Skyecaller PRO II from Skyestream

This is a review of SkyeCaller PRO II from Skyestream.

Review Conditions

The application was installed on a Nokia E71, a s60 3rd, FP 1 device. There are different versions of SkyeCaller PRO II available for different versions of s60.

Installation

Installation is simple using the PC Suite’s application installer. SkyeCaller PRO II uses upto 1.7 megabytes of RAM while it’s running, which is reasonable, for devices with s60 3rd edition which usually have atleast 50 mb of free memory.

First View

How would you like to see a full screen display of your friends and relatives faces on the phone’s screen when they call or text you or see a full screen video of your daughter when she rings you? The SkyeCaller PRO II does just that by adding a visual element to all voice and text communications. It allows easy personalization of caller image display, video ringtone playback and management of audio ringtones.

Main Features

SkyeCaller PRO II allows personalization of audio and video ringtones and caller image display for each contact in the mobile’s address book. It also allows the personalization of Profiles.

Contacts

Every contact can be assigned a unique image, audio ringtone or video ringtone or a combination of ringtone and image. Assigning of unique images or ringtones are now common in many mobile phones today. But SkyeCaller PRO II displays the image on the whole screen. This looks quite cool. Any voice recording, mp3 track or mp4 video can be assigned as an audion ringtone or a video ringtone.

Settings

Tones and images can be assigned to a contact and can be enabled for various voice and text events - incoming and outgoing calls, incoming and outgoing text and multimedia messages.

Setting an image for a contact

From within SkyeCaller PRO II one can view contacts and the media gallery.

In the media gallery a media file can be set to a contact.

SkyeCaller PRO II displays an icon on either side of a contact that indicates whether an audio ringtone, video ringtone or image is set to it. That is very thoughtfully done. This is visible only if the contacts are viewed from within the SkyeCaller PRO II application. If the native address book is used, these settings are not visible.

The properties option shows the media file that is set for each contact.

There is a Wizard option which is a 1 click function that automatically reviews all the image names on the device, then intelligently pairs any unpaired contacts to the image name that is similar, e.g. image name: Sarah.jpg might be auto linked to a contact named Sarah Jones.

Removing an image for a contact

Removing a unique media file assigned to a contact is simple. Just view the contact from SkyeCaller PRO II and clear the media assigned to them using the option menu. Remember that the ringtone or image assigned to a contact via SkyeCaller PRO II is not visible via the native s60 address book. I found that SkyeCaller PRO II disables the the image attached to the contact via the native address book when it is running on the mobile.

Profiles

SkyeCaller PRO II also allows the assigning of media to profiles. If there are no unique images or ringtones assigned to a contact, the media assigned to the profile will be displayed on the whole screen. Otherwise, the media file is set to a contact will override the the media set to the profile.

Handling

SkyeCaller PRO II is very easy to use. I had no problems in setting it up and using it.

Weaknesses

• Within SkyeCaller PRO II, the image or ringtone can be set for the contact only when the media is viewed in the thumbnail view. In a full view, the application switches to the native s60 image viewer or s60 music player and adding the image to a contact in full view is not the same as setting an image to a contact in SkyeCaller PRO II. This is rather confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it in no time. In the full view, you’ll see the option “Assign to Contact”. This means you are not using SkyeCaller PRO II to set an image for a caller.
  
• I would like to see the built-in search function of SkyCaller PRO II to filter and display only contacts that have been set with images and tones so that I can remove or replace images on them. This is not really a weakness but a nice to have feature. So I ended up having to remember each contact that was enhanced with custom tones and images.
• During a call, it’s not possible to send an SMS to the caller. This is possible with some s60 devices and it is very useful. I am disappointed this is not available when SkyeCaller PRO II is running.

Conclusion

SkyeCaller PRO II is a very cool application. It’s a delight to see full screen videos of my daughter on my phone screen when she calls from home. It’s not a lifesaver but is definitely worth a look. It’s available at Skyestream Website for purchase or a 1 day trial. Because it’s so easy to setup and use, just a day is enough to try it out and decide if you want to buy it or not. You can download the User manual here.