Review: SPB Mobile Shell
Solsie posted about the release of this new program from SPB Software House a week ago and now we’re proud to bring you a review of it.
Normally when I review programs, they tend to stay in my Pocket PC for a week or so and then I take them off unless I really like them. This is one of those programs that has not only stayed on in my Pocket PC phone but also replaced a few programs.
Some of you might have read the post about me hiding/disabling the soft keyboards that I do not use in an attempt to improve performance (quite successful I might say). I am in a spring cleaning mood where I’m cleaning up and simplifying my Pocket PC. SPB Mobile Shell seems to somehow fit into this extremely well. I will talk about this further on after the jump.
Buy it HERE at the Solsie Store for $29.95. There is a 15% Valentine’s Special going on right now until 15th of February 2007 (Discount Code: SOLSIE15).
INSTALLATION
Installing SPB Mobile Shell is similar to installing every other program. You can either download the executable file and run it on your PC or you can download the cab file and install it over-the-air. I chose the over-the-air route so I’m not too sure with the installing it through your PC. It should be the usual process of clicking through ‘Next’ buttons and entering your serial to unlock your program to the full version. There is no activation or anything of that sort that requires you to ‘phone home’ in order to unlock the program. The trial period that comes with SPB Mobile Shell is 15 days, fairly standard.
TODAY SCREEN PLUG-IN & NOW SCREEN
We shall start off by looking at the Today Screen plug-in and then go on to look at the Now Screen. The Today Screen plug-in is where you can put tabs on your Pocket PC’s Today Screen. The default tabs that are loaded when you first install the program are the Home Tab, Time Tab, Weather Tab and Dial Tab. The Home Tab is the one on the far left, the one with the battery sign. Tapping on that would show two rows of icons where you will be able to launch recently launched programs or programs that you have pinned there. The Time Tab shows you the alarms you have and the time and date of three countries. The Weather Tab shows the overall weather of the current day along with individual weather for morning, day, evening and night time. It also shows the overall weather of the next three days. Finally the Dial Tab allows you to select 5 person as your speed dial. You will be able to just tap on the person’s picture and your Pocket PC phone will begin dialing the person’s default number. Tapping and holding onto the picture would give you an option to dial the person’s other numbers or send him/her a text message. Below are the screenshots of the Today Screen plug-in and the tabs.
Now we go on to look at the Now Screen. This is the screen where you’ll be looking at when you wake your Pocket PC phone up from standby. By default settings, this is the case but you’ll be able to change it in the Settings menu. We’ll see how this is done later in the Settings section. Below are two screenshots of the Now Screen, one showing an analogue clock and one showing a digital clock.
SPB MENU
Both on the Today Screen and in the Now Screen, you will see that the right softkey is set to launch SPB Menu. The SPB Menu is the place where you will be able to do various things. Tools will have options that allow you to do things like soft reset, rotate your screen, lock device, etc. Messaging will have options to allow you to create new or view previous text messages, emails or MMSes. Settings shows you options from the Start->Settings page and also SPB Mobile Shell settings. Organizer allows you to view, edit or create new entries in Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes. It also has an option for you to beam your contact. Start shows you all recently launched programs, which you can launch again from this screen. Programs shows you options from the Start->Programs page. You will be able to find and launch all your programs from here. Multimedia gives you the option to launch your multimedia software (multimedia players, camera, picture viewers, etc). Finally, Internet lets you look at your favourites, history, launch PIE, MSN Messenger and Pocket MSN. Below are the screenshots of everything discussed. Basically the first screenshot is a screenshot of SPB Menu, the next one is of Tools, then Messaging, then Settings. I think you get the point.
The next two screen shots are of the Theme option in the Tools option in SPB Menu. Here, you’ll be able to change the theme of SPB Mobile Shell and also your Pocket PC. It’s as easy as click on the colour you want. Also, SPB has provided a large choice of colours.
The Task Manager in the Tools option in SPB Menu works like every other Task Manager. It allows you to switch between programs and close programs. Only difference is that you can only do so by going into the Task Manager. You will not be able to do so from lets say the task bar as with all the other task managers.
SETTINGS MENU
Finally, we’ll look into the Settings menus in SPB Mobile Shell. There aren’t too many settings involved in the program so you should be able to just take up the program, configure it and start using it within 10-15 minutes (should include configuring the Today Screen plug-in). Basically the Settings menu is split into 5 tabs; Today, Now Screen, Tabs, Theme and Weather. The options are all fairly intuitive. You won’t need to read pages and pages of manuals to figure out what each option does. Below are screenshots of every tab in Settings.
CONCLUSION
I mentioned earlier that SPB Mobile Shell somehow fits into my spring cleaning mood where I’m clearing out softwares that I don’t use and making everything simple on my Pocket PC. Now I’ll explain why. After installing SPB Mobile Shell, the first thing I could get rid off is iLauncher. Don’t get me wrong, I love that program but there is not much use for it after I install SPB Mobile Shell (I still use it for my Axim - no way I’m getting rid of it off that). Secondly, I no longer need a separate weather program to give me the weather. SPB Mobile Shell has that integrated. I no longer need a photo dialer on my Pocket PC anymore since SPB Mobile Shell does that too. If you’re using a seperate time management software, you won’t need that anymore either. I’m using SPB Time so it is well integrated with SPB Mobile Shell. Therefore by just installing one program, I have managed to reduce 4 programs on my Pocket PC phone. Now that’s what I call keeping it simple.
Next thing I would like to talk about is the usability. By now after all those screenshots, you would have realise how big the average button is in SPB Mobile Shell. This allows you to use your finger to move around the program and since the program allows you to do or launch all the programs you need, you can navigate around your Pocket PC without taking out your stylus. This is extremely useful in a Pocket PC phone especially when you are using it one handed. I would like to compliment SPB Software House on getting this right.
As for pricing, $29.95 is not too expensive for a software that basically improves the ease of use of you Pocket PC phone. It makes the phone that much more user friendly and using it that much smoother. You get four programs for the price of one. Not to mention with our 15% off at the Solsie store (Discount code: SOLSIE15), it is only about $25.
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