Database Users

Shells and Today alternatives

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?
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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.

Panel maker Spb Mobile Shell 2.1.4

Hello there,
I was just wondering if there's a way to install Spb Mobile Shell 2.1.4 as a panel on the Xperia? Because when I installed this version, the older one (sbp-panel) is getting overwrited. Maybe can someone make a panel installer for it? Thanks anyway

I was looking to install the newer 214 as well, but was not sure if I wanted to over write the older panel version... how would this effect the phone... thanks for any info...

Shadowdh said:
I was looking to install the newer 214 as well, but was not sure if I wanted to over write the older panel version... how would this effect the phone... thanks for any info...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no problem when you install spb 2.1.4 on the xperia. You loose the panel of the older version but you keep the same settings at the new version. Even when you want the older version back you can easly install it and you'll get spb mobile shell panel as before but then you loose 2.1.4 (that only runs as application)

I thought as much but wanted to be sure... I am not sure I want to lose the panel ability though... oh well will try it out I think...

Is there a cab available to make 2.1.4 into a panel? If I could, I would.

bigbassist1701 said:
Is there a cab available to make 2.1.4 into a panel? If I could, I would.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
upppp!!
i would too!!!

i'm currently using this version as well together with SPB Pocket plus 4 (both are awesome by the way...) and it seems to be showing as more of a menu than a panel. A panel .cab for this would certainly be nice so i don't have to switch to this every time i unlock my phone 'cause the today screen always shows when i unlock. or if anyone knows a workaround for this, i'll use that one as well.

To show the panel when the device wakes up go Start/Settings system tab then scroll down until you see the SPB mobile shell icon. Tap thos and on the first screen that comes up is a check box for Display the Now Screen when device wakes up. I think this is what you were asking

thematrix_neo said:
To show the panel when the device wakes up go Start/Settings system tab then scroll down until you see the SPB mobile shell icon. Tap thos and on the first screen that comes up is a check box for Display the Now Screen when device wakes up. I think this is what you were asking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think what he wanted was to make the SPB shell v.2.xx a panel just like the one that can be downloaded from the sony ericsson website....if any devs out there could help with this, lots of us would appreciate it!

spb 2.x over spb panel??

Hi there, I was wondering if there are pros or cons of installing spb 2.x over the panel that is on the x1...?? are they the same or are there differences in the performance... affect the phone in any way for either... thanks for any thoughts...

I had spb on my last phone but love the panel so I didn't install it. If you would rather use the today screen then get the SPB 2.X, but if you like using the spb panel like I do then stick with that. SPB 2.X offers more custimzation, but everything in the panel just works for me (like I don't have to add programs/games/etc. they just show up in the right places).

I prefer SPB 2.X because its more easily customizable and the most recent spb shell has some great new features over the older one. OF course i use neither lol. I use TFL3D.

I tried SPB 2.x but didn't like that when you press end or go to the today screen, you're still stuck with the Windows Today Screen and have to then open up the SPB screen. There's a hack to semi fix it, but it still flashes the today screen for a second before switching over.

I don't know this too. I think my phone is a little bit slow down after installing this.

SCtud said:
I tried SPB 2.x but didn't like that when you press end or go to the today screen, you're still stuck with the Windows Today Screen and have to then open up the SPB screen. There's a hack to semi fix it, but it still flashes the today screen for a second before switching over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea there is a cab that i used on my tilt called spbwatcher. If anyone needs it i can post it in this thread. Just let me know

I use SPB (the not-panel version) too. I just like the idea of having SPB Shell and still being able to use all the great Today plugins there are.
Works like a charm, although it automatically uninstalls SPB Panel. (I don't ever use the panels)
Differences:
- The looks are a bit different, and I think the not-panel version has a few options more. It installs a few direct shortcuts like "[Soft Reset]", "[My Menu]" as actual program shortcuts (you can use these from anywhere).
- Adds a few options when to use Windows today and when to use SPB today
- Adds a today screen button assigner for WinMo.

Thanks for the replies... I might give it a whirl and Bxsteez, yes please can you post that cab... I am loving my xperiance though... now that I have nearly got it completely how I want it I guess its time to reflash the ROM...

SPB mobile panel - Without the panels

I'm thinking of flashing to Jack's lite 1.04 rom, which has no panels. However, I couldn't live without the SPB mobile panel anymore. I've tried the SPB Mobile Shell, but it wasn't what I was looking for (especially the button to close it is retarded). I already found out that you can run the SPB mobile shell program just from it's program folder, even from another panel. There are two more things I need to find out:
-The softkeys on the panel are "Recent" and "Contacts", and they work. When I launch the shell as a program, they are "SPB menu" and "Agenda", and clicking or touching them does absolutely nothing.
-How do I get the SPBs-shell-program to replace the standard today screen? It doesn't have a today plugin.
I'd be really grateful if anyone could answer these questions!

are you using the newer SPB Shell? the 2.xx one? i have this and it's working just fine..oh and i have SPB Pocket plus 4 as well, maybe they're supposed to work together? but with this it's more of an extra feature of pocket plus rather than as a replacement for the today screen like the older SPB Shell. Maybe you could try getting the one from sony's website and see how that works

I am using the one from Sony's website, hence the term "SPB mobile panel".

Spb Mobile Shell 3.5 battery life goood

Hi, I had the SBP Shell 3.5 for a while (as did 3.0) but finally removed it due to the appaling battery life. Again fed up with Touchflo (I have T-Mob Compact IV) I decided to install the Shell back on... & guess what? The battery issue is gone! It lasts now roughly about the same as with Touchflo does, managing well all through the day! Wohooo!
The only thing is different is I dont use the professional screen, left it unticket in the settings... i also dont use the battery widget. Anyone else noticed difference?
Spb Shell 3.5.2, built 9745

i use shell 3.5, no battery complain at all

I recently switched from Sense 2.5 to Mobile Shell 3.5.1 and I was amazed at how llong the battery lasts. It will go probably 3 days with moderate use without charging.

I am a fan of <<SPB SHELL>>. Not only does it do well with battery consumption, but it is easy to navigate through your device and does so without exhausting the devices resources....
Make sure you uncheck all items (Manila and Titanium) under the Items section found in Home in order to maximize SPB's full potential.

Spb Mobile shell experience
I'm using it on a Touch Diamond and also found the battery life has decreased, "Now" screen is classic and the battery widget is in use. It is version 2.1.1, build 3507, my Diamond using windows 6.1 and original ROM.
Also how can I personalize the background image?

A friend of mine and myself had problems with the Alarm clock.
It simply did not work while using SPB Shell. Mine is a Diamond, his a TP2.

just installed SPB shell 3.5 and my battery now outlasts from touchflo!!! lovin it!!!

Marcelocohenarg said:
I'm using it on a Touch Diamond and also found the battery life has decreased, "Now" screen is classic and the battery widget is in use. It is version 2.1.1, build 3507, my Diamond using windows 6.1 and original ROM.
Also how can I personalize the background image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
on your home lifestyle screen click on the bottom right option tab, this brings up a sub menu of which one of the icons is "change background" click this and one of the options will be to select your image from your picture file, then just go ahead and selct the picture from your album. Hope this helps!

Hello,
Sorry for asking this noob question, I just tried spb mobile shell 3.5.3. Everything's nice except one thing that I still can't figure out. How do we make a call to a number that's not in our contact? The only answer I can find is by pressing the phone button(external button in diamond). Is there anyway we can make a new call without having pressing the button?
Thank you.

I can't get that thing to work! I have tried everything? but I noticed on their website it says only official ROM's supported?
maybe thats why? and how do I make mine official if so, thx!

Thanks that worked!!
Also I experienced what jannen said...better batery life in the second installation of SPB. Guess that has something to do with the qtty of pages you enable in the home screen...I have only one. Battery duration is good.

I like SPB shell but why am I still able to see titanium under it?

LaMpiR said:
I like SPB shell but why am I still able to see titanium under it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
start-setings-home-uncheck "windows default" and youll save batery and ram
hope this will help...