If you’ve been in the Symbian world for any length of time, you’re familiar with the Handy applications from our friends at Epocware. We’ve certainly covered them quite a bit in the past here, and feature them in our Symbian-Guru Software Store, too. One of my personal favorites, particularly on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, is Handy Shell. This application replaces the useless Active Standby on the 5800 XpressMusic (and any other Symbian-powered phone) with a customizable interface, complete with updated weather information and more icons.
Over the weekend, in their support forums, Epocware released the first beta of Handy Shell v2.0, with some really cool updates. The biggest feature, in my opinion, is the new 3D cube interface, which pops up whenever you change screens in the application. You can see a few screenshots below, and I think you’ll agree it certainly looks quite nice. 
Please keep in mind that this is a beta, and will certainly have its share of bugs to be stomped out. If you’d like to help Epocware find those bugs, make sure you sign up for an account on their forum, download this new beta, and get to bug-hunting. Active beta testers will get a free license when the application is ready for public release, too.
The biggest letdown, for me, is that the application doesn’t support Nokia Messaging for its email notifications. Aside from that though, there really isn’t much to complain about, even in the current public version of Handy Shell.
What do you think? How well does it run on your phone?
