Thinking of installing SPB Mobile Shell

[DJRedLine]

I only have the following installed -
SPB Mobile Shell
SBP Watcher
Imarche Skins

and this is what it looks like at present -
Home screen
Programs
Some apps
Some Games
Comms Manager
Contacts (excuse the silly pics, they are real )
Weather
Today screen (Only SPBWatcher is enabled)
Imarche Skin changer
S2U2

[Cmass]

Originally Posted by pdub73

Cmass...
just a question, is this ur first windows mobile phone? and if so Lemme be the first to say WinMo is like a child, you need patience to get it to do what u want it to do...
anyway...what are you trying to do, and I will see if I can help....
first lemme say I use Spb Mobile Shell and Pocket plus together...
I looked at ur pictures and yes those menu arrows are small, but once u have the programs set up the way u like u wont need to use them that much anymore...
I don't use phone suite if u want to customize the phone application I don't have any suggestions for that except to wait for one of the genius' here to create some...
just bear in mind even though Spb Mobile shell and pocket plus work well with the Omnia I doubt very highly spb has tested it specifically with the Omnia...so with a new phone like this we have to do some waiting for the software we want to catch up...

Thanks for your input.

Maybe I should let my 3 yo have a talk with this thing! Perhaps he could better communicate my behavioral expectations to it.

Here is what I am trying to achieve:
1) Large, clear buttons on the front screen that I can custom assign to any task, program or location on the phone. Similar to my PC desktop where I can click on an icon for a file folder or a media player, Contacts, Internet or Email. In fact I'm surprised they don't just use the same vocabularly to describe similar concepts. It appears the "Today screen" is the same as my "desktop". ? ?
2) This thing is still supposed to be a "phone". It has been hard enough for me to give up my rugged, easy-to-hold flip phone with raised tactile buttons in favor of an akward-to-hold, thin rectangle with no "real" buttons. But, the Phone Book induces cursing every time I open it up. Thus far I have found basic phone functions to be completely unacceptable - much of it explained in the above post. Some of it also has to do with how and when the screen locks.
I would like to be able to more easily see the name & number of the person calling me. It should also be very quick and simply to SEE the last few people who called and be able to either call them back or log them. But, at the moment, the buttons are too small and the screen set up so wierd, I cannot control many fuctions without stopping and pulling out the stylus.
3) I want the programs to actually close when I close them and I want the memory to stay clean. I want to prevent "memory leaks" if possible. At the recommendation of another forum member I downloaded "Magicbutton" that supposedly does this. At first, it did indeed appear to close out programs, but it appears it only did it when I had the device connected to my PC. After checking it now I notice that once again, there are 5 applications running in the back ground.
4) Whatever interface I choose, it should be easy to configure and update.
5) A simple and configurable player with an EQ. I thought I had this with the Pocket Player I am trying out but but thus far it has been so painfully sluggish - sometimes taking so long to respond (even to tilt screen changes) that it locks up.

I do NOT want to use a stylus - especially when this thing has no stylus holder.

There are more....but those are the basics...

To answer your question, yes, this is my first Windows phone - but not my first Windows device. My first was an older HP iPaq PDA.....and as I go up this learning curve/mountain I am recalling the difficulties I had with it as well. In fact, the iPaq had so many bugs that an Spb product was the only way I got to to perform even moderately well.
The iPaq has been sitting unused for several years after I got sick of it loosing ALL data every time the non-replaceable battery drained. Well, that and the fact that it hung all the time and there were more application conflicts than I could count.
Why the Omnia then? I had a very sturdy LG for several years but wanted to move up to a more Internet capable phone and a better camera, so I got the LG Dare. (I use the camera function a hell of a lot so this was important) This was a decent phone but it was "not quite there" in terms of it's Internet capabilities. For example, it would only let me see the text of Emails and the built-in browser is quite bad. Since I was beyond the trial period for the Dare, Verizon would not take it back but they did offer the 1 year pricing for the Omnia. If I can get this Omnia working to my satisfaction, I will sell the Dare, otherwise, I will keep it and take the Omnia back. Problem is, I have only a few days left to get all this figured out before my return period expires on the Omnia!! Thus some of my panic.

I understand there is a price to be paid (in blood and money) for the advantages of a fully customizable device such as the Omnia but as is often the case when I take on a new "project", getting up to speed can be very painful. I also have my eye on the fact that I am unemployed and now spending more money/month for the data package. If it works the way I thought it would, it can help me. If not, then it is only costing me more money and headache at a time I can ill aford either.

[Cmass]

Originally Posted by DJRedLine

I only have the following installed -
SPB Mobile Shell
SBP Watcher
Imarche Skins

and this is what it looks like at present -
Home screen
Programs
Some apps
Some Games
Comms Manager
Contacts (excuse the silly pics, they are real )
Weather
Today screen (Only SPBWatcher is enabled)
Imarche Skin changer
S2U2

That look great!
But I'm still confused. HOW did you configure it that way? Which menu did you go into? I have gone through every menu I can find and cannot find any option that gets me close to what you have.

For example, how did you get the buttons to be that style, that size and placed in that location on your home page?

Could much of this be in the skins???

PS - Don't worry about the silly contacts pics - I would get killed if my friends knew which pics I chose to represent them when they call! (And in some cases I have no other photos of them except the one I took in the bar last year )

[Phantom27]

Originally Posted by Cmass

But, the Phone Book induces cursing every time I open it up.

Ok, this I can help with. I have about 500 contacts and find the phone book and the contacts page a nightmare to deal with. But... I have a solution that I only recently learned about!!!!

When you go into your phone application and you have the numbers showing (you know the one you dial from), just start typing the name you want. It will start weeding out the contacts that don't fit what your typing. If you want to call John Wayne, just start typing "J" "O" "H" "N" and it will narrow down all your contacts to the johns. This also works with last names, first names, and even phone numbers. It's an amazing tool. I have found that I don't even use speed dials or photo contacts anymore, I just start typing the name of the person that I want and it comes up, then I just click on their name (with my fat fingers) and then push call. Works like a charm.

Let me know if you didn't figure it out.

[Phantom27]

Cmass, I remember when I had SPB Mobile Shell installed that I had to run the program "SPB Menu" or something like that to get the actual 'cool' part to come up. You arn't looking for the plugin, but the program that runs on top of the today screen that kind of takes over or hijacks WM6.1.

[Phantom27]

DJ Redline, could you post a link to those skins!!!! Those look so good I'm thinking about actually getting SPB Mobile Shell now.

[DJRedLine]

Originally Posted by Cmass

That look great!
But I'm still confused. HOW did you configure it that way? Which menu did you go into? I have gone through every menu I can find and cannot find any option that gets me close to what you have.

For example, how did you get the buttons to be that style, that size and placed in that location on your home page?

Could much of this be in the skins???

PS - Don't worry about the silly contacts pics - I would get killed if my friends knew which pics I chose to represent them when they call! (And in some cases I have no other photos of them except the one I took in the bar last year )

Install SPB Mobile Shell
Download latest imarche skins pack from http://www.imarche.net/omnia/fullpacks.php extract the .zip file on your PC then just move the whole folder anywhere on your sotrage card. Browse to folder via your phone and you will see a 'scripts' folder, within this run the 'mortscript.exe' and then run the Install_WQVGA.mscr' file. This will install the skin pack and go through its options (follow the link above to see different themes etc, mines Kyro-Windows)
Install SPBWatcher and have this as the only running item within the 'Today' Screen

Thats all that's required to get what i got apart from the S2U2 theme.
To see the comms manager, from the home page just click on the top bar.
Programs/Tools will have the 'SPB Skins' application to change your theme.
Programs/Settings will have the 'SPB Mobile Shell' and 'Customize Menu' applications to change various options.

[Spr0ckEt]

I just installed those about 10 min before I read about imarche. Very nice!

[syrguy1969]

Originally Posted by Phantom27

Cmass, I remember when I had SPB Mobile Shell installed that I had to run the program "SPB Menu" or something like that to get the actual 'cool' part to come up. You arn't looking for the plugin, but the program that runs on top of the today screen that kind of takes over or hijacks WM6.1.

Cmass....Phanrom27 is correct, I think the step your missing is actually running the SPB Menu file. That is what will take over the OS. That is also the big advantage of installing Watcher (posted earlier) as it will automatically keep it running for you and you don't have to worry about finding the file and running it every time you close it!!

[Cmass]

Great input. Thanks to all!

The thing is so screwed up now after all my hours of fiddling around that I may just do a hard restart and reload the programs.

If I do, should I also do as I did before and load the Spb program files to "my storage" under "programs"? As a general rule, I am not storing anything on "my device". Is this a problem???

- Chris



PS - You know what I think? I think Verizon and/or Samsung should pay people a few cents for every time someone clicks the "thanks" button for successful advice related to their phones. After all, many times the good Samaritan’s advice may be the difference between someone keeping the phone and returning it - which is a big financial hit every time it happens. Since they have virtually no real-world support......this seems like a critical function.