05-18-2004, 09:30 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 706
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What's the time Mr Wolf? It's SpbTime 1.0!
Product Category: Software
Manufacturer: Spb Software House
Where to Buy: PocketGear [Affiliate]
Price: $9.95 USD
System Requirements: Pocket PC 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003. requires 1859K for installation (I installed to a memory card)
Pros:- Looks great;
- International timezone support;
- Screensaver mode.
Cons:- Footprint/space requirement.
Summary:
Spb Time is, without a doubt, one of the best looking Pocket PC applications around. But as well as delivering great form it back this up with some nice function. From alarms to an international clock, this is one application that will be staying on my Pocket PC long after this review is written.
Read on for the full review!
Mmm...Eye Candy
Spb Time 1.0 delivers a substantial range of features for a Pocket PC application. Who would have though that you could do so much with a clock? :- Skinnable Interface;
- Screensaver for Windows Mobile 2003 devices;
- World clock with zoom;
- Analog clock and digital clock with calendar;
- Stopwatch with lap times list export;
- Multiple timers and stopwatches;
- Full screen view for clocks;
- Toolbar designed for finger taps.
So, what's it do?
The first cool thing about Spb Time is that to use it you don't have to do anything. When you dock your Pocket PC in its cradle, the Spb Time screen saver will kick in after a few minutes. This makes your Pocket PC into a funky desk clock. Although it ships with just a couple of basic skins (Black, White and Egypt) you can download heaps more from Spb Software House.
Figure 1: You can choose from a number of different skins to make Spb Time suit your taste.
Figure 2: As well as setting the skin for your new desk clock, you can use the options to set how long until the screen saver activates and which applications will stop the screensaver from activating.
When is it where?
As well as telling you the time where you are, Spb Time can tell you the time practically anywhere else in the world. Just tap the large "globe of the world" icon, which you can easily do without a stylus due to the large, finger-sized buttons.
Figure 3: The global view displays the time and date in your four favorite cities.
As well as the four selected cities, you can tap on almost any other point on the map and see the date and time there. Also, there's a full screen mode and you can move the map by dragging it with your stylus (or finger if you're too lazy to extract your stylus).
Figure 4: The full screen map is a great feature and being able to tap on practically any city to see the time there makes Spb Time very useful for the traveller.
Get Ready. Get Set. Go!
As well as telling you the time, Spb Time acts as a very handy stopwatch, complete with lap timer and the ability to upload the data to your PC. I can see this feature taking the Pocket PC out of the office and out to the track!
Figure 5: The stopwatch and lap timer is a great tool for the athletically minded.
Complementing the stopwatch functions are five count-down and five count-up times that can be started and stopped independently. Handy when everyone wants their eggs cooked for different amount of time!
Figure 6: The count-down and count-up timers are a great help to interval trainers and egg cookers alike!
It can't be that time already!
Like any decent clock, Spb Time has an alarm feature. Accessed by either the Options menu or directly on the clock face you can either set one-off or recurring alarms. However, if your device doesn't have correctly working alarms then this will not cure that problem
Figure 7: Even though Spb Time has a recurring alarm function, if your device has a problem with alarms, this won't cure that issue.
Figure 8: Setting one-off alarms is a snap by tapping on the alarm icon on the clock face.
Figure 9: When an alarm goes off, you can either dismiss or snooze it.
Conclusions
Spb Time 1.0 is a very useful utility. As well as providing a myriad of different chronometric tools, it has a neat screen saver function that makes you Pocket PC into an elegant desk clock with a skinnable interface. The global time functions are great for travellers and the various timers and stopwatches make this more useful than Batman's utility belt.
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05-18-2004, 10:57 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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Anthony, can this app be placed on a storage card? I'm wondering if those "cradle clocks" won't work if the program's on a storage card.
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05-19-2004, 01:06 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 706
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Hi there
I am running this from my CF card. As I almost never remove the card I think of it as permanent storage.
Regards
__________________
Get your Pocket Mojo. Anthony Caruana is the Mojo master. |
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05-19-2004, 02:19 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 76
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Great App. My son and I just love the cartoon skin.
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05-19-2004, 02:26 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 706
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Bajan Cherry
Great App. My son and I just love the cartoon skin.
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hehe that's my fave as well.
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05-20-2004, 12:47 AM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Very nice - I'll have to give it a go.
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09-29-2005, 07:07 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 12
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Bug in spb Time alarm clock?
Has anyone noticed that the alarm clock won't go off if you soft reset the device? 
I use the alarm feature to wake me up in the mornings when I travel, but the other night, I soft reset my device. It never went off that next morning. So, I experimented and if you soft-reset, you have to at least open spbTime in order for it (the alarms) to work. You turn right around and close it, and it still works. For some reason, it does not survive a soft reset.
Is this a bug?
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Linear Mode
