Active standby : do you use it?

July 29, 2008 by Meraj Chhaya  
Filed under Uncategorized

On most of the s60 2nd edition devices there is no Active stand by screen,instead the shortcuts are assigned to the D-pad.The standby screen on the newer devices was implemented,as a step of making s60 smartphones closer to windows mobile,I guess.But actually how many of us really like it or use it?True it does offers you more control over your shortcuts,and reminders, also Active Stanby makes it easy to connect through WLAN and search the internet with one click.But personally I don’t use it that much,maybe because I have other options and don’t have much calendar entrees or no Wireless access points available around me.Apart from that another reason for keeping me far away from reaching the stand by screen shortcuts is that they require more key strokes to reach them and select,this makes me questioning myself “are they really shortcuts?”.On my N95 8GB the large 2.8″ screen has enough space to bare 7 shortcuts but when you need to use a one in the middle of the row,I’m afraid whether how may of us prefer to do so.Sometimes the full path through the menu will have the same number of key strokes as in the case of the shortcut.Also another reason for me to hate the stand by screen is that it ruins the background wallpaper,especially the themes with great wallpapers don’t show their true beauty,with all the fonts and icons on top of it. For the people who still love the old style just set the active stand by to off and you’ll see the Shortcut assigning for the D pad appears.But in this you’ll be limited to 5 shortcuts,but with easy one click access and the best is the clean screen.But the only problem is that the probability for accidental key presses in this method of shortcut usage is much higher than in the other mode as it doesn’t require a confirmation press after the shortcut is selected like in the active standby.I’ve seen many people using old method and some blaming the new one without knowing that still they can switch back.So for professional and general users,both modes have their own cons and pros,which mode do you prefer?in productivity and in usability wise?



Comments

2 Comments on "Active standby : do you use it?"

  1. Handy Shell:The All-In-One Replacement | Symbian Lifeblog on Fri, 5th Sep 2008 4:44 pm 

    [...] Traditional Standby Screen,BT Switch,Skyquikey and Tracker,will there be more?Few weeks ago I wrote this Article on the Active standby usage,but With this new application Definitely I’m gonna use [...]

  2. Sashko on Fri, 5th Dec 2008 1:59 am 

    I like active standby cuz it gives a look of new device, also on big screens this big empty (withou shortcuts i mean) space looks a bit freaky. However i agree with you that reaching the middle icons is real trouble mby it's good for new touchphones.. but s60 active standby is very, very uncomfortable still. now i switched to s40, and interface is crazy.. in good way.. you can organise it ALL. if you feel nostalgie for 6600 set it to off and it'll be cool:)

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