Windows Mobile has always been known to be a stylus-operated, operating system. Menus and buttons were extremely small, which meant that you had to precisely point to the area you need to activate or toggle. But this has not been the case anymore recently. Windows Mobile device manufacturers (Acer, HTC, Asus, etc) are developing finger-friendly user interfaces that allow you to forego the use of the stylus (at least for some of the functions).

The Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is a precise example of a finger-friendly Windows Mobile interface. Scrolling can be done by flicking your finger upwards or downwards, unlike with Windows Mobile where you need to use the rather narrow scrollbars on the righthand side.

Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 was developed by Spb Software. The company was founded in 1999. Spb released its first best-selling software in 2002. By 2003, the company was named the Developer of the Year by the world’s leading mobile content marketplace. For three years in a row, Spb products were the #1 bestselling Windows Mobile programs in the world. Today, 12 OEMs and five mobile operators ship devices, pre-loaded with Spb software products.

Spb Software was kind enough to give me a free product key for their latest Mobile Shell 3.0. This review is solely going to be based on Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 since I haven’t gotten the chance to use the 2.0 version. I used Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 running on a Palm Treo 750 which only has a 300Mhz processor. It handled the software well and without any hiccups, so rest assured that more advanced devices will not have problems running this program.

Professional Home:

A fixed-layout panel that contains the following: weather, time, e-mail/SMS/call notifications, profile settings, and a calendar which includes a short list of upcoming appointments/events you’ve inputted on the calendar.

The professional home has all the information you need for when you will be using your PDA phone while at work. If you want tons of customization options, you better head to the lifestyle layout instead.

The goal of the professional layout, I believe, is to see everything conveniently all in one place. You don’t have to flick through programs or settings.

I personally like how the professional home panel is layed out, even though I’m only using Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 on a Palm Tre0 750 (which has a non-standard 240 x 240 screen), everything fits really well.

Lifestyle Home:

The Lifestyle Home are what I would call “personalizable” panels. You can pretty much put anything and everything on these panels and set the appearance to suit your tastes. It consists of three panels which you can customize to your needs. Customizing panel components can be done by adding widgets. Spb has some preset widgets for Mobile Shell 3.0 and of course, they’ve also made it possible to access everything else on your Windows Mobile device.

Buttons on the lower left and lower right corners:

On the lower left corner of the Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is a button which activates the 3D carousel/tiled view of all Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 panels. On the lower right corner is a button which you can use to customize the current panel or screen you’re at, I would call it the “Option” button/corner.

Launcher:

The Launcher or simply what I would call the Programs panel, I honestly don’t get the difference between Simple and Advanced Mode for the Launcher because it simply removes some text labels from the icons on the top part of the panel (Programs, Settings, Task Manager). This panel is partnered with the Spb Menu, meaning you can flick left and right, to alternate between the Launcher and the Spb Menu.

Spb Menu:

The Spb Menu is pretty much like pressing the Start button on the top left corner of the screen and then seeing Programs, Settings, plus a whole lot more. You can basically think of it as a finger-friendly Start menu.

Call Log:

Spb’s finger-friendly version of the call log.

Favorite Contacts:

A custom list of your favorite contacts, in tile view. You can choose whether a particular box size is big, medium or small. You have the option to set ringtones for each individual along with setting an appropriate photo.

Edit Profile:

Large sliders and menus for editing your current profile’s ringers. Unlike Windows Mobile Sound Settings, the Edit Profile panel only tinkers with the ringtone of the current profile being used by Spb Mobile Shell 3.0

Time:

The Time panel is composed of a digital and analog clock. It also functions sort of like a World Clock since you can add additional cities where you also want to monitor the time. A date alongside with the non-local cities would have been extremely helpful, but is not included. Upcoming alarms are also seen on this panel.

Spb Contacts:

Essentially the same as Windows Mobile Contacts except that this one is navigatable through fingers. Nothing really special except that you can add a photo for easy idenfication.

Contacts Carousel:

The Contacts Carousel is essentially the same as the Favorite Contacts panel, except that this one uses a finger-flickable 3D carousel view. You have the option to set ringtones for each individual along with setting an appropriate photo for easier identification.

Weather:

The Weather section of Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 shows an overview of the weather conditions for today, and also includes forecasts for the next three days. Since the Treo 750 doesn’t have WiFi, I wasn’t able to test whether updating weather information can be done via WiFi instead of the carrier’s GPRS connection.

Agenda (or Calendar):

The 240 x 240 screen is too small to be used with the default layout of the Agenda panel. I had to change the “Weeks to show in calendar” to 1 for the thing to be usable since it takes up so much space. You have the option to hide and show the calendar below the screen.

Panel layouts:

Tile view or carousel view:

The 3D carousel shows all the panels in a circular carousel view, you have to flick your fingers left and right in order to see the next panels. For the tile view, panels are tiled across the screen. I highly prefer the tile view over the carousel view. Sure, carousel view was fun at first, but it gets old easily. You see a whole lot more with tile view.

Overall, the Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is well presented and appears to be cleanly implemented. I did not notice any signs of slowdowns while using the UI. Something that may very well attract Windows Mobile users to get this software would be the fact that it works on an old device such as the Palm Treo 750.

Pros:

+ Finger-friendly navigation for Windows Mobile devices
+ Very eye-pleasing alternative to the Today screen
+ Works well without hiccups even with an old advice such as the Palm Treo 750
+ Windows Mobile 6.5 compatibility

Cons:

- Repetitive panels (Favorite Contacts is the same Contacts Carousel, one is just in 3D carousel view, one is tiled view; Simple and advanced mode of the Launcher is pretty much the same, except one has text labels;)
- Takes some getting used to, in order to navigate without a hitch
- Some may find HTC’s TouchFLO to be aesthetically more pleasing
- Only 3 profiles available, normal, silent and vibrate. Would have liked the option to customize my own profiles.
- Battery indicator bug (this might only be with the Treo 750 I am using), sometimes when I soft reset, the battery indicator says that there is less than 5% left (the second time, it was 21%) and I need to charge it. Upon plugging the charger cable in, the battery jumps up to the actual remaining charge (66%).

You can download the trial version of Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 here. It retails for $29.95.