Mouse-shy Mac users have been enjoying an app called Quicksilver, which allows fast access to applications and files via the keyboard and has become something of a cult among productivity geeks.
SkyeQuikKey from SkyeStream is a reasonable stab at a Symbian 60 3rdEdition version of the same idea.
Once installed, your standby screen will accept text input as well as dialed numbers. To find an app, browser bookmark or contact, just enter the first couple of letters of its name and SkyeQuikKey will bring up a list of matching items. Scroll down the list with the joystick and use the soft keys to perform appropriate actions like run, call or create an SMS.
How useful you find this will depend on how you use your phone - if you have a lot of apps or contacts and are quick with your thumbs you might find it a real time saver but if you are a more casual user it will more than likely just get in the way.
SkyeQuikKey costs around a tenner, but the developers have generously provided an entire day’s worth of free trial - available here.
Do you ever get bored with your mobile’s wallpaper? Pulsepaper is a S60 3rd Edition app that replaces your boring old static wallpaper with an ever-changing array of images.
Version 1.0 of Pulsepaper just let you cycle through a list of predefined images but, with v 2.0, makers Pulse Data Service have turned a run of the mill wallpaper rotator into a fully Web 2.0′d image gallery.
The app lets you select an ‘image source’ which can be a list of JPGs, a Flickr account or a Google Image Search keyword. You can also just select from a list of themed categories like ‘Night’ or ‘Sports’. Once you have you starter image, Pulsepaper will replace it three times a day.
In what could be the marketing move of the decade, the only feature missing from the free version of Pulsepaper is the ability to search for ‘adult’ content. (Or, at least, ‘unfiltered’ content via Google Image Search
The average person in the UK has to remember around twenty passwords, PINs and combinations. How are you meant to keep that lot secure without writing them down?
Most people go for either a difficult-to-remember, long list of nonsense alphanumerics or some variant on the tried and trusted “just use the word password, they’ll never think of that” - a bit of doomed reverse psychology that will have your identity stolen before you can say “Mum’s Maiden Name”.
Phone Wallet lets you store all your passwords in a small database that you can carry about in your S60 3rd Edition phone. You can file passwords in different categories (e.g. Financial, Internet, etc.) and you can even use the app to store other useful info such as your car insurance details.
It is a case of all your eggs being in one basket (not to mention being secured with yet another password..) but everything is encrypted with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), as used by the US Government to protect classified data.
Phone Wallet is available for $9.99, with a free trial available here.
