Add More Standby Screens to Your Symbian Smartphone

Developed by Epocware, Handy Shell offers Symbian users 3 additional Standby screens (Today, Applications, Contacts) and an advanced launcher, which radically changes the way their smartphone will look. The application works like a user interface and perfectly integrates with the phone's operating system, as well as with its main applications: Clock, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Profiles, Themes.

Just like the Spb Shell app, which is available for Pocket PCs, Handy Shell greatly improves the productivity of the device. It features four plugins: Clock, App Shortcuts, Phone indicators and settings and Calendar. The Clock plugin features a digital clock, date and alarms, Applications shortcuts reveal 6 shortcuts to the most useful apps, Phone indicators plugin allows users to manage main phone indicators like Bluetooth, missed calls, new messages and new emails, while the Calendar plugin summarizes the upcoming Calendar events. There are also three available view modes: Today view (containing the 5 plugins mentioned earlier), Applications view (containing 12 shortcuts of the most used apps) and Contacts view (containing information about 12 favorite contacts).


After the install, Today view will completely replace the Active Standby of the Symbian and collect all important info on your smartphone’s screen. The Dial and Start function allows you to find the desired contact or to launch applications directly from any view. You just need to start typing the first digits of a phone number or the first letters of the contact’s/application’s name. Handy Shell is capable of interpreting them in T9 manner.


Handy Shell works very well with another application offered by Epocware, called Handy Weather, which will keep you connected with updated forecast anytime anywhere. The app works like a widget and requires an Internet connection. It features compatibility to get weather news and forecast for over 40 000 preset cities worldwide. Handy Weather displays on the Standby screen a 5-day weather forecast for the currently selected town. You can also access a nice 5-day temperature graph, information regarding wind direction, UV index, pressure, visibility and many more.


Both applications are offered as trial versions for 14 days with full functionality. After the trial period is over you have to pay 19.95 USD for Handy Shell and around 20 USD for Handy Weather.



Note: You can easily follow my daily guides by subscribing to the RSS feed.