New Mobile Shell 3.0

If there ever were an application that I would recommend above all others to install on your pocket pal first it would be SPB’s Mobile Shell. Apparently this is not just my opinion, for the program has received an abundance of accolades. However, with a program so brilliantly conceived that does so much for organizing and giving you access to the depths of your machine, it is a hard act to follow.

Yet, the SPB developers have managed to make meaningful changes, add features, and offer improvements in version 3.0. If you have gotten used to using 2.0, you may balk at first and wonder why bother with any improvements and having to learn a new and more robust system. While there may be a bit of a learning curve, I think you will find it worth the effort.

Frankly, I liked everything just the way it was, but I have to admit that after becoming familiar with 3.0 and its enhancements, I am delighted with it and amazed at its functionality.

New Features

There are so many new features, I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps it would be best to list the major ones and then discuss those that are not self-evident.

· The most noticeable new feature is widgets, which have become popular on most desktops these days. These are evident on the Lifestyle Home Screen and in Photo Contacts.

· 3.0 integrates with Facebook. This is largely so that you can grab pictures of your friends and put them into your favorites and contact folders.

· You can even edit contact photos with cropping and rotating

· There’s a new Media Player widget you can place on the home screen

· You can place a wireless manager widget on the Home Screen too

· There’s a new launcher format—I’m not sure this is an improvement however

· The program is extremely finger-friendly throughout with kinetic scrolling

· There is an inbound indicator for voice, email, and sms with a counter widget

· The task manager has definitely been improved

· A 3D screen carousel view rotates every available screen for quick access

· There is a similar carousel view of photo contacts

Remember the old Professional vs Classic layout in 2.0? Well, 3.0 has expanded the concept to Professional and Lifestyle layouts that you can switch between at will. The professional layout packs in more information in a constrained screen space, while the Lifestyle layout is more fun with widgets you can scatter around the screen to give you the information you wish.

Chances are, users may not even recognize the installation of Mobile Shell 3.0 from one machine to another because of the endless possibilities of customization of features, backgrounds, and wallpapers.

It The new version supports multiple email platforms and accounts. A powerful algorithm places the email account with the most unread mail first in line for convenience. If there is no unread mail, the last one to have email will be the first in line.

Version 3.0 pays a lot of attention to contact management. The innovative approach of Facebook integration allows users to drag and drop photos and even crop them. You can also drag and drop contacts into the Favorites panel and then move them around as you please with your finger. The 3D contact carousel is a fun feature too. MS allows you to set unique ringtones for your favorites if you wish.

When you select a favorite, a new screen appears giving you the choice of calling home/work/mobile or sending SMS or MMS messages. There’s a nice photo log of phone calls as well.

I’m not quite convinced that the new launcher and the SPB Menu are an improvement over the old system in which you had 12 of the most recently launched applications in small icon format above the six Menu folders. You could make any of the twelve items appear permanently for convenience, and you could edit the content of the Menu folders or create your own folder and content.

Now there is a Launcher with your three favorites at the top in simple mode and any number of recently used applications displayed in order of usage below. It appears that you could have the whole Program folder in here. In the advanced mode, you can easily add or remove programs to suite your purpose. The recently used function will still operate below the favorites panel.

Remember that SPB offers an integrated suite of applications along with Mobile Shell such as Traveler, Weather, Netflix Manager, and Plus. These all work more seamlessly with version 3.0.

Version 3.0’s developers created the application with Windows Mobile 6.5 in mind so that it will work flawlessly in that environment too when it is released.

Conclusion

While Mobile Shell 2.0 was a superbly conceived application that made using your pocket pal a dream, version 3.0 has managed to enhance it with many new features of functionality and navigation. Perhaps the most striking features are the carousels and widgets. Again, I have to rate Mobile Shell 3.0 as a must-have application.

It costs $29.95, but you can try it for free and upgrade it for 50% off the retail price. Please visit www.spbsoftwarehouse.com to check it out and get your own copy. I think you are going to be quite pleased with Mobile Shell 3.0.