I’m sure you’ve heard about MyPhone application for S60 devices. MyPhone is an application from MMMOOO, a software design house situated in Shanghai, China.
MyPhone basically is a flash based application which alters the menu and standby screen of the S60 and makes it resemble the iPhone. While doing so it not only brings to the front many features hidden in s60, to the forefront but also adds some features too.
This app allows you to log in to your Flickr account directly, apart from that you can even configure your email address, something that was always possible, but the MyPhone is easier to configure than the standard Messaging option (I’m not referring to Nokia’s Email Service – Nokia Messaging). RSS feeds can be also configured, without starting the browser. there area few more, but I’ll leave it for you to find them out.
This application runs on S60 3rd edition and 5th edition devices. So if you have N81, N85 or a 5800, fret not, it will work on all of these devices. It should work on the N97 also, but I haven’t seen anyone using it on that device.
v2.11
I got a chance to review the MyPhone V2.10 and just as I was done with the review of that version, I got to know that V2.11 was released. So I reviewed that as well.
There are a lot of changes in the two.
Firstly in the older version when you selected an icon you would see a circular object rotating which indicated that you have selected that icon, in the new version, that has been completely done away with. Now wehn you select an icon, it stands out… I can’t think of any other term to describe it, but rest assured it looks far more polished and less confusing.
Next up, the way one assigns icons to applications has also been reworked a bit. You no longer have only ten applications which can be configured, but it is now unlimited. The unassigned icons which were there at the end in the old version are not there at all in the new version. Instead one has to now choose the My Settings icon at the end of the menu. This option houses not only wallpaper options but also assigning icons to applications which would allow you to use the application within MyPhone.
There have been many additions to MyPhone, but that can be seen only if you have a 5800, on a S60 3rd edition devices, due to manual input, many extra features are not there. I reviewed the app on my trusty ‘Imaging King’, the N82. So if you have a 5800, I strongly suggest you to get this application, it is every bit worth its money.
This Flash based shell is a good alternative for people who are just plain bored with the S60 interface.
Having reviewed an older version V2.03.1, I can say that a lot of the niggles have been sorted out, though a few still remain.
I wish that the method of assigning icons to applications would be far more simple than it is. The current method requires the user to have a file manager, MMMOOO recommends Best Taskman. This app allows you to view the processes and threads that are running on the phone, much like Windows’ Task Manager. Now after you have the file manager app installed you have to find the exact ‘.exe’ file for the application of your choice. This easier said than done. An average user is sure to mess up here. This one area which, in my opinion needs to be made more user friendly.
Another thing which kind of disappointed me was that if the phone rings when you are using this app, you see the regular standby screen that S60 has. I don’t know if that is a limitation by S60, of not allowing changes to that degree by an app or the application itself, but I wish this application had that bit also altered to look different.
But gone are the niggles of going back to the standby screen, exiting the application itself and changing the wallpaper. I’m sure the next version will allow the users to set wallpapers from their gallery.
I have found the current iteration of MyPhone to be far more user friendly than all of its previous iterations, including V2.10. But there is a long way to go still.
I would definitely recommend you to try this app out and use it. It’s worth it… plus you can always show off to your friends the capabilities of the S60 device. If you have a 5800 then you must definitely have this app.
The one thing I must point out is that, this is one of the few applications on the S60 platform whch regularly evolves and goes through updates and becomes even better than the last version. It shows the committment MMMOOO has towards this application.
Head on over to www.immmooo.com to download the application for your S60 device.
Below is a gallery of screenshots…
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- v2.11
