Top 10 Apps worth buying for S60 5th Edition phones
Published by Steve Litchfield at 16:27 UTC, April 5th 2009
It may be early days for this variant of S60, and of course many S60 3rd Edition commercial applications work fine too (though they won't be optimised for the new screen resolution(s) and touch), but if you own a compatible smartphone, which applications should you be willing to dip into your wallet for? Which are the best, in terms of both quality and value?
Note that this is a follow-up article to my top 20 freeware applications for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and S60 5th Edition.
1. Gravity
No surprises here, Gravity has received rave reviews (including here on AAS) and has an exemplary interface. Gravity is a Twitter client, letting you post updates (tweet) and receive updates from all your friends and contacts.
Buy it here. Cost: £7
2. WorldMate Pro
This item's cheating to a degree because WorldMate straddles the worlds of freeware and commercial software. By default, you get a slick and free utility, offering weather forecasts, a currency converter and world clock. But then pay the commercial premium (go 'gold') and you get real time flight status and alerts, flight schedules and satellite imagery for weather. If you're a regular traveller then this becomes a time and money saver and will easily pay for itself.
Buy it here. Cost:$30 a year
(Twittix screen via CJ)
3. Twittix
It's yet another Twitter client and isn't quite so pretty, but can't be ignored because it offers much of the functionality of Gravity at 60% of the price.
Buy it here. Cost: $7
4. ZingMagic Backgammon Pro II/Chess
Another cheat, in that I'm listing two separate games. but I'm guessing that you'll prefer one over the other, so pick the one you're better at. As usual, the ZingMagic games are slick and friendly to your phone's OS. The price is a little high, but then each will give hundreds of hours of gameplay and fun, so....
Buy Chess Pro II here. Buy Backgammon Pro II here. Cost: $15 each
5. Handy Safe Pro
I hesitate to suggest this application, in view of the cost, but you still can't beat the way it syncs all its data seamlessly to a fully functioning Windows desktop version, right down to record level. Used properly, this can hold all the secrets of your life, in a maintainable and easy-to-backup fashion. And you can't really put a price on that, surely?
Buy it here. Cost:$35
6. OfficeSuite
Yet again there's a caveat. This time because MobiSystems seem to have rushed their office editing suite to market. It's buggy, but at least they know it's buggy and are working on it. And it's on special offer at the moment, so I recommend you buy it now and then take advantage of the fixes as and when they come along.
Buy it here. Cost:$20 (usually a whopping $60)
7. Resco Bubbles
One of the better and trickier accelerometer games, this one'll have you tearing your hair out. In a good way. The screenshot's self-explanatory, but the game's harder than it looks. Persevere past the weird setup interface.
Buy it here [link coming soon]. Cost: $10
8. Can't Stop Solitaire
Horrifically expensive by modern standards, for a humble game, this solitaire collection has almost infinite interest and playability, and deserves a recommendation on this alone. Over two hundred card solitaire variants are here, so something for everyone.
Buy it here. Cost: $30
9. Handy Shell
Epocware's vision for what the Symbian home screen should look like, you'll either love this or hate it. There's no denying the number of apps represented, plus you get another three optional 'views', plus a year's worth of weather, but it's a;; rather overkill for the average user. Still, perfect for the road warrior!
Buy it here. Cost: $20
10. Best TaskMan
Think of this as the built-in S60 'Open Applications' list on steroids. You get extra views, including the all important 'free RAM' figure, plus detailed info on how much RAM each application and process is using, a must for geeky troubleshooting.
Buy it here. Cost:$12
As my first attempt at putting together a set of commercial picks for S60 5th Edition, I'd appreciate comments on pay-for software that I've missed. I'll be revisiting this top 10 from time to time!
Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 7 April 2009
Categories: Software
Platforms: S60 5th Edition
Feature Discussion
But I have paid for profimail. It works VERY nicely on 5800 and gives something that Nokia doesn't plus it is actually useful to most people.
Unlike a twitter app, which does something that most people can easily live without. I've looked at twitter but don't understand why I would want it.
A fancy user interface is all very well, but I use an app for its core function, not to play with the interface. A app can do as good or better job without speciall effects.
I've got iPlayer, google maps and accuweather which is very unaacurate.
It's a great app, but for USD35 (+ vat)??? and not a one-time fee, so I will have to put more money to it if I change phones and/or os...
Profimail still tops in my book though. LCG Jukebox is worth the money too I reckon.
Feel fun and power of touch screen gaming.
http://forums.sbsh.net/index.php?showtopic=24820
Reminders for S60 5th edition.
http://forums.sbsh.net/index.php?showtopic=24818
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Originally Posted by mjbr
anyone knows a replacement for handy safe?
It's a great app, but for USD35 (+ vat)??? and not a one-time fee, so I will have to put more money to it if I change phones and/or os... |
It's great for hiding your p0rn and works very well on the 5800xm.
Agree with Profimail until Nokia Email 1.1 comes out on the platform, this should be on everyones list irrespective of the UI it does email better than anything else
Like others I don't see the point of twitter
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Originally Posted by slitchfield
Well, ProfiMail is fully functioning, but it's basically the S60 3rd Edition version and there's almost no concession to the much large screen or finger touch input. And I've never been a fan of apps making up their own UIs..... Sorry.
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I am also no fan of apps with their own UI, though Profimail got better with V3 and Theme color support.
But from the functionality view, ProfiMail is unmatched.
And Resco Bubbles is a must for fun as well was Xplore from LCG for managing all your files effectively...
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Originally Posted by abruenin
There is a ProfiMail version 3.1 for 5th Ed., using the whole screen (now the preview area below the mail list does make sense) and with touch controls. I am a heavy mobile mail user and ProfiMail is IMHO the best mail client for Symbian by far.
I am also no fan of apps with their own UI, though Profimail got better with V3 and Theme color support. But from the functionality view, ProfiMail is unmatched. |
The Free Edition is a must have for every smartphone!
I would like to use something like this on my S60, but im quite sceptible about putting data like this on my phone.
How breakable is it if my phone was misplaced, or stolen. anyone got experiencs with this?
Many thanks.
Darren.
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Originally Posted by UKJeeper
Viewranger is available for 5th edition, you should review that. Best topo mapping software for mobiles imo. Much better than Memory Map (which i also use) with many more options. I love it on my E90 and can only imagine its even better as a touch screen app.
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