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> Review :: xBar 2.6
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post Jun 1 2005, 05:02 PM
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xBar, the popular task manager, was recently released as version 2.6. Having heard so much about xBar I thought I would try it out for myself so I contacted the developer for a test version and they agreed to let me have a shot at it.

Here is what Xetra Network has to say about xBar:

QUOTE
The operating system Microsoft embarked in the mobiles, Windows CE, is a multitask system. It is the principal quality compared to the competitor system (palm).

Although the memory of the mobiles is still limited, without a tool it is impossible to shut down an application to release the memory occupied by this one.

Unfortunately Microsoft do not provide any built-in tool allowing to exploit this functionality.

Gap filled by the various manufacturers of PocketPC (itask on ipaq for example).

Unfortunately, these tools are not ergonomic.

It is here that taskbar’s like tools are taking again an operation similar to that available in OS of the machines of office such as Windows or Mac OS. (success on PocketPC : wizbar, icbar and there derived)

xBar being thus the solution with this gap on Smartphone.

xBar offers the following functionalities:
  • Possibility of switch from an application to another easily.

  • Allows to shut down an application.

  • Automatic system of mémory cleaning.

  • Programming of task (1) such as, for example, reading of mp3 like alarm clock.

  • To select part of text then to copy in the clipboard and to past in another application.

  • To launch (2) an application via a shortkey.
All the functionalities of xBar are customisable as well as the visual (skins support).

In short, xBar makes it possible to switch, for example, from Mail Box to the Media Player quickly and simply, but also to reduce the number of restarting of your Smartphone by maintaining a usable memory.


Note: Screenshots in this review are taken with Microsoft ActiveSync Remote Display and contain border information and buttons not seen on the phone.

At first I thought this would be a short review period. How many times can you test an application that closes other applications anyway. But once I loaded xBar and started looking at the documentation I began to realize that my knowledge of xBar covered only a small part of its capabilities.

xBar resides in the background. You call it up by holding the action button. When you do that, you get a ppoup dialog that looks like this:



What you see are currently running applications, memory utilization, battery life, temperature and date. You should also notice a small clock in the title bar. You can terminate tasks by using the directionals to highlight it, then press the backspace button. If the application refuses to close you can force it by pressing and holding the backspace key. When you force an application to close, xBar shows you a negative image just before it closes the application. In this image you can see I am forcing Sprite Backup to close:



You can also switch to any of the tasks shown in xBar by using the directional to highlight it then press your action key. And that pretty much covers the task management portion of xBar. But that is not all this product can do.

Cut and Paste:

This is impossible to show you a screenshot of, but then agian you already know what cut and paste means. xBar adds that capability to the SmartPhone by use of the volume buttons. This feature is the only real problem xBar has, in that it doesn't work with the i600. However, the developer is working to fix that. And this one feature makes the application worth while. You can cut and paste to/from any application, and xBar also makes it easy to swap between tasks so you can cut from one aopplication and paste into another.

Skinning xBar and configuration:

There is no GUI for defining system settings or colors. You have to venture into the world of configuration files. The developer is working on a Gui for both sections but it has not yet been released. Basically you must edit a text file and manually enter the codes for the settings you want such as color, font, size and position of specific icons, etc. Unless you know what you are doing, I believe most will shy away from this feature until the GUI is released.

Task Scheduler:

The task scheduler is a desktop application that puts scheduled tasks on the phone. You can not edit the tasks on the phone directly. I read about this feature in the documentation but could not seem to locate the program on my computer. So I went back to the developer's site and searched. I found this link at the very bottom of the downloads page, and it is the program that does the task scheduling. Please note: this is a BETA 1 application

Basically the task scheduler allows you to schedule specific programs or macros to run. Here are screenshots of the process of adding a new scheduled task to play a wav file. Basically you first connect to the phone, then specify the date(s) and time(s) you want that application to run automatically. Next, find the application you want to launch using the explorer window that pops up. After your job scheduling is complete, you must click the icon to write the job to the phone.



Shortcuts:

xBar allows you to call up shortcuts with a single key once xBar is active. Shortcuts can be anything you have a shortcut to in your START menu. In order to add a new shortcut to xBar just drop a copy of an existing shortcut into the \Program Files\xBar\Keys folder, and rename it to the key you want to use to call the shortcut. For example, lets say you copy a shortcut to CONTACTS into the key folder. That link is called contacts.lnk. In order to be able to use the number 8 to execute that shortcut you would rename contacts.lnk to 8.lnk. That's it. Now when you activate xBar you can press one key to call up applications. It is a pretty cool feature if you think about how you might use it, especially to take advantage of cut and paste capabilities between applications.

Macros:

Macros are a series of instructions to complete a task. xBar uses some macros already to do tasks like quit, kill all tasks, clear memory, etc. But it doesn't just stop there. No, xBar will let you create your own macros. Although far too complicated to get into in this review (and for me to figure out), I can understand it's usefulness.

My impression of xBar is good. It fills in some gaps that the built-in OS should have already had. It's basic functions are easy to use and simple to understand. Some of the key combinations might take a few tries to get used to, but there is nothing like being able to cut and paste on the SmartPhone. I think in time I will forget that this application was not part of the original phone because it integrates so well. With some cleaner GUI interfaces for the PC this application would be perfect. However, documentation is a different story. I understand that there is a language barrier for the developer, but it's the same manual in French and English. So the instructions that seem to be missing from the english manual like how to set up shortcuts and macros are also missing from the french version. With a product this powerful the documentation really needs to be thorough. With better documentation and better PC side GUI support this application would be perfect.

Good
  • Inexpensive
  • Simple to use
  • Works as advertised
  • Provides cup and paste capabilities that should have been part of the operating system
  • Incorporates a task scheduler
Bad
  • Documentation - users manual is pretty sparse
  • Font choice for the clock (hard to read)
  • No GUI for configuring xBar or tweaking the skin
  • Two known bugs: i600 copy/paste trouble, xBar tray icon color detection
  • Included BETA code as part of advertised features
Buy it at Handango for $9.99


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GrYph0n
post Jun 1 2005, 06:35 PM
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I have used XBar on every smartphone that I have owned, and it has always been one of the first to be installed. It is very solid, but can cause minor conflictions with select programs. The only major confliction would be the one with Thunderhawk, where XBar renders the menu functions of TH useless. That isn't a problem either though, I would just close XBar when I needed to use TH and then have a speed dial assigned to it to activate XBar again once I was done.


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Xetra
post Jun 1 2005, 07:52 PM
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Thank you very much for this review.

Note, a new build is available at http://www.xetranet.com/xabr2

and you can use a smartphone crontab editor at : http://supware.net/?cronedit or use notepad (it is the same linux crontab file)

Only 6 euro by PayPal smile.gif

EDIT : Copy/paste work on all model, just have a look at the quick help (key 9 in xbar)

EDIT2: about skin you can use this GUI

The 2.6 is fully compatible with PPC all version
xBar use less than 30kb of memory !

This post has been edited by Xetra: Jun 1 2005, 07:53 PM
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