10-27-2004, 06:10 PM
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Thoughts Media Review Team
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 749
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Today, I Get Moving -- a Review of Animated Today v3.0
Product Category: Animated Today Screen Themes
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Solutions
Where to Buy: Handango [Affiliate]
Price: $14.95 USD. A 14-day trial period will be available.
System Requirements: Requires Macromedia Flash Player for Pocket PC (878K). Animated Today needs 1.2M of memory. It must be installed to main memory to work consistently.
Specifications: Available for all ARM/X-scale devices running Pocket PC 2002 or Pocket Mobile 2003. It will not work on Pocket PC 2000 devices, which only support white Today Screen backgrounds.
Pros:- Simple, straightforward interface;
- Comes with 14 well done, cute, animated themes;
- Available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Cons:- Doesn�t (yet) support VGA or landscape mode.
Summary:
Ever wanted to have something a little different on the Today screen of your Pocket PC? Something out of the ordinary? Something that wasn�t just a flat, static picture? Well, Animated Today may be just the ticket. Animated Today version 3.0 is the latest incarnation of Gigabyte Solutions� award winning Today screen replacement which, as they say on their Website, �...brings your Today screen to life with glorious full color animations�. With improved performance over version 2.0 and lots of themes available, you can truly turn your Pocket PC into a moving work of art, and have some fun at the same time.
Read on for the full review!
Changing That �Static� Look at Life
Animated Today falls into that category of favoured applications for me, in that it does just one thing, and it does it very well. Its whole job is to support the display of Today screens with animated graphics, and Gigabyte Solutions not only provides the program, but also a great selection of themes along with the package. I've included a small sample of the themes available, but I won't give away the surprise (or fun!) by telling you what they do. Suffice it to say that all the themes look professional, run smoothly, and do not seem to hog huge amounts of system resources. The only effect Animated Today had on my iPAQ 2215 is that it sometimes took the Today screen a couple of seconds longer to reload when switching apps.
Figure 1: Animated Today�s �Wet Dog� theme.
Animated Today is actually provided as part of Gigabyte Solutions� FlashDash which was reviewed just recently. Since the FlashDash article focused on FlashDash itself, and Animated Today is available as a separate product, we decided it needed a review of its own.
Figure 2: TiD�s animated Sovereign theme. As in Flashdash, this comes with a pocket watch and ships� bells.
Installation
Installation of Animated Today is almost exactly the same as FlashDash. A self-extracting .exe file is loaded on your PC which, when executed, uses the ActiveSync program installation routines. There are two parts to the installation which the routine will handle for you. During the installation of Animated Today, the routine will check to see if the Macromedia Flash Player for Pocket PC is present and if not, will proceed to install that first, then return to installing Animated Today. As mentioned above, Flash Player requires about 880K and Animated Today needs about 1.2M of main memory. As with Flashdash, this application is definitely not recommended for installation on CF or SD cards.
After installation, you will get 14 days in which to play with Animated Today and (hopefully) purchase a registration code. After the trial period, if the application is not registered, Animated Today will refuse to display any themes and you will be requested to purchase a copy.
Configuration
Configuration of Animated Today is fairly straightforward. There are basically two interfaces for selecting which theme you would like to use. The first is through the regular Start/Settings/Today screen we are all familiar with.
Figure 3: Selecting your theme from the Appearance tab.
And, of course, if you want to see the animations, you need to select Animated Today as one of the Today Screen items.
Figure 4: Turning on Animated Today via the Items tab.
Themes can also be selected by tapping on the Animated Today icon placed in the System Tray at the bottom of the screen.
Figure 5: The Animated Today (AT3) icon in the system tray.
Once tapped, Animated Today presents the following screen to allow you to select a theme to display.
Figure 6: Selecting Themes from within Animated Today. (Tap the Select... button to display a list.)
Themes
As I mentioned before, Gigabyte Solutions provides 14 rather cute and fun animated themes with the package when you buy (or try!) Animated Today. I�ve included screen shots of them here in the review, but you really need to see the animation to get the humour in some. All in all, the ones supplied are well designed and well done.
Additional animated themes can be obtained from:Conclusions
As I mentioned, I like this kind of application because it does one thing, and it does it very well. I took a quick google out on the Internet and found a number of animated theme generators, so those of you with an artistic bent could �roll your own�. The only thing I could think to add to this product might be a theme manager to let you cycle through animated themes to get a different perspective every once in a while.
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10-27-2004, 06:53 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 16
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Another program nobody needs...
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10-27-2004, 07:55 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 318
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by mgartner
Another program nobody needs...
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I think thats a bit unfair. Just because you don't want it doesn't mean that its useless. There is a market for this sort of app. This sort of app brings other people to the plaform that might of passed it by.
Edit : I Should add that I don't use the product and have no plans to. I prefer a less graphic intensive display. Sticking to Pocket Breeze, Pocket Plus, Pocket Weather and Hand Notes.
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10-27-2004, 08:26 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 24
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I also think&know there are many people who enjoy these kind of software so I don't think it is fair to say this.
Personally I think it is better to take advantage of my Today screen for more informative information like PocketBreeze (http://www.sbsh.net/) for my PIM data so I won't miss any appointment on my office with Weather Panel (http://www.marsware.net/) to know what's going outside my office... 8O
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10-27-2004, 10:31 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 40
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Review Correction
First of all, thats a great Review Don.
There is one mistake in there though. Animated Today is NOT part of FlashDash. FlashDash can display Animated themes too, but FlashDash is a complete Today screen replacement not a simple add on. Only a very small part of the Animated Today code is shared with FlashDash.
FlashDash replaces and massively enhances the normal Today screen with features such as 14 day lookahead for tasks and appointments, battery and memory indicators, launcher, theme manager, etc.
However, Animated Today like you said in the review does one thing and does it very well. That is why it exists besides FlashDash since some users do not want a Today screen replacement, they only want to add some spice to the one they have.
The sort of people who like Animated Today are the same people that would customize the graphics on their phone. Some people like to do this, others don't. Its not fair to say the program is rubbish because its not the sort of thing you personally do.
There is a 14 day trial of both Animated Today and FlashDash available from:
http://www.gigabytesol.com
Thanks once again for the review Don
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Linear Mode
