BlackBerry OS 6 Wishes PART #1 – Shortcut Apps

Given all the hype about the pending 3Q ’10 release of the 6th version of the BlackBerry operating system, there are some things I wish would be done. There are several paid, 3rd party apps that offer featured that should be native to our phones.

» QuickLaunch / ShortcutMe

Two wonderful shortcut applications. They both offer their unique ways of displaying on-screen shortcuts to frequently used applications. Somewhere on my blog are screenshots of my setups for both of these apps, and they both have their ups and downs. Currently, I’m using SMe (won the license in a contest from CrackBerry a while back and never really utilized it) and like the ability to color code and group similar shortcuts.

QL offers grouping via a folder process, however I feel that SMe executes it more efficiently. QL doesn’t allow you to assign colors to your shortcuts, either. However, QL’s appearance is much more aesthetically pleasing.

I think one feature both lack (and would benefit from) is the ability to add the icons that are associated with each shortcut to the menu you create. Yeah, this may be a little bit like how the Windows Mobile OS works, but hey, its neat.

Without statistics to back me up, I would venture as far as to say that a considerable (10-15%ish) number of BlackBerry users utilize either QL or SMe. For something so seemingly simple for 3rd party developers to do, RIM should strongly consider their own version of custom shortcuts or even outright purchasing the rights to one or both of these apps.

RIM makes excellent devices, and I’ll always use them. I wish that they would see what users post-purchase do with their phones and make an excellent implementation on future OS releases.

Part 2 to follow…. . If you read this, let me know what you thought, I’d greatly appreciate it.

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