[App] Lightning Dial: free shortcut organizer and speed dial app

[lemonez]

Name: Lightning Dial

This is a discussion thread for Lightning Dial, one of my apps. Lightning Dial is a free shortcut organizer and speed dial app for Windows Phone. Check it out! I will be grateful for your feedback.

Demo video:
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_LvwljqZ8[/YT]

Screenshots:

Main screen:

Live tile customization:

Description:
Lightning Dial is a free shortcut organizer and speed dial app for Windows Phone. With Lightning Dial you can create shortcuts to those things you do frequently on your phone.

The following shortcuts are currently supported:

• call to a phone number
• send a text message (optional predefined text)
• send an email (optional predefined subject and body)
• open contact page for a contact
• link to a web page
• flashlight
• quickly share status
• launch the marketplace
• launch maps
• launch connection settings (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.)
• launch search dialog
• more coming soon

I've tried to keep the interface simple and intuitive. Shortcuts are organized in a grid and you can drag-and-drop them to reorder or delete. You are presented with three pages of shortcuts. The main page is displayed when you launch the app and the left and right are just a swipe away.

Official Facebook Page: here.

User reactions.
Overall the app has a good acceptance, I hope you will like it as well.

Some people asked me if this app duplicates the functionality of live tiles. It is true that some of those shortcuts could be pinned to the home screen as live tiles. However, after the Mango release more and more apps are being released with great dynamic Live Tiles and you might soon find your home screen with far too many tiles to be usable. Why lose space with a static shortcut tile when you can have all your shortcuts in one app?

Version history:

Version 1.1
[New] "start a search" shortcut added
[Improved] User interface improvements
[Improved] New tile icon and application icon
[Fixed] Unable to select email defined in facebook
[Fixed] Contact name not displayed on contact actions if the contact has a picture but "Show contact picture" is set to "No"
[Fixed] Wrong titles in some screens

Version 1.2
[New] Flashlight shortcut added
[New] Contact page shortcut added
[New] Home page setting added
[Improved] 'Default status' option added to share status shortcut
[Improved] 'Search term' option added to marketplace shortcut
[Improved] Performance and user interface improvements
[Fixed] Send SMS app bar button now works correctly
[Fixed] Shortcut to invalid web page now shows friendly message
[Fixed] Small shortcut icons are now always displayed correctly
[Fixed] No more crashes when no internet connection is available

Version 1.3
[Fixed] Wrong contact used sometimes when adding a phone call, sms or email shortcut

Version 1.4
[New] Live Tile customization introduced
[New] Option to use two more shortcut pages
[New] Add global option to disable contact pictures
[Improved] Performance and user interface improvements
[Improved] Web page selector improved


Discussions.
I welcome any feature requests, bug reports or just random thoughts.


Thank you and take care.

Free download:

 

[TheWeeBear]

Thanks for sharing your app with us lemonez.

And welcome along to WPCentral.

 

[lemonez]

Version 1.4 released.

Version 1.4 of Lightning Dial was released a few days ago. I hope you'll like it!

What's new:
[New] Live Tile settings introduced
[New] Option to use two more shortcut pages
[New] Add global option to disable contact pictures
[Improved] Performance and user interface improvements
[Improved] Web page selector improved

Live tile customization screenshots:

 

[sssutanto]

Thanks for making this apps!! I have tried it and I feel that it would be even better if the short-cut can open other 3rd party apss (not only browser/ maps)

 

[lemonez]

Thanks for making this apps!! I have tried it and I feel that it would be even better if the short-cut can open other 3rd party apss (not only browser/ maps)

Thanks for the feedback

I totally agree, launching third party apps would be great. However, at this time the Windows Phone platform does not provide a way to do it. Hopefully Microsoft will give that option soon.

I can promise you that: as soon as it is possible to launch third party apps I will include it as feature in Lightning Dial.

 

[sssutanto]

Thanks for the feedback
I can promise you that: as soon as it is possible to launch third party apps I will include it as feature in Lightning Dial.

That is cool! We'll be looking forward for it!
Thanks

 

[samh789]

Hello, first post. Great info the site thx.
I have the paid version of this app, is it not possible to pin these short cuts to the home screen?