One of my biggest complaints about the NX series, unfortunatly, is its clamshell design. I personally prefer keeping it in “tablet” mode, but doing so poses one significant limitation: No access to the four standard hard buttons. So, what to do? Try McPhling! This little app lets you pop up a small list of launchable “favorite” apps from within any application.

Problem is that none of the hard buttons are exposed in Tablet mode, and if you are like me, you keep the Virtual Graffiti area hidden. I just hate pulling out the stylus to launch an app, so how do you activate McPhling without having to make unnecessary taps? Assign it to the “Capture” button on the side of the NX!

1. Launch McPhling and tap the “Avtivation” button.
2. Uncheck the “Swipe” box and check the “Button/keyboard” box
3. Tap on the dropdown next to “Apps:” and select “Custom…”
4. When prompted, press the Capture button on the side of the NX
5. Tap on the dropdown next to “Back:” and select “Disabled”
6. Tap on “OK and then select your favorites.

So now, when you press the capture button, it launches McPhling and you can choose whatever app you have defined. Use the Jog Dial to scroll through the list, and press the Jog Dial to launch the selected app. Pressing the Capture button again will dismiss the popup list. To preserve (or actually extend) functionality, be sure to assign the “Clie Camera”, “Movie Rec”, and “Voice Rec” apps.

The only down side to assigning the Capture button is that you lose the ability to press the Capture button to actually take the picture/start the recording, so you have to press the on-screen capture/record button to do that. But to me, that’s a small price to pay to have fingertip access to my favorite apps!