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Hey guys.. I've been flashing my rom for the past 2 months finding the perfect solutions as best as i can.. I came accross this new PocketCM 0.8 today in the new Black X 2 rom and LOVED IT!
The finger guestures in perticular! Of course this is exactly the type of UI the iPhone is utilizing. So my question is, How can we get this functionality from all Pocket PC Products and screens? Like Pocket Internet Explorer, Calendars, Messaging, Photos, anything where you need to scroll basically i want to be able to use finger gestures?
I know the Htc Touch is all about that! And after reading the forums for days on end, I know that the TouchFlo / ButtonFlo project is dead because the touch.dll and the drivers are not compatible with the HTC Hermies / AT&T 8525. So what cha gunna do brother!!?!?
Any ideas?! THe finger thingy!! Want it. Need it... gatta have it. Gestures!
The rest of this is prob in the wrong thread but here goes.
I want to give a review and comparison of HTC Home Plugin and SPB to see if anyone out there agrees or knows of some kind of solution.
SPB is a software company that makes 3 products, SPB Mobile Shell, SPB Phone Suite and SPB Pocket Plus.
The 3 of them are great but they are memory HOGS! and they don't work very well unless they are installed to the device.
HTC Home screen plug in (3, 4, 5 and 6) button variations are all great and it has most of the features of those 3 SPB products, but HTC Home is still LACKING as far as i'm concerned. Combine the HTC Home with the HTC Xbutton and your closer but stilL WAY far from as good as the SPB products togeather.
SBP has the best X button product along with a battery meter built into SPB Pocket Plus. But the rest of the plus features i dont even use! (such as a today plugin, more PIE options, SAFTEY MODE, and a few more)
SPB Mobile Shell gives you the same kind of TABS as HTC Home plugin but better. The only thing better about HTC Home is that is has More available items in each tab. But the SPB Mobile Shell is COMPLETELY CUSTOMIZEABLE. add more tabs, change icons, whatever, so you are not limited to just 6 tabs with 9 icons each... it even includes weather for your local towns and much more. Also, there is a NOW SCREEN every time you turn on your phone for a very EASY AND QUICK look at your stats, and an SPB MENU that makes using just your fingers a BREEZE!!! navigate through your ENTIRE ppc with big buttons. its like the HTC TOUCH without the gestures and the FLASH and PUH-NAZ! AWESOME products!
SPB Phone Suite gives you the same 3 notifications under the HTC HOME plugin for messages, voicemails and missed calls, but again... so much more!!!
I'd love to see THAT type of functionality with gestures and in a LOW FOOT PRINT so as to not hog up all of my program storage. HTC has some work to do to catch up.
maybe you should buy an iPhone
Just saw announcement of Winterface shell from Vito, and I know some people use SPB shell... but also heard it can create problems.
What are the ups and downs? What alternatives are people using?
For reference, I use iLauncher, PhoneAlarm (for profiles, notifications), PocketBreeze for easy access to calendar, contacts, weather, and WkTask and SmallMenu (start menu replacement) for task management. Altogether, this works "fine" but some of the alternatives seem like a more integrated and polished interface.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!
For myself I use: Real VGA at 96dpi, Magic Button to show the running applications, Small Menu as a Start replacement and launcher assigned to my home button, and Handy Menu for access to soft reset, screen capture, or device OFF (other options are available). All of them have small footprints and runs well at 96dpi.
I use spb time to give me the alarm with big button and multi location times.
Then, spb phone suite for missed call/email/sms alert, turn in/off wifi/bt/data, phone profile.
For weather, I use sbsh pocket weather.
For launcher and safe mode soft reset, I use iLauncher.
For task switching, I use wktask.
For calendar, I use today Agenda which uses one line per item.
Works very well and is very flexible.
For calendar items, I use
Ultimate launcher with xmt using either a modified manilla style clock or modified x lucent theme, with wktask and quickmenu.
although the new today prog i linked to looks like it will have potential.
ocassionally especially if its sitting on my desk ill use the tempus13 swf manilla animated clock running fullscreen inside flashlite. must write a mortscript to trigger it automatically when docked.
all in 96dpi
--off topic---
cktlcmd, i see you've finally bought a replacement for your uni... Im still waiting for mine, still havent decided on x7510 or be cheap and stick with x7501... anyway, good on you! So did you bury your uni?
I've switched to spb mobile shell with Diamond skin. It's very customizable and flexible.
eaglesteve said:
I've switched to spb mobile shell with Diamond skin. It's very customizable and flexible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does SPB Mobile Shell work with Real VGA 96dpi in yours?
cuteangelika said:
--off topic---
cktlcmd, i see you've finally bought a replacement for your uni... Im still waiting for mine, still havent decided on x7510 or be cheap and stick with x7501... anyway, good on you! So did you bury your uni?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol
The best purchase I've done yet. I am happy with the quality and performance. Compared to my Universal, my X7510 is very stable even with hundreds of applications installed. It can survive a whole charge without having to soft reset. It is very solid with no creeking plastic sounds like the Universal. I still have not bought a micro SD card, and I still have tons of storage despite having 200 reference books in it. The screen size... I just love it. I never knew the importance of having a GPS till now.
Nowadays, I just use my Universal to play my music in my car. I hard resetted and only installed WM5torage 1.8 and SPB Time. It has become a permanant fixture in my dashboard. It still looks cool at night... especially with the screen on fully bright.
If you value the use of the buttons, go for the X7501 especially if you can buy a cheap brand new unit. Do read about the issues and how to solve the microdrive quirks though. I read that formatting the microdrive to FAT 32 using WM5torage prevents any data corruption. Never use the built-in format drive to format the microdrive.
On the other hand, since you are a first time Advantage seeker, going for the X7510 I think is the better purchase. I use my X7510 mainly on landscape, so buttons are no problem with mine. I can survive with just using the home button for launching any application via Small Menu. The 16GB SSD is a big plus. The keyboard is amazing. The only thing I can say about it is the absence of Soft Keys and Backlight. It's top has a rubberized coating, so no scratching of the unit can occur.
Here in the US, we have no option to buy a cheap brand new X7500 or X7501. All of them: X7500, X7501, and X7510 have the same price if you are purchasing them brand new, so it is most logical for me to go with the X7510.
cktlcmd said:
Does SPB Mobile Shell work with Real VGA 96dpi in yours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. nowaday I'm using only 192dpi. I find that most of my applications look better in this dpi - from Opera mobile, phone, dictionary.... I can use my thumb (yes, not just finger but the big thumb) to do almost everything. There are a few applications which I wish I'm in 96dpi (such as office applications), but most of them work better in 192dpi.
It's funny that after using it for a while I'm so used to it that I wonder how I managed to see the tiny tiny characters in 96dpi. When I was using 96dpi, the feeling was reversed - I wonder how anyone could live with those gigantic taskbar!
Installing SPB mobile shell with diamond skin is a breath of fresh air for me for now. I don't know when I would get sick of this and change it again. I'm always looking for new toys so to speak, and each time I change I feel like I've just bought a completely new gadget.
eaglesteve said:
No. nowaday I'm using only 192dpi.
Installing SPB mobile shell with diamond skin is a breath of fresh air for me for now. I don't know when I would get sick of this and change it again. I'm always looking for new toys so to speak, and each time I change I feel like I've just bought a completely new gadget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I envy you with SPB Mobile Shell. I really like it too, but I love 96dpi more... can't have them all I guess.
eaglesteve said:
Installing SPB mobile shell with diamond skin is a breath of fresh air for me for now. I don't know when I would get sick of this and change it again. I'm always looking for new toys so to speak, and each time I change I feel like I've just bought a completely new gadget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How were you able to get SPB Mobile shell to work with the Diamond Skin (the one posted in the forums somewhere, right?) to work on a VGA phone? Or did someone convert in the the thread with the hundreds of pages?
polstein said:
How were you able to get SPB Mobile shell to work with the Diamond Skin (the one posted in the forums somewhere, right?) to work on a VGA phone? Or did someone convert in the the thread with the hundreds of pages?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=409528&page=4
See post 39 by Resaponderman.
Cheers.
eaglesteve said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=409528&page=4
See post 39 by Resaponderman.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link - much more better then translating and working with the French site I was trying to download and play with yesterday.
Installed - wow, it's much darker then I thought. Will play for a day, but my initial reaction is I like the original better.
Really wish that the program was somehow made to allow compatibility with some of the beautiful QVGA themes and VGA themes.
How are you getting to the dialer with Diamond Skin loaded?
Hey eaglesteve, how are you bringing up the phone dialer? With the lack of hardware buttons on the x7510 and no soft keys in Diamond skinned mode, I am hitting the home button to bring up the base Spb screen, and then selecting Phone soft key from te sys tray. When I want to go back to Diamond I then select Spb Menu which is my other soft key. That is a few steps when one used to do it.
Do you have a better approach? Thanks.
robjhellis said:
Hey eaglesteve, how are you bringing up the phone dialer? With the lack of hardware buttons on the x7510 and no soft keys in Diamond skinned mode, I am hitting the home button to bring up the base Spb screen, and then selecting Phone soft key from te sys tray. When I want to go back to Diamond I then select Spb Menu which is my other soft key. That is a few steps when one used to do it.
Do you have a better approach? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I pin the phone icon to the home tab. When I want to make call, I swipe my thumb upward to go to today and directly press the phone icon.
OK now I'm going to show my total ignorance. What do you mean by "pin" to the home tab.
Again thanks a bunch.
robjhellis said:
OK now I'm going to show my total ignorance. What do you mean by "pin" to the home tab.
Again thanks a bunch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you have installed SPB MObile shell, you will be able to see the following items in the Start/Setting/Personal/Today program under the Item Tab.
- spb mobile shell
- Home tab
- Time tab
- weather tab
- Dial tab 3
- Dial tab 2
- Dial tab
I only tick the Home tab.
The items on these home tab could represent the most recently used program so is dynamically added or removed, unless you "pin" them there permanently. To pin an application such as Phone on the home tab permanently, click and hold the tab until a menu pops up and choose Manage Pinned.. (the bottom item). You will be then allowed to tick the programs that you want to stay on the home tab. This is what I meant by "pin".
Thanks for that - now I get that piece.
My ability to finger swipe seems very hit and miss on my device. When I have the Diamond skin up mostly I can swipe right to left to flip the pages (which is not that useful seeing as there is a button to get to the same place) but swiping up and down to return to the Today screen works maybe 1 in 20 times - and the Today button gets me there anyway!
Any thoughts on why my screen gestures are not very responsive?
Also have you tried ThumbCal? If so I cannot get it to respond as the default calendar from within the Diamond Skin, although it works fine as the default from ouside of Diamond (ThumbCal has a setting to tick to make that happen).
Anyway, also watching out for any other alternate VGA skins. Have you noted any others on the forum yet? There is continued promise of more to come in certain of the "Development and Hacking" threads in the General section.
robjhellis said:
Thanks for that - now I get that piece.
My ability to finger swipe seems very hit and miss on my device. When I have the Diamond skin up mostly I can swipe right to left to flip the pages (which is not that useful seeing as there is a button to get to the same place) but swiping up and down to return to the Today screen works maybe 1 in 20 times - and the Today button gets me there anyway!
Any thoughts on why my screen gestures are not very responsive?
Also have you tried ThumbCal? If so I cannot get it to respond as the default calendar from within the Diamond Skin, although it works fine as the default from ouside of Diamond (ThumbCal has a setting to tick to make that happen).
Anyway, also watching out for any other alternate VGA skins. Have you noted any others on the forum yet? There is continued promise of more to come in certain of the "Development and Hacking" threads in the General section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have already installed FtouchSL, then the most likely reason for the lack of responsiveness is that you have not excluded Spb mobile shell in your FtouchSL. It should be very fast.
I didn't know about FtouchSL relying entirely on HTC TouchFLO. I've downloaded it now and will try it out. Thanks for the tip.
am i stupid to do so???
is it better than the free panel or SE's panels?
imho, yes
we can have touchflo3d, spb mobile shell isn't confortable as it can seems. It has poor integration even with spb products, i.e. if you need phone profiles and use spb phone suite you can't have a wireless switch on today, you have to navigate trough menu (feature request from about 1 year!!!). Also menu customization isn't simple and some basical function are still difficoult to reach. And I reported a lot of crash when customize.
It's UGLY and we don't have much skins for wvga, and skinning is a real pain as they don't release any documentation and all new version messes up all our knowledges changing layout, calls, api... I was about to release a pretty wvga xperia theme for mobile shell 2.1 but the upgrade from 2.1.1 to 2.1.3 has break too much things and i have to give up. They don't deserve us and I don't encourage people to use it
tflo3d is a mess too to skin, but at least it's free for us, much cooler by default and more stable even on xperia
I don't think that you're stupid if you buy SPB mobile shell 2.
I've tried both spb panel and tf3dhd, and the fullversion of spb mobile shell 2 beats them hands down. It's quite easy to customize the menues and is lighter on the cpu than the hog tf3d (in comparison to spb MS2 it is a hog.).
I say go for it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=420325
Try spb. I think they have 15 day tral . and see may post in the link.
I kinda want allways to have that other peapler dont use. want manilla buy oem
What are the differences between the panel and the real thing?
nurps said:
What are the differences between the panel and the real thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The real thing has more options and a "today" plugin and it looks nicer.
i tried the spb mobile 2 and i like it overall, but would prefered to have it as an panel otherwise i had to keep pressing the button for the spb shell to appear every time. is there any way to have it as a panel as i could not see the option to?
at the moment i use the spb shell panel from SE which i like to layout of?
a5ian300zx said:
i had to keep pressing the button for the spb shell to appear every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you use s2u you can set it to wake uo directly to spb, otherwise if you use search you'll find some sort of "daemon" that cares about switching automagically to spb when normal today comes up
but the point is: spb is undocumented, heavy and a pain to skin/customize
using 2.1.2
Spb Phone Suite w/wireless, and profile, switches is avail as a plug-in/tab in Today screen.
The first option in Shell settings is to "Show the [Spb Shell] Now Screen when device wakes up."
as a one on one compare, does it WOW much more than the SE panel?
yyzxex said:
using 2.1.2
Spb Phone Suite w/wireless, and profile, switches is avail as a plug-in/tab in Today screen.
The first option in Shell settings is to "Show the [Spb Shell] Now Screen when device wakes up."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not directly as with normal today plugin
Im using SPB 2.1.2 and I tried TF3D.
IMO SPB shell is much better and easier to customize and gives me satisfaction. Im using several plugins and it works as a charm. Quick and nice looking and its setted up as my "Today Screen" so I dont have to push anything to make it come up.
I love it and would recommend u to buy it. But try the Trial first to see if it fits u..
ok.. btw what does plug in do?
For SPBMS users:
is the standard version able to work together with panels? i.e. in case you install MS AND want to use another panel, like Facebook or Google?
I have bought it and thinks it is a great program til i noticed that i had to charge the battery every day. I uninstalled it and now i can wait four days before i have to charge it again.
They have a 15-day trial that u can try, but remember to check your battery
guap said:
not directly as with normal today plugin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I enable the Spb Phone Suite plug-in/tab in Mobile Shell settings. Then enable Spb Mobile Shell in Start> Settings > Today > Items. Phone Suite wireless and profile switchers are shown as drop down tabs on the WM Today panel. Can't imagine how a more "normal today plugin" would look.
Re. battery life. Wrote this yesterday in another forum; will quote myself here -
100% when I left for work this morning at 6:45am
2.5 hrs BT stereo use (HBH-DS220) to/from work
auto-chk my 2 email addresses at every 15 mins and hour all day
Spb Traveler is set to auto-update weather & currencies every 2 hrs
10 texts
15 mins of calls
1/2 hr of internet at lunch
right now[17:45], my battery is reading 60%
mobile is set to GSM/EDGE with auto band selection
Is it possible to integrate the full mobile shell as a panel, like the lite version?
nurps said:
Is it possible to integrate the full mobile shell as a panel, like the lite version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunatly no
Maybe its possible to simply overwrite the files from mobilebshell panel edition with the files of the full version?
well in a way it IS a panel as it works on your home panel (which I have changed the image of to show Mobile Shell) and on your fish panel too. but if I want my Mobile Shell panel, I just choose my home panel.
hi, i'm using the standard windows today screen, i guess i'm old-fashioned but kind a got used to it. the problem with the HD is, it will only view one appointment at a time, even though i have multiple appointments on that day.
any suggestions..
For a much more powerful calender today-plugin you can try TodayAgenda (freeware) or SBSH PocketBreeze (shareware) or SPB Diary (shareware)...
which do u recommend. do they support the WVGA screen on THD
TodayAgenda runs without problem on HD res
D'rath
I have invested in Spb Mobile Shell, Diary and Phone Suite.
Switching to this through SecondToday, I now have a REALLY powerful and flexible PDA.
I can see ALL my diary appointments for the next month and all birthdays for the next year. I use Gyrator to place the PDA in "lock" mode whenever the stylus is inserted, and this then also activates the "Spb Today" function, showing a really useful Today screen. When the stylus in withdrawn, the PDA unlocks itself, and a single button press takes me back to the TouchFlo Today screen.
Through Phone Suite - which I only use to configure the ring volume - I can set a better selection of ring volume, ring type (ie vibrate, ring, mute, level) and can even program different ring levels for different times of the day (eg if I am at work) or if I have a calendar appointment.
I hated the TouchFlo display at first, but now coupled with Spb (which I have to say is first-rate), I now really love this PDA.
TodayAgenda, SPB Diary
Tried installing both on my TouchHD, installation successful, but nowhere to be seen under PROGRAM? Any suggestions?
I am not sure, but dont you have to activate them under the option today (due to tha fact that both are today plugins)? I also think you have to use secondToday to use these programs.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Greetings
Ascenca
Thanks for your response. I checked under TODAY and found TODAY AGENDA. Ticked it, but didn't see it anywhere else. Checked TODAY again, and found that it was unticked. Only Touchflo3D was ticked. When Touchflo3D was disabled, only then TODAY AGENDA appeared on the TODAY screen. Is that how it should worked? And if you don't mind what is Second Today?
kbnordin said:
Tried installing both on my TouchHD, installation successful, but nowhere to be seen under PROGRAM? Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can only speak for Spb Diary here, but it does need Spb Mobile Shell in order to work. Mobile Shell can easily be switched to by using SecondToday.
kbnordin said:
Thanks for your response. I checked under TODAY and found TODAY AGENDA. Ticked it, but didn't see it anywhere else. Checked TODAY again, and found that it was unticked. Only Touchflo3D was ticked. When Touchflo3D was disabled, only then TODAY AGENDA appeared on the TODAY screen. Is that how it should worked? And if you don't mind what is Second Today?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SecondToday allows you to have in addition to the TouchFlo a second today screen assigned to one of the two soft buttons at the bottom of the screen (above the hard buttons).
I use this with SBSH PocketBreeze - excellent app. I have also in the past used SPB Diary which also is very good.
Using secontdtoday I am now able to view my whole diary (and access all the other SBSH features) and swop back to TF3D.
TouchFlo (TF3D) will not allow you to have other today screen plugins (I think). Hence the need for Secondtoday. Search the forum for secondtoday. It also is in my recent post 30 minutes ago in the working applications thread.
Hello,
Because, there is no such fonction in standard, I'm searching for an easy-to-use solution for displaying next appointments
For exemple, combining today agenda + second today is not an easy-to-use solution.
Manilla 3 came with a new calendar but without week view.
Is there really no solution to display next appointment dates on Manila home screen for exemple ? How guys you handle that ?
I dont know what you mean because appointments I type into my calendar are shown on the home screen one day before the certain date. I think you have to use a calendar that uses the outlook-database to save appointments.
Exact, but for a professional use, one day before the certain date is a too short term view..
I wish I could scroll the view until a week for exemple..
Why do you see using SecondToday as a hard option?
I use this with Spb Diary, and it is both easy to set up, and a doddle to use. It displays forthcoming events, bithdays etc in a clear, easy-to read list for the following 31 days.
I have it assigned to a long keypress on the left softkey, but it could just as easily be assigned to the calendar button
nikki-m said:
Why do you see using SecondToday as a hard option?
I use this with Spb Diary, and it is both easy to set up, and a doddle to use. It displays forthcoming events, bithdays etc in a clear, easy-to read list for the following 31 days.
I have it assigned to a long keypress on the left softkey, but it could just as easily be assigned to the calendar button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested 2nd today + Today agenda few month ago on my Polaris but I was not really conviced. I will try with spb regardless but I will stay frustrated that such a simple fonction as displaying upcoming appointments was so badly implemented..
Kholargol said:
I tested 2nd today + Today agenda few month ago on my Polaris but I was not really conviced. I will try with spb regardless but I will stay frustrated that such a simple fonction as displaying upcoming appointments was so badly implemented..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wellcome to the club, then. Most who use the HD as a professional tool complain of the same thing.
However, SecondToday does work well, and is only a button-press away. I have set up Spb shell to display just the Diary page as a full-page view, so can see loads of appointments.
I also have high hopes for the new Spb Shell v3 which is due to be released fairly soon, and might use that instead of TF3D.
that's the reason why I went back to the default Windows Mobile Today screen with SBP Diary and Calendar+
Check this post on my blog
http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/?p=652
Eh, exactly what I talked about ! Have a look at this :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=497197