Image Gallery: Spb Mobile Shell 2.0
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Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 About page
By Matthew Miller
The HTC Advantage and other Pocket PC/Professional/Classic devices are high-powered Windows Mobile products, but they are not always the easiest to use for quick data access. Spb Software House launched Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 that gives you quick access to key information, a page of customizable shortcuts, and a speed dialer that can be accessed with simple gestures from any application.
Now panel
The Now panel shows you your most common data that causes you to turn on your device, including weather, time, notifications, appointments, and profile selections.
Detailed look at weather
You can view more details of your local weather by tapping on the weather icon. A 4-day forecast is available for you to view on your device.
Checking out a sunny day
You can view details for any of the next 4 days.
Weather settings
You can select from degrees F or C and also select the city you wish to view weather for. With the Spb Weather utility you can also add multiple cities and more detailed weather information.
Now screen settings
The broad Now screen settings let you choose when the Now screen shows up and what the layout template (Professional or Classic) will be.
Professional Now screen settings
You can select what alarm and calendar information appears on the Now screen.
Now panel plug-in management
If you have other Spb plug-ins, like Weather or Diary, then you can manage them here to control how they work with the Now panel.
Spb Now panel
This panel gives you quick access to most recently used applications, utilities, and settings with most of the display customizable to meet your needs. Notice the very large finger-friendly icons.
Advanced settings tab
You can customize the Spb Menu and Now panels using these advanced settings. You can also reset to the default settings on this tab.
Customizing the menu
The tree structure lets you tap the check box to show the specific menu and contents.
Menu options when customizing Spb Menu
You can add menus, links to applications, or links to folders. You can move menus up or down, edit them, or remove them too.
New menu settings
You need to name your new menu and then you can select an icon to be displayed in Spb Mobile Shell.
Selecting an application
You can choose which application to assign to your custom menus using this easy selector.
Selecting a folder
You can also setup quick access to common folder that you use all the time. This can be quite helpful for making your device more efficient.
Today screen settings
Windows Mobile Professional/Classic devices have a Today screen and with these settings you can set how Spb Mobile Shell will work with the Today screen. You can also customize the left and right soft keys on your Today screen.
Animations can be fun
The taskbar smart gestures let you quickly get back to Spb Mobile Shell from any application. Transitions can be animated and there are 5 types of animations to select from in the application.
Tabs can be added and edited
Different tabs can be used to show different plugins you have loaded on your device.
Color theme management
16 different color themes are available for you to choose from. I used the Ocean theme for my review.
A custom Spb Menu
This is what My Menu custom menu looks like on the first level.
Second level of My Menu
On the second level down you will see the applications that I assigned to the Office category.
Spb Media Player menu
Spb Mobile Shell also changes a few of the default application menus to make it easier to manage and use your device. The Media Player menu give you quick access to your media.
Spb Camera menu
The Camera menu lets you quickly choose from a photo or video option with other settings available as well.
Spb Pictures menu
The Pictures menu also has some quick settings and functions integrated by default. You can select which of these to show in your menu customization settings too.
Speed Dial panel
The third and final panel available in Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 is the Speed Dial panel. You have 15 custom speed dial slots available to setup.
Selecting a speed dial icon
Selecting one of your speed dial icons brings you to another screen that gives you contact options like call or send text messages. You can also select to edit the contact.
Mobile Shell 2.0 dialer
The 16th slot on the Speed Dial panel is for the phone dialer. As you start dialing contacts, the dialer filters your contact list using a smart filtering method to make dialing quick and easy on your device.
Gesture access from any application
A very cool feature of Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 is the ability to quickly access Spb Mobile Shell from any application with a simple gesture down from the top taskbar. You can then slide your finger or stylus over the panel you desire to launch.
Spb Mobile Shell image gallery 1
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Spb Mobile Shell image gallery 2
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