Spb Mobile Shell 2.0: Review

Introduction

Spb Mobile Shell 1.0 was first introduced during 3GSM last year. The software proved to be a clear hit, outperforming all other Windows Mobile applications on the market and coming out as the best-selling Pocket PC program of the year.

But with the dawn of the iPhone the user is now more aware of "the look" being almost as important as functionality. Spb Mobile Shell is aiming to target people who need the power of a Windows Mobile device, but are not happy with the standard Pocket PC user interface.

For those of you who may not have experienced Spb Mobile Shell, I recommend you read the (SPB Mobile Shell 1.0)4WinMobile Reviews

With many new changes implemented into Spb Mobile Shell 2.0, is it really worth putting yet another app onto our devices?

Read on and make up your own mind...

Supplier	Spb Software House
Product	Spb Mobile Shell 2.0
Cost	$29.95 (15 day full-feature trial available) see below for upgrade pricing
Supported OS	WM5 PPC or later
Supplier Web Site	Spb Software House
Product Web Site	Spb Mobile Shell

4WinMobile would like to thank Yaroslav Goncharov of Spb Software House for providing a copy of Mobile Shell for review purposes.

Today Plug-in

With this latest release of Mobile Shell, the familar Today plug-in is retained, offering the following functionality:

Dynamic icon showing battery status
Most Recently Used items list, with ability to "pin" favourite items
Dynamic clock with world times and access to native alarm application
Dynamic weather icon with detailed weather data for the week ahead
Photo speed dial for quick-calling your favourite contacts

That GLORIOUS Now Screen

The Now screen is still available with two different styles.
The "Classic" Now screen and the "Professional" Now screen.
The main differences being the visible calendar and additional phone profile functionality of the "Professional" Now screen.

The Now screen is displayed when turning on the device (and can be changed in the options).

Ask yourself, when you turn on your device what are you wanting to do?
For me, it is usually one of the following:

Check the time
Check when my next appointment is
Check if I have any new messages/email
Check if I have any missed calls/voicemail
Call a contact
Run an application

Mobile Shell lets you do all the above with ease. The Now screen is an un-cluttered easy to read screen with all the information that I would require "right now". The Today screen can be for "today" or even "next week", but the Now screen shows me a quick snapshot of the status of the device.

Staying at the Now screen, I am able to see the time and date, current weather, my current phone profile (silent, normal, etc), see my next alarm, next appointment and the calendar. I can also see indicators for new mail, messages and missed calls.

The new Now screen has separate screen views for weather - by pressing the weather icon with my finger a full screen weather panel shows the current weather and the weather for the rest of the day. This full screen weather panel also shows the weather for the remainder of the week for my selected location. The weather is configurable by city but it doesn't appear that templates can be used. The weather source used is unknown.

Pressing the clock also launches a new panel for the clock. This displays the time and date for the selected location along with world times of selected cities and the status of the native alarm application. The native alarm application can also be launched from this clock panel.

On first use, the cities for weather and time are selected and are synchronised with the Spb servers. You can choose to synchronise the weather automatically or manually.

Constantly, however, I was finding myself returning back to the Spb Menu to run the default Comm Manager app, as there is no plugin to control the Bluetooth, WiFi, or other radio options. I find throughout the day, that I change the status of both Bluetooth and WiFi quite a lot, so it was disappointing to find this wasn't possible from the Now screen.

Users who have Spb Phone Suite can change Phone Suite profiles from the "Professional" Now screen.

It would be nice to be able to re-arrange the items on the Now screen, choosing where to place the items that I use most. If I wanted to swap the clock position with the weather icon this is currently not possible. But with a choice of "Professional" or "Classic" Now screen, I believe that Spb have managed to satisfy the user's requirements.

But the good news is you don't have to put your hand in your pocket if you only require a basic phone profile changer as you can choose simple phone profiles from the Now screen. With a choice of normal, silent or vibrate, it is easy to change these profiles swiftly.

All this functionality is possible with a finger - without having to remove the stylus!

Spb Menu

The phone style menu of Spb Menu still exists. In addition to its finger friendly layout of icons, the most recently used list of applications from the Today plug-in is also visible on this screen.

To access the Spb Menu from the Now screen, simply press the second large icon at the bottom, or use a gesture (see later section).

This list is a copy of the icons from the Today plug-in. As well as most recently used, you can also "pin" your favourite applications to this list so that you have direct access to your favourite applications.

The Spb Menu is configurable, so you can choose which applications you want easy access to. Sadly, there isn't a way to remove the most recently used list from the top of the Spb Menu, so only 6 of the original 8 icons for Spb Menu are ever visible. It is a shame that this wasn't implemented for Mobile Shell 2.0 as Spb Menu was one of my favourite features of Mobile Shell 1.5.

However, the confirguration options for Spb Menu are still very limited. I would prefer to have a fully configurable Spb Menu, where I can choose to add on this screen whatever I choose and remove those items that I do not want. Sadly, this isn't currently possible.

Photo Speed Dial

Pressing the third icon at the bottom of the Now screen shows the Photo Speed Dial panel.
Here you can assign up to 24 speed dials for your favourite contacts. A great finger friendly screen to easily call my contacts without having to remove the stylus.
You can substitute one of these contact squares for the Spb Contacts application. Those that have used previous versions of Mobile Shell will recognise this as the "T9" style quick search for contacts.

However, it gets better. Pressing one of your favourite contacts brings up the contact screen. With a photo of your contact, and the available contact details (such as home, work, mobile, send sms, etc). This is a fantastic panel for easily getting in touch with your favourite contacts, still without removing the stylus. I wish there was a way to integrate this with Spb Contacts, so this screen is displayed for all contacts on my device, not just through the Photo Speed Dial contacts.

Gestures and Transition Animations

So far I have described how Spb have crafted Mobile Shell to be a great looking and functional application.
What we haven't covered yet is navigating around the new Spb Now/Menu/Contacts panels.

It is possible to navigate around the three main panels using the large buttons at the bottom of the Now screen (Now, Launcher, Contacts and exit).
'The hardware softkeys (if your device has these) can be used to navigate the three panels. The fun and quick way to navigate is with the finger! Simply "swiping" the screen horizontally will change to the next panel. All the transition effects can be changed using the options within Mobile Shell settings and animations can be disabled for faster transitions.

Within the Spb Menu launcher pane (second pane), all the sub-menus are navigable with finger swipes also. See... still no need for a stylus!!

Now back to Now... this all-in-one application is great for launching apps, making calls and setting the current status of the device. But what if I'm already in an application and I want to run Now? I could turn off the device and turn it back on again (this would bring up my Now screen), or I can return to the Today screen and launch Spb Menu from the softkey; but Spb have thought of a better way to initiate the application. In an application (such as Pocket Word), if I drag my finger from the Windows Start flag (top left) to the centre left of the screen, and HOLD it there I will see three stacked panes on the screen. These are the different panes of Now, Spb Menu and Spb Contacts. Now moving my finger across the screen I can choose which of these panes I want to see.

Spb should perhaps highlight how to run this gesture as soon as this app is installed. From first installing this application onto my device, it took me a while to realise how to execute the gesture.

It's little features like the gesture to start Now that really show Spb have thought about how the user interacts with their device. The native button mapper can be set to map the Now screen to a hardware key, but with the gesture to launch the panels it makes life that little bit easier - and still, no stylus

Memory Usage and Performance

A concern from a lot of users of new applications from Spb has been performance on the device, not least the RAM consumption.

For those readers who like to compare numbers, the chart shown here displays how Spb have managed to add animation and more graphically-rich features to Mobile Shell and DECREASE the amount of program memory in use!

From using the application compared to previous versions of Mobile Shell, I haven't experienced the "lag" that other users have encountered with the original Mobile Shell.

Price and Upgrade Policy

The price has not been changed between versions. Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 will be available from the Spb website for $29.95.

If you are a Spb Mobile Shell 1.x owner, you can upgrade to 2.0 for 50% off the retail price. If you purchased the previous version within 90 days from the release date, you are entitled to a free upgrade.

More details regarding Spb Software House's upgrade policy are available here

Product Data

Product version	2.0
Installer size (cab)	3.24 MB
Supported languages	English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Czech, Dutch,
Registration type	14 day fully-feature trial
Release Date	4th March 2008
Supported OS	Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC and later
Size in ROM (qVGA)	3.39 MB
Size in ROM (VGA)	4.41 MB
RAM consumption (qVGA)	1.24 MB
RAM consumption (VGA)	2.48 MB

Pros

Finger-friendly user interface = reduced stylus use

Dynamic icons for the Today plug-in

Multi-tabbed Now screen, to allow quick access to status screens

Reduced RAM consumption

Program launcher, status screen and photo dialler all in one application

Beautiful and clear graphics

Animation effects for transition between the panels

Integration with other Spb applications

Upgrade policy provides discounts for current users of Mobile Shell 1.x

Cons

Limited customisation of the Spb Menu remains

Unable to disable "radio" profiles from Now screen (such as WiFi, Bluetooth, etc)

Unable to re-arrange items on the Now screen

4WM Rating 94%

Conclusion

Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 builds upon the finger-friendliness of the original Mobile Shell application. For me, it remains the first application that I install on my device (even before my backup application). Spb have identified where Microsoft should have improved upon the operating system to make devices not only functional and easy to use, but also graphically beautiful.
With this latest release, the memory issues appear to have been addressed by the developers. With the new transition animations, I can show off my device with pride to friends and family for that truly wonderful "oooh" WOW factor.
Whilst customisation of areas such as the Spb Menu launcher and the Now screen is still restrictive, this is an application that should appease both new or basic Windows Mobile users and power/professional users alike. Power users will appreciate the integration of Mobile Shell into the core of the operating system and basic users will feel that they can finally unlock the potential of their device with easy navigable menus and beautiful rich graphics.
Put away your stylus, gesture with your finger and start living "Now".