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Symbian-Guru’s 2009 Top 5 Symbian Utilities

By Dotsisx on December 17, 2009


Symbian-Guru 2009 Top 5

In our December rundown of the Top 5 of everything that we’ve used and loved in 2009, we take a look today at the best utilities available for Symbian. In “Utilities”, we mean those tools that make using your Symbian device easier, as well as add or improve a certain missed functionality. Simply put, they’re the first applications we recommend you install on your phone.

1. Handy Taskman / Jbak Taskman

We couldn’t easily agree on one of these as Ricky is a Handy Taskman addict, while I’m more the Jbak Taskman fan. What we did agree on though, is that the task manager utility, represented by either of these, deserves the top spot in this countdown. Basically, these two allow you to manage all the current tasks on your device. Unlike the built-in Symbian task switcher, they show everything running, including hidden tasks like Contacts or Log or Gallery, and easily let you kill one of these if it hangs. They also provide a simple way to launch any application installed on your device, and show an accurate estimate of the remaining RAM, Internal Memory and Memory Card space in one graphically pleasing place. You can read our own comparison of the two in order to make up your mind, then download Jbak Taskman or try/buy Handy Taskman.

2. X-Plore

File managers come and go, but Lonely Cat Games’ X-Plore has earned a spot as one of the first applications I install on any device I have since 2007. It’s one of the most mature file managers available for Symbian, with a built-in ZIP and RAR capability, image video and audio previews, Inbox manager for bluetooth files, file/folder details, Hex editor, file type associations, great search functionality, shortcuts for almost every action, very decent UI for Symbian^1 as well as S60 3rd Edition, and a lot of customization options. Once you get used to X-Plore’s way of things, it’s almost impossible to switch to any other file manager, let alone the built-in one, as it’s simple and powerful at the same time. The best part about it though is that you can use it indefinitely for free, as long as you sit through the 3-second nag screen when it launches and exists. Get it here.

3. Converter Touch

Converter Touch

Of course, S60 has its own converter application, but have you ever tried to use the thing? It’s ugly, unintuitive, and takes a ton of time to manipulate through the different options. That’s why we absolutely love Offscreen Technologies Converter Touch. It’s gorgeous, incredibly intuitive to use, fast and accurate, supports multiple conversion categories and units, and best of all, it’s free. You can’t beat that. Get it from the Ovi Store.

4. cCalc and cCalcPro

cCalc and cCalcPro by ChuaWelic are without a doubt the most powerful and easiest to use scientific calculators for Symbian. Just install them on any device you have and forget about the built-in calculator. cCalc and cCalcPro both bring tons of scientific functions, including logarithms, trigonometry, statistics, finance and even some conversion tools. They also map all the functions to the keypad layout on your device so you can access anything with one click of a button instead of going around for hours using the dpad. Best of all? They’re free. cCalc is for most Symbian devices, while cCalcPro is dedicated to phones with QWERTY keypads, in order to get more use of the keys excess. Get them here (you might have to change your phone’s date back in order to install them as they were signed with an old certificate).

5. Psiloc World Traveler

With recent updates, Psiloc World Traveler has managed to wow us in terms of features, looks and simplicity. It’s one of those rare applications that has been optimized for the E71/E72/E63′s landscape screen, as well as for Symbian^1 touch handsets, all while working perfectly on regular S60 3rd handsets like the N86 8MP. World Traveler is easily the best free option available to follow the weather in one city for several days, as well as keep a tab on the World Clock in different parts of the planet, and best of all, it has a superb and simple currency conversion tool at hand. It also supports auto-updates, a daily weather forecast pop-up, and can put the weather on your homescreen as a to-do note. You can also expand it by buying a Flight Assistant, Travel Safe and Travel Plan plugins. Get it here.

Do you have any other favorite Symbian Utilities applications that didn’t make it to our Top 5? Please share them below in the comments.

Series Navigation«Symbian-Guru’s 2009 Top 5 Nokia Blunders«Symbian-Guru’s 2009 Top 5 Multimedia ApplicationsSymbian-Guru’s 2009 Top 5 Free Java Applications»

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Dotsisx

Dotsisx, aka Rita El Khoury, joined Symbian-Guru.com in September of 2007, and has been writing awesome content ever since. Rita often explores the normal user aspect of Symbian-powered devices, and offers in-depth thoughts on various topics. You can follow Dotsisx on Twitter at @Khouryrt

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  • daClaus

    Nice summary, though points 3 and 5 are – from my point of view – only important if you tavel a lot.

    I'm also a fan of JBak Taskman, but I now use Handy Taskman simply because it's much more touch friendly than JBak.

    One of _my_ most vital system apps is BT switch. I mainly use BT headsets, use BT to sync/ copy files with my laptop and stream music via BT to my car stereo. Put it on the home screen of my N97, saves a lot of time turning BT on/off with one click.

  • mbrett

    JBAK Taskman v.s Handy Taskman
    To be honest using an N97 (S60v5) I have tried JBAK Taskman (dev version), Handy Taskman and Best Taskman. As soon as JBAK's S60v5 bugs are sorted I will probably be switching to that, but at present I have found it somewhat unusable. Loved it and it was a staple on my old N95 8GB, but N97 (S60v5) version needs work. When it comes to Handy Taskman, for me, I prefer Best Taskman due to a little bit of functionality that Best has and Handy doesn't.

    File Manager wise I am somewhat drawn by Active File due to it's GUI and really want to like F Explorer Pro due to it's in betweenness between Active File and X-plore as I dislike the teh small dated GUI in X-plore and have been informed the F-Explorer Pro GUI is due an update enabling a larger Active File/File Manager GUI option.

    Wish cCalc had an S60v5 version. Really missing the Scientific Calculator on S60v5 touch.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com khouryrt

    Actually did u try the last few X-Plore versions? In the customization settings, you can enlarge the font, make it use the built-in font, and enlarge the text, this makes it WAY more usable than the default look it comes with. Plus you can't fault the tap-to-multiple-select option that as far as I know, no other file browser has on S60 v5.

  • Merlin

    FreeTimeBox is one of those applications I can't do without anymore. It brings the clock on all menus “à la S60v3 FP2″, and you can blacklist/whitlist the apps in wich you don't/do want the clock to be shown. Plus it can update the time using the NTP protocol or the GPS: absolutely fantastic.
    An other one is iON BatteryTimer, featured here the first time AFAIK. It shows the remaining battery time as a plugin to the home screen, letting you know if you need to charge the phone before going out for an extended period of time. Genius.
    Both of these earned their places in my E71, and made it so much more convenient to use (alongside a few other apps) that I'm wondering if I really need to upgrade my phone before the end of 2010 (where we might see a touch enabled E7x ?).

    Looking forward to the E72 review here.

  • http://the-rushart.blogspot.com/ RushArt

    How to put weather on homescreen as a to-do note in World Traveler?

  • Spiff

    Voyager Home is quite interesting as a homescreen replacement. The new SPB Weather is also nice.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com khouryrt

    Oh darn it! I totally forgot about iON Battery Timer! That one is a killer! I've been using it as well on my E71 and it takes the cake out of the built-in battery meter.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com khouryrt

    Ugh, it seems that the new updated version of World Traveler no longer allows you to do that, or maybe only the version for portrait devices (like the E52, N86) allows it. I can't find the setting anymore on my E71/E72 or 5530XM so I guess it was either never available for landscape and touch phones, either the last version update removed them.

  • http://www.facebook.com/teeno Martins Irechukwu

    I think handy Shell should be up here.. its a very good replacement to the active standby app. It so far replaced some programs i used to have like SMS preview, SkyQuickey, BTSwitch. Though it might need some work in the calendar support by enabling previewing of pending entries by way of a pop-up and integration of some other applications as a plugin

  • http://www.facebook.com/teeno Martins Irechukwu

    Handy Taskman V JBTaskman
    I would have to go with Handy taskman it's a lot more user friendly than the JBTaskman and usually presents a normal mobile user with the best interface. JBTaskman is good for power users who want to see hidden programs and some other perks…

    My vote is definitely reserved for Handytaskman.. i love their programs more they are easier to use and some what easier on the eyes.. Just tried World traveller good program but can't get it to update the currency converter

  • phoneguy

    Why is the article linking to such an oooooold copy of jbak! Come on people, compare apples with apples! RC 18 is already out and it's great.

    Also on the topic of x-plore, I know people swear by it but the manufacturer's version of Active File walks all over x-plore. The greatest thing about Active File is the two pane view of your file system. When you want to copy something or move something you can set up the target and destination on left and right panes. Couldn't be simpler or more positive.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com khouryrt

    Oh darn it! I totally forgot about iON Battery Timer! That one is a killer! I've been using it as well on my E71 and it takes the cake out of the built-in battery meter.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com khouryrt

    Ugh, it seems that the new updated version of World Traveler no longer allows you to do that, or maybe only the version for portrait devices (like the E52, N86) allows it. I can't find the setting anymore on my E71/E72 or 5530XM so I guess it was either never available for landscape and touch phones, either the last version update removed them.

  • http://www.facebook.com/teeno Martins Irechukwu

    I think handy Shell should be up here.. its a very good replacement to the active standby app. It so far replaced some programs i used to have like SMS preview, SkyQuickey, BTSwitch. Though it might need some work in the calendar support by enabling previewing of pending entries by way of a pop-up and integration of some other applications as a plugin

  • http://www.facebook.com/teeno Martins Irechukwu

    Handy Taskman V JBTaskman
    I would have to go with Handy taskman it's a lot more user friendly than the JBTaskman and usually presents a normal mobile user with the best interface. JBTaskman is good for power users who want to see hidden programs and some other perks…

    My vote is definitely reserved for Handytaskman.. i love their programs more they are easier to use and some what easier on the eyes.. Just tried World traveller good program but can't get it to update the currency converter

  • phoneguy

    Why is the article linking to such an oooooold copy of jbak! Come on people, compare apples with apples! RC 18 is already out and it's great.

    Also on the topic of x-plore, I know people swear by it but the manufacturer's version of Active File walks all over x-plore. The greatest thing about Active File is the two pane view of your file system. When you want to copy something or move something you can set up the target and destination on left and right panes. Couldn't be simpler or more positive.

  • http://blog.symbian.org/2009/12/23/symbian-gurus-top5/ Symbian-Guru’s Top5 | Symbian Blog

    [...] Symbian-Guru’s 2009 Top 5 Symbian Utilities [...]

  • Brian

    Handy TaskMan is a copy/paste from TaskSpy which is free and open souce ! even the menus are the same !

  • http://www.rickycadden.com Ricky Cadden

    Just looked up TaskSpy – looks like the development team never bothered to fully update the app for S60v3, which is a shame. While I disagree it's a copy/paste, it's still not an issue if they never bothered to port it, imo.

  • Nokiadashi

    yes,my N97 just cannot use JBAK Taskman,it’s too small and crammed,it seriously needs new UI. Best Taskman is good,easy to use,like it.

    for file manager,X-plorer,Y-plorer,Avtive file are all old fashioned,too small interface.
    F Explorer Pro looks more modern, i am using it,still far a away from best though.
    My previous phone HTC Touch Pro2 used resco file explorer, that’s truly a perfect file manager, haven’t found one for N97.

    For calculator, cCalc dont have version for S60 v5,right?
    I have not found a good calculator for N97.
    For WM phones,the best calculator is SFR Calculator, I hope Symbian programmers can also design such calculator!

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