SPB Software launched SPB Mobile Shell a few minutes ago, a favourite of many on other mobile platforms, for Symbian, specifically for S60 5th Edition smartphones (and presumably compatible with Symbian^3 in months to come). Highlights of this replacement front-end are multiple customisable homescreens, widgets for tasks, agenda, weather (etc), photo contacts, app launcher, full kinetic scrolling, adaptive skins and support for OpenGL and a (somewhat mind-blowing) 3D carousel. Video, more details, links and screens below. Comments welcome once you've tried the trial version!
Read on in the full article.
Does it come with the great looking female friends? 😉 Especially like the one whose hair is blowing in the wind...
On a serious note, looks promising. The carousel seems too much eye candy (or should I say iCandy?) for me personally to stomach, but I am sure many a user will be happy.
The question on the top of my mind right now is really how much of a memory hog is this thing. As we all know, RAM is not something we have a liberty of in our Nokias. If this eats a lot of RAM and also slows my phone, I would certainly not be interested in this, even if it were free.
Does anybody have any info?
Just installed the free trial and my free ram dropped by over 20meg !!! Looks great but not sure if the N97 will even run with it installed, it does install to E so not all bad but will really slow things down, because as a piece of 'eye candy' it is very impressive. Shame 😞
10mb of my precious and scarce RAM... Sorry but no way, although I'll miss the numeric keypad for contact search...
Installed on Nokia 5800 (with Ver 50. s/w) and only lasted 5 minutes before I got rid and went back to the default Nokia. Much too busy and confusing. Maybe if I give myself time to study it then it would seem to be more of a benefit. The standard Nokia interface might not ne too sexy but its pretty fast and if you've been using it for a while you can be where you want to be very quickly. So not for an old Nokia stick in the mud like me!
Wasn't this suppose to be called version 5?
Excellent software. Suites great for N97 Mini. 😃
It's like having Symbian^3. 😮
I personally am very happy with Handy Shell
My default screen already shows me the majority of things I need to know (time, date, battery, signal, wifi, calendar, to-do, missed calls, text messages, voice mail, shortcuts) without taking up too much real screen estate, so looks nice but no thanks.
Anything that rolls the screen in when going from one menu level to another is retarded eye candy and misses the point that transitions should be there to guide you not to confuse.
However, looks like it capitalists on some of the awful UI decisions made for S605.0 which has to be a good thing.
despite the massive loss of ram , it works so smoothly ! If only nokia could get the touch ui to work so well with the standard software ! Shows what the N97 could do (with double the memory) as it is , going to have to remove the shell to keep the phone functional 😞
this is the last time anyone complains of Symbian OS's GUI not being as good as that of iPhone 😃
I just installed this on the c: drive on my 5800 and it looks like a really impressive piece of software. The kinetic scrolling is quicker than with the v5 firmware. The multiple home screens runs equally smoothly.
Very impressive video! Looks very similar in function to HTC's Sense UI. This should be the standard for Symbian!
Just downloaded the trial version on my 5800 XM and I must say it is quite impressive. Had no problems customizing the home screens and the overall UI is beautiful! Since I use my 5800 for just about all of my personal mobile computing and communication (aside from my company issued Blackberry) the quick navigation and smooth scrolling is useful. Have noticed no performance issues with most of my frequently used apps. If this trial period continues this well, I will purchase.
Installs and works rather nicely on the Satio ..
Will give it a try for the trial period .. see how my battery likes it EDIT .. the battery use is fine .. After a day and a half only one minor issue .. thats the screen sometimes has a redraw issue (it only shows half the home-screen) if you rotate it its fine .. but rotate it back its still only half drawn .. might be a memory issue but I still have plenty left.
I'm not game to try this on the N97 😊
heh. this is proof that spb should just develop it with full eye candy like it's gonna be on android. no matter how much you minimize the RAM consumption, it's never gonna be enough for the nokia symbian phones so far. at least don't hold the satio/viva/i8910 back
OVI maps is unreliable when running this program. Strange anomalies with the screen occur, like when clicking drive home the icons do not disappear. Also could not change screen to 3D by swiping across the screen.
You do not appear to be able to display email from Nokia messaging on the home screen.
N97 Mini
On the N97, the app works quite well, seamlessly integrating most of the phones' function with this new UI. It does feel like the sense UI and has some elements of Symbian 4 approach. Its simply amazing that SPB can put out such a fully features UI in 6 months, and it actually looks and works better than what we're likely to see in the UI in Symbian^3
Things i liked:
- its pretty fast
- better kinetic scrolling than the N97 v21
- really nice UI and generally clear
- a decent number of widgets
- Very finger friendly and highly customizable
- Stable, it hasn't hung on me yet
As always, not everything works:
- email only works with the default email app and doesn't provide previews
- when rotating to landscape, the format rearranges but you can reorganize and save the format
- takes up ram, i tried to push the N97 and it had shutdown SPB shell, where reloading SPB takes a while
Overall, I liked it a lot. There are a few things holding me back that stops me from buying right now despite the price:
1) Email integration doesn't quite work now. I use emoze and the homescreen implementation currently doesn't link with emoze email box
2) Music buttons to control music player on homescreen is important for me. Please add a music widget
3) Should allow disabling of original homescreen, hopefully this will save some precious RAM
Definitely recommended
I've had this running on my ancient QTEK 910 for a while now. Totally transformed the phone (insert joke about polishing a turd here><😉. Much nicer to use, even my kids liked it.
Will i put it on my i8910? Maybe not. I did try the beta while back and just didn't like it enough to keep it on for long (less than a day). Perhaps because i'm used to the v5 interface now, but SPB just didn't 'float my boat', at least on the Symbian.
Been running the trial for that last few hours... my early impressions are very positive! Unfortunately, despite it having great customisability, it is missing some 'must have' features for me:
1) Nokia messaging widget
2) Music player widget
3) RSS feed widget
Without those, I will not be buying the app.
Even on N97 mini, there is just not enough RAM free to launch some memory hungry programs.
Nice and slick but as previous comment no widgets for Nokia messaging or music player.
Need further work and will be great on the N8.
Uninstalling, just hope Nokia bring Symbian^3 memory management to the N97 mini.
Loaded trail onto my 5800 xm and very impressed. I already had the Blue Pearl theme on my phone and I think it compliments SPB mobile shell very well. Downloaded to memory card with no problems and screen sensitivity and scrolling seems to be greatly improved. You need to spend some time playing with it, getting it laid out the way you want and discovering all the stuff it does. So far well impressed and if no problems will be purchasing, who needs an Iphone my 5800 is flying😊
I played with it for last 2 hours, and then uninstalled it.
It takes 20MB RAM, which means I am left with 35MB free RAM instead of 55MB on my N97 mini. Just not enough for most applications, esp. Opera Mobile which popped up few times with Memory full error.
UI is nice and all, but I found myself actually needing more time to access programs and do things. Better form but less functionality than S60 5th UI.
It has some very nice things, like shortcuts for Bluetooth, Wifi, search through contacts with T9 keypad and multiple home screens which I will miss.
But at the end it feels like a polished different kind of GUI plastered on top of S60 5th which you get when you start any application or phone settings.
Some people will like it, some not, but at this current form it simply takes up too much RAM memory which Nokia phones simply don't have...
Obviously this software doesn't aimed to N97 and N97 mini since they support widgets in their homescreen. For 5800, 5230 and X6, this piece of software does provide a fresh look for homescreen. It works very well and definitely save time when launching software. Of course, it hit hard on RAM, but for normal usage, SPB Mobile Shell really a nice addition. Though I must say the price is a little bit too expensive.
A good piece of software, just need to pair it with the right hardware. Nokia current hardware just doesn't cut it. Try using it while playing music with Music Player, and everything slows down significantly. Left with 11-18 M.B. of RAM on my N97 2.1. I guess with Samsung Omnia HD, Sony Ericcson Satio / Vivaz, this software will shine with more CPU power, more RAM and 3D acceleration.
Cheers...
$29.95 ?!!?!? good grief. That kind of pricing policy is exactly why after years of being with Symbian I recently jumped ship to Android. This kind of thing on Android is free !
Installed it last night on my 5800 and have to admit the UI is light years ahead of S60 v5. Absolutely awesome - it changes pretty much everything for the better - like having a new phone.
However,
Went to bed at 1.30 am with the battery at 60%. Woke up to find the battery dead! Not good.
Also, it doesn't seem to allow multi-tasking which is a big no-no. I was navigating with Ovi Maps and received a call. The Maps app turned off when the phone answer dialog appeared and I had to restart Maps and enter the destination again. I tried multi tasking with numerous combinations of apps and it just doesn't seem to be supported.
Also experienced the same problems with Navigation as mentioned in one of the posts above.
Finally, when I exited the SPB shell, my Nokia Menu (middle key) would not work meaning I couldn't get past the Nokia home screen.
So near and yet so far.
I'm (reluctantly) back to S60 v5 - it's not sexy but at least it works.
As far as I'm concerned as an N97 Mini owner it doesn't matter how good this shell is or how well the UI works, there just isn't enough RAM to run it.
I install the shell and then ran Gravity and the Facebook app, there just wasn't enough free memory to run both. If you can't multi-task then you might as well get an iPhone.
I did have a play around with the shell though and on the whole it's quite impressive although I do think it's a little cluttered in places. If Nokia had been more generous with the RAM I think I would have persevered with the shell for the remainder of the trial period and possibly purchased it.