My Digital Life

My Windows Mobile Today Screen - July 3rd 2007

Now that I have more memory available since I changed the page pool (link), I have settled on a Today Screen environment which is working well for me. The Today screen plug ins I am using are: Spb Mobile Shell 1.5, SBSH Pocket Breeze 5.2 , Battery Status, and Device lock (included with Windows Mobile). I removed the tray a while back (see link).

From top to bottom; Spb Mobile Shell (tabs left to right, Home, Dial, Weather, and Time), SBSH Pocket Breeze (in collapsed mode), BatteryStatus, and Device Lock.

My Spb Mobile Shell Now screen which is set to display at power on. From here I can go directly to the weather, messages, change the sound profile, and open Pocket Informant. Unfortunately, the PIM plug in does not allow me to open up the appointment directly.

You can view the progression of my Today screen layouts by using the "My WM Today screen" category. Category indexes are in the right column.

My Windows Mobile Today Screen - June 20th 2007

The Today Screen is one of those features that can make your Windows Mobile device the personal information dashboard it was meant to be. However, it does take time to find the appropriate plug-ins that meet one's personal needs, configure them for the limited amount of available screen real estate and memory available.

I personally have not found the perfect combination and I am continually tweaking my Today Screen to see what works and does not work. I have decided to create a category and going forward post a history of my Today Screens. Back in 2006, I posted a Today Screen which worked well on my MDA here.

Since then, I reviewed Spb Mobile Shell 1.0, I like the one handed experience and decided to use it. When I moved to the Wing, Spb Mobile Shell 1.0 did not work well under Windows Mobile 6 so I went back to using Fizz Weather 2.4, SBSH Pocket Breeze 5.2 (probably the number 1 application I use), and the device lock.

Unfortunately this configuration lacks a battery meter and Spb Mobile Shell's soft reset function. I tried to find some small applications for these functions, but could not find anything that worked well with Windows Mobile 6.

This week Spb Software House released Spb Mobile Shell 1.5 which supports Windows Mobile 6, provides a number of key enhancements and bug fixes. I am trying it out and will post an update to my review of Spb Mobile Shell 1.0.

The new Now screen which you can configure to display at power on. I like the calendar at the bottom which can be linked to a PIM, however it is not that useful since the only available code is to launch the PIM without regards to the date you tap. That said, the programming API is there to make the add-in more useful, but it looks like Spb is looking to third parties to develop it.

The Today Screen Spb Mobile Shell plug-in presentation has not changed, however configuring it has become easier.

For now I am pretty sure I am going to stick with Spb Mobile Shell, although I still have to decide whether I want to keep the Classic Now screen or New Professional Now screen at power up...