SPB Software: Give us your thoughts.

[George Ponder]

So here's how this week's give away will work.

Post your thoughts on SPB here and have a chance to win a copies of SPB software.

Tell us what you like, dislike, or would like to see in SPB software. Do you like the old interface with SPB Mobile Shell or is the touch navigation more to your liking? Any channels missing from SPB TV? Does SPB Traveler cover all the bases for those who are on the road?

Winners will be drawn at random from replies with the first winner receiving a copy of SPB Mobile Shell and the second/third winners receiving a copy of SPB TV. You've got until 5:00pm CST on September 14, 2009.

 

[papped]

Love SPB Mobile Shell.

One thing I'd like to see added is the *option* of using it's own SMS client, similar to vito sms-chat. The WM sms client tends to be kinda slow and a lot of people prefer Vito. If SPB Mobile Shell had something similar, the app would have far more value for the price since you would no longer require both apps.

 

[baymon#WP]

What I thought about SPB's:
-Mobile Shell: One of the best UI out there that easily beats TouchFlo3D for me. I love the idea of having multiple "desktops" and widgets ala android and I love that SPB actually took time to optimize the software that it even runs very well on the sluggish Qualcomm MSM proc.

-Time: I mainly use this for alarm since it gives lots of option to customize your reminders.

-TV: I would love to see more US network/cable channels built-in it.

-Diary: Used to be the best today screen's agenda replacement.

 

[tersoth]

I like how customizable spb mobile shell is...right now I'm running the hero theme for it.
But my 2 wishes are:
1. I agree with papped that spb mobile shell needs its own sms/email client. Spb has done a great job of integrating mobile shell into the rest of the OS: dialer, contacts, start menu, settings, etc. but when you have to check your sms or email you get thrown back into the standard wm messaging interface.
2. I would like support for new "widgets", similar to what samsung is doing for its touch wiz ui by opening it up to developers. I know pointUI has pretty good support for its interface and people have created a lot of very cool applets for it, it would be nice to see the same type of thing for spb.

 

[mpete#WP]

I LOVE mobile shell. The thing I wish I could would change is if you could slide left or right in the Microsoft home screen.

 

[gregorypleau]

Once upon a time my entire phone was SPB based. Shell, Time, Diary, PocketPlus....

1) SPB Mobile shell doesn't play nice with alarm clock programs, except the woe-fully out of date SPB Time

2) SPB Time badly needs an update to be finger friendly. It was my favourite alarm clock program before I upgraded to my TP2. Now I use the (much less polished) GAlarm

3) SPB Mobile Shell 3 badly needs a multimedia page that competes with TF3D. The silly little 'widget' for WMP doesn't allow me to navigate libraries or control playback very well at all.

4) Mobile Shell would really benefit from some integration with IM clients, particularly Windows Live Messenger as that's on (almost) all the ROMs out there. I want to see IM notifications on the home screen.

5) Better theme options. Different clocks (MS3).

6) Re-implement phone profiles, like Pocket Plus gave me. Make them WM6.5 compatible and as a bare minimum, give me the options the Blackberries get -- I want a phone profile for "Phone Calls Only". I'll happily pay for an upgrade that lets me do that.

7) Add support for accelerometers. Give me that shake goodness - can you imagine the home screen moving between tabs by a quick shake of the hand ....

8) LOVE the dialer screens in SPB MS2, MS3

9) Also agree that an SMS/Email from SPB would most likely rock

 

[badersk]

I have been a king time user of Spb products. I love mobile shell and my wife uses it on her treo. Their products are always top notch and they listen to their users when it comes to updated features.

 

[kcour2006#WP]

Mshell-Touch Flo was getting on my nerves! Pretty to look at but sometimes I couldn't get to where I wanted on the phone fast enough! Mobile Shell is great...two "today screens!" My ask: multimedia, better interface. New widget support/adds. Carousel of minimuized/active screens would be cool.

Haven't touched the other software but if it's as good as Mobile Shell then they are sure to please!

 

[Johan Gustavsson]

Hi all. SPB MobileShell works great on my Xperia X1, but I wish that SPB TV had more Swedish channels... Let's see if the professional version has that, if I win a license...

 

[user]

needs more cowbell

and a way to disable/lock either pro or lifestyle mode would be nice (I personally liked tweaking the lifestyle mode to look like pro mode, but with my own customizations)
Something like tf3d's sms and email tab would be nice

I used mobile shell for a few days, but i'm back to tf3d2 on my fuze because of its clean look (too much info all at once drives me nuts)

 

[Kloc]

I actually like TouchFLO 3D over SPB Mobile shell but I'll take the SPB TV software anyday

 

[bellor]

My feelings toward SPB Mobile Shell 3 are mixed. I truly like the touch interface and the way you can customize it is superb. I've applied a few tweaks found on the net and it really looks beautiful now. But It does lack a little something that would make it even better than Manilla. Some animations, a little more freedom of configuration regarding number of screens and maybe if SPB took a few pages from the book of the HTC Sense application would make Mobile Shell the best on the market.

 

[nitestrike]

I have been using SPB Software for many years. I really like the quality and thought put into all of ther products and they are really good company to deal with. I just got a new phone and decided to give Mobile shell a try and really love it. it makes the phone much easier to use. Keep up the good work guys.

 

[Nagrom Nniuq]

I have tried the different versions of SPB MS and I do think 3 is the best. It is a lot more graphically intense and has some real wow features. However, I believe it needs better customization built into it. It is hard to really modify a lot of the features and really make it look different. It would be nice for SPB to build in a customizing feature that made for total control of the application.

SPB TV is nice, but, along with a lot of their software, I feel it is overpriced. I think overall, this is their biggest downfall. There are so many free apps for WM that do the same (or close) or better job, that is makes it hard to justify spending more than $5-$10 on an app.

 

[mizzourob]

My thought after trying mobile shell is that if it would integrate a twitter client into the shell, just like it shows email/text/voicemail counts, if it would show @replys/DM from twitter that would be a killer feature

 

[TaurenSnake]

Ok I use quite a few SPB apps. I love them all especially Mobile Shell 3 but with so many apps why cant they have better integration with each other. Espially for the apps that have been updated since MS3 came out. For example evey app should have its own optional widget for use in MS3. Even maybe an added page in the carosel view.

 

[synergy]

I have a read about SPB mobile shell and watched its performance on youtube and was quite impressed. Most people commenting here already have a version of it, so I think it would be fair to give it to someone who never had. Watching TV via SPB sounds great to me, so that would also be nice to have. As to SPB products, I use and very satisfied with SPB Backup.

 

[tikiman7]

I am a new TouchFlo 3D user and I am thinking about adding a suite of SPB software in order to compare the two. I've used Mobile Shell, Pocket Plus, Phone Suite, and others on my previous phones and PDA's and I really like the SPB software. After reading some of the comments here, I wonder if the email and SMS will be handled to my liking.

 

[RussB]

I have SPB Diary, Weather and Radio. It would be good to see an update to Diary soon - use it all the time so I can't upgrade to wm6.5 until they release a new version!

 

[SpriteGF]

I wish there were ways to synchronize my SPB data with that on my Mac. It would be nice if they had cross-platform synchronization like that.

I'd also like to see SPB Time updated to support any size screens. This app hasn't been updated in such a long time! It's a big reason why I decided not to buy it and I went with some other programs instead (Fizz Alarms — although I'm regretting this purchase now!).