App Review: HI-N-Bye

This review is done as part of the competition being held at The Symbian Blog. There are 3 N900′s being given away. For more details head over to The Symbian Blog.

We downloaded Hi-N-Bye application from Nokia OVI store. Hi-N-Bye is a paid application which you can download from here OVI

Hi-N-Bye

Hi-N-Bye is a unique accelerometer based application developed by KEYnetik which makes use of the built in accelerometer in the phone to record gestures and translates them to phone friendly commands which take control of the call system.

The application records gesture inputs which allow you to answer phone calls with simple pick-up like gesture, End a phone call with hang-up like gesture and also allows turning loudspeaker ON/OFF and swapping/hold calls, all without pressing any hardware key.

The application is easy and intuitive to use once you learn about the gestures and their corresponding actions.

We downloaded the application from OVI store. The download and installation procedure is straightforward and hassle free.

Once the application is downloaded and installed, launch the application from the applications menu.

The application loads up with the below screen.

The main menu provide options to set 6 parameters which govern the application behavior

Auto Start

Options: Enabled and Disabled

Enabling Auto Start makes the application launch on boot.

Auto Starting the application works fine as the phone recognizes the input gestures of a phone received shortly after boot up.

Disabling “Auto Start” requires the application to be launched manually to take in gesture inputs.

Application type:

Options: Regular Application and System application

Choosing “Regular application” will make “Hi-N-Bye” to be treated a usual S60 application by the system. The application is eligible to be closed forcefully by the system in low memory conditions.

Choosing “System Application” will result in “Hi-N-Bye” running always once started and will not be closed by the system in low memory conditions.

Timeout:

Options: Enabled and Disabled

Enabling the “Timeout” requires the “Timeout Period” to be specified. The “Timeout Period” determines the duration of time the application will use the accelerometer service to register gestures during the call.

Disabling the “Timeout” option will allow the “Hi-N-Bye” application to use the accelerometer service through the duration of the call. This might result in increased battery consumption.

Timeout Period:

The “Timeout Period” is available when the “Timeout” is enabled. The timeout duration can be set from 1 to 30 minutes. For Ex: If the timeout period is set to 5 minutes then onwards the “Hi-N-Bye” application is put to sleep and you can no longer control the call using gesture inputs.

Shake Assignment:

The “Shake assignment” option defines the action to take when you shake the phone: either use the lower right button (option bottom right of the screen), use the green key or does not do anything.

Push Assignment:

The “Push Assignment” option works as same as “Shake Assignment”, difference being the action wherein the phone is pushed away and from the user. I.e. like an action simulation the push of a button.

Along with the options to set the above six parameter Hi-N-Bye also has an options menu to which provide user some more control options over the application.

Run in Background

Selecting the “Run in Background” option will minimize the “Hi-N-Bye” application. The application keeps running the background and can be accessed by long pressing the menu key.

Hide Application

“Hide Application” is another useful feature which will hide the application shortcut from the task list. Since the application keeps running in the background most of the time having it listed on the task list all the time is not really needed and will unnecessarily increase the task list length.

Selecting this option will make the application not to be listed on the open tasks list which is shown on menu key long press.

Save Settings

Once all the setting have been done they can be persisted by using the save settings options.

Usage:

Please check out my video of the application in action. The application was used on a Nokia N95 to control a call using the gestures.

We tried out Answering a call, turning ON/OFF the loudspeaker, swapping/Hold a call and also call hang-up.

Answering a call requires the phone turned up and facing the person and a moving it at an angle as shown in the video. The gesture is very intuitive and is same as if you look at who is calling and then take the phone towards the ear to answer back. Answering a call always worked for us and the application registered this gesture with 100% accuracy. Great!!!

Turning ON/OFF the loudspeaker requires the phone to be pushed down as if you are pressing a button. This action toggles the loudspeaker ON/OFF.

Swapping/Hold of active call is accomplished through shake gesture. The active call is placed on hold or call is switched to another waiting call if any.

Call hang-up is a simple step of just turning the phone upside so that the screen is parallel to the ground. Neat and easy!!!

The application works pretty flawless with little error. The gestures are registered on the first attempt 90% of the time. Keynetik have set the sensitivity to optimal values and does not require vigorous shaking or pushing of the phone to register a gesture. The application has been thoroughly beta tested and it works with minimal flaws. Kudos to the Keynetik team!!

All is well when we have the mobile in hand while getting a call. However, few times we did face the problem when the phone had to be picked up to see caller details which resulted in the call being received.

Wish list:

Keynetik can also provide user with an option to adjust the sensitivity of the application which will provide the users more control over the application behavior and definitely be helpful.

It would be great if Keynetik can also add in a gesture to silence a incoming call. This was one feature we missed a lot and would like to see it coming in the future release.

We would also love to see a pop up or a help menu explaining the above mentioned settings/options on what they do and how changing the parameters will affect the application behavior and also how one can save battery. This will very much help first time users a lot.

Conclusion:

There are many applications in the Symbian world like “FlipSilent”,”ShutUp” and ”LoudUp” etc.. which partially accomplish what “Hi-N-Bye” does.

However “Hi-N-Bye” is one neat application which takes care of almost all daily usage actions associated with a call. It also provide user with a host of options to tweak various associated parameters allowing user to answer a call with little hassles.

In its existing avatar the application is fantastic to use and is a definite recommend from us for anyone who like to use the gestures to handle their calls.

Thumbs up