Screenshot Tour - Epocware’s Handy Shell

Handy Shell - Redefining S60 Standby Screen

This is a screenshots tour (NOT AN ACTUAL REVIEW) of an application which was designed to replace the standard S60 Active Standby. Handy Shell is currently in it’s final stage of development. And when it is released, it will be available from the developer’s website, Epocware.

To start with, the idea of having a useful standby screen (not empty) on S60 is not new. Historically speaking, originally, Series 60 didn’t come with a built-in active standby screen, only a blank screen as can be seen in Nokia 7650. Back then, there were a couple of applications developed to give a ”Today” screen like Active Desk, Best Desk and also One2Go. Epocware, the developer of Handy Shell did develop a Handy Day version for the old Series 60. In which, the application shows Calendar, Todos, amount of unread message and also log summary, it also did have a simple taskmanager to replace the built-in S60 taskmanager. From experience point of view, Epocware did a good job developing Handy Day for UIQ 2 and it’s various Handy Day versions did bring UIQ 2 user experience to a new level.

Talking about S60 active standby screen where informations and data like messages, application shortcuts, calendar data as well as other useful stuff are displayed, lets not forget the legendary Now! Screen that was found only on the Sendo-X and it’s successor, the ill-fated Sendo-X2. Which, in my opinion, still unrivalled in giving usability and functions. And the Now! Screen did inspire other developers to build a useful standby screen like Best Desk. And to a certain extent, the built-in Active Standby Screen on S60 3rd Edition did borrow some ideas from the Now! screen.

Enough about history lesson. Lets look at Handy Shell, shall we?

Handy Shell components

There are a few main components of Handy Shell. The first is the Today screen which upon first look, displays clock, calendar summary and also 2 rows of fast access to 6 applications and 6 internal phone functions. These rows of shortcuts can be switched on or off from the Setting panel and also some of them can be customised.

There’s also an Application shortcuts to launch 12 of your most used applications which is also configurable. The list is presented in a 3 x 4 grid. The presentation is well laid with big icons.

A Contacts shortcuts is also available, giving you another 3 x 4 grid where you can customise to put 12 of people you contact the most. The actions can be configured to send text messages or to initiate voice calls. And if you have thumbnail photos associated with the contacts, they will be displayed as well.

Replacing the built-in taskmanager is a light version of Handy Taskman, where you can view running applications, summary of memories available and of course you can use it to close or kill unwanted applications. To access the taskmanager, just press and hold the S60 App/Menu button.

From the Today screen of Handy Shell, there’s also a very useful function where you can access contacts and launch applications quickly just by typing the first few alphabets. The function reminds me a lot of SkyeQuiKey. Just hit the keys on the keypad and the results will be displayed. Pressing the center key in the D-Pad or the Left Softkey will present a few actions for you to choose.

Customisation and plugins

From my experience using Handy Shell for a few days, I can say that a lot of time and effort are put into it. From the design to the functions and ease of use, I think Epocware managed to create a superb S60 3rd Edition application. I am referring to Epocware’s commitment in delivering rich user experience to S60 users across the globe. It’s plugin system is flexible but it is not fully utilised. Maybe they will enhance it in the next version.

However, Handy Shell does have it’s flaws. To begin with, the shortcuts to 6 phone setting items are not configurable at all. I mean, there’s no way to add or remove items. You are stuck with (from left to right) Bluetooth, Missed Call Log, Text Message Inbox, Email Inbox, Profile and Theme. Nothing more, nothing less. Another small hiccup (in my opinion), is there is no way to setup the Wallpaper from within Handy Shell. And for Nokia E90 Communicator, Handy Shell does NOT use the internal 800 x 352 screen to the max. There are empty slots on the left and right of the today screen.

And to make things more uninteresting, for power users, the amount of information displayed in the Today screen of Handy Shell is really limited compared to the built in Active Standby screen. Only 1 entry from Calendar is displayed. There is no item from Messaging, no text message Inbox nor Email summary. Look how different Handy Shell is when compared side by side with the built-in S60 Active Standby. I have removed application & setting shortcuts from both. IMHO, Handy Shell needs to be strengthen on this.

To make over for the missing information, Handy Shell does have some neat functions on it’s Today screen. One of them is the new text message pop-up which displays the content of the latest received text message. It is nicely done where you are not required to go to the Messaging Inbox. But it needs your interaction if the cursor is on the other part of the screen, you need to bring the cursor to the Inbox icon to see the text details.

Another cool feature of Handy Shell, not available on any other applications, is the Weather plugin. In order to make it work, you need to have Handy Weather version 6.0 installed in your S60 3rd Edition smartphone. The weather plugin actually displays a summary of weather forecast for the next 5 days in Handy Shell’s Today screen. This is a clever touch I would say. Because it it has never been done on S60 before. Yes, we do have a couple of weather applications like WorldMate, Handy Weather, PsiLoc World Traveller etc, but NONE of them are integrated into the Standby screen untill now. And this is all possible in Handy Shell, not the built-in Active Standby.

Handy Shell brings some fresh ideas and there are some others that need to be redefined. But it proves the flexibility of Symbian OS and S60 3rd Edition in delivering rich applications. I am actually excited with the release of Handy Shell because the plugin system that they developed make it possible in the future to add more plugins. From what I know, they are already developing Handy Alarm Pro which will also be made as a plugin for Handy Shell, and who knows what’s next? Is Handy Shell a must have? I don’t think so, but it does add a lot to the missing link in S60. And all these are included in an application which currently is still under heavy testing. IMPRESSIVE! It’s in RC1. And maybe will be made public in a week or two. And to conclude, here are some screenshots of Handy Shell running on E90.

Asri al-Baker, September 20th 2008