Tired Of Swiping iPhone Screens? Try Spotlight, Orbit or Pogo Plank

Posted on 18 October 2009, at 12:45 pm, by Dan Cohen

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I know this may be a bit of heresy that might draw some major criticism, but I’m starting to think the iPhone interface is growing a bit long in the tooth. I mean, it was one thing when you had a page of stock apps and a second page of website shortcuts, but when you now have five, six, seven or even more pages of apps, flicking through page after page after page after page after page after page every time you want an app on that last page is more than a bit annoying.

With other platforms offering different, and often better, user interfaces coming on strong, the iPhone and iPod touch interface starts to feel **gasp** old.

Fortunately there are some good alternative options for navigating the iPhone available that can potentially take the experience of using an iPhone to new heights. Most, however, require you to be jailbroken.

Here is a quick look at three.

Spotlight-

The first is Apple’s own Spotlight search functionality.

Unlock the iPhone, swipe once to move to the screen to the left.

Type in the first letters of the app (or contact, or note etc) you want.

And within a few taps the app you want is there for the taking.

Increasingly this is the way I access most of my apps if they are not on the first or second screen.

Orbit-

The second approach is a new jailbreak app called Orbit. Orbit maintains the same multi-page approach of the iPhone, but adds one key functionality that can be super useful. Tap the Orbit icon…

and you can easily see all your pages on a single glance.

So long as you know which app is on which page you can then quickly get to the page, or the app, you want.

Pogo Plank-

Pogo Plank compleltely changes the iPhone’s UI but moving to a one-screen approach. On that one screen remains your dock icons and a semi-circle of folders.

You can create and name any number of “Categories” (folders)…

and then add whatever apps you want to each. Setup takes some time but it not difficult.

Even in this early release you can change some aspects of the folder and choose from a number of different themes.

After that, respring your phone and… bam, a whole new interface.

Tap a folder and it reveals the contents. If there are more apps than the list can handle you simply scroll up and down.

Tap another folder and it moves into the 3 o’clock position and reveals its contents.

In one sense, Pogo Plank is much like putting all your apps in a series of folders using the jailbreak application Categories. There is, however, on big difference. Unlike Categories you can turn off Pogo Plank and return to the traditional UI with a single tap.

Orbit and Pogo Panel are available in Cydia; just two more reasons to jailbreak.