Pocket Plus 1.2 Released

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.softspb.com/products/pocketplus/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.softspb.com/products/poc...plus/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>Spb has finally released a long-awaited upgrade to Pocket Plus. New features/enhancements include:<br /><li> Storage card and Memory panels in Today plug-in<br /><li> Shortcuts to documents, custom products, Control Panel applets in Today plug-in<br /><li> Brightness support for many new devices<br /><li> 'Close All Inactive' in the X button context menu<br /><li> Customizable list of programs that are minimized instead of closing<br /><li> Repeating alarms for tasks and clock, more alarm settings<br />Too bad I'm not near my cradle... I'll have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, you can buy a copy from <a href="http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=6846&associateid=204">PocketGear</a> (affiliate link).

[Fzara]

THANK YOU Spb!!!!!!!!!

Too bad Jason isnt here to announce it.

Wow, I have to install this immediately.
Ok, wow, the features are good, especially like the battery percentage option, to storage memory, the settings in the today shortcuts, the mnew battery options...I just have to compliment these guys for doing an amazing job.

ps. is it just me or does it seem like pocket plus makes the today screen load up slower?

[heov]

i too want to recommend this program! It's great... and so simple. Has everything you would need in a ppc, at a small footprint and memory consumption that makes it seem as if it's not even there. It's well integrated as well.

I worked w/ the support (Vasilli? sorry for the bad spelling) and the dev was able to get the backlight working on the Asus... very responsive.

[heov]

doh. double post :(... i don't see the delete feature either...

[Anthony Caruana]

Just downloaded and installed this. Great software!

This looks to be a pretty good competitor to Battery Bar. I've tried both (trial versions) and Pocket Plaus is the one I've laid my $$ on.

[merlin]

This software is great .
I love the IE full screen option. :D

[oturn]

Great...now my alarms WON'T stop repeating. So why did they remove the "Play it for" option?

[ExtremeSIMS]

PocketGear is SLOOOOOOOOW. Took me forever to push my order through.

Anyway, used PocketPlus for 14 days - that's how good it was. Yes, I got so used to it being around, I never got around to buying it. Ordered it tonight, but will have to wait for the code. The new version looks like it will resolve some of my requests.

[hollis_f]

At last! I've been waiting for this for a week. Ever since I saw the Foxpop review http://www.foxpop.ndirect.co.uk/PocketPC/pocket-plus.htm

[octop8]

Hmmm, quick question, I noticed that you can launch programs directly from the Today screen through program icons - just wondering if there is a feature like in BatteryPack where you can have multiple lines of program icons but visually kept to one line through the use of a scroll button....

[jwf]

You know I really wish that software companies would put a tap-and-hold menu in their registration code entry fields. I know you can switch to a keyboard and use Ctrl-V to paste, but it's irritating and inconsistent. Tap and hold in an entry field should ALWAYS bring up a context menu with Cut/Copy/Paste in it.

John

[Fzara]

Well, you have the code on the computer and its not like transferring it to Notepad and then copying it would be faster.

[Rok]

Great...now my alarms WON'T stop repeating. So why did they remove the "Play it for" option?
And to make matters worse, the "advanced" feature of playing alarms in series just plain doesn't work on my 3970. It plays the first series and then stubbornly refuses to repeat it after the specified time (unless the delay is shorter than the auto power-off setting, which in my case is 3 minutes). This just sucks. Which is a pitty, because otherwise, this is one hell of a set of utilities for a very reasonable price.

[/rant]

Rok

[Vincent M Ferrari]

You know I really wish that software companies would put a tap-and-hold menu in their registration code entry fields. I know you can switch to a keyboard and use Ctrl-V to paste, but it's irritating and inconsistent. Tap and hold in an entry field should ALWAYS bring up a context menu with Cut/Copy/Paste in it.

You'd think that wouldn't be such a big deal... I totally agree with you...

[Eitel]

Well, you have the code on the computer and its not like transferring it to Notepad and then copying it would be faster.

For me it will. I have all my serial numbers on my PPC in Flexwallet. Why do you think I spend my hard earned $3.46 on it? :wink:

[jwf]

Well, you have the code on the computer and its not like transferring it to Notepad and then copying it would be faster.

Eh? I keep my reg codes in FlexWallet, so I'd like to be able to cut and paste them from there.

John

[smittyofdhs]

Ok, at first I thought this upgrade from ver 1.1 was great, but I have to recant that. Sometimes when I tap-n-hold on the X , the program freezes up and requires a soft boot. Also, I've had PIE lock up twice now while the enhancement for PIE was turned on.

Anybody else experiencing more issues with 1.2 then they did with 1.1?

[BoiseNative]

Great...now my alarms WON'T stop repeating. So why did they remove the "Play it for" option?

I agree oturn, why!?

Please SPB, put back the option to stop the repeating alarm after "X" amount of time!!! Why take away a feature? If you want to see if people are using a feature or not, you could run a poll in one of these popular user forums.

[smittyofdhs]

This update has many issues with it and I'd prefer to go back to 1.1 until they are resovled?


anybody still have a copy of version 1.1 that they email me? If so, send me a PM and I'll give you the email address.



**UPDATE** - Thanks guys, I've got 1.1 again. Now SPB needs to fix 1.2 ASAP!

[mvirata]

I've been unable to get any items to appear on the configuration screen for the Today plug-in; the circle "pie" thing just keeps going, leaving me unable to configure the today plug-in. Anyone else?

[Jason Lee]

When i try to configure the today plugin options i just get the spinning clock.. I have let it set for 5 minutes and nothing but the little twirly...
i can still tap the start menu and i can click ok and go back to the main options page but the wait icon is still spinning. It doesn't lock the device but it won't let me configure the today plug in options.

anyone else have this problem.

I have an e740 with alot of programs installed it this helps.

[Jason Lee]

I've been unable to get any items to appear on the configuration screen for the Today plug-in; the circle "pie" thing just keeps going, leaving me unable to configure the today plug-in. Anyone else?

hehe now that is timming. Glad to see i am not the only one.

[mvirata]

anyone else have this problem.

I have an e740 with alot of programs installed it this helps.

Funny and I've also got an e740 w/ a lot of installed programs. Makes me wonder if it's a Toshiba issue. :wink:

[MultiMatt]

It appears that unlike companies like DeveloperOne, where upgrades are free, that upgrades for this app cost. Am I correct in this assumption, or am I missing something on their website where I can upgrade? I just purchased the previous version of the app 3 weeks ago!

Matt

[BoiseNative]

I'm not seeing any Today screen plug-in problems on my Axim X5. When I click on the "Feature Options" button for the Today Plug-in, the list of my programs appears. I counted 55 items listed. Sorry you're having troubles mvirata & Jason Lee.

I've submitted a message to SPB and I've PM'd Jason (an SPB VP) about the inability to turn off repeating alarms after "X" amount of time. You might want to report your problems as well.

[BoiseNative]

It appears that unlike companies like DeveloperOne, where upgrades are free, that upgrades for this app cost. Am I correct in this assumption, or am I missing something on their website where I can upgrade? I just purchased the previous version of the app 3 weeks ago!

Matt

There isn't an upgrade charge. I just installed v1.2 over the top of v1.1. When I click on "Tools > Registration" I get the message "Your copy is already registered."

[smittyofdhs]

It appears that unlike companies like DeveloperOne, where upgrades are free, that upgrades for this app cost. Am I correct in this assumption, or am I missing something on their website where I can upgrade? I just purchased the previous version of the app 3 weeks ago!

Matt


Just go to pocketgear or handango and download the trial version, install it over the top of the existing. Your reg info will remain after the upgrade.

You may want to hold off on the upgrade to 1.2 as many issues are already arising from it. So far we've found:

-Problems with the today addin on Toshiba devices
-Problems with close enhancement, freezes device
-Problems with PIE enhancement freezes device
-Memory percentage on today addin is incorrectly calculated

[Fzara]

I might have found another problem.

I have XscaleCtrl running for my Axim and I played the Matrix reloaded clip about 3-4 times repetitively to check for frame loss (which there wasnt any on the 500 mhz overclocking), but I returned to my Today screen, and it seems like the battery time is wrong. It says 55 minutes, while clicking on it, it tells me 88% of my battery is left.

It might be due to the overclocking, but its also possible Spb has another bug to fix. Could anyone tell me if this is a similar problem anyone else is having?

[Jason Lee]

I might have found another problem.

I have XscaleCtrl running for my Axim and I played the Matrix reloaded clip about 3-4 times repetitively to check for frame loss (which there wasnt any on the 500 mhz overclocking), but I returned to my Today screen, and it seems like the battery time is wrong. It says 55 minutes, while clicking on it, it tells me 88% of my battery is left.

It might be due to the overclocking, but its also possible Spb has another bug to fix. Could anyone tell me if this is a similar problem anyone else is having?

No that is the way it is supposed to work. The battery time is based on a usage history. I have had mine be at 100% before and have only 1 minute remaining. It is very easy to confuse. if you tap and hold on the battery meter in the today plug in an option menu will pop up. There you can tell it how long your battery will last if you know exactly for yourself. However the default setting should get more acurate the more you use it. Unless you have battery problems like with the toshiba when it decides your battery is dead at 89%. That REALLY messes with the battery meter. :)
I just leave it on better % remaining. More acurate that way.

[smittyofdhs]

I might have found another problem.

I have XscaleCtrl running for my Axim and I played the Matrix reloaded clip about 3-4 times repetitively to check for frame loss (which there wasnt any on the 500 mhz overclocking), but I returned to my Today screen, and it seems like the battery time is wrong. It says 55 minutes, while clicking on it, it tells me 88% of my battery is left.

It might be due to the overclocking, but its also possible Spb has another bug to fix. Could anyone tell me if this is a similar problem anyone else is having?

Any software that tries to calculate battery life into actual minutes never works correctly. It basically takes your usage patterns and calculates the time from that. If you use your device really heavy, like watching movies, the battery goes down faster, hence throwing off the calculations. Using 1.1, I have 90% of battery life left, yet their monitor told me I had 15 minutes left. I spoke with SPB about this and their response was that it could take up to 50 recharges before the time is corrected on the today screen. Now that was with 1.1, maybe 1.2 they changed the calculation method.

Bottom line: anytime you are using a battery monitor that calculates time left, you have to remember that's an "estimated life based on past usage" and therefore it could be wrong. You best bet is to stay with the percentage of the battery as it's the only true way to tell how much battery is left.

[Fzara]

Hmm. I see. Its funny, before today, I only used my PPC for a contact or an appointment, never using it for more than 10 minutes or so. However, today, I was just too bored to do anything, so I played the only video I had (the matrix reloaded one) over and over, and this is what happened.

Also, I've been using this program since about January 3rd or 4th, or something, so I know the battery time is not wrong.

[nirsinay]

same problem here e740/w with lots of programs i cant set the today plug in it just get stuck....

also I noticed a big performane drop with the new version...after soft reset the today screen is much slower to load....


well back to version 1.1

[Janak Parekh]

For those of you with trouble, make sure you submit your bug reports to the Spb guys so that they can either help you out with a solution, or make sure to patch the software appropriately. :)

--janak

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, definitely going back to 1.1
The only problem I had with it were configuring the today plug in.
This version seems to be much more of a resource hog. I use Pocket Hackmaster to scale the speed of my ppc to save battery life but now every time I go to the today page the scale jumps to red. Putting this much load on my processor is hosing any battery life that I save from scaling the processor down. And the idea of calling the exe “filesys.exe” seems like a really bad idea.

[smittyofdhs]

And the idea of calling the exe “filesys.exe” seems like a really bad idea.

I must have missed that, what was called Filesys?

[Jason Lee]

I must have missed that, what was called Filesys?

Before the program ran as pocketplusicon.exe but for some reason they changed the name to filesys.exe which is part of the os... the file system. So if you look at all the running processes with PHM Task Manager (http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/taskmgr.asp) you will see two filesys.exe's running. This shouldn't cause any problems but you never know.
I noticed this when I my old shortcut didn't work anymore. So I looked in the program files install folder and there it was. filesys.exe. The only reason i could see for doing that is an easy way to keep other task managers from closing you app because it looks like part of the os. Kinda seems like a bad idea to me... :?

[smittyofdhs]

I must have missed that, what was called Filesys?

Before the program ran as pocketplusicon.exe but for some reason they changed the name to filesys.exe which is part of the os... the file system. So if you look at all the running processes with PHM Task Manager (http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/taskmgr.asp) you will see two filesys.exe's running. This shouldn't cause any problems but you never know.
I knoticed this when I noticed that my old shortcut didn't work anymore. So looked in the program files install folder and there it was. filesys.exe. The only reason i could see for doing that is an easy way to keep other task managers from closing you app because it looks like part of the os. Kinda seems like a bad idea to me... :?

Without a doubt, this is the worst idea ever. It's starting to seem like this update wasn't ready but some how made it out the door at SPB. With this many errors, obviously, beta testing was not very complete.

[Fzara]

Well, you have to remember that when the customer demands an updated product, they become too impatient and thus look for another solution which can satisfy their needs. I can see Spb right now trying to satisfy the customers, however, not able to have enough time to beta test certain "new" features.

[smittyofdhs]

Well, you have to remember that when the customer demands an updated product, they become too impatient and thus look for another solution which can satisfy their needs. I can see Spb right now trying to satisfy the customers, however, not able to have enough time to beta test certain "new" features.

Yeah, but shipping out software without rigorous beta testing means you end up with pissed off customers who won't want to use the product anyways. And these aren't new features....

The X button enhancement was in the previous version and worked flawlessly on the PPCPE devices. Now, it doesn't even work correctly, which to me means they changed or replaced the code severally enough that tough beta testing would be needed on the code again.

[BugDude10]

Add me to the list of updaters who are experiencing problems/concerns. I get the spinning wheel when I try to customize the Today screen settings, and I do NOT like not being able to turn off alarms after a set amount of time. (Turn off when battery reaches 20%?!? What the hell is that?!?! I want my PDA ringing 3 times every 5 minutes until the battery is almost exhausted? What if my battery is already at 15%, will it ring until it dies completely? Who thought of this nonsense?!)

What a turn-around: v1.1 was mostly ideal, and v1.2 is very poor, IMO.

[KiLLiN-TiMe]

I have had no problems with my Dell Axim and the update. It does seem however that the fix for the backlight only half works when compaired to other machines. When you click on the backlight it takes you to the backlight settings screen. However, on my friends toshiba (i did suggest to him to wait with the upgrade after reading about all the problems that other toshiba owners are having) the backlight has a slider that you can adjust without going into the backlight option screen. Mine is missing the slider. Are other Axim users seeing the same thing? Not a huge issue since I always run at full brightness and can with no problem thanks to the great battery life of the Axim. :)

[Ed Hansberry]

The filesys.exe shouldn't be a problem. They did that because Pocket Backup from www.spritesoftware.com (also in the 3900's) supposedly incorrectly tries to kill Pocket Plus causing PP to take up lots of CPU cycles making backups take anywhere from 400-800% longer! 8O Mine were going from under 10 minutes to about 45.

Changing it a name Pocket Backup no longer used was a quick fix and the filesys runs from a different location and won't cause the device any problems.

[Eitel]

The filesys.exe shouldn't be a problem. They did that because Pocket Backup from www.spritesoftware.com (also in the 3900's) supposedly incorrectly tries to kill Pocket Plus causing PP to take up lots of CPU cycles making backups take anywhere from 400-800% longer! 8O Mine were going from under 10 minutes to about 45.

Changing it a name Pocket Backup no longer used was a quick fix and the filesys runs from a different location and won't cause the device any problems.

I never had a problem with Pocket Backup and Pocket Plus (1.1). My backups usually take from 2-3 minutes going to an SD card. I have a 5455.

[Ed Hansberry]

I never had a problem with Pocket Backup and Pocket Plus (1.1). My backups usually take from 2-3 minutes going to an SD card. I have a 5455.

My problem was with 1.0 and I immediately reported it. I think the change was in 1.1.

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks for the feedback guys...Vassili and I sat down today to read through the thread and we're going to work on addressing as many issues as possible. In brief:

1) The time-based repeat option we removed will be added back in

2) We're going to do testing with the Today screen plug-in. It was tested on the e740, but only with programs installed in RAM, not storage cards. When you soft reset, icons have to be refreshed...which means it has to go to the memory card to get them, and not all Pocket PCs are fast about doing this. We're going to try some clever things to make this faster (some caching), but the bottom line is that if you want maximum performance, remove any links to memory-card based apps. I have it installed on my Dell Axim, and I've installed it on several MVP devices in the past few days, and haven't seen any issues with speed.

3) The battery monitor takes time to learn your battery usage patterns - it's impossible to magically get a 100% accurate battery runtime right away. Every day Pocket Plus logs, in the registry, battery consumption and over time develops a better estimation model for run time.

4) The upgrade is free - just install 1.2 over 1.1. We should have been more clear about this, or sent out an email to current customers.

5) We're having a hard time tracking down the Close function locking up devices - I haven't seen it happen here on any devices, but we'll look into it - this is a tough one to nail down unless we can repo it...if you've got 50 apps installed, the various interactions makes things very complex. Please try shutting down any memory-resident applications (other task switchers, etc.) and seeing if you can repo the problem.

6) The filesys.exe idea is a workaround for Pocket Backup's particular design...we didn't have much choice here, but it should have zero impact. If someone wants to point out why this will cause a problem, please do, but please don't assume that it's bad because you "think" it is. The programmers at Spb are pretty smart. :wink:

7) It's not possible to support sliders for all devices on the today screen. We have where possible, but where it wasn't possible, we linked to the appropriate control panel. This isn't a bug, this is a limitation we have in the way different OEMs implement their backlight interface. Until Microsoft mandates a consistent way this is implemented, or an API that we can tap into, this is as good as it can get. There's a small bug in 3900 series devices that makes the shortcut go to the wrong tab - we'll fix that.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, and we're working hard to fix these issues and improve the product. You should see something next week.

Sincerely,

Jason Dunn
VP Marketing
Spb Software House

[yschang]

now I feel like my money is well spent!!! :D
I'm sure you guys will patch things up.
Keep up the good works guys!

[PetiteFlower]

Not a huge issue since I always run at full brightness and can with no problem thanks to the great battery life of the Axim. :)

See I see it a little differently...I run with the backlight at 2 notches from off and I can because of the Axim's great screen :)

I haven't used the alarms feature yet so I can't comment on that.

I did have a weird thing just happen when I tried to get the X menu to come up....the whole Axim didn't freeze but the whole taskbar stopped responding entirely except for Task Switcher. I could close programs if they had menu options for it, but tapping the X or OK buttons in the top right corner did nothing, and tapping the Start menu also did nothing. I did manage to clear it up by using Task Switcher to close all programs and that seemed to fix it. I did manage to bring up the X menu successfully after that, maybe it was just a one time quirk. If it happens again I will let you know.

I don't have any problems with the Today screen plugin, that's my favorite feature of the program, well tied with x=close. The battery bar shows 4 1/2 hours of time left when the battery is full though I would expect it to be closer to 6 1/2 at the lowest; hopefully when I use it for a while it will learn, for now I just keep the percentage up :)

[Dave Beauvais]

Just sharing an experience I had tonight with Pocket Plus...

When midnight rolled around tonight, the icons on my Today screen were replaced with the message "Trial period has expired." I am using Pocket Plus v1.2, which I installed on top of a registered version 1.1. The upgrade from v1.0 to v1.1 did not make me enter my registration code again, but going from v1.1 to v1.2 apparently wiped out the stored registration information.

It wasn't a big pain since I have all my serial numbers and product keys stored on my Pocket PC, but if someone didn't have that handy while on the road, it could be an annoyance to have software they thought was registered suddenly stop working.

Incidentally, I had to enter my serial number twice; the first time I entered it, it said thanks for registering, but popped up the window to enter the number again. A quick paste and the number was back, but still annoying.

--Dave

[yschang]

Interesting...

I have a different experience with the serial number...

Couple of days ago, I had to uninstall Pocket Plus because it has caused to many crashes over the past days...

Full uninstall plus wiping out all related infos about Pocket Plus...
then soft reset...

After I also uninstall some more unused programs from my PPC, I found out that I cannot do without PPlus... So I installed it again...

When I was ready to input my serial number, but hey, it's already registered... ha

My previous experience told me that I needed to input the number again when I reinstall the program...

Now, PPlus is not giving any problem or crashes now... I hope it stays that way...

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, I did a full uninstall/reinstall and deleted all the registry entries. It runs fine on my e740, except for the inability to configure the today plug-in.

[reydiodj]

I've just received news from Spb Customer Support that, "...the fixes for the problems (I mentioned) will be in the 1.2.1 update release - this will be published in the next few days."

[smittyofdhs]

OK, Pocket Plus is out again, this time sporting version number 1.2.1. This fixes all the bugs found in 1.2 that went public a couple of weeks ago. I know the bugs I've reported are fixed (as I worked with Vassili to beta the fixes for the freeze up bug), and from what I can tell all the other bugs have been resolved as well.

Thanks SPB for listening to the customer and helping get things right ASAP.

http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=6846