Nokia 
The guys over at KEYnetik were kind enough to provide me with a copy of their recently released version 1.0 of Rock-N-Scroll.
Rock-N-Scroll is an application that uses the in accelerometer, or motion sensor, thats common place on most N-Series phones nowadays. Using Rock-N-Scroll you are able to use gestures to replicate most of the keypad controls.
For example, to move the cursor left, just tilt your device left, which replicates the function of the left button on the Dpad of your device. Similarly for any direction, you tilt your device in the same respective direction and the cursor will move in that direction.
There are even more gestures though. For example, if you move your device away from you and then back, fast, this simulates the center button’s function and is called the “Push” gesture. If you move your device towards you and then back to its original position, quickly, this simulates the “back” or “exit” button’s function and is called the “Pull” gesture. You can even assign any function to the “shake” feature, wherein if you shake your device, the assigned function will be replicated.
And, of course, it supports screen orientation change from landscape to portait. In some cases it was even faster than the onboard screen rotation on the Nokia N82 I tried it on.
The following Video should give you a better idea of Rock-N-Scroll :
Introduction :
When you start the application you’re presented with the following menu, where you can either press the right selection key to hide the application, or proceed to edit a certain function.
Here you can choose to disable or enable the application under “Status“. You can choose to enable/disable screen rotation too.
Under “Operating Mode” you can choose to let it automatically choose a mode depending on the situation, or you can choose a mode out of “Game Mode“, “Menu Mode” or “Scroll Mode“.
You can also choose to enable/disable the “Push“, “Pull” or “Shake” gestures. The Shake gesture is Disabled by default though.
If you move over to the right tab, you’ll get the following menu list :
Here there’s a bunch of options to configure.
- Under Startup Settings
Here you can choose to let the application automatically startup when you switch on the device, or only when you manual start the application yourself. You can also switch the Application Type to “System” if your device tends to be low on Ram and close programs randomly. If it doesnt happen very often, you can keep this setting on “Regular”.
- In Operating Modes :
Here you can edit each mode to your liking. You can choose the sensitivity level of each mode and whether you want the Tilt Bars shown or not. In some cases you can choose whether to have Auto-Screen Rotation turned on or off.
– Menu Mode :
– Scroll Mode :
– Game Mode :
– Auto Mode :
And thats about it for Operating Modes.
Back in the Main Menu, there’s also a Gesture Settings option:
As you can see there are two options here.
– Push/Pull :
You can choose the sensitivity of Push/Pull to suit yourself. You can also assign the Push/Pull Key to another option such as the Right Softkey, the Green Button, the Red Button, or None. Missed oppurtunity here, I think, as it would have been nice to assign more options or launch applications using the Push/Pull Gesture, but I guess most people would be happy with these set of options.
– Shake :
The last option, back in the Main Menu is Hot Keys :
Here you can choose Hot Keys to put the application on Sleep/awake or to switch modes.
The Application in Use :
The first thing you’ll notice new in v1 of Rock-N-Scroll are the Tilt bars on the right and bottom side of your screen. These serve to show you the position of your device so you have an idea of how the application will operate.
These stay in both landscape and portrait orientation, unless you’ve disabled them in the application or a certain mode.
When you change from Portrait to Landscape Orientation, or vice-versa, the application will prompt you to hold your device in a position that is comfortable to you, and then press ok. This is so the application can orient the gestures based on your position.
Example, your device might not actually be at a 90 or 45 degree angle to the ground, so the application senses your angle and bases the gesture controls on it, so as to work better.
Also, once you change screen orientation, the different operating modes that you’ve chosen come into play.
By default, Auto Mode is selected which automatically selects a mode based on your device’s position.
I found this application to be the most useful in showing people pictures in gallery mode :
All you have to do is tilt your device left or right to go to the previous/next picture.
Use the Pull gesture to select it and the Push gesture to go back (if you’ve configured it to use the right selection key).
Conclusion :
Rock-N-Scroll is probably one of the best made accelerometer applications for S60 devices. The plentitude of customisable options, shows you that KEYnetik took the feedback from the Beta release of Rock-N-Scroll and implemented it. And they did it well too.
The application senses your gestures very well. Suprisingly well infact. You might feel a bit clumsy using it in the beginning. Sure there were some instances whe
re it confused a shake gesture for a push gesture but once you get used to it, you’ll find it being more accurate, and really convinient to use, though you’ll have to touch your keypad sooner or later. And its even more fun to amaze your friends while you control your phone only by gestures.
Recommended ? Definitely. Dont expect it to completely replace your keypad though, but it does comes very very close to doing so. KEYnetik have done a great job with Rock-N-Scroll.
You can check out www.keynetik.com for more info about Rock-N-Scroll and KEYnetik‘s other applications.
-Teh Cj
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
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