Review: SPB Mobile Shell 3.0

SPB has released the much anticipated updated version of Mobile Shell 2.0. Information technology'south hard to say that Mobile Trounce 3.0 is an update to the previous versions of this popular utility considering of the dramatic changes present with 3.0. Just looking at the home folio of both versions, the casual observer would call back they are looking at two unique applications.

We received an accelerate re-create of Mobile Beat out iii.0 almost a week ago and found it to be very characteristic rich and more customizable than its predecessor. You know the drill, to find out more about Mobile Shell 3.0 plus enough of screen shots, simply follow the break.

A Brand New Look

It was tough to find a starting indicate for this review simply because Mobile Crush iii.0 has so much to information technology. Information technology builds upon 2.x very nicely but in the process SPB ends up with almost a completely dissimilar application. The transformation reminds me of when Windows 3.i was updated to Windows 95. You however had a Windows operating system simply the look and feel was noticeably different.

Where Mobile Vanquish 2.x placed a tabbed plug-in on the traditional Today Screen, Mobile Beat 3.0 takes over the Today Screen. You tin however access the traditional Today Screen but Mobile Shell becomes your new "abode" page and that's probably a expert identify to beginning with the basics and bolts of the review.

Home Page

Mobile Vanquish has two home page layouts to choose between. Yous have the Professional Layout that is rather conservative in appearance and is almost a mirror epitome of Mobile Vanquish 2.10'south "At present Screen". SPB added a second abode screen layout, the Lifestyle Layout that is more casual and is highly customizable through the use of widgets.

The Professional Layout has the appointment/time, weather icon, messaging eye, and agenda displayed. Customization of the Professional Layout is limited to a few options with the calendar display. The Professional person Layout is designed to give yous a snapshot of your mean solar day.

Where the Professional person Layout is a single screen, the Lifestyle Layout has two pages to either side of the primary screen. These side panels (swipe navigable)tin hold widgets ranging from media role player to contacts to application launchers. Switching betwixt layouts is as like shooting fish in a barrel equally a up/down swipe or you lot tin utilise the menu tab (lower right corner of the screen) to change layouts. Ane nice characteristic of the Lifestyle Layout is that y'all can use a larger landscape image and as yous pan beyond the iii pages, y'all pan the image. Below is a flow chart of the Mobile Shell 3.0 domicile pages.

On either home page layout, you can launch applications by tapping on the icons. The conditions application can be accessed by tapping the weather condition icon, the agenda app by tapping the calendar display, etc. Depending on your telephone, the End Key likewise as the Abode Key volition return you to the last Home Page y'all viewed. If y'all were on a widget page of the Lifestyle Layout, that is where yous will return to.

I concluded up parking my AT&T Fuze on the Professional Layout to take advantage of the snapshot view it offers and, just a swipe abroad, built the LifeStyle Layout with widgets to ship me to my more normally used applications and contacts.

Traveling Beyond the Home Page

At the lesser of either home page layout you'll discover a Launcher and Contact icon as well as a bill of fare and carousel tab that sits in the left and right corner respectively.

The Launcher icon takes you to equivalent of your Programs Window in Mobile Vanquish 2.0. The Launcher has 2 layout styles as well that can be navigated betwixt by tapping the icons at the bottom or swipe the screen.

The first layout contains customizable favorites and recently used applications. The second layout has applications sorted by category in various folders (Cyberspace, Tools, Programs, etc.) Tap on i of the icons and you tin can select from various applications from that category. Unlike version two, the programs are scrollable from top to bottom every bit opposed to page to page.

The Contact Icon, as you would guess, takes you to the phones contacts. By default, yous are taken to the Favorite Contacts page. This is the "speed punch" icons/avatars that take you lot direct to a specific contact where you can cull to dial one of the numbers, transport SMS messages or email the contact.

The other icons at the lesser of this window include your call log and full contact listing. The full contact listing tin be navigated past scrolling up/down the list or past dialing the first five messages of the contacts proper name. This volition narrow the field, making finding the desired contact easier. I would take liked to have seen alphabetical tabs on this screen but the keypad search works.

The Carte du jour Tab (located at the bottom correct) will pull up the card options for each screen. Instead of a "popular-upwardly" menu for your options, you have a "pop-upward" window with icons representing the various options. The options volition vary from screen to screen.

Where'southward the Kitchen Sink?

I had my easily on the review copy for a few days earlier the documentation caught upward with me and so learning Mobile Shell 3.0 was somewhat of an take chances into the unknown. Every finger swipe revealed a new window or characteristic that it wouldn't have surprised me if I stumbled upon a kitchen sink. And it all starts with the Carousel Tab.

The Carousel tab (to the bottom left) pulls up a carousel view of the various SPB pages too as the home pages and pages accessible via the home page icons (contacts and launcher). Essentially information technology is a i stop shop for the various panels/windows of Mobile Shell 3.0. The carousel is touch navigable and once you find your page, tap on it for it to go total screen.

Yous can also switch to a tile/console view. This view reminds me of the panels Sony uses on the Xperia. One can only promise that SPB opens Mobile Shell up for additional panels just as Sony did with the Xperia.

The Conditions panel tin can be set to a specific urban center and displays the electric current weather and four day forecast. The city selection includes a strong representation of U.S. and International locations. I would be shocked if someone couldn't observe a location shut to their firm.

The Agenda Page volition display upward to four weeks of appointments besides every bit a calendar of that period. You can customize the calendar appearance to show open dates likewise. The calendar view is collapsible and, every bit with most of the windows in Mobile Beat out 3.0, the calendar is bear on navigable.

The Phone Profile is where you lot can set up the ringer volume, organisation sounds volume, the band tone and type. The Time panel has your alarm function every bit well every bit displays for two additional time zones/cities.

The Contact Carousel console is a quick way to customize your favorite contacts (those you lot create widgets of). Here you have a bear upon navigable carousel which will permit you to set ring tones for an individual contact and manage the contact picture.

Facebook Integration

One of the many new features to Mobile Shell 3.0 is the ability to integrate Facebook Contour pictures to your contacts. You lot have the ability to choose a photographic camera from a file or take ane with the camera but at present if your contact is a Facebook friend, you can import 1 of their Facebook portrait pictures.

Settings

The one thing that was dainty well-nigh Mobile Shell ii.0 is the corporeality of settings you could tweak. The settings pages were all under one roof, a one-stop shop if you lot volition.

With three.0, settings are scattered virtually a little more. Instead of having the core settings tabbed and nether one roof, they are more categorized under separate icons.  Additionally, equally mentioned, each page volition have some carte options to allow for customization. Color themes are now a dissever application and non located under the Mobile Shell settings window.

There are two settings that jumped off the screen at me. The "Override Start" selection sends you to the Launcher window when you tap the "Kickoff" card of Windows Mobile on a Home Page. This pick appears to only affect the Home Pages because the driblet down "Start Carte" continues to appear with the interior pages.

Y'all likewise have a 3D accelerator option simply if your phone has non been tested, yous get a nice warning maxim that using the accelerator may crusade performance issues. On the Fuze, a phone that hasn't been tested, I become the alert only didn't notice whatever functioning changes. In using the accelerator or override offset options, a soft reset is required for the system to accept the changes.

Overall Impression

It's somewhat unfair to compare Mobile Crush 3.0 to Mobile Shell 2.x considering they are and so vastly dissimilar. Mobile Shell ii.ten actually dealt with life beyond the Today Screen while Mobile Beat out 3.0 steps to the forefront. I'k a large fan of Mobile Trounce 2.0 and speedily becoming a big fan of Mobile Shell 3.0. There were a few hiccups along the fashion but aught terminal. For the most part, Mobile Shell three.0 was stable and ran smoothly save 2 experiences.  Touch navigation was smooth and responsive as well.

For some reason during my initial installation of Mobile Shell three.0 I lost the ability to close programs by tapping the "10" and lost the drop down Task Director icon that sits on the upper right corner of the screen. After uninstalling Mobile Trounce 3.0, soft resetting and re-installing Mobile Beat out three.0 everything functioned properly with regards to endmost programs.

Screen rotation was noticeably slower with Mobile Shell three.0. In testing it on the AT&T Fuze, it took approximately four seconds for the screen to rotate when I extended the keyboard or turned the Fuze horizontally.

Another glitch in screen rotation is that with the Lifestyle Layout, the widgets accept a tendency to become bunched upwards with the horizontal view because they can't adapt to the narrower view.  I plant that the smaller widgets and contact sizes work better but if y'all put a larger widget (east.g. calendar) it has a hard time adjusting to the rotated layout.  This problem was not present with the Professional person Layout and while it tin be annoying, I don't think it's a deal breaker.

I really liked the widgets and the ease in which they are created and customized (you can change the size, position, and add labeling to almost widgets) but customization is non universal. For example, while you can create a widget for individual email accounts you lot can't label them. Sorta defeats the purpose of having separate widgets.

Another short coming with the widgets is that tin't create a widget for your Outlook email. You lot can choose a widget for all incoming messages that will comprehend email, SMS, and missed calls but it would be prissy to carve up all your email accounts much like the traditional Today Screen does.

SPB points out in their release documentation that Mobile Vanquish 2.x was a tremendous success and it was challenging to design 3.0 since client expectations are quite loftier. Just as Microsoft took the windows concept of iii.1 and developed a successful update in Windows 95, I think SPB has done the same with Mobile Shell 3.0. SPB has taken the concept and functionality of Mobile Shell 2.0 and added a tremendous amount of functionality to it. Additionally, SPB developed Mobile Shell iii.0 to be compatible with Windows Mobile half dozen.5 so when the WM 6.5 phones becomes available, Mobile Beat out 3.0 should still compliment Windows Mobile without any (expected?)conflicts.

We have always considered the Mobile Beat line-up equally a "must have" application for Windows Mobile and version three.0 isn't any different.  If you are a loyal Mobile Shell 2.0 user, version 3.0 does have a 15 day trial menstruation.  It's definitely worth a look but requite the trial version a few days to sink in. There is and so much to Mobile Shell 3.0 that it tin can be a little overwhelming and may take a day or so before you can make a proper evaluation.  It does take a few bug only nil I remember volition send yous screaming back to the checkout counter for a refund.

Mobile Shell two.10 or 3.0?  I don't think you can loose either mode but information technology'due south difficult to ignore the features and customization that 3.0 offers.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/review-spb-mobile-shell-30

Posted by: pelhamminver.blogspot.com

Share this post