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.
I would like to see 3 things happening:
1. Being able to see details in the calls log. Right now you can assign multiply phone numbers (cellphone, home, work etc.) to a single contact but when you call him/he calls you, you can’t tell from/to which phone you/he called. (since the call log will just say “John” and the time/date of the call).
2. being able to rotate the display to the right and up-side down (not just to the left like it does now, so you’ll be able to use IR-Remote’s landscape mode with the IR port facing toward the TV/VCR/Whatever).
3. N95 specific – being able you map the 2nd slider keys to stuff other then the music player (so I can use them as buttons in landscape emulators/games).
At first I’d really love better volume control on the N95 . Something like 5%-steps rather than 10%.
And a system-wide volume control would be great, too. The N95 system sounds are pretty loud and turning the silent profile isn’t always that great.
S60 change that would change my user experience?
A program that you could have running in the background (handy style) that you would make your ‘how would you like to connect?’ decisions for you.
So instead of clicking on a bookmark and getting ‘Connecting’ followed by ‘Select Access Point’ etc – you could assign a default connection full stop or even on a per app/per bookmark basis.
THAT would be nice.
Call it ‘handy accesspoint’ or whatever.
Maybe I’m asking too much, but how about an ability to freeze program. For example you are running out of battery and want to change it, you just freeze whatever software you were using, change battery and pick up right where you left of.
Or some super battery so that you don’t need to change it while in the middle of something
Some kind of hibernation mode for S60? yeah, that would be pretty interesting.
Ok, here is more doable: Good ftp/ssh client. And cheap please.
Hi Stefan,
A S60 change that improves end user experience ?
Though its a hardware change, I’d love, in addition with the D-pad, the addition of a smooth Jog Wheel (a la some panasonic cell i had). It would be so great for scrolling through menu/messages/contacts/web pages etc.
It beats holding down the swirly menu key.
Down press of the wheel/dial could bring up the Handy Taskman or the Menu/any user defined app
Hmm, i wonder if autoscroll can be possible. Plus an complete system volume control, some game sounds are so loud, i just have to put them off..
It is specially useful in scrolling through long documents/playlists or web pages where clicking on the down button interrupts the flow..
Besides the contest: Since I hope the nokia staff reads the blog; Dont FM Recording, Animated backgrounds & flash based themes sound nice ? Selecting text in web pages will increase productivity for so many as well.
For the N95: oh, and an option for turning off the display while using TV out would be so nice..
I have a few more ideas, not because of the competition, I just keep on thinking of them! (I am making up for the lack of quality with quantity!)
itunes/Symbian integration? With the majority of mp3 player owning public having ipods, itunes and itunes artwork integrated into the Symbian music player would be a great programme. If not a whole integration – a way to get the artwork integrated into mp3’s (that work fine on itunes) working on the N95/symbian.
The ability for Symbian to be able to read external flash drives/external drives using its mini USB port. I have no idea why this hasnt been implemented yet. Is it possible to do with the existing hardware?
v small one this – a way to change the counter intunitive volume button on the N95-1/2/3 phones – its the wrong way round.
Themes – an easy way to creat new themes – especially just a a simple way to intagreate a photo behind the whole screen (without bars at the top and bottom.
I’d like something simple really.
I have over 30 freeware apps on my phone. I don’t use all of them frequently, but there are some that I do, like Google Maps, Jaiku, Gizmo, and etc. I have added these apps in no particular order. So why not in the application folder, make the firmware rate the top used apps, and bring them to the top, instead of me strolling down and finding them. And I know I can bring them up manually, but when you have a lot of apps it’s a little annoying.
Remember those old Nokia batteries that exploded, the ones in the news a few months ago. I’d like Epocware to make a program that can detonate those on command. I’d set a timer on my phone for a few seconds then throw the it at my enemies and KABOOM!!! No more enemies.
Assuming it’s not already available (I am still looking, and can’t believe I can’t find it for symbian phones when there are several for WM) I want a mobile phone that takes my contacts and when I am mobile, i.e. in a different country, lets me select a contact number and THEN EDIT IT before it is dialled so I can, for example:
- replace the “+” with a calling card access code to avoid high roaming charges
- add/delete the “0″ from the front of area codes of UK/Thailand/etc phone numbers stored in full int’l format in my contacts. (e.g. I store London numbers as +44 20… but when in the UK I need to dial 020…
- ultimately store complex sequences of pre-;mid-;post- dial-string settings for complete flexibility on calling card / call-back and PABX integration settings that need access codes;account-ID;password;charge code;string terminator (#); etc; etc.
1. App that can sync IE or Firefox bookmarks with your phone ones.
2. WinAmp (PC music player) for symbian s60
3. Native app that finally sync outlook groups with symbian phone book tab
4. Security software that enables password protection for your sms folders, emails, photo folders and etc.
5. Good RSS reader for GoogleReader
What I would like on S60 is sort of shell integration for applications. Like Microsoft has it for its OS’s. Why not install Shozu and have something added in the gallery menu like “Add this photo to Shozu queue”, something like that. Right now all applications behave independently, why cant individual (external 3rd party) apps share information.
I thought this was mostly about application ideas for Epocware, now I see plenty of improvement ideas for S60 native features. Those would better reach Nokia if they were posted on S60 application wishlist http://www.s60.com/life/wishlist/displayWishList.do or feature wishlist http://www.s60.com/business/productinfo/wishlist/displayWishList.do
Anyway, here’s an idea that is actually realistic to be created by Epocware, though the target group might be quite narrow:
Comic book reader/CBR reader – sort of special image viewer for reading comics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Book_Archive_file)
My wish is to have a an “extended expense organizer” app that is-Categorized by type of expenses grouped into expand/collapse tree to show their details.And they are put into day tabs so it could be easily viewed by the navigation key.And also which has a goto date/calender/total log view change by pressing # button.It would be also better to add an option that allows user to enter the income and link it to the total expense log so daily the amount of money left can be viewed.This Enables a better money management & monitoring(Neither Handy expenses,Symbian guru expenses or Level up Expense Calender offer these options-They have
a “messed up type” viewing that is not user friendly)
I will email you a sketch that illustrates this,Or you can check my newly stated blog in the above URL.Thanks for offering such chance to express our ideas.
Easy. The lack of a drink manager/bartender is the only, major problem with S60 3rd at this moment. This is the first and most used application I install on every mobile device, except the newer Nokias.
I would like to see an application to give security for each app you think should have, like a password to get into some parts of your device.
It will be great have a password in the contacts list so only you will be able to see the list.
Pablo, could you please post the link or atleast the name for a drink manager/bartender software ?
My idea is an application that probably no one ever thought of, or – at least – no one ever tried to create.
It would be simple yet really useful for people who can’t have/afford an unlimited data plan and have to stick to usual packet counting rules (e.g. 1 session is always 100 kilobytes) and pay loads of money for that. The app would start up with system and work as a background daemon, ‘checking’ if there’s a data connection active. If it is – the app would keep that connection alive as long as the user wants or specifies in the settings – some operators reset data sessions at 24:00, so if I could specify in options that the app automatically closes my session at 23:55, it would be great because I wouldn’t have to pay for the next day.
All in all – user wouldn’t have to worry about losing money just checking his mail – once started connection would last till the end of the day and the user would be able to fully use up his 100 KB session.
HI, I would like inbox (sms) and contacts interaction, like a link to that services, so with one press you could have find contacts (like apps) and a sms search and read.
Regards
Pratish, there are quite a few of those on other OSs. For example:
http://www.handmark.com/products/detail.php?id=328
http://software.palminfocenter.com/product.asp?id=2091
http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Science/Gastronomy/DrinkDictionary-51819.shtml
http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Science/Gastronomy/DrinkOrderer-51018.shtml
Just search for “drinks palm”, “drinks mobile” and so on.
Right NOW I need application to video record what’s going on screen, save it as a movie and email me. I need to see one service, which is totally connected to the location, time and this specific operator…
Of course I would prefer visiting the right place at right time, more fun
Results????
So, who won ?
hi
i have any program (App) for my Nokia N73 for testing my mobile.
thanks alot
Can you give me a website where i can get Handy Taskman ?