Over the last month, I have been enjoying a few applications on my E71, so I decided to share them with you this week. I won’t make a detailed review of each application, but I will highlight what it does, what I love about it and why it’s a nice addition to the E71.
I have been searching for ways to make using the E71 even more efficient, as if it wasn’t enough. I tried different settings with MagicKey, I tried to use the built-in Mode switching, I tried modifying the One-Key shortcuts to no avail. I guess I have a lot of applications in my phone and a set of 10′ish shortcuts isn’t enough. That’s when I remembered an application I enjoyed a lot on the N81 when I had it: Cute Keys. So I delved through my computer, resurrected it, and installed it on the E71. An hour later, I had set up more than 25 shortcuts, and I could still set up more than a 100 if I wanted to.
So how does Cute Keys work? Well, you simply choose a shortcut that consists of 2, 3 or 4 simultaneous keys and assign an action to them. The action can be to open an application, toggle bluetooth, launch a file, open a website, open a media element, or send an SMS, email or MMS to a certain contact, or even call a certain contact. I first thought that one of the keys had to be a special key, as I remembered using on the N81, like the Fn, Shift, Chr or directional keys. But as it turns out, on the E71, you can assign ANY key combination. Here are a few examples of how I set it up:
Starting Applications
I set up 2-keystroke shortcuts of “Chr + letter” combination. I chose the letters carefully to be the first letter from the application I want to open. For example: Chr + D = Dictionary ; Chr + G = Gallery ; Chr + Q = QuickOffice. That way, I never get lost and wonder what the hell was the shortcut for an application.
Opening files
I used the “F + letter” combination, F standing for File and the letter being the first letter from the file’s name. I found this HIGHLY convenient to open directly ebooks without having to go through the main ebook application first and scroll to reach the one I want. You can use it for any files you find yourself frequently using, not just ebooks obviously.
Sending an SMS, MMS, Email and calling contacts
The combination I set is “S + letter” or “M + letter” or “E + letter” or “C + letter”: S stands for SMS, M for MMS, E for Email and C for Call, obviously. As with the two previous examples, the letter used is the first letter from the contacts name. I love the fact that for Call shortcuts, it makes a prompt and asks me if I really want to call someone, that way, if I pressed the keys by mistake, it won’t start going all crazy and calling people.
And we haven’t even talked about the best thing yet! All of these shortcuts work from ANYWHERE on the phone. The application also auto starts when the phone boots, runs quietly in the background, doesn’t seem to slow anything down, and works really fast. It takes less than a second to launch applications with it, even less to open an SMS to a certain contact and immediately start hammering the text.
Cute Keys offers a 10-day trial version. Of course, it works on all S60 3rd Edition handsets and not just the E71, but it’s now THE must-have application on my E71. I can’t remember how I functioned without it. If you like it, you can get it for 9.99$ at the Symbian-Guru store, which is a steal for an application that makes everything so much faster and easier on your phone.
