Nokia E66 Walkthrough – Homescreen
The E66, as well as the E71, introduces two new UI improvements when it comes to the homescreen: better message, missed call and voice mail notification and contact search.
Homescreen contact search (or its absence) was a big letdown for users coming from Windows Mobile devices, and this is something Adam Lein from PocketNow had previously ranted about, to which I answered by redirecting him to SkyeQuiKey. Fortunately, Nokia has been paying attention to 3rd party software, and like learning from Handy Calendar for their new Calendar layout, they also learned from SkyeQuiKey. The new homescreen contact search may not bring the whole set of features that SkyeQuiKey has, but what it does, it does in simplicity and rather well.
Now by simply starting to type on the standby screen, T9-style (Rita is 7482 and not 77744482), you have a narrowed list of the corresponding contacts. Click right, and you can Call, SMS, MMS or voice Message the person. Click OK and you can view the business card in the Contacts application. It’s so simple it makes you wonder WHY THEY HELL didn’t Nokia think of it and implement it before.
As for the new Message, Missed Call and Voice Mail notification, it’s also one of the most convenient implementations I have seen so far. When I had my E61i, I complained about how it stupidly wanted me to have double notifications whenever I wanted it to show an excerpt from the new Message I receive (Eseries owners should know what I am talking about). Well now the clutter is cleaned, and you have a nice set of 3 bubbles on the lower part of the screen (which you can remove one by one) that show you the number of events. Highlight one of them and you get a pull-up menu of the last 5 new notifications, select one and click right to Call, SMS, MMS or Voice Message the person, or click on it to view it. You can also click on the bubble to be take to the Message Inbox or Call Log. It’s deadly simple yet utterly convenient since you can continue your work without being bothered by that huge “1 New Message” notification that you get on other Nokias.
Now let’s get to the video and see how both of these features work:
It may take now more clicks to remove a missed call notification, but I find it convenient because I use the new system to view a Missed Call without removing it, keeping it as a reminder on my screen to either call the person back, send them an sms later, or do something they asked me to.
Now if you think that this is the only improvement brought to the new Eseries homescreen, then you must have not heard about Modes and you need to check back here tomorrow. If you do know about Modes, then you might want to a have a detailed look on how they work.
Interesting add ons… the question is when are these apps or add ons coming to a Nseries.
Hi Dotsisx, very informative post as usual.
What is the region of your test E66?
I’m asking this because I know that E71s bought in Singapore (with languages: english, chinese, melayu, indonesian I think) do not have the smart dialling feature activated. BTW why Nokia???
The E66 having the same software as the E71, I wonder if it’s the same… Maybe some fellow APAC reader can help out on this?
Echoing Aditya Singhvi … Would it be too much to dream / ask for these features to flow through to my N95?
When you mentioned T9-style I immediately thought of T9 Nav (Beta)
The only advantage with this application is that it indexes everything on your phone including media files.
However as it’s still in Beta it still contains some bugs.
One of them unfortunately is that it slows down your phone quite dramatically.
As SkyeQuiKey is concerned it’s much faster and offers more quicklaunches for bookmarks, applications and more.
A free alternative, but not so good on the search side is the Jbak TaskMan
It’s more a tool compared to Handy TaskMan with the option to have quicklaunches (here you can put in documents and not just applications)
It does provide a quicklaunch for applications with 2 keypresses (+ the typing of the application name)
So if you only need quicklaunch of applications with the more powerful abilities to terminate processes and diagnose tools this one’s the better.
I’m glad that Nokia have been listening to people and keeping up for solutions that are offered by third parties. Being integrated into the system means quicker access time and less hassle with finding good applications for such tasks.
However this will mean that S60 could be more bloated in addition to become a litlle “Windows”.
With that I mean that they integrate so much into their systems that you can’t use other alternatives and remove the inbuilt one.
As a comparison I can mention IM and PPT. These offers essentially good functionality only if you have set them up right (or your provider supports it). It works but are not superior to the other solutions out there.
Same goes for the Windows Media Player. It works, but more powerful alterntatives are there.
What’s common between these are that they can’t be removed (or not that easily), meaning you have duplicates of applications residing in your phone / computer without using it.
That is both an eyesore and a bother to me.
And I’m sure that we all feel the same (read. Crap Folder).
Aditya and Nathan,
Well at the point being, I am not very eager to see these migrate to Nseries, you know why? When I had my hands on the E61i, I essentially criticized Eseries for being a “truncated form of Nseries” (ie Nseries without the multimedia, but without the powerful software directed towards business users). The new E66 and E71 solve this issue, they provide Eseries with a set of features that differentiate it and let it hold on its own.
As ridiculous as the division between N and E might seem to me at points, there are also moments when I understand that a targeted handset could do better in sales compared to an overall handset. I think that if Nokia wants to keep the division between N and E clear, they will push further these small software improvements in E series and focus more on multimedia in N series.
So to repeat my answer to your question: yes we will keep asking nokia to merge between N & E, but they won’t, and these improvements aren’t likely to come to Nseries. Or at least so I think.
Cheung,
you make a good point, but this clutter problem is only faced by powerful users. And we should agree that there is a very very tiny percentage of S60 users who 1.know about the ability to add applications, 2.know about skyequikey or t9nav or jbaktaskman (though i think the last one is painfully slow to load, and not as useful as the other two) AND 3.be ready to pay for skyequikey or t9 nav when it’s released.
As I see it, I don’t mind having something built-in if it functions as well as the new homescreen contact search in the E66, and yes i am willing to give up on quick access to apps & bookmarks that skyequikey brings, because built-in = faster, cheaper, more reliable, less ram hungry, less battery draining, and more accessible to everyone.
I really see the point that you’re saying that the E- and N-series should be separated as it’s the nature of market strategy to offer solutions for different consumers markets.
(No doubt I would have done the same).
As I see it from my standpoint is that they currently offers the same opportunities when it comes to software support. (Able to install 3rd party applications).
Without a doubt those small eyesores of mine is because I’m a poweruser, but also because I take the more practical approach to it.
Why not use the full advantages a device can give you when you already have bought it?
(Another thing is also that people don’t read the manuals anymore) .-p
The build quality is indeed the biggest issue between these two series of phones.
We could however takes these assumptions into account:
-N-series users-
1. More “active” and therefore more likely to e.g. loose their phones / destroy them.
2. They switch phones more often.
-E-series users-
1. E-series users have their phones longer and therefore build quality should be better.
2. They need a more robust phones because they use their phones for business purposes in which contains sensitive information.
From this point of view it’s really easy to see the why Nokia have divided their phones software and hardware wise.
But as we already know the lines have long crossed and somewhat faded between these two.
I can live with differences software wise, but build quality should be better in N-series.
Got a little off topic there.
Sorry for that.