia HD users to purchase.

5800 gets ver. 30.0.011 Firmware

The Nokia 5800 has just gotten its v30 firmware update (actually v30.0.011). It's currently available Over The Air (*#0000# from the home screen) for some product codes, including my APAC one, as a 4MB download. Perhaps not the 'mega' update that many people had thought was coming, tying in with the upcoming 5530 XpressMusic, this is still a recommended update, bringing bug fixes and performance optimisations.

Do a backup of your data before the update, just in case, but the User Data Preservation system should mean that all your data, apps and settings will work properly after the update.

Free 3GP Video Converter for Nokia

Free 3GP Video Converter. Convert 3GP video files recorded with your cell phone to more common PC video formats AVI or MP4 or back other video files to 3GP. Extract audio from 3GP video files.

Convert 3GP to AVI, 3GP to MP4, 3GP to MP3 audio and back AVI, MP4 and others to 3GP.

This free 3gp converter contains no spyware or adware. It's clearly free and absolutely safe to install and run.

Download File Here

Handy Shell - Review

Since the dawn of time (ok, about 1995), developers have been looking to replace the default home screen of PDAs and smartphones. Epocware's new Handy Shell seems pretty comprehensive for S60 and so we asked Ewan to install it on his main device and run with it for a week...

Handy Shell is scary, cute, not scary, powerful, easy to use and pointless all in the same breath. By the end of this review, you'll be able to choose the two words that apply for you (- if you want to pretend to skip to the end, I'd choose 'powerful' and 'easy to use').

Epocware think the regular S60 standby screen is missing functionality, so they've decided to replace it. And tweak the application launcher. And the task bar. Basically they want to give you a swiss army knife to replace the cutlass of the regular S60 experience. It's a mighty challenge, but they are more than up to it.

Now, on with the mighty review.



This used to be the bread and butter of third party application scenes in the past, but there again in the past the people with smartphones (or PDA's) were the tinkerers, hackers and programmers in the world. Those people are still there (albeit significantly outnumbered by regular users) and that means applications like Handy Shell are always going to be around as well.

And it's a good thing too, because Handy Shell ups the flexibility of your S60 smartphone by a significant factor. It's not for everyone, and there will be a lot of you arguing that the S60 interface doesn't need changing.

Split over three information screens, Handy Shell pulls S60 away from being a 'making calls and running applications' platform to 'making calls, organising your information, and running applications.'



First up, and the screen that's effectively the main screen of Handy Shell, and replaces the active stand-by, is the 'today' view, with four main strips of info - Clock, application shortcuts, phone settings and Calendar. The clock takes up most of the width of the screen, although by using a constant sized font (all characters are the same width) it makes it feel a little clunky, although it does hark back nicely to an old fashioned digital clock. It's a pity there are no formatting options for the clock.

It would be sensible to think that most people loading Handy Shell have done some customising on their own phone's desktop, so the inclusion of a standard set of six application short-cuts in the next strip is both welcome (after all, it's something people are already used to in the customisation stakes) but at the same time do I really need to put in my favourites again? Is there no way to read what I already have during the first run of Handy Shell and populate this with my own picks?



The next line is probably my favourite - the phone settings. This is a quick glance/quick change on a number of features on your phone, mostly around communication. A single tap on the Bluetooth icon will toggle your Bluetooth on or off (or you can change this to launch the Bluetooth application if you so wish), and alongside this you have icons and numerical cues for your missed calls and unread SMS and emails, finally finishing on quick change icons to alter your chosen ringtone profile or overall phone theme.

All these strips (and those in the other views as well) have their own customisable settings, you just pop into the Settings dialog, choose the view, and then choose the part of the view to alter. I get the feeling that this modular approach runs through the entire program, so it would be an easy matter to add a view of another application to any screen. In fact, Epocware have done exactly that in building a view of Handy Weather into Handy Shell's desktop and bundling a one year subscription to Handy Weather in the registration price of Handy Shell.

It's important to realise that each element in Handy Shell might seem a bit 'is that it?' when taken on its own, but it's the glueing of them altogether into a single package and making them all relatively easy to access that makes Handy Shell so useful. Think of it like a multi-bladed Swiss Army knife - nobody carries just a pair of tweezers with them, but with that knife you'll always have one when you need it - just like some of the icons in Handy Shell.

Tapping on the right soft key lets you cycle through the three views of Handy Shell, and after the Today screen is the Applications view, a 3x4 grid of applications that you can set up and shuffle around. It's no surprise that this feels a lot like the regular S60 application launcher, and with some careful thought, you could probably get 95% of your regular smartphone usage launching from this screen. The one feature that's missing here is using the keypad to fast launch an icon. As the keypad is also 3x4, matching the matrix on the S60 home screen, pressing a number on the standard S60 applications menu launches the one whose icon is in the same relative place on the screen. Handy Shell is missing this and I found my thumb erroneously hitting the keypad to launch something on numerous occasions.

Asking for folder support in this screen would be a step too far, even though I like the idea of ditching the S60 app launcher completely - the point here is to have your most used applications shortcutted, not all your applications. Still, it is Handy Shell, not Handy Shell Around The Popular Bits. You've got full control over what applications to add, and you can edit them or move them around as often as you wish.



I did like the dialog screen to choose the applications - rather than the radio button screen that S60 uses, where you have to scroll (a lot), you can just start typing the name of the application and Handy Shell will search as you start to type.

The contacts view works in pretty much the same way as the applications view - 12 slots to put in your favourite contacts for dialling. If they have a thumbnail graphic that is used, alternatively a nice font is used to get as much of their name in as possible. One thing missing here (perhaps a bug, or earmarked for the next release?) is some intelligent context awareness. If I'm on a contact and select 'New... [SMS] Message' from the menu is it wrong to expect Handy Shell to pre-populate the message editor with the correct phone number? What's weird is that if you select 'Create Message' on the top level menu, it does pre-populate the editor. Curiouser and curiouser.

Alongside the views is one of my favourite features of Handy Shell - the quick dialler. From the standby screen of a vanilla S60 phone, hitting the keypad simply racks up some numbers to dial. Not with this application though. It starts searching the contents of your smartphone to try and work out what you are typing. It will scan phone numbers to match the numbers you start to enter; or take the T9 spellings to a match up a name you are typing from your address book; or use that same T9 spelling in your list of applications. Looking to start the podcasting app? Just start typing P-O-D... and the app will be listed. As will the number for 'Podium Computing' from your contacts, or any number starting 663. It's quick, simple, easy to understand, and I love it. This is an application in its own right, and if I were to lose Handy Shell, I suspect this is the part I would miss the most. [NB. this functionality is also available in some other add-on utilities, most notably SkyeQuiKey - Ed]

It's also the reason why I can't 'speed dial' an application to launch, as pressing number keys starts the quick dial part of the program - it's a tough call, but I think I prefer this quick dialling once the muscle memory forgets about pressing number keys.



Handy Shell also replaces the 'task bar', normally accessed by holding down the Applications key on your smartphone, with a full screen system overview. Here, as well as seeing (and being able to jump to) the running applications in a full screen view, you'll also get the time and date (so now it's only ever one keypress away) and details on your free RAM, storage and memory card space.... something that the true hacker [Ewan looks sideways at Steve] is always looking at on his phone, but seems to be less and less critical as smartphone specs improve.

For all the complexity that Handy Shell offers, there will still be times where you need to duck into the regular S60 interface, and thankfully Handy Shell is not a jealous program. You tap the Applications key to get into Handy Shell, but while in the shell if you tap it again you will be taken to the regular S60 standby/Applications screens. How this works can be subtly changed via the settings.

There is a touch of jealousy, though, because I really can't see a way to switch Handy Shell off. Once it's installed and running, it's just there. Yes you can toggle everything off, but the Task Manager is always there, and it's going to pop up when you hit certain keys (depending on those settings). The only 100% sure way to do this is to take off and nuke it from orbit remove the application from your handset altogether. But that makes sense. If you have Handy Shell, it's because you want to be using it, not switching it on once in a while for kicks. It's either on or off. (Luckily a regular uninstall of Handy Shell will shut it down correctly and let you remove it cleanly, should this be needed)

And to be honest, there's no reason for it not to be on. While it does add significantly to the productivity potential of your smartphone, it's not unduly complicated in what it does or how it does it. By spreading the main functions over three screens which you can easily switch between, all the information has been given room to breathe, and it actually makes your smartphone easier to use. Sure, the set-up takes time, and getting your head round a new way of working takes a bit of time, but if Handy Shell was to appear on a bog standard any-OS smartphone and be the core method of running things, I think it would be up to the job. Part of me is really looking forward to a touch-enabled version of this on the 5800 at some point next year [hear that Rafe, I'm reviewing that combination... now get me a 5800 - Ewan].




For all the faults I've mentioned here, Handy Shell has a fearsomely large job to do as a full replacement for S60's core UI feature, and it's only when you sit back do you spot the little touches, such as the smoothness when you switch between portrait and landscape modes, the display showing the time of your next alarm call (and not just a little bell), the preview of unread SMS messages as you scroll your cursor over the icon, the 'new' menu option giving you access to your Contacts, Calendar, To-do list and said alarm clock, having 'lock keypad' on the menu... There is a lot going on in here.

Handy Shell isn't just a great addition to S60, it pretty much rips out and replaces all the launching and thread management of S60 that users see. To a certain extent, that's reflected in the price of $45, which may raise some eyes. I think it's a perfectly fair price for something of this scope and breadth... and stability. I've been really working Handy Shell hard and not yet experienced a crash or system slowdown. With a full 14 day demo available for free before you need to register, anyone using their smartphone for more than just calls and messaging should seriously consider running this little gem.