SPB Mobile Shell 1.0

Spb Mobile Shell (Review)

SPB Mobile Shell 1.0.0

$29.95 (USD)
15-Day Trial Available
Req. WM5 OS

The long line of mobile software from SPB Software House continues, with its newest release "SPB Mobile Shell". I would like to thank Yaroslav Goncharov, for giving 4WM the opportunity to review this software.
While the look and functionality of the Windows Mobile OS has evolved over time, there still seems to be much room for improvement. Spb Mobile Shell is for users who need the power of a Windows Mobile phone, but want more than the standard ppc interface offers. It is designed with phone users in mind, however Spb Mobile Shell will work well on a WM5 device without a phone. Non-phone users might use it differently, and may not use the Now Screen as often as phone users will.

The main target of this program is to create a user friendly interface, that is simple to navigate for all users from novice to expert! Thinking as a 'beginner', I put this theory to the test. It was very easy to setup and access all files and menus in my device.




Spb Mobile Shell consists of three main components:
Now Screen: While optimized mainly for phone edition users, this screen is also good for general ppc users, as it makes the most important information available at a glance.
Spb Menu: This provides a multi-level menu access with large "finger friendly" buttons that can access most folders, files & functions within your device. This menu provides extremely fast and convenient access to all device features.
Today plug-ins: The main Today Screen user interface consists of a tabbed area with big dynamic tabs. Four default tabs are set up to give detailed information and provide additional features such as Smart Launcher, Weather, World Time and Photo Dial. These tabs can be changed to other plug-ins, and additional tabs can be added. I was using 6 on my device!

The "Now" Screen

Joe, using a Standard PPC:
An option can be set so that the Now Screen will display every time your device is turned on. Why do we turn our devices on? Most often it is to just check key factors, such as notifications, the current time, missed calls, or maybe even something like the weather! All of this is available in one simple place, to either view or to access these device features. It is possible that most times, this is the only screen that you will need to see.

Although SPB Mobile Shell can be used for a Standard PPC, or a Phone Edition device, the Now Screen is mostly setup for a phone, as seen in the screenshots. As a non-phone device user, I did not find this screen very useful. It is only configurable in a very slight way, and most of the info available to me, either did not concern my device, or was info that I could display in better detail on my standard Today screen!

Dave, using a Phone Edition Device:
As Joe suggested, the Now screen really comes into its own on a PE device. Personally I love it. Essentially it's a snapshot of the most frequently used dynamic data on your device. You get battery life, SMS, email and missed call notifiers. There's also signal strength, the current time and weather with the calendar details too. The display is big, bold and very easy to read. All the essentials are there and it's been drawn beautifully. When you touch one of the indicators it takes you directly to the associated application. If for example the Now screen shows a new email, pressing the email indicator takes you to the email application. There's also dpad control too, and for devices with scroll wheels you can scroll through the indicators as well. This works very nicely on the Trinity and Hermes devices and makes one handed operation of the Now screen child's play. Excellent stuff. The only minor gripe with the Now screen is that I'd like to have seen a GPRS/EDGE/UMTS indicator on it.

The "Today Plug-in" Tabs

This is the centerpoint of SPB Mobile Shell. All device features can be configured and accessed from here. The Pocket PC Today screen is designed to display the most important information for Today as well as provide fast access to the most important Pocket PC features.
Spb Mobile Shell includes a Today plug-in with the following features:
Most Recently Used program launcher with the ability to pin items
Photo speed dial w/ contacts list access
Basic weather forecast
World-time in 3 cities and next alarm
Battery indicator and backlight control

The 4 tabs seen in the screenshots are the default setup, but can be configured differently, and the user has the ability to add more tabs as well. The main downfalls seem to be the inability move the location of the today plugin on the today screen and to integrate with 3rd party PIM applications. However, by adding these apps as additional tabs within SPB Mobile Shell, the integration can still be obtained! I also noticed a larger then usual RAM usage, which seemed to increase with the addition of tabs.
I found the large dynamic battery indicator to be useful. In addition, this tab contains the MRU program launcher. I found this to be a handy feature, but also limited in design. The icons are limited to only 2 rows, and a program must be first run, then pinned to retain it in the launcher area.

The World Time tab is a nice feature to have, but I also found this very limited in its ability to be customized. For example, with SPB Time installed on my SD card, I was not able to replace the Time Tab with SPB Time, as it was not a choice in my application list. However, as I understand it, other users were successful!

The same shortcomings were also found in the Weather Tab. Again, as an SPB Weather user, I was not able to integrate into this tab, as it was not an available choice in setup. I was, however, able to use another 3rd party weather app in this tab, but the downfall was that the weather would not update on the Now Screen!

The Photo Contacts tab is a nice feature, but not very useful to the Standard PPC user. However, for the user of a Phone Edition device, it allows you to speed dial your 5 most common contacts by pushing the relevant photo (taken from device contacts). It's a nice touch, but a couple of extra lines giving you 15 or 20 contacts would have been better.

The "SPB Menu" Screen

Whether a beginner or an expert user, I think the SPB Menu feature will be a very easy, handy, and welcome addition to your device.

The menu is designed to be "finger friendly", and with its multi-level design, there is access to almost every function, folder and file in your device. IMHO, the one missing feature that is needed in the SPB Menu, is the ability to customize its structure for the user. At the present, this structure is determined by the current device file setup, but the ability to add personal customization would make a good feature, great!

There is some functionality of a built-in task manager, but I believe also some room for improvement. Although there is not an automatic way to close programs instead of minimize (still missing in the WM platform), access to the running programs is only a few taps away, through SPB Menu. Soft reset, lock device, and rotate screen, are some of the other items available in the tools menu.

The "Options / Setup" Screens

There is not much to say about the options / setup features within SPB Mobile Shell, as there is much room for improvement! Each screen within the options menu gives the user very little choice in the way of customization, or additions.

One nice feature in Options that I found is the ability to choose the function of each soft key. Of course, the choices here are all limited to features within SPB Mobile Shell. For my soft key setup, I chose to have the "Now" screen, and "SPB Menu". I believe these will be the choice of most users, especially those with the phone edition devices, as the "Now" screen will be accessed much of the time. For the Standard PPC users, other screens may be a better choice for a soft key setup!




Pro's & Con's

Pro’s

Simple, "finger friendly" user interface.
Auto-hide option to conserve Today screen space.
User customizable tabs.
Ability to add additional 3rd party plug-in tabs.
Beautiful "Now" screen, displaying the most important device info.
Built-in program launcher & MRU icon display.

Con’s

Missing 3rd party PIM integration ability.
Not all device plug-ins can be added to custom tabs.
Very limited customization ability on the "Now" screen.
Larger then normal RAM usage.
Cannot customize the SPB Menu.
Feature overlaps with other SPB products.
No GPRS/EDGE/UMTS indicator on "Now" screen.
Can't move the today plugin lower down the list on the today screen.


Conclusions

Joe Concluded:
SPB Mobile Shell will be a great program for the novice user with a Phone Edition device. The new user of a Standard PPC may find this app just as useful, but will be missing the phone device features, that are not able to be disabled from the interface at this time. For both types of users, the simple "finger friendly" interface, and fast navigation, will be a real winner! However, the inability to integrate with 3rd party PIM applications, as well as the limited ability to customize some aspects of the program, may be discouraging for some of the more advanced users. Also, because SPB Mobile Shell seems to 'overlap' with other SPB products, current users of SPB Pocket +, SPB Weather & SPB Time may not see the need for this program as an addition to the others. With additional customization ability, PIM integration, and lighter RAM usage, I believe SPB Mobile Shell has the ability to be a great software!

Dave Concluded:
Whether you like the rest of the way SpB Mobile Shell works or not, for PE users the Now screen is an exceptionally well executed application and alone is worth the price of the software. It's not perfect, but everyone has differing needs from their dynamic data. The more competent you become with your device, the more likely you are going to want to customize it further. I agree with Joe that there's not quite enough customization for advanced users, and that the integration with the today plug-in could do with a little work but I think there's still enough there to use the Now screen for quick glances. It certainly works well enough for me. It just made my essential software list, and I think for me it'd just about squeeze a gold medal too!




4WinMobile Rating : 85%

Reviewed By:
PocketChange (Joe)
Dell x51v (Std. PPC)
WaveyDavey (Dave)
HTC P3600 PE (Trinity)