When I heard that Spb Software House had released a new mobile software entitled Spb Mobile Shell, I had to try it. The promise of better one handed operation of my Pocket PC phone was compelling enough to download it, and all the screen captures I saw looked great. I have to admit that my initial guess was that it would probably be sluggish because it appeared to be a new shell for my Pocket PC Phone. I am happy to say, I was wrong! It's fast and gorgeous.
Spb Mobile Shell is a replacement user interface for your Pocket PC Phone. Its goal is to make your Pocket PC Phone work more like a smartphone. I tried it on a Treo 700wx and Sprint XV 6700 and found it to be stellar in its performance on both devices. It really makes one handed operation of the Pocket PC Phone much easier. Here are some features:
The most important information on one screen
Phone style menu
Weather forecasts
Photo speed dial
World time
Launcher
Big dynamic tabs on Today
Color based themes
Smart contact search
Auto-hide mode for Today plug-ins
With those promises in mind, read on for all the particulars. You will not be disappointed.
The Launcher
After you install Spb Mobile Shell you'll notice a few things right off. First of all, Spb Mobile Shell has replaced the Start Menu with their own Launcher screen. The Spb Launcher makes it very easy to get the application or setting you want, with one-handed ease. You'll notice very large dynamic icons that make it so easy to navigate your device. Microsoft should have thought of this themselves! After a few minutes of exploring the icons you'll see how intuitive Spb Mobile Shell really is.
Clicking the Organizer icon reveals a list of tasks related to the organizer. Similarly, clicking the Messaging icon presents a list of tasks related to Messaging. If you want to go back one screen you simply hit the left soft key and you're back up the menu tree.
The one complaint I have about the Launcher is the way in which it handles the native programs if they are launched from the Launcher. For example, clicking the organizer icon brings up a menu. If I choose to write a new Text Message the text message window pops up. But, if I start typing a name in the send to space, it only prompts me with one name. If I have more than one person in my contacts with the same first name it will not let me choose. Yet, if I simply launch the Text Messaging application from the Windows Start Menu, I can get prompted with several names to choose from. I'm not sure why this is but it is a limitation.
I like the way Spb has setup their launcher but there are times that I'd like to have my old Start Menu back too. I simply mapped my Start key to launch the Spb Launcher or my Start Menu depending on the number of times I click it. Check out a little program called AE Button Plus for a simple way to add that feature.
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