New version of SPB Mobile Shell
Posted on 23. Apr, 2009 by Paul in Touch HD
Version 3 of SPB Mobile Shell is available, and it makes a nice alternative to Touch Flo 3D for HTC Touch HD owners. With a new more refined look, it has a widget based approach and includes widgets for; Media Player, Profiles, Weather, Clock with world time, Wireless Manager, Calendar with 2 weeks agenda view, applications, and lots of others. You can also add widgets to represent individual contacts. 
There are a number of screens for world time, settings, launcher etc and these can be accessed by a live 3D carousel (or Xperia X1 style tiles).
Of particular interest (and the reason that I have paid out cash for it) is the multi-screen home 
page – you can swipe sideways on the touchscreen to reveal an extra homepage to the left, and one to the right. I have used this functionality to create an uncluttered main home screen with just ‘the basics’ eg. clock, calendar and unread email/SMS/calls indicators. I then have a screen with driving related icons (Co-pilot, Traffic TV, backlight, and time), and the other screen is for frequently used apps and contacts etc. You also get another ‘professional’ homepage which has a fixed layout but includes all your work essentials.
I have to say that I did try Version 2 of Mobile Shell but didn’t really like it, but Version 3 is a big step forward and has proved good enough for me to fork out the $29.99 when the 15 day trial expired.
Mobile Shell also integrates with other SPB products and so I have also purchased their 
Phone Suite which adds extra phone profiles, call filtering, amongst other features. Their is also a more comprehensive weather app if that is of interest to you (the weather app included with Mobile Shell is fine but limited to one town/city).
So what do I miss about the standard TouchFlo 3D interface? Probably only the ’stocks’ tab to be honest. And that is not too much of an inconvenience, easy to check using the Touch HD’s Opera web browser.
All in all, highly recommended and definitely worth trying it out free for 15 days. A trial version (or the full version if you prefer!) is now available from Handango.
