Review and Contest: Handy Taskman, what little Handy Application would you like to see?
By Stefan Constantinescu on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 8:23 AM PST In Symbian
Until 3 weeks ago the first application I would install on all my S60 devices was GMail. How convenient that little Java application is can not be put into words. I don’t remember what my motivation to trial out HandyTaskman was, but the ensuing love affair since then can no longer remain silent. I heart this application so much that I emailed Epocware’s Public Relations people and requested 3 licences to give to you guys, more on that after the jump.
What is HandyTaskman?
HandyTaskman is a replacement to S60’s application switcher. When one does a long press of the Symbian key (ying yang) you’re usually presented with this interface:
This is nothing to go gaga over. There is a list of icons that represent the applications you have running. You can go up and down this list and you can only see 3 icons at any given time. Boring. Check out what HandyTaskman looks like (different phone, different theme):
There are two columns. On the right, from top to bottom, we have the time and date, free RAM, free Phone memory and under that there is usually an indicator for free memory on your memory card; at the time my microSD card was removed.
In the left hand column we have a list of the applications open. See how it says “Open” on top? Tapping your dpad to the right reveals a new menu:
Here is a list of all the applications that you recently launched, aptly named “Recent.” Wading through folders to find that program you like to open on a frequent basis is no longer a problem. Spending precious minutes of your life arranging icons so you know where things are is something you never have to do again. Where HandyTaskman gets horribly addictive is when you hit a letter on your devices’ keypad:
Built in search is what made me fall in love with this application. I repeat: I no longer care where my icons are and I no longer care about customizing what shortcuts I have on my active idle screen. If I want Bluetooth I simply type in the letter b and see everything that matches. This application completely changed my S60 experiance.
What stinks?
It can’t be all fun and games. This application has 2 issues that really bug me. First and the most obvious bug, if I invoke HandyTaskman (long press of the Symbian key) and immediately type in two letters to begin my search query, the application reverses their order.
Example: If I want to launch GMail I would open up HandyTaskman and type in “G” and “M” otherwise known as the 4 and 6 keys on T9 keypads. This is what results:
I’ve been able to replicate this bug on all my S60 devices. Epocware, please take notice.
Few things that are not bugs, but more like feature requests: stop making me hit a key multiple times to get the letter I want.
Example: Say I want to open the Bluetooth application. I initiate HandyTaskman and have to hit the “2″ key on my keypad twice. I would prefer if I could type in 2 and 5 and have HandyTaskman be smart enough to know that I probably meant B and L.
An S60 application that does this is SkyeQuiKey, but it only works on the active idle screen. Bummer. If I could combine SkyQuiKey and HandTaskman into one mega-crazy-lovechild, I would. Sadly SkyQuiKey only has a 24 hour free trial and that isn’t enough time for me to test it. Zach swears by it, read his review here.
A small niggle, developers work hard or pay someone to create beautiful icons. Can you guys figure out some way to display those icons in the search results?
It isn’t implicit that one can start typing to find an application, something like a search box to make it more obvious that can be turned off via an option menu would be nice.
What else can it do?
Ever had an application that refused to die? Why don’t you just kill it? That’s right. You can forcefully close applications with the kill command, even if Nokia (NYSE: NOK) or your operator intended for them to run in the background at all times. Another thing that is useful is “Close all.” With one key press you can terminate all the applications running on your device. These are not features you’re going to use often, but nice to know that you can pull it off if need be.
Where can I get this?
You can get HandyTaskman at Epocware’s site here.
Or scan this QR code on your phone (any S60 3rd Edition or higher device) for the SIS file:
They have a 14 day free trial, plenty of time to see if you like this application.
You mentioned contest?
HandyTaskman is one of those applications that changes the way you do something in a very small way, yet it has a large impact on the user experiance. I like these kind of applications. In todays day and age people like to create programs that do many things, often compensating on quality, when in reality most users want something that can do one task remarkably well. Calcium is another example of this, an elegant S60 calculator.
The contest is very simple. Tell me what small thing you would want to change on your S60 device to improve your user experiance. What would you add, what would you do different, be creative. We’re running this for one week and I would hope that the developers at Epocware read each and every comment to take into consideration what IntoMobile readers would like to see on their devices and what future applications should be developed.
The top 3 ideas, I’m the sole judge, will get a free lisence for HandyTaskman.
It is ~ 17:00 here in Finland, November 19, this contest will last one week until November 26.
I’ll remind you guys every day about this content in ultra brief blog posts with comments turned off, I want all the creative juices to flow into here.
Hello Stefan,
I would like be able to assign my device’s hardware keys or active standby shortcuts to applications that I consider more powerful than standard S60 ones (I think to the calendar shortcut or mail hardware key).
My wish: Finally a decent default calculator. It’s a shame that the S40 calculator beats S60 one. There could be two alternative UI’s like in windows calc, simple (Calcium like) and advanced scientific one.
Also, I have some perverted ideas about possibility to freely customize my active standby (and integrate the search into it) but I won’t start jabbering about that now…
go ahead kalle, jabber away, I’m sure S60 developers will read this blog post too. who knows, you may effect how the next version of S60 looks!
Oo…it would have to be the S60 PIM to be improved! Namely…for S60 to understand a complete phonebook(.pbf) file, instead of only reading the first contact/business card inside it! A Moto L7 can do it, why not Nokia smartphones?!?
Also, call lists(i.e: when you press the green button(or ‘calls’ on SEs))…S60 is about the only OS left which can only show one aspect(calls DIALLED, or RECEIVED, or MISSED) at any one time – even S40 now has better management than this!
Also the number of calls listed should be vastly increased – my 18 month old P990 lists just about every call the phone has manipulated in the last MONTH, not just the last 10 calls……
You may probably guess – these thing have bugged me about S60 since, oo, my 6600/6260…PIM functions are core to a device, and still nothing improves about them, even through 3 entire OS versions……
just for the sake of discussion…
I think the current menu is a mess for a first time user. Since I don’t think Nokia is goint to change the folder gui to something similar to the iPhone anytime soon so I would create different preset menu-hierarchies in the settings (first time user, power user, business use, current menu-hierarchy, etc).
The phone should come with the easiest structure, 11 icons (most important apps here) and 1 folder (rest of the “best”).
Feedback for Epocware: My mobile is a mess and I need to slim down the number of app installed. If this application could count the number of times I launch any app, that would be absolutely great. I got a feeling of what I use/don’t use but a counter would be better
-Reda
Concerning Bluetooth, this is the one app where I use voice command to start & stop it (E61)
Just press hard & long on the lowest button on the left-hand side of the unit, and as soon as you see the progress bar say “Bluetooth”. A robot voice will repeat it and you’ll see BT icon appear up at the top.
Do the same thing when you are finished with BT.
It’s incredible how desperate are some children for getting their hands on a free candy
Mr. Vasilescu thinks that maybe will get his, showing his romanian name 
Anyway, seems like you have a lot of fans. Maybe in a future article you’ll say something about you and your origins, about highschool and college. I liked the “sarmale” picture. Hope you still speak romanian.
No, my friend, I’ve got enough money to buy a little candy like Handy Taskman.
For “Un fan”
Poate n-ai observat comentariul meu, si te-ai uitat doar dupa cum ma cheama.
Tot stil romanesc ai. Leaga-te de capra vecinului, ca a ta si-a pierdut deja coada.
Sper sa castigi tu Handy Taskman, ca poate iti mai trece frustarea!
Poate vii prin Franta sa-ti pregatesc niste sarmale!
Stefan — that bug you mentioned doesn’t exist on my N95-3 running a full (not trial) version of Taskman — could it be a trial bug for some reason?
-olly
Many ppl use the ‘List’ view in the S60 menu so if it had full joystick operation like Fexplorer tht would be nice…. got some other ideas too but gotta sort them out first coz many have been improved with the N95-3 & also the N82….
Ma bucur, prietene, ca in Franta ai reusit sa iti albastresti sangele de care ti-e rusine si ai scapat de stilul si identitatea de care vorbesti. Noi astia care am ramas suntem in continuare tigani frustrati crescuti prin orfelinate si bolnavi de SIDA. Esti zeul meu !
I think the best application will be a REAL clipboard application were you can copy any text, phone number, email, serial number from one application than paste into another application. The copy/paste (ctrl+c or ctrl+v) build into S60 does not cut it.
my copy and paste works fine. you mean a clipboard manager similar to that of the one inside microsoft office? i’m not understanding what your problem is.
Fan al romanismului, nu stiu de unde ai dedus tu ca am uitat ca sunt roman. Si pe mine m-a durut cand sambata strigau bulgarii pe station la Sofia “Tiganii”.
In acelasi timp, in continuare urasc faptul ca noi romanii uitam de gunoiul ce-l avem in ochi, dar cu usurinta il remarcam pe cel al vecinului.
In continuare observ ca ai o problema, dar nu sunt eu responsabil pentru ea.
Faptul ca traiesc in Franta nu ma face mai putin roman, just for he record.
Si sa-ti mai spun un secret, in Franta as fi putut avea sangele albastru daca m-ar fi chemat “de Vasilescu”. Observi ca ma cheama Vasilescu, si consideri ca m-am semnat cu numele intreg doar ca sa castig un programel pe care il pot avea oricand atat legal cat si ilegal.
De unde ma cunosti tu ca sa ma judeci atat de usor ?
Stii ce ti-a ramas in Romania aia plina de probleme : hazul de necaz, ca sa uiti ca de si nu esti tigan, te comporti poate mai rau ca unul.
Ramai cu bine, fiul meu
Si tot pentru tine, fanule: ai avut timp sa observi care e subiectul discutiei
Oi fi nascut in zodia fecioarei, ca tare bun mai esti la critica
can we quit the Romanian cock fight already
Ok, sorry.
Still, I don’t understand why you signed with Constantinescu
Do you want have more chances to win that candy Taskman ?
Sorry, I stop here.
Esti penibil. Ma bucur ca ai reusit sa o dovedesti in fata tuturor
Well this may be outside of the rules but either way I’ll go ahead and submit it. I recently posted a list (not just one item) of things I would like to see in the new S60v5 UI.
Here is the link to that post:
http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=10211039&postcount=1
I dont have your gmail problem.
Pressing 4 then 6 gets me Gmail with no bugs.
N95-1 and Handy Taskman 1.06
Ramai cu parerea ta. Ai ramas fara replica si ai trecut la injurii.
Sa-i intrebam si pe ceilalti care e mai penibil dintre noi doi.
Consider ca amndoi am fost penibili.
Dar tu esti roman mandru si ti-ar fi cam greu sa recunosti ca esti imperfect.
Prietene, uita discutia asta.
Imi cer scuze fata de Stefan ca ii fac treaba asta pe site, si, in al doilea rand, fata de tine daca ai simtit cumva ca te-am agresat.
2 things,
1. An application that can send you the gps location of your N95, navigator, etc if it is stolen.
2. The Last.fm experience ported. Last fm is a music recommendation service, and it would be good to be able to listen to Last.FM radio, as well as scrobble tracks played in the music player.
I would like to have th option of seeing a list of all open applications on the main screen, under the messages, horizontally for example, and the ability to navigate to them via the joystick and choose the one that I want to use.
I have a few ideas actually-
1) Allow editing of the custom words added to the T9 dictionary. Sometimes one doesn’t need certain words, or they clash with other regularly used ones; and there’s no way to get rid of them other than a hard reset.
2) For calendar meetings, add another option to specify the profile that should be active for the meeting, as well as a default meeting profile(eg silent). That way I KNOW my phone will never ring accidentally during a meeting.(This is in addition to the often requested forward porting of timed profiles from S40)
3) Have a central volume control and equalizer with more presets. It sucks that I cannot use equalizer presets on the FM radio because it’s made as a separate application. Any 3rd party app(games especially) should also have its sound customizable by this built in central sound location. (maybe let you map it to a shortcut key)Allow extensions to the built in music player a la Winamp-for example, imagine a visualization plugin to go with a ‘matrix’ theme-that showed the green falling code in time with the music!!
I am not taking part in this contest, because I have already purchased Handy Taskman
But I would like to second the idea of being able to control the hardware buttons. Why isn’t this available on S60?
Actually, I’ve noticed that Nokia E51 hardware keys are user definable functions:
http://www.e-series.org/archives/420
I hope Nokia will publish updates containing these enhancements for older E-series devices…
Easily it would have to be integrated threaded SMS. That conversation app is a decent step, but it caused message in use errors to appear when I was sending texts and took too long to load.
my number one annoyance is that “Create WLAN connection in offline’ mode when you have no SIM in the phone, please let me switch that off (I always want WLAN connections if I have configured an access point, so stop asking please!)
#2 – shozu like functionality built into every s60 phone i.e. upload unlimited size and quantity videos and photos to flickr and youTube or any Atom enabled web site with suspend/resume when connectivity is lost and regained (just buy ShoZu nokia please!)
I don’t know if anybody mentioned this before but here it goes.
I’d love my N95 to give me a list of possible Contact List members when I start pressing keys. For instance, if I want to call JOHN DOE, I’d like to be able to press 564 and see the list of all people I know with that string of characters in their name.
What I like is a program that would let me assign which are the default applications such as browser, mail client, text messaging, music player, etc.
And Dan, check SkyeQuiKey … it just came out.
I want a simple todo list app for S60
Todo lists which can be tagged under a topic and by date
I want the default screen to be something like pc desktop so i could configure it the way i want to.
I would simply remove the signature check. This would surely lead to more hobby (freeware) developers and so to various new and good ideas without the need of sign an application. Make S60 open to every developer, freely!
OK Here is what i want!
One mean Vista Window Switcher lookalike! Up and Down you change the previews of the opened apps! Center selects!
Right or left you get the most used apps.
Numbers initiate search!
Double click functionality 4 the menu button is a must!
To get you in the advanced user menu!
Double click maybe 4 some other keys!
Split screen 4 two apps! Do it! Don’t make a joke about it! At least some practical implementations of calculator in message or document…Sometimes it is easier to transcript than to copy paste… At least for non touch smart phone.
And of coarse… (This is so retro but i must say it!)
Small USB cable hidden in the design of the phone that will allow us to use the big memory cards in the phone anywhere we like without having to carry annoying cables with us!
So i get the jo or what?
OK i have more ideas about the built in USB cable!
It could be used to charge the battery too and act as antenna of some sort… Listen to a radio on the loud speaker… And if you put in some sort of 32 GB SSD with some kind of OS on it… Than you will have all you need with you…
OK i lost it… Sorry
1. A search option built in the internet browser. (not for text within the page – but a google/yahoo etc search). Its annoying/slow navigating back to google.co.uk on a 3g connection when you have been looking at other sites.
2. The general search function – possibility to add additional providers – not just MS live/yahoo.
3. Search – youtube direct upload – this would be popular.
4. An app to save usernames/passwords/email addresses on the browser, that inputs them automatically – ie similar to IE/Firefox does now.
5. An app/function that starts up programmes automatically on startup – ie podcasting app.
6. wmv support (I doubt this will ever happen – have no idea why Nokia dont add this).
7. Podcast app – Just a suggestion (if my other idea isnt implemented) – for the timed podcast updater, it would be a good idea for the podcast app to startup automatically at the alloted time to download the podcasts – at the moment if you dont have the podcasting app open at the time – the automatic update wont run. Another alternative would be to have an option in the podcaster app where you can make it startup when the N95 8gb turns on.
N95 8Gb specific (in the hope that a Symbian N95 8gb engineer reads this!)
- End call with slider option (like the N81)
- Fix the inanely slow transfer speeds – surely the N95 8Gb doesnt use USB 1??
- Allow the ‘3d menu’ to be more customizeable.
edit!
3. Should say – the ‘Share online app’ – should have a youtube direct upload option – this would be v popular.
I’ll shut up now!
Easy. Notification hub.
Each application should register the types of “notifications” that it would like to make and notifications are triggered via the hub. Applications therefore need to know nothing of profiles or the various optional notification modes supported by the hardware (e.g. LED flasher, audio, vibration, etc.).
The notification hub itself would maintain profiles. Each profile would have a line for each installed about and allow fine-grained, profile-specific customization of notifications for each application.
BTW, not my idea — this is how Blackberries work.
Include call durations in the call log.
1. As of now .. S60 has only one line of app shortcuts on screen (5 of them). I would like to have 3-4 lines (there is plenty of room on the screen not used); having a layout like this i can group the apps by categories (web, music, etc).
2. I would also like the possibility to set up the period after an application that is started to shut off (very handy when you work on many apps and very often you might forget at least 3-4 of them open).
First of all, full customization of the Active standby screen. I don’t use it at all right now because of this. What I mean by full customization is that I can choose what gets shown on it, AND that apps can integrate into it (I mean really integrate into it – see WM6).
Then, Access Point hierarchy – I create a hierarchized list of APs, and whenever it needs to connect, it tries to locate the first one on the list, if that doesn’t work it tries the second and so on (Already implemented in some E-series devices, but why it isn’t on everything S60 beats me).
One of the most annoying things for me is “Allow…to connect?”. I want an “Always allow” option in App Manager, especially for network connections. Everytime I start, say, Opera Mini, it asks me if I would like to allow it to connect.
These are small things, I know, but imo would constitute great improvements (via future software updates? – I’m daydreaming right now…).
S60 is a baby that does too much to handle… It has just so many options and functions that its too difficult to put it down in an order….
However the current menu confuses many… there are just too many options.. A total revamp of the whole menu should be good..
There should be more RAM on phones to make multitasking a breeze, at the same time, there should be some sort of visible notification that some apps are running at the background(apart from the notification when the menu key is pressed) so that just looking on the screen will let you know how many apps are running
I am desperately in need of a native Download manager for S60 which handles,schedules,splits downloads…
Wifi scanning should be more precice and powerful, I find that my E61 sometimes shows “No network found” even when I’m standing right next to my router.
How about some animations here and there to spice up the GUI?? Like the standby screen, Menu..etc and more customizable screen savers..(By default)
Also a call filter option available in the OS itself, rather than installing apps…
And ya!! A Nokia PC Suite that connects via Wifi!! With all options to access contents of fone from PC, take screenshots….etc..all in one Nokia PC Suite
I recently posted on my blog a comparison with Epocware’s Handy Taskman and Smartphoneware’s Best Taskman for my N73 and a friends N95-1 and Epocware’s version won hands down on the reliability stakes.
I’ve even added it as a startup application in PowerBoot.
Hi Stefan,
I would love to see a replacement app for the Active Display on S60 devices that is similar to that seen on HTC and Windows Mobile 6 devices, like the HTC TyTN II. It should display a home screen offering a large digital style clock, favorite people speed dials, local weather, appointments & tasks list, a quick launch tool and profile controls. It would also be nice if the large clock could double as a screensaver also containing various indicators such as incoming messages, bluetooth on/off , etc. And “Handy Screen” or “Handy Display” would be good names for it.
Just thought of three more,concerning the browser:the ability to select any text on a website (and copy/paste,etc) and the ability to manually open a new window. With 128MB of RAM on the newer devices,surely tabbed/”windowed” browsing should be possible. Last,but not least, a “fit to width” option like in Opera Mini would be welcome.
I’d like an app that allows me to completely & safely remove preinstalled apps on my n95-1 as there are a few on there that im NEVER going to use and are taking up precious memory.
Also a proper predictive text app like you get on the sony ericsson K800i where you automatically get a list of words appear and you just scroll down & choose the right one, as apposed to opening various menues then choosing the correct word.
Sorry if either of these already exsists but i haven’t had my phone long and am still getting to grips with it.
I haven’t read all comments so this might be said already.
I would die for a shortcut key/icon pointing to my mail for exchange inbox, since I use it every day for work on my N95. Now I’ll have to go to Messages, then into my mailbox, and then press ‘back’ so the notification of new mail disappears. When new mail appears, repeat. Usually gets around ten to twenty mails a day so it gets tiresome. Yeah I’ll know, get an e-series, but for now I use a N95.
Are there any solutions to this?
I would simply like the text messages to recognise telephone numbers that have a space, as in ‘0207 6655443′ rather than thinking they are two separate numbers.
that idea to send a GPS position if the phone is stolen is genius. it could do it say every hour until you track the bastards down! – brilliant. Although, thinking about it now… an app like this could be misused.