Raise your hand if you’ve ever looked at your Symbian device’s standby screen and thought “gosh, this can be so much more useful”. So far, very few applications have tried to either add something to the default standby screen, either overhaul it. Off the top of my head, I can name Epocware’s Handy Shell and an application ported from UIQ called gDesk which are either too simple, either too complicated. vHome (or Voyager Home) ranks in terms of usability and customization somewhere in between.
vHome, which is originally a Chinese application, has lately been officially translated to english. The downside is that the English version is still unsigned, the upside is that it works like a charm once you know how to get it signed and installed. So what does vHome provide? Basically a ton of features while still keeping the main layout and functions of your regular homescreen:
- Enable one or two rows of application shortcuts as well as 6 or 7 shortcuts per row.
- News feed display with favicon, which rotates through the latest articles from the main news sources. Unfortunately, you can’t add your favorite feeds now but have to select through a provided list, which includes TechMeme, TechCrunch, New York Times, CNN, BBC, ESPN, and more.
- Calendar and to-do notes which rotate through the different items on the same row.
- Google search box.
- Weather display, with icons, temperatures, which opens a 4-day forecast when clicked.
- Fully controlled Music Player with Skip track, Last Track and Pause function.
If this hasn’t wet your appetite, try adding a nice smart dial function that looks for application names and contacts as your type them from the homescreen, a nice task switcher that cycles through your open applications with the click of the red key, a MyFav menu that shows you your most used applications and most contacted people, a start menu that lets you add even more shortcuts and a nice Restart option, a new app pop-up that lets you launch any application right after you’ve installed it, and vApps, a mini app store that lets you go shopping for a great collection of freeware for your device, download and install them with one click, no fuss.
Impressed? Eh, we thought so. Let’s not forget that you can still switch your profile by holding the #, open the web browser by holding the 0 and even switch bluetooth with the * if your device supports it, so no basic function from your regular standby screen is lost. Add in an extensive settings menu that lets you customize each and every aspect of the homescreen, from the operator logo to the weather city, and you have a clear winner in your hands. There’s also talks about how the Chinese version has support for Facebook and Twitter, and the developer has promised that porting these to the english version is being considered.
Here is a video demonstration of vHome working on my Nokia E71, with a full walkthrough of the functions that I’ve discovered so far, the settings menu and much more.
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vHome is one of those hidden gems that bring a ton of new functionality to your device, and keep surprising you with more options each time you use them. I think there are still a couple of easter eggs hidden here and there in vHome, but so far this application has blown my mind with what it offers. I only miss the email integration, which is a shame, but other than that, I finally have the freedom to choose how I’d like my homescreen to look like and function.
You can download the official english translated vHome from here (Edit: official link not working, so get it from the Symbian-Guru servers) but don’t forget that it’s not signed and only supports S60 3rd edition devices now. If you’d like to give feedback or follow the application’s progress, the developer’s official website is in chinese, but you can access their english Google Code page here and contact them through their Google Group.
Is vHome something you’d consider installing and using on your device? If no, what device do you own, and what is the deal breaker, ie what functionality does your original standby screen provide that vHome doesn’t? Email or Share Online maybe? Or are you willing to sacrifice these in order to have access to much more freedom in terms of how your homescreen looks, and add more functions to it?
