‘IconHider’ is a nice little app for your Symbian phones which will allow you to hide icons from your menu. It’s nice and simple app which doesn’t have too many flashy options yet does it’s job pretty well.
Developer: SymbianToys / Version Reviewed: 1.03 / Compatibility: 3rd FP1, 3rd FP2, 5th, S^1, Anna, Belle devices / Score: 80 / Buy
First impression of this little tiny app was pretty impressive as it doesn’t stay in memory to do it’s job and very light on your phone’s resources. It’s pretty quick and the graphics look good to your eyes.
App handling is quite easy as well, except for a few glitches which I will explain later in this review.
Let’s first discuss about the app’s layout. After you open the app, you are presented with two tabs on top.
First tab will provide following options:
Status – By default the app is disabled so this option will allow you to enable or later disable it again. Disabling it will unhide all hidden icons through this app.
Ghost Code – Default code is *0000* which you can only change after you bought the app.
Hidden Icons – This option will provide you a list of available apps icons to hide. Top second tab does the same thing and provide you all available icons to hide.
Trial Version (Buy Full Version) – This option will open a web page where you can buy the app. You may sometimes get Service Unavailable error but that could be just a temporary error and if you try again after some time, it will work. This happened with me.
Register – If you already bought the app, pressing this option will provide you two options to register this app. Using License ID or Using Code.
License ID – Contains 16 characters and is provided when the IMEI is not known. In this case, to complete the registration process an internet connection will be required. During the connection the IMEI will be provided to the server and it will be paired to the License ID. Usually, the License ID is provided for reviews and free licenses.
Registration Code – Contains 8 characters and is provided when the IMEI is known. It is already paired with the IMEI and the registration process can be completed offline without any internet connection. Usually, the Registration Code, is provided to all the regular purchases.
Customers need to put their IMEI while buying the app on the product’s page. After the payment will be completed, they will be redirected on a webpage and they will receive also an automatic email containing the Registration Code and the instructions to transform the Trial version in the Full version.
I tried with License ID which use your GPRS/3G/Wifi Data connection register the app.
Check Updates – Check for the latest version with developer’s server from within the app itself.
About (Icon Hider) – Shows the version number and some other useful info like how to invoke the app in case you hide the app itself.
Second tab as I already mentioned, will show you the list of available icons you can hide with this app.
Each app can be ‘checked’ to mark it as hidden and once you close the app the list of selected apps will be hidden. App will show you a warning pop up reminding you about your ghost code if you select Icon Hider to be hidden in case you forgot and then later start searching for the app’s icon itself.
Missing for the moment are options to sort system apps and manually installed apps or the apps already installed in phone’s software (Rom Apps).
Let’s talk about how the app works now.
If you are using a Trial version, app will only allow you to hide a single application’s icon and won’t allow you to change it’s security code/ghost code. Select the icon you want to hide and exit the app, icon will be hidden. Pretty simple, huh?
More fun begins after you buy the app as then you can hide unlimited no. of application’s icons and set your Ghost code to anything up to 6 digits. You can hide the Icon hider application icon too. Now to run it again, simply dial your ghost code using the phone’s dialer putting a * in front and in the end and dial the code, dialing will stop and Icon Hider will open.
I highlighted few missing areas or bugs in this version so that they can be fixed or incorporated in the future coming releases of this app.
Help Option – There should be a help option in each and every app whether it’s a simple or highly advanced app which up to certain points explain the functionality of the app as well as explain the available options to user. E.g. there is no info about how long the Ghost code could be set by user which I guess is 6 digits as when I tried to set it for more then that, app crashed. So in such cases a help option or a pop up asking user to enter only a limited number as Ghost code could be useful.
Unwanted application icon comes up as soon as you close the app very first time – (This may happen on selected firmware versions or Symbian OS versions)
When you first run Icon Hider and set the options, as soon as you close it, there will be an extra app in your menu named Signal Boost which I guess it a system app and needs to be hidden always as it’s for no use for a normal user because as soon as you click on that, it will show you a system error and disappear. If you are using a trial version, you can only hide it or the app itself or any other individual app as that’s the limit of the app itself. What I would suggest is when app first runs, it will save the list of already hidden apps and let them hidden always until the user selects them to unhidden and that’s why I suggested to have a category based list view where System apps and user installed apps can be categorized.
In developer’s words:
In some devices, like N8, Nokia have hidden some apps icons (don’t know exactly why, those app are still in beta stage).
After you install IconHider it will show them and you’ll be able to hide them again by marking them in the Hidden Icons panel.
NOTE: The Trial version can only hide 1 icon, so, in some devices like N8, users will not be able to hide them all again…
Of course, it is not intended to force users to buy the Full version, they can just uninstall the Trial version and the original configuration will be fully restored and those new icons will be hidden again.
The device will appear exactly as it was before the installation of IconHider.
The only purpose of the Trial version is just to give to the users the chance to try the software to verify that it does what it claims to do…
One last suggestion would be to put only one restriction on the trial version, either it’s to hide only one icon or disabling of changing ghost code.
Thanks to Marco Bellino (Il.Socio) for making this review possible and nicesoni_ash for making it.
The greatest news to our members is that Marco Bellino also gave us 11 licenses to giveaway to our members! If you want to win one of these licenses, head to this Topic and read the Rules on How to Participate in this Contest!
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