Hiplogic is a homescreen replacement for S60 phones that features its own set of widgets, an app launcher and pop up notifications. Sounds like a lot to take in for a single (and Free) app for your Nokia smartphone. Find out how we got on with it in our Hiplogic review.
There are a lot of home screen replacements and app launchers you can download for your Nok, but Hiplogic seems to be a much more serious proposition. For starters, it actually goes to the trouble of remapping your Red button so that it jumps back to your Hiplogic screen rather than exiting the running app and crashing back to the Nokia home screen.
If the Hiplogic look is inspired by anything, it is early versions of Android. The pull-up widget launch tray is a dead ringer for the app launcher on that OS, and tapping the system bar at the top of the screen reveals a very familiar looking Google search bar.
The widget tray is where most users will start to play around with Hiplogic. it contains shortcuts to five widgets - Clock, Finance, Twitter, Weatherbug and Facebook.
The Facebook and Twitter widgets are basiclaly status-line updaters. Once you have signed in to them, though, you will begin to see your friends' updates scroll across the bottom of the homescreen in an area that starts out filled with rolling news headlines.
Clock is self explanatory, Finance is a scrolling stock ticker and Weatherbug shows weather info (temperature, outlook, etc.) from the popular weather website.
Sadly, you can only display one widget at a time in a small area at the top of the screen. As one opens its predecessor closes,which is annoying if you wanted to have both a Twitter and Facebook status on screen at once.
The Apps button on the lower right of the screen takes you to a very iPhone like app launcher that can be paged through with finger flicks. There are a selection of simple apps that display new feeds from selected sites like Sky News and MTV.Com and links to web apps and services. You can also add your own shortcuts both the web and to fell apps installed on your phone.
Hiplogic even has its own App Store where you can download free and commercial apps. We actually really liked the App Store - it didn't have much content, but was amazingly responsive compared to the actual Ovi Store app on our phone. Take note, Nokia.
Hiplogic isn't quite as seamless as it perhaps could be. The Red button may ignore the real Nokia homescreen, but if your phone has a dedicated App key (as on the N97) this will take you into the regular app launcher, which will then quit out into the old home screen. Thankfully, the Red button provides a quick way back in.
The dialler in particular is a bit of a mess. The quick views of contacts and favourites is welcome, but it shouldn't take quite so many taps and keypresses to reach an actual dialing pad. Message interception and notifications works better, with incoming SMS and system alerts being displayed in clear pop-up windows.
As with any alternative interface, Hiplogic will largely be a matter of taste. We found it quite fun to use, but though the widgets on offer are nice, the widget system as a whole is some way less powerful and flexible than the native S60 5th Edition widgets.
Details
Price: Free
Size: 2.032 MB
Check out the Hiplogic review photo gallery:
