Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: Slacker

Spb Diary 2.5.8
By http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en
MGN Rating -

Rating Legend

1 star: Find something else; save your money
2 star: Below average; not recommended
3 star: Average; performs as advertised but not inspiring
4 star: Good; worth the money
5 star: Great; best of its kind on the market

Review by Slacker
Review Date / April 1st, 2008

Note: Screen captures are created with http://www.soti.net/default.asp?Cmd=Products&SubCmd=PCPro by Soti, Inc.

Spb Software House develops many Windows Mobile applications and Games to perform a myriad of tasks. Many of their applications work together to share information and present it in a format that helps you accomplish tasks more efficiently. I have been using several Spb applications over the last month and am impressed overall with their effectiveness and stability. Over the next few days I will be releasing reviews of several of those applications to help you get a feel for the products, company, and how the applications might help you to do more with your Windows Mobile Device.

This installment is two of four and will cover Spb Diary. Spb Diary is a today screen plugin that offers insight into all of the PIM functions of your Windows Mobile Professional device. Mail, Tasks, Calendar, Contacts, Special Events, notes and even custom tabs. Here is how Spb introduces Diary:

I saved Spb Diary for last in this series for a reason: it really is the best example of how the Spb products all tie together to turn your today screen into an information and control powerhouse. This single application can take your today screen to a whole new level of usefulness. Lets take a look at what it offers.

First, it is a tabbed application and those tabs can be set to be hidden, collapsed, reordered, and configured to present your information in the way that makes the most sense to you. Any time you tap an item in any of the tabs Diary open s the information in a popup which gives you access to the information, action items for that information and the option to open the full native application if you need additional access to the information. But if all you need to do is look at something like an email, calendar appointment, task, etc you can get that information in a quick popup saving time and resources. This popup feature is part of every tab and every data type. Also you can set your categorized items to display differently to make it easier for you to organize your thoughts based on the information presented to you.

Mail: The mail tab can handle multiple mail accounts and has many configuration for how mail is displayed. It can be grouped, can include information about what is in the mail, importance and other indicators that you may have or need to keep up with your email. You can tap an email and read it right on the today screen. Reply, forward and full messaging application buttons are available to allow you to act on the email.

 MGN_Spb_Diary_04.png ( 51.49K ) : 315
 MGN_Spb_Diary_05.png ( 28.38K ) : 312


Contacts: Contacts are listed and you can dial, email, sms or take other actions with a contact right from the Today screen. Gone is the need to open the full contacts application unless you need to add/edit/delete a contact. For simply calling or messaging you can do it all without leaving the Today screen.

 MGN_Spb_Diary_02.png ( 51.07K ) : 309
 MGN_Spb_Diary_03.png ( 34.81K ) : 313


Calendar: You can set this tab to show a day, week or month of events and it will even show you a month graphical calendar. I can not tell you how often I use the month calendar to help me visualize a date. And I never have to leave the today screen. This is a great tool for me. Also if you are using Spb Weather you can get a small graphic of the forecast right on the calendar!

 MGN_Spb_Diary_01.png ( 50.52K ) : 299


Tasks: Tasks can be displayed and checked off right on the Today screen. Again, no need to leave the Today screen.

 MGN_Spb_Diary_06.png ( 35.87K ) : 304
 MGN_Spb_Diary_07.png ( 30.42K ) : 315


Special Events: Special events such as birthdays and anniversaries are grouped together to make them stand out and make them easier to not forget. All of you guys out there know exactly what I am talking about. If you are using Spb Finance you can also include scheduled transactions to show up.

 MGN_Spb_Diary_08.png ( 33.09K ) : 301
 MGN_Spb_Diary_09.png ( 30.44K ) : 307


Notes: You can view or listen to your notes and note recordings from the Today screen. If you want you can open the full notes application but again, the goal here is to keep you at the center of the Windows Mobile world: the Today screen.

 MGN_Spb_Diary_10.png ( 37.43K ) : 314
 MGN_Spb_Diary_11.png ( 37.9K ) : 314


Lets talk a bit about integration. See the weather icons in my calendar listing? Spb Weather information. See the unread mail items in the calendar? Spb Diary mail. Spb Diary really mashes all of your PIM functions together to give you the information you need in a concise, single location. This reduces time and effort to locate what you need. All of the Spb products work together and share information. That really reflects their "big picture" thinking before they start development.

As you can see, Diary offers a ton of information in a small amount of today screen real estate. The functionality of Diary makes the Windows Mobile Professional device more usable and user friendly. I certainly recommend Diary as a must-have. Spb offers trial versions of all of their applications. So head over to their website and download the trials. Try them out and see for yourself how well they integrate. See if you don't find yourself getting more our of your Windows Mobile Professional device.

Thank you to Spb for allowing us to review these applications and for producing products that improve upon and extend the capabilities of what are undoubtedly the most advanced and powerful mobile phones currently available.