Anthony Caruana
12-12-2003, 06:30 PM
Over the last few weeks I've started to really take advantage of the combination of my Bluetooth phone and Spike, my iPAQ 2210. I find myself checking work email while out of the office and my private email accounts when I'm out and about. However, I always dread that time of the month when my phone bill arrives. I just don't track my communications costs. Spb GPRS Monitor lets you track the duration and cost of your GPRS, GSM and other communications.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-1.gif" /><br /> <br /><!><br /><i>Spb GPRS Monitor's raison d'être is to provide you with an easy way to track your communications costs. For example, if you use your Pocket PC to connect to the Internet through your cell phone, GPRS Monitor captures both the amount of time and volume of data that you have transferred. In addition, it ships with carrier pricing information from all over the world so that you can easily capture the cost of your connection. You can also set alerts so that as you are alerted as you reach a particular threshold in your monthly time of download allowance.</i> <br /><br /><span><b>Getting Started</b></span><br />Getting started with GPRS Monitor is pretty simple. Following installation you'll notice a couple of changes to your Pocket PC. Firstly, you'll notice a new icon in the task bar on your Pocket PC. <br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-2.gif" /> <br /><br />Secondly, you'll notice a new plug-in on your Today screen. This shows you today's download and connection time statistics as well as icons for Internet Explorer, Inbox and launching your default connection. As a bonus, it also provides a battery meter and a backlight slider so that you can control your Pocket PC backlight.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-3.gif" /> <br /><br /><span><b>The Task Bar Icon</b></span><br />The Taskbar icon is pretty nifty. It gives you an on-the-spot report of your recent connection history. It gives an expanded view of what the Today plug-in shows as well as a graph of your last seven days of connection activity and a summary of how much time and download volume you have left for the month.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-4.gif" /> <br /><br />One of the really neat features is that you can customise the position of the Task Bar icon easily through the GPRS Monitor options. This means that its icon need not interfere with icons for any of your other applications.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-7.jpg" /> <br /><br />As an extra bonus, the look of the Taskbar icon pop-up is skinnable. You can download skins from <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/gprsmonitor/skins.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><span><b>The Today Screen Plug-in</b></span><br />As well providing you with a quick summary of your communications costs and the volume of data downloaded for the day, the Today screen plug-in provides you with shortcuts to Pocket Internet Explorer, Inbox and your connection status. As a bonus you also get a battery meter and a backlight control (the same as the ones in <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/index.html">Spb Pocket Plus</a>).<br /><br />The Today plug-in can be easily customised through the Options in the Today screen settings. From here, you can customise the refresh frequency of the monitor, the display of daily, weekly, monthly of session information, the current connection speed and which application icons and meters you want displayed. This is very easy to use.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-5.jpg" /> <br /><br /><span><b>How does it Work?</b></span><br />One of the really neat features of GPRS Monitor is that it ships with a database of over 200 pricing schedules from carriers all over the world. And if your carrier is not listed then you can add your own custom settings. It is this database that allows Spb GPRS Monitor to track your communications costs. Also, because it "knows" what your usage limits are you can use GPRS Monitor to alert you when you are reaching your maximum download and cost settings. Spb updates the list of carrier plans regularly and has a <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/gprsmonitor/tariffs.html">Web page</a> where you can view the up-to-date list of carriers, download an updated list of carriers and even submit a new carrier usage plan. If you submit a plan, you receive a free game!<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-6.jpg" /> <br /><br />Once you have selected or entered a usage plan you can set both daily and monthly alerts so that you know when you are reaching either download limits or a point at which your download or connection costs might change.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-8.jpg" /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-9.jpg" /> <br /><br /><span><b>Profiles</b></span><br />One of the really nifty features of GPRS Monitor is that it supports up to five different profiles. Each profile can be set with different options. For example, you can set different profiles for different usage plans or for when you want to seperate different types of usage. In my case, I have created "Work" and "Personal" profiles. This makes it easy to track usage and costs for when I'm connected to my work dial up account and for when I use my personal ISP. I can assign a different connection to each profile so that when I dial my private ISP, GPRS Monitor the usage statistics it collects are mapped back to the correct profile. Also, in case you are like me and forget to change profiles, GPRS Monitor can automatically select the correct profile based on which modem connection you use.<br /><br />Profiles are easy to rename and the data stored against a profile can be easily cleared.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-10.jpg" /><br /><br /><span><b>Reports</b></span><br />As well as onscreen graphs and alerting, GPRS Monitor lets you easily generate reports of your connection usage. All you need to do is go to the Report tab, select a date range that you wish to report on and press the <b>Generate</b> button. As well as the on screen report you can have the report generated as a file.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/caruana-nov03-spbgprsmonitor-11.jpg" /><br /><br /><b><span>Gotchas</span></b><br />So, is Spb GPRS Monitor is any good? For me, this application just works. Its user interface is pretty simple to get around and, when you're stuck, the online help is clear and easy to follow. However, there were a couple of things that I found a little annoying.<br /><br /><li>The connection button on the Today plug-in didn't behave the way I expected. Even when I had a specific profile selected in the application options, it always tried to dial the same connection. Perhaps there was something happening on my PPC that wasn't quite right but I was not able to resolve this on my own.<br /><br /><li>It would have been nice to be able to have the MSN Messenger icon in the Today plug-in as well the Pocket Internet Explorer and Inbox icons. That way, all my "Internet" applications could be accesible from a single place.<br /><br /><li>The battery meter and backlight control are gray which just made them look a little boring.<br /><br /><li>It would have been nice to have the name of the selected profile visible in the Today plug-in as well as in the taskbar icon pop-upThese "gotchas" are not a big thing and they would not stop me from paying for this software. They are just little niggles.<br /><br /><span><b>Where To Buy</b></span><br />The software can be <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=43793">downloaded from Handango</a> (affiliate link). There is a trial version available that works for a couple of weeks. The cost of Spb GPRS Monitor is $14.95 USD. Note that the information at Handango is a little out of date as the Spb Software House site clearly states that the software is compatible with Windows Mobile 2003. Handango only mentions Pocket PC 2002. If you buy the software in the month of December, Spb is offering a "Holiday Bonus Bundle" - you can <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/press/pressreleases/2003/dec09.html">find more details at their Web site</a>.<br /><br /><b><span>Specifications</span></b><br />This program will work on any Requires a Pocket PC 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003 device. The program takes up just under 760 KB of RAM. <br /><br /><b><span>Conclusions</span></b><br />I really like Spb GPRS Monitor. The installation was easy and the user interface is intuitive. It has in-built support for usage plans form carriers all over the world and Spb maintain and update that list.<br /><br />If you regularly use dial up services and need to track your usage and costs then Spb GPRS Monitor is an excellent tool.