Ideally I would like something like what Facade gave me on WM Standard.
I thought the SPB products would help me (I am using SPB Phone Suite, SPB Weather, and Pocket Plus) but they are still not really what I am looking for)
I want something that makes the best use of the T750's small screen.
Most importantly something that allows me to set the Exact way my appts are displayed on screen (how many, size, lines per appt, etc)
What are you guys using or what would you recommend?
I used facade wayyyy back when when I had WM standard, after I went to professional I started using Pocketbreeze, the SPB equivilent is called SPB Diary, although I use pocketbreeze because the SPB weather program is really flakey about getting your locations and you have to do alot of custom setup most the time and Pocketweather from the people that make pocketbreeze just works right out of the box, and integrates with pocketbreeze if you'd like.
Related
Ok i just have a real quick stupid question about apps. I have a copy of SPB Pocket Plus http://spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en that I LOVE but i cant really stand there SPB Weather app. So i bought the app Fizz weather http://www.fizzsoftware.com/products/weather/weather.html
(which is awesome) but i dont really like it taking up my so much of my today screen, so i was thinking that the obvious solution, SPB Pocket Plus allows you to customise your tabs, would be to make a tab for Fizz Weather. Thats how it shows up with SPB Weather. Well I cant figure out how to do it and i thought that maybe sombody out there might be able to help me. Im relativily new to PDAs and i dont know much.
BTW i do not like Fizz Moniter so i dont think thats an option pluse it doesnt offer the tabs like SPB PP does
Thanks for any comment that might be made
Hi,
I've read a lot of pros to deactivate TF3D and install Mobile Shell because of the performance, and i was hoping to hear from people theirs pros and cons and i DON'T mean "i like TF3D bla bla" but an explanation too!!
I thinks it's a lot of storage to be used, or can it be installed on the internal memory?!
TF3D lasted about 20 minutes for me, it looks great but didnt really give me what I needed, when I needed it.
I found it dreadfully slow and fairly clumsy ...yes, I know you can tweak it to the N`th degree now, but still seems to be more cosmetic than funtional. Just a thin flash skin over WM6, and it resorts back to WM6 when you have to do more in depth things with the phone.
I guess I was biased towards SPB Mobile Shell though, as I`ve used it on my last 2 phones (Tytn and Tytn II) and love the way it simplifies and speeds up using the phones. It is not just an improvement over the TF3D but also Windows Mobile. Far more user friendly!! (finger friendly)
I have the latest version on my diamond and love the ability to thumb/finger scroll through the options/section just as well as the TF3D, it`s still layed out well, although I don`t like the way they`ve done the frequently used/favourite programs bits... I liked having the start square infact I prefer the layout of the previous version (9 squares rather than the 6 squares and the messy favourites bar at top.)
It doesnt look as lovely and unified as the TF3D but I realise that you can change the theme. It can look a bit garrish with the multicoloured icons .
The now (today) screen is far more useful on SPB as you can add/remove options.. still not as customisable as real today screen (I probably haven`t found all the plugins tho ?)
I would download the trial as see what you think.
I give TF3D a big thumbs down and SPB Mobile Shell a big thumbs up
Hope this all makes some sense / is of some use, as am slightly sloshed *h*i*c* !
Where have you installed the progam files? In the internal storage or RAM (i guess it's called?!))
I installed it on the phone rather than the internal storage, seemed to be plenty of space. Never normally install to the phone area but feel (rightly or wrongly) that it helps running from phone memory ?? Still loads of room and phone flies along. Doesnt seem to as big an issue as it once was.
hi bro,
being an experience user with spb shell, can you kindly share with us with some skins that you are using?
I have the latest version of SPB Shell (though not installed at the moment as just flashed with a new ROM.
I prefer the SPB Shell as it is alot smoother and faster switching between the menus and the main today screen can be configured to give alot more info than the TF3D one.
For those that like to know the weather it gives you a breakdown of what the weather is going to be like at various times of the day rather than just now (I can look out of the window for that) and even the 5 day forecast can be viewed to see the expected weather at various times of the day.
As for skins the default ones that come with it are only different colours but having a choice of colours from scratch is better than the plain TF3D.
SPB Shell is very configurable compaired to TF3D but still not as configurable as some other Today screens unless like th eother poster said it comes in the form of other plugins.
I have it installed to normal phone memory and everythings fine. I haven't tried installing it to the internal memory but figure if I have to reinstall it if I flash a new ROM anyway I may as well make sure that it's cleared for a fresh reinstall.
Deffo one to give a try if you want something other than TF3D - smoother, more configurable, more skin options, ability to add more plugins.
I have to agree that TF3D is not something that is usable. As a matter of fact, I am very close to labeling it as a piece of crap. All the bad points of TF3D has been posted in this forums countless times and I do not want to repeat it. I am sticking with TF3D is because of one reason only. That is because it's the Diamond's identity. If I were to use other today plugins I would not have gotten the Diamond. Diamond and TF3D is like coffee and sugar/milk (depending on how you like it). Without it, the Diamond loses it's identity.
How about battery usage? Any difference there?
Vic5870 said:
I have to agree that TF3D is not something that is usable. As a matter of fact, I am very close to labeling it as a piece of crap. All the bad points of TF3D has been posted in this forums countless times and I do not want to repeat it. I am sticking with TF3D is because of one reason only. That is because it's the Diamond's identity. If I were to use other today plugins I would not have gotten the Diamond. Diamond and TF3D is like coffee and sugar/milk (depending on how you like it). Without it, the Diamond loses it's identity.
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Click to collapse
I agree with you. But where can TF3d Themes be found?
I have found two .theme files that works and easy to set up. O2 Blue and Orange Lite. But it would be nice to get something like the White Diamond
I think its better explained this way:
SPB can house many more functions. If you need your phones apps the whole day long an need to navigate your small system every minute, TF3D is really not the thing. SPB is very good, and takes care of every single corner on your phone. Highly skinnable, and fast.
I tried it, but you know, it's too much for me.
I like a lot of apps, but I don't use em every day. So I want to fast check Email, SMS, or weather, or make a call. For those basic functions I think TF3D is the best. Just grab phone, Thumb-thingy to the right tab and off you go.
I don't need something TF3D cant do. Well, some minor things, like agenda and tasks, but I guess that'll be fixed in a few weeks
I'll vote for the Shell too: I tried Flo, really tried as it looks so good, but found it was just unworkable!
Shell is clean and simple, and fast. Also, I use a P3600i in some situations (such as when I really want to hear incoming call rings) - using Shell keeps me to a common interface.
These are the setting that I use:
TABS Home TODAY Date
Time SPB Shell
Weather Owner
Dial Tab Messaging
Calendar
Fring
SPB Menu Internet IE/Opera + Favorites
No Data
Fring
Internet Sharing
Comm Mgr
Multimedia Media Player
Camera
Pictures
Voice recorder
Album
Tools Task Mgr
File Browser
Rotate
Lock
Profiles
SPB Backup
MemMaid
App to Date
Programmes (auto)
My Menu 1Calc
TomTom
Ozi
Stock Mgr
Best Crypto
FM Radio
Settings (auto)
I run TLR v3 - clean and stable.
Unrelated to SPB Mobile Shell, my final 'make it perfect' was to get rid of the ring delay by:
Diamond Phonepad skin: HKLM -> Security -> Phone -> Skin -> Enable (set 1 to 0), then reset
It all depends on what you do with your phone. I tried SPB Mobile Shell and it worked nicely. Quite happy with it. It's faster and more user friendly compared to TF3D. The homescreen also looks nice and it has a nice feature where you can move your finger in a downward movement from the taskbar to choose between the 3 pages of the shell. Although the Now screen is not very customizable (maybe it is with correct plugins?), the other page u can change every shortcut to programs and such. It's nice, but I don't tweak my Diamond anymore as I used to. I saw the Orange Theme with TF3D and I liked it alot. The analog clock looks great. If you're new with the Diamond and ur tweaking and changing and everything, I suggest you get SPB Shell (or just disable TF3D). But TF3D still looks better (orange theme that is)..
I just need to find a white .tsk theme for wm6.1.. All I see is grey/red/purple/whatever... Goodluck with this..
Can anyone point me to other frontents for Windows Mobile like for example
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshel
PointUI Home was another one that I tried on my previous WinMob phone, it's very responsive and smooth but it's not the most attractive front end in the world. Also, not being able to see the clock and upcoming appointments at the same time got right on my tits. To be honest I've yet to come across a front end with a Today style screen that shows everything the default WinMob one does (i.e. date/time, tasks, appointments and count of unread emails/messages) which annoys the hell out of me, I don't understand how these various companies have spent time writing front ends intended to replace WinMob yet can't give us a Today screen that even has the functionality of the default one. Is it really that hard to do?
thanks, i tried and installes 1.51a of it, but nothing happens, still standard winmob frontend... how must i intall it properly?
bravemenrun333 said:
thanks, i tried and installes 1.51a of it, but nothing happens, still standard winmob frontend... how must i intall it properly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's installed properly you should now have an entry for it in your Programs list, you can just launch it from there like any other application and I think it then remains resident.
On a related note I found this Wizbar app that seems to allow the customisation of WinMob though I haven't tried this one out. There are some themes for it here.
I'm very happy with SPB software though obviously it's quite expensive to buy. I think it has a free trial.
SPB pocket plus is a genius bit of software because it allows you to quickly select from up to 7 today screens each containing various today plugins and shortcuts. You get up to 6 tabs plus your regular today screen (when the tabs are set to auto-hide).
Other today plugins I'm using are Pocket Player, DevState 1.5 (as a task manager) and SPB Time, Diary, Weather and Mobile Suite (another great program). (Not cheap )
Here are some screens - the photo is a holiday shot from Turkey:
there is also vito winterface which is iphone clone...quite nice but nothing new. i still with manila
what would you suggest?
i've already got all the main xda-born apps, but as far as paid apps goes...what is the latest and greatest?
SBSH Touch Calendar
AEButtons Plus
If you get tired of Manila, SPB Mobile Shell and Phone Suite
i would definitely recommend pocketshield!
Resco Explorer makes my life alot easier, its just a nicer way to navigate my menus.
im addicted to the games atomic cannon by isotope244 and bubbles by resco.
but honestly i think the only thing i really couldnt live without is pocketshield, really great application, and the developer is always updating it (with free upgrading)
try this apps:
Resco Explorer
Wisbar Advance Desktop (if you are bored with your standard WMish look)
Calligrapher.
SPB Pocket Plus, SPB Diary, SPB Time. ( I don't know how Diary would look on a Raphael)
* Pocket Informant - because standard Pocket Outlook is too simple for my needs
* SPB Pocket Plus
- With SecondToday do things that TF3D can not - better luncher and today plugins handle
- Task switcher is much faster than one in the TF3D and it's available in any application not only at home screen
* SPB Phone Suite - for phone profiles and easy accessible Bluetooth and WiFi switcher
As response to burnblue post:
* Calligrapher - I see no place to write on the screen between form controls. It's less useful, because there is hardware keyboard. In my opinion it is not so great application after all.
* SPB Diary, SPB Time - I bought it and I use it daily. They are great apps. Not necessarily "must have", but OK. SPB Diary has much cleaner appointments and task summary than Pocket Informant plugin. And it has great note navigator. SPB Time is good for alarms, world clock and countdown timers, but there is plenty good free apps which do the same things.
To reaffirm many of the others and add some more:
SPB Pocket Plus -- for a simple and clean Today screen where all of my primary apps are not more than two clicks away... I turn off TFlo3d as it seems pointless for the eye candy and extra steps to slide, scroll, select all to accomplish the same launching tasks.
Resco Explorer -- current finality for an explorer replacement
SPB Phone Suite -- again for completing a clean looking Today screen with a very powerful device profile (sound, wireless, etc) editor
SPB Weather -- ditto for a clean Today screen. I have it running under a SPB Pocket Plus tab. there are other Today weather apps that also enable cutomised weather templates, but I tend to contently stick with this.
Pocket Informant -- likely the most powerful calendar/task/contact app... overkill for some but it can appear clean and relatively simple
Tomtom (street & POI) and/or Garmin XT (street/POI/topograhic/marine chart) with applicable maps to equal turn-by-turn handheld GPS device performance that standalone units provide.
I would add a clean-up utility like MemMaid or SKtools. I'm also a big fan of Resco Explorer (which includes a registry editor).
Before switching to TD2, i used SPB mobile shell and I was very satisfied about that software
TF3D is so much like an eye-candy, but for the way I use WM phones, I prefer having multiple functions on one screen, provided that we can put lots of things at the same time on a 480x800 screen.
I hope both companies can come up with new version of their software to perfect user experiences. I look forward for this to happen more than seeing WM6.5 or WM7
what do you think? and sorry about my english
If you say so, I think PointUI HOME2 is much better suitable for you. You can have different theme, different arrangment of the screen. And the most important, it is free.
Current version of Spb Mobile Shell (3.01) still has issue in Diamond2. You may refer to Spb forum regarding those issue. I just wait for a more stable Mobile Shell version, just like the ancestor stable verion 2.15, to run in my Diamond2.
The moment I got my D2, I disengaged TF3D and use SPB MS 3.0. TF has just too many gestures to get where u want. SPB MS makes it easy to access the applications.
IMHO....
TF3D is an extremely unproductive UI. Contacts and calendar are the two most important things for business and TF3D is configuration limited scrolling hell.
With the calendar I can see today and tomorrow. It has a gimmicky month view but in all not very useful at all.
The contacts themselves within TF3D are annoying as I have to scroll even when in a contact to get to the option to view the standard WM full details because TF3D does not display what I want to see. By default finding a contact in TF3D is like having to win a game of Teeter first.
SPB Mobile Shell 3.0 is also very unproductive. It does not integrate with SPB Diary (not today plugin friendly) and amazingly does not even integrate with SPB Phone (try to turn rules on and off from the Shell!!!). You lose weather views and the easy moving between cities even if you have a licence for SPB Traveller!
The contacts screen from Mobile Shell 2.0 is the best I have seen. It has "dedicated contact names T9 search for any part of contact string" (very valuable feature).
The HTC dialer on the Topaz offers non-T9 name search only from the beginning of each word (vastly inferior to SPB Shell 2. Contacts) but it is still quite usable.
In a choice of TF3D vs SPB MS3.0 vs no shell I would choose no shell.
Maybe install SecondToday. Put your calendar (something like TodayAgenda or SPB Diary) on the second Today screen. Put your calls/e-mail/messages, program launcher, music player and weather application plugins on the front page.
We should be able to use specialist programs for functionality that is important to us. The above 2 shells exclude the ability to mix and match what we want. For many people they will not allow a UI that suits their lifestyle.
Why did we want a WM phone in the first place?
We may as well be choosing above between Nokia and Motorola. These shell providers could do better and they should!
IMHO
I've had no problems with SPB shell 3. It works great. I have all the other spb shell apps and they all work great! It's nice to be able to have 2 different types of today screens. and the lifestyle today screen is great. one page for media, one for phone controls/tools and one for games and 'other'
it's much better than touchflo
Ich switched from TF to Mobile Shell and i think Mobile Shell delivers what i expected from TF...
I prefer shell than TF3D too. I usually get to what I want faster...
Mobile Shell 3 interfere HTC dialer
If you look at the following thread in Spb forum, you may find one of Mobile Shell issue in Diamond2:
http://www.spbclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25814
You just cannot tap the left bottom "Contact" button in the default (HTC) dialer to open contact.
Maybe we could all get back to the old and ultimate WisBar
Regards,
Carty..
SPB Mobile Shell 3 is better than TouchFLO
chch said:
SPB Mobile Shell 3.0 is also very unproductive. It does not integrate with SPB Diary (not today plugin friendly) and amazingly does not even integrate with SPB Phone (try to turn rules on and off from the Shell!!!).
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Click to collapse
yes, this is very annoying to me. I like the phone suite for the sound profiles that you can set including the automatic. Why can't I put that plug in on a main screen of the shell?
I'm also very annoyed how the custom layouts get all messed up in landscape. for the most part sbp mobile shell 3 is pretty good.