Gadgetory

do you miss hardware shortcut-keys from the days of blackberry and Windows Mobile this startup might have something for you I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow this is our review of Pressy if you found yourself missing the dedicated shortcut key on your old Blackberry or in Vieng the customizable active key on the galaxy s5 active press II is almost exactly what you've been looking for without even knowing it so what is it Pressey is a simple button that takes advantage of your standard 3.5 millimeter headphone jack something every Android smartphone and tablet has which is why it's so clever it's also why it can be somewhat annoying it resides in your headphone jack meaning if you want to listen to music through headphones you'll need to remove Pressy first unless of course you use bluetooth headphones also Pressy juts out from the headphone jack seven tenths of a millimeter if you aren't using a case it will stick out like a sore thumb that said we can't say it bothered us all that much the added utility was a fair trade-off for a small bump along the bottom edge of the phone but it did make accidental presses more common than we'd like the idea is to take advantage of a mostly unused headphone jack and use it as a programmable shortcut key using the free app you can create different tasks to perform with Pressy using different combinations of presses for example we found programming a single long press to launch the TV app is extremely helpful when sitting down to watch television since we use the m8 as a universal remote at home we also programmed a single press to launch the camera a double press to launch todoist a triple press to launch Evernote and to long presses to launch the rear LED for a flashlight we haven't gotten too fancy with press E yet but you can do even more specific things like send a text message to someone with your current location and some text with your phone still in your pocket the Kickstarter page also confirms it works with Tasker to get even more technical with your button presses creating new actions is extremely easy and so as deleting or freezing them fortunately press e doesn't seem to affect the battery life of the device it's plugged into the press application doesn't run until the button is pressed on the flip side that means launching those actions is almost always slow there's a one to two second latency between completing a button press and the start of the action when you already have the phone out it doesn't really make a lot of sense to use Pressy but that latency becomes less of an issue when you can launch your favorite apps from standby if you don't want to leave press e and all the time it comes with a holster which can be added to your keychain or you can also string your headphone cable through the loop on the holster to keep it handy when you plug in headphones as much as we love the idea of press e though it isn't perfect it can be somewhat problematic at times for instance our One m8 sometimes confused press e with a media button often found on headphones despite the prompt which appears when you plug it in and it would play or pause music when we press the button rather than launch the camera sometimes when we answer calls there would be no audio into a unplugged press e which was particularly frustrating those glitches don't make it any easier to stomach the $27 pre-order price either especially when you consider they're much cheaper software alternatives in all and despite some of the shortcomings and quirks we're quite pleased with press e the build quality is impressive and it adds a host of utility to your phone from standby we just hope the developers can overcome some of the action latency and other glitches if you're looking for a way to handle some simple tests without ever taking your phone out of your pocket or the ability to launch your favorite apps with the press of a button press e is a solid investment although it isn't exactly cheap there is a ton of potential and promise in a tiny button that hangs out in your unused headphone jack just don't expect it to revolutionize the way you use your phone folks thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video be sure to click the thumbs up button below and of course subscribe to see more videos in the future be sure to follow us in all the usual places twitter facebook and google+ at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time you