SPB Mobile Shell

[rawintellect]

A screenshot of my device:




Get it here:

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pock...e/mobileshell/

A few thoughts:

(1) it seems to use less memory than TF 2.1. I used to boot up with 42% used memory after installing the TP tweeks cab. Now I boot with 39% used.

Yes the screenie below shows 41% used but as you can see I have screen capture active to take the screenshot. But it WAS 39% used prior to starting the screencapture utility.




(2) It seems less of a battery drain than TF 2.1. I'll confirm this by the end of the day.

(3) the interface is in my OWN opinion the best one going for windows mobile.

(4) it is compatible with WM 6.5...or so the devs say. lol!


As I greatly value the input of this forum I'd love to know your thoughts on this shell. Thanks

**** Confirmed the battery drain is lower. With stock TF 2.1 my drain was 205 mA. With stock settings on MS 3.5 the battery drain is 192 mA (screenie below)




Here is the youtube video review from pocketnow.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvDr7wAPFQ


************Update 11/06/09*************************

The NEW version 3.5.1 beta is out. Get it here:

http://www.spbclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29539

Oh and the beta is of course free.

Some fixes they list:

SPB Pocket Plus close button makes Shell unresponsive
Set Ringtone doesn't work for Contacts
6.5: Theme shows incorrectly for Carousel and Tiles views
Added current conditions threshold for weather widget
Agenda: One day is shown twice, 25 осt date is the transition to "winter" time
3D SMS viewer: First word disappears after enter
Twitter issues fixes
Kinetic scrolling doesn't stop on Asus P565
3D SMS viewer: Picture is absent.
3D viewer: Date isn't shown for SMS and Email
3D email viewer: First account always shows
Birthday widget doesn't update itself when contact info is changed
New filter category is available only after MS restart
Task widget makes task sychronization with Outlook longer
Feature: introduced default action for weather widget (now choose between "Open forecast" and "Open conditions")

************************************************** *****

* I also found the "reply" button has been fixed in SMS and MAIL.

* Happy to report bluetooth is still working lol!

* When I upgraded I did NOT lose my custom settings.


****************************Update 11/09/09********************************************

Bug found/fixed (well worked around)
Problem:

When you try to use Opera 9.7 beta while using SPB Mobile Shell the Opera splash screen comes up but Opera never starts.

Solution:

Use Sk Tools "Free Up Ram" prior to using Opera 9.7 beta. My guess (and yes it's a guess lol) is that 9.7 beta uses 3-d acceleration. See my previous post regarding trying to play games like xtract.

Here's some screenshots proving Opera 9.7 beta works using this method:





In short it seems that MS does not release the 3d-acceleration so you have to "force" it to release before playing games or using opera 9.7 beta. Hope this helps.

If it does...thank me! (click it kids lol)
***************************Update 11/10/09*********************************************

Want to add Skyfire or Opera 9.7 to the internet launch menu in Mobile Shell? Just edit the registry.

Use your favorite registry editor (I use PHM registry edit) and navagate to

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Spb Software House 2\Spb Mobile Shell\Menu\Root\Internet

There you will see several keys Opera being one of them:




Create a NEW KEY under the Internet section called "Skyfire" like you see above or Opera Beta like you see above.

The fast way would be to just copy each value under the Opera key into the Opera Beta or Skyfire key.

My values look like this for Opera Beta:



Check will always be 1

File will be the path you have Opera Beta installed
(ex my path is \storage card\program files\Opera mobile\OperaL.exe)

Image path will have the EXACT SAME path as the File path:
(ex my path is \storage card\program files\Opera mobile\OperaL.exe)

Index defines the order of objects in your Internet Launch Menu. I have
Opera Beta set as the 11th item. Change yours to a number that doesn't
exist. For instance I had 10 items in my menu so I made this number 11.
If you have 8 items change the index to 9. 15 items change it to 16 and
so on.

MRU is 0

Text is Opera Beta

save and you're done. Now do the same with Skyfire or any other browser you wish to add to the Internet list. the result looks like this:



Enjoy.


***************************************Update 11/10/09 ********************************

Well it seems the folks at SPB are very active and on the ball with fixes as another release has come out today:

it's 3.5.1 RC as opposed to 3.5.1 beta

get it at:

http://www.spbclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29539

[jmorton10]

I used MS for about three weeks at one point.

After the novelty wore off, it bored me & I swapped back to TF3D Rhodium.

~John

[CovKid66]

Few things....

First, personally I think you should have pointed users at SPB's site, not Sprints / Handmarks. Just my opinion...unless of course you work for Sprint then I can understand where you're coming from.

Second, there is a rather large problem with SPB Mobile Shell 3, that they never bothered to address / resolve in the recent 3.5 upgrade. That's here:

Official SPB Mobile Shell 3 Breaks TP2 Dialer's Contacts Options Thread; fixable?

Third, what about an option on the poll for "Already using it"? Otherwise I can't vote sorry.

[phoenix316]

It isn't really all that stable.

It crashes on my once a week, but the usability is so much better than touchflo that I love it.

I will continue to use it till I can get a good 6.5 installed, an I loved 6.5 on my old touch pro.

[tr0s]

i've used the shell on my vogue, mogul, touch pro, and briefly on my tp2 (i didn't run it long enough to check out the total functionality on the tp2). However, it is a great piece of software that's really customizable, runs stable and efficient, and overall just has a great look to it. i noticed on my tp that it seemed to be better on the battery as well, but ironically it seemed to run smoother on my vogue (400 mhz) than on my tp (528 mhz). i have a few friends who won't commit to flashing their fuze's but they absolutely love the mobile shell 3.5, however i agree with jmorton.... i got bored with it too and switched back to touchflo.

[Boo Boo]

spb is cheaper than sprints gouge

and its stable

[CovKid66]

@jmorton10 and tr0s: No critisism / sarcasm intended what so ever, and this is pure curiosity on my part...

I've seen posts before, quite possibly yours John, where users get bored with SPB MS and switch back to manilla. I'm really curious what it is MS doesn't do, or doesn't do well compared to manilla? Is it a performance thing? Is it that TF3D is less customizable and therefore simpler to use e.g. everything all within a few tabs?

Personally, and everyone has their own needs and preferences, I have to have a screen with my upcoming appointments, and not just a couple, right in front of me, plus my mail/vm/sms counts...without having to move between pages (tabs). Perhaps there are tools out there for manilla that I'm simply not aware of that accomplish these types of things???

Thanks in advance for any unbiased, honest, and positive feedback.

@OP: Sorry to semi-hijack the thread...but I think this is related.

@phoenix316: There has to be something else on your phone conflicting. I've used MS on my TP1, Treo Pro, and now TP2, and unstable is not word I would use with this product. I can honestly say I don't ever recall a time MS crashed my phone. Perhaps I'm just lucky

[rawintellect]

Originally Posted by CovKid66

Few things....

First, personally I think you should have pointed users at SPB's site, not Sprints / Handmarks. Just my opinion...unless of course you work for Sprint then I can understand where you're coming from.

Second, there is a rather large problem with SPB Mobile Shell 3, that they never bothered to address / resolve in the recent 3.5 upgrade. That's here:

Official SPB Mobile Shell 3 Breaks TP2 Dialer's Contacts Options Thread; fixable?

Third, what about an option on the poll for "Already using it"? Otherwise I can't vote sorry.

I don't work for sprint. I was just googling around and saw this. I had no idea they had an official site. I have sprint and this is what I found but as I said I greatly value the input of this forum and just created this thread to find out what others thought.

[rawintellect]

After reviewing the version on SPB's homepage I see I'm running the same version. Is there some difference?

[phoenix316]

I don't know, I really don't have all that much installed that would cause it to crash.

But it will lock up, everything else will work fine, if I push the start menu button the start menu will come up and other programs will work, but just not SPB mobile shell, causing me to soft reset.

It aint that big of a deal to me as it has only happened like 3 times in since I got it, so most of the time it works great.