Spb Software House Releases Pocket Plus 2.0

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/about/pressreleases/2004/may11.html?en' target='_blank'>http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/abo...4/may11.html?en</a><br /><br /></div>In case you missed it, the big news this week is the release of Spb Pocket Plus 2.0. New version, you say? Why should you be interested? Well, Spb doesn't just slap a full number upgrade on just any old upgrade. There are new features <i>galore</i>, a virtual <i>plethora</i> of super powers that effectively upgrades Clark Kent into Superman. A reasonably priced and easily configurable Superman, with no kryptonite in sight. :mrgreen:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20040511_spbplus.gif" /> <br /><br />You want details? Here are the juiciest bits:<br /><br />• Shortcuts to programs, folders and files (large or small icons)<br />• Rearrange icons with a simple drag and drop<br />• Organize icons into groups using the new tabs feature<br />• Extended Themes: Include normal background wallpaper &amp; battery indicator<br />• File Explorer "Zero Step" tap and hold Zip option<br />• Text-based files can be compressed up to 300%<br />• New "Folder Up" button<br />• Tap and hold Properties option (includes quick storage card format)<br />• Save images in Pocket IE via tap and hold<br />• View source code and save HTML pages in Pocket IE<br />• Additional of battery level indicator to top taskbar<br /><br />For ALL of the bits plus trimmings, you'll want to take a look at Doug Raeburn's <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27792&amp;postdays=0&amp;postorder=asc&amp;start=0">fantastic review</a>. If you're a try-before-you-buy kind of person, a <a href="https://www.handango.com/brainstore/secureDownload.jsp?StyleSheetUrl=MiniBrandStyleSheet.css&amp;shoppingUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handango.com%2Fbrainstore%2F%2FPlatformSearch.jsp%3FsiteId%3D311%26jid%3D8XED352445F6FCCB2CC1A981A7BCE34D%26platformId%3D2%26txtSearch%3Dspb%2Bpocket%2Bplus%26optionId%3D1_2_2&amp;jid=8XED352445F6FCCB2CC1A981A7BCE34D&amp;siteId=311&amp;productId=50351&amp;productName=Spb+Pocket+Plus&amp;orderId=null&amp;fileUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handango.com%2Fservlet%2Fd%2Fspbpocketplus2_setup.exe%3Fs%3D311%26p%3D50351%26secw%3Dfed27ef5">15-day trial</a> is available for your perusal. If you're itching to buy, you can pick up the <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore//PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;jid=8XED352445F6FCCB2CC1A981A7BCE34D&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;productId=50351&amp;sectionId=0&amp;catalog=30">full version</a> of the program for $14.95. Owners of prior versions of Pocket Plus <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/upgrade.php?en">can upgrade</a> for $4.95. [Affiliate]

[Edgar_]

Nope we didn't miss it! You were scooped by your own co-worker. :oops:

One for the Plus Column - Pocket Plus 2.0 by Spb Software House
Posted by Doug Raeburn @ 11:00 AM yesterday!

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,27792&sid=67d0fb594a6a7c67cea61b8fe28caa48

[adamz]

Pete and Repeat were in a boat. Pete fell out. Who was left? :)

[gorkon280]

My oh my....is this Slashdot? I swear I saw a fresh DUPE on here!

[DualShock]

Owners of prior versions of Pocket Plus can upgrade (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/upgrade.php?en) for $7.45. [Affiliate]

er? link says $4.95 for me. where did $7.45 come from???

anyway, I'm a user of 1.0, and it's a great product. Would this version be worth it?

[Jason Dunn]

Now, now guys - this isn't a dupe. Pat didn't include the link to the press release, which I've now added:

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/about/pressreleases/2004/may11.html?en

That's really what the post is about - he referenced Doug's review, so he obviously knew about it. ;-)

[drop]

Cool! Just $4.95 for an upgrade to a great product. :wink:

I just followed the upgrade link to Handango and made my purchase. Is the Handango download the latest build? I know sometimes it takes Handango a while to get the latest version uploaded. Handango indicated a 5/11/2004 version on the page.

[buckyg]

I'm trying it out, will be buying the upgrade today. Love the battery indicator, that's a novel idea. Plus's Close function has always been my favorite.

A couple of things I noticed:

- Drop: PocketGear.com has the latest build. I got the trial from there, didn't feel like jumping through Handango's extra step for downloading trials. Under Plus's settings, About tells you the build.

- The Today plugin isn't playing well with something. In trying to customize the Today plugin, it kept soft-resetting my device. I use the latest version of Snoopsoft Dashboard, not sure if that's it or not. I probably won't use the Today plugin anyway but will contact SPB Support with what I see and also post to the DB forum.

[jonlien2003]

Can the developers please make it an option to not display the icons next to the names of the running applications on the task manager. I find certain icons - like Pocket Player - don't display properly on the task manager.

Thanks.

[drop]

- Drop: PocketGear.com has the latest build. I got the trial from there, didn't feel like jumping through Handango's extra step for downloading trials. Under Plus's settings, About tells you the build.


Thanks, buckyg :mrgreen: .

[SoAlive]

I've become pretty dependant on IcBar--are there any known conflicts?

[karinatwork]

Not good, not good. :roll:
Keeps hanging waaaaaay too many times. Very quirky.

Example: Was in Mapopolis, switched it off with X button, but pocket pc freezes. (You can see the today screen but in the place where Pocket Plus was supposed to be, you still see a cut out of Mapopolis, don't know if I explain myself). Soft reset the pocket pc, Pocket Plus is not on the today screen anymore. Check on settings, but Pocket Plus is still checked under the today screen applications. :?:

Hey, SPB, what's up?? You guys are usually making great software. Haven't you beta tested this one enough???


K.

[wocket]

I've just hard reset my iPAQ 2210 for the n'th time today. If I have to move another dental appointment for Dr Johnston i'll chcuk my iPAQ in the micro (i'm kidding of course). Comes from having way too much on it in the fist place and beta testing software. But Hey ho

I've just upgraded pocket plus with an empty ipaq and Avantgo. I'd put pocket plus to one side ago but wooaah it's good now. Plus a free copy of ArKball what could be better.

Now to re-install everything else.

[PR.]

Not good, not good. :roll:
Keeps hanging waaaaaay too many times. Very quirky.

Example: Was in Mapopolis, switched it off with X button, but pocket pc freezes. (You can see the today screen but in the place where Pocket Plus was supposed to be, you still see a cut out of Mapopolis, don't know if I explain myself). Soft reset the pocket pc, Pocket Plus is not on the today screen anymore. Check on settings, but Pocket Plus is still checked under the today screen applications. :?:

Hey, SPB, what's up?? You guys are usually making great software. Haven't you beta tested this one enough???


K.

Or perhaps you are suffering an isolated problem that specific to your setup?!

Seems to work pretty damn well for me, I uninstalled Battery Bar and Handyswitcher and use this exclusively, I don't use the IE, FileExplorer or Repeating alarms though as I have no need for them (Already run Resco FileExplorer, MultiIE and don't use repeating alarms). Currently trialing but will be purchasing it!

[surur]

Plus a free copy of ArKball what could be better.


I upgraded yesterday. How do I get this?

Surur

[pr0vider]

It's a nice upgrade; I tried the demo on my Toshiba 755 and it worked o.k.; the problem for me (at least with the limited time I played with it) is that it doesn't have a small enough today screen footprint like the old 1.xx version that I've still got on my daily use Ipaq 2215. I like to see the themes I've downloaded without much obstruction...

[wocket]

Plus a free copy of ArKball what could be better.


I upgraded yesterday. How do I get this?

Surur

The registration code was in the email I got from SPB after i'd got the upgrade today.

[darrylb]

Not good, not good. :roll:
Keeps hanging waaaaaay too many times. Very quirky.

Example: Was in Mapopolis, switched it off with X button, but pocket pc freezes. (You can see the today screen but in the place where Pocket Plus was supposed to be, you still see a cut out of Mapopolis, don't know if I explain myself). Soft reset the pocket pc, Pocket Plus is not on the today screen anymore. Check on settings, but Pocket Plus is still checked under the today screen applications. :?:

Hey, SPB, what's up?? You guys are usually making great software. Haven't you beta tested this one enough???


I've had a few users of my own software have isolated incidents like this. After a hard reset they go away. Not that I'm suggesting you should, but when most other users have had no problems.... :wink:

[Bill Gunn]

I've had a few users of my own software have isolated incidents like this. After a hard reset they go away. Not that I'm suggesting you should, but when most other users have had no problems.... :wink:

.... they haven't found the bug yet.

[ctmagnus]

I've had a few users of my own software have isolated incidents like this. After a hard reset they go away. Not that I'm suggesting you should, but when most other users have had no problems.... :wink:

.... they haven't found the bug yet.

:rofl:

[cml]

Not good, not good.
Keeps hanging waaaaaay too many times. Very quirky.

Example: Was in Mapopolis, switched it off with X button, but pocket pc freezes. (You can see the today screen but in the place where Pocket Plus was supposed to be, you still see a cut out of Mapopolis, don't know if I explain myself). Soft reset the pocket pc, Pocket Plus is not on the today screen anymore. Check on settings, but Pocket Plus is still checked under the today screen applications.

Hey, SPB, what's up?? You guys are usually making great software. Haven't you beta tested this one enough???


K.

This sounds similar to a problem I had with the last version of Pocket Plus after I converted my Ipaq to WM2003. You're not by any chance running WM2003 on an Ipaq are you?

[buckyg]

Actually, I did see what Karinatwork describes once or twice while I was doing the trial. From my previous post on this thread, the problem seemed to be something with the Today plugin not playing well with something else. I've disabled the Plus Today plugin and everything's been fine since then. (The Today plugin isn't critical to me, but that's just me. I know it's a must-have for other folks)

Yes, it's on an iPAQ running WM2003, though I did not see this on Plus 1.x

[Pixelnose]

Juni and I have been using it for a while now - no problems here, it works great. We both have 2210s and the the other plugins used were Marsware Weatherpanel, Sbsh Calendar Plus Pro, and Pocketplus, and of course Wisbar advance.

[joelevi]

Actually, I did see what Karinatwork describes once or twice while I was doing the trial. From my previous post on this thread, the problem seemed to be something with the Today plugin not playing well with something else. I've disabled the Plus Today plugin and everything's been fine since then. (The Today plugin isn't critical to me, but that's just me. I know it's a must-have for other folks)

Yes, it's on an iPAQ running WM2003, though I did not see this on Plus 1.x

I had my first today screen lag while running 2.0 earlier today... turns out I was dreadfully low on RAM (2MB), soft reset, cleared out my temp folder, uninstalled xpu scaler, all is happy...

The new battery meter is MOST useful!

[k_kirk]

The new battery meter is MOST useful!

Fully agree. I only wish it would animate while the unit is on charge. I am imagining the battery strength bars building up to %100 and then dropping where the current charge level is. Sort of like what happens on most mobile phones...

The only other thing I would suggest is to change the number of bars from 18 to 20... Its easier on the aging mind to convert # of bars to percentages...

[Mike Temporale]

Okay, Is it just me? Maybe I'm missing something, but what happened to my repeating alarms? There used to be an option for alarms that allowed you to set how long it repeats and such. I don't have that. And further more, my alarm failed this morning. I got an error saying "Could not execute file".

Anyone else having this problem?

[Mike Temporale]

argh. I see what's happened. You have go look under SPB Pocket Plus, click Tools in the lower left, Advanced settings, and turn on Repeating alarms. Not sure why this isn't on by default. They could easily pop up a warning message when you try to activate the option. Hiding it under this menu item is just confusing.

:roll:

[drop]

I moved all the Spb created tsk files to Built-in memory.

This new version is slick. Great job, as always, :way to go: Spb.

I haven't installed the game yet. How do you like that?

[karinatwork]

Well, I actually went and READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. :|
It says that Pocket Plus has to be installed to MAIN MEMORY (which of course I didn't because the old version worked flawlessly from storage card and which of course I never like to do because I am very jealous about my main memory that is disappearing as fast as lightening...) and I haven't had any problems since. But that has only been yesterday. Well see.

Hey, and btw, WHAT GAME??? 8O

K.

[drop]

The tsk files are just Today's screen theme files. You could move them to Built-in and save, what, about 400 kb. Yes, you should always save Today plug-in on the Main Memory. The tsk files are just themes and not really the integral part of the application, so, save them anywhere you like. I think you could delete them all together if you wish.

I am the same way, my Main Memory is the holy ground. But for Pocket Plus, not a problem.

Wish I could afford a 128MB RAM device :drool: ...

[drop]

Oh yeah, the game. Spb gives away a free copy of Arkaball (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/arkaball/?en) with purchase of Pocket Plus 2.0.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/arkaball/screenshots/arkaball02.jpg

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/arkaball/screenshots/arkaball05.jpg

more screenshots (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/arkaball/screenshots.html?en)

[ctmagnus]

Arkaball looks interesting. However, I got no notice of the offer in the email from Handango.

[drop]

When did you order? It might take several hours after your transaction with Handango goes through. I made my purchase yesterday morning and received the email directly from Spb, with the game's reg code, this morning.

[buckyg]

I received a separate email from SPB about my purchase. Included was a download link and registration key for the game.

I've been playing a bit more with the Today plugin. Not having soft-resets anymore, but occasionally, it still doesn't redraw things right. I'm still inclined to think it's related to Dashboard. The times that the problem seems to happen most is if I switch DB pages.

Until I have time to test it further and also get it the way I want, I just won't use the Today plugin. I'm still happy with the upgrade.

[Jason Lee]

I had mine soft reset once. I it was when I was disableing the pocket IE addin. When I clicked on on the pocket plus main options page my ipaq (2215) just rebooted. :) Only happened that one time. I have had other task managers do that though. The problem with it was then a system window was the active window and you hit close. A system window being like the popup volume slider. I would tap the volume icon, the slider would show up and so would the close (X). Tap the close (X) for a free reboot! :)

This isn't the case with pocket plus but it may be somehow related. Maybe there is a slim chance that the wrong process becomes the target of the improved (X) button... Dunno. Like i said, it has only happened to me once with pocket plus 2.0.


You know this new today plug in may be tooo cool... I have been customizing it for 2 days now and still cannot decide how I want it to look. Too darn customizable... :lol: But no worries, I'll eventually get it strait. ;)

[ctmagnus]

When did you order? It might take several hours after your transaction with Handango goes through. I made my purchase yesterday morning and received the email directly from Spb, with the game's reg code, this morning.

I ordered Tuesday evening. Still nothing about ArkaBall from Spb or Handango.

[drop]

I ordered Tuesday evening. Still nothing about ArkaBall from Spb or Handango.

That is strange. You did receive Handango's acknowledge of your purchase, right? I would forward that to Spb support and ask what's up.

[ctmagnus]

I ordered Tuesday evening. Still nothing about ArkaBall from Spb or Handango.

That is strange. You did receive Handango's acknowledge of your purchase, right? I would forward that to Spb support and ask what's up.

Yeah, going back through my downloads folder in Outlook, I got an email from Handango and one from Spb when I purchased Pocket Plus 1.x last August. I just got the one from Handango this time.

[buckyg]

I've had trouble the last couple of times w/ getting the email from Handango. (So I print the confirmation screen). I ordered the Plus upgrade late Wednesday afternoon, received the SPB email first thing Thursday morning.

[vassiliphilippov]

About Spb Arkaball...

Our system works in the following way: when you purchase an Spb product at Handango Handango sends us an email about this purchase. Our scripts handle it and send you Spb purchase confirmation email.

Last few days Handango delays emails they send to us. So we receive emails not immediatly but all emails about purchases for a day are sent in the begin of the next day. That's why our system could delay sending you your Spb purchase confirmation email. But it will be sent. As I understand the Handango system maximum possible delay could be 24 hours.

You can always contact our support in case of any questions and they will be glad to help you:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/support

Vassili Philippov
Spb Software House

[buckyg]

Thanks, Vassili, for giving us an idea of the timeframe for the registration emails. My experience was a good one. It can be frustrating sometimes, not knowing how long to wait before contacting support after making a purchase. Your response helps.

You know, the more I've played with the Today plugin, the more I like it. Now more resets and it looks like sometimes it takes a second to redraw a change I make. Now that I know that, I understand and can live with it. It is pretty slick with all the ways you can customize the display. Good job SPB!

[ctmagnus]

You know, the more I've played with the Today plugin, the more I like it. Now more resets and it looks like sometimes it takes a second to redraw a change I make. Now that I know that, I understand and can live with it. It is pretty slick with all the ways you can customize the display. Good job SPB!

I use PIToday (http://www.pitoday.de.vu/) instead of the standard Today screen calendar plugin and I find that if I contract then reexpand it, I can usually correct these issues.

[MerlinAZ]

ctmagnus, you should try Calendar Plus Pro from sbsh.net. You'll never use anything else as far as a PIM extension for the Today screen. Take a look.

[iant54]

I also use PI Today as my Today PIM plug-in because it's tightly integrated with Pocket Informant, which I also use.

[buckyg]

Thanks for the Today PIM recommendations, folks. Believe it or not, the built-in Outlook does okay for what I need. Then I've got Snoopsoft Dashboard to show what I need for my agenda on the Today screen. I'll keep the other software in mind and may give them a try sometime.

I purchased the Plus upgrade for my wife's iPAQ. She hasn't seen the changes yet. Now that I've played with the Today plugin on mine, I was able to quickly set her plugin up to what she'll probably want. She uses Dashboard too. I did notice a couple of soft-resets right at the beginning, while trying to get the Today plugin setup the way she wants. For the first few changes, there was a lag in redrawing the screen. Things pretty quickly settled down and everything's good now. So maybe that's "normal" in getting these two plugins to play.

[dmjames]

I also use PI and PI today, have set up spb plus 2 and both working niceley so far. I have been a battery pack user for past 12 months, but must admit I like spb plus 2.