Spb Diary 1.0 Released

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=163904&productType=2' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/...4&productType=2</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Spb Diary is a feature-rich Today plug-in for your Calendar, Tasks and Contacts. This software is a powerful replacement for the standard Today plug-ins for appointments and tasks known to have poor functionality. When using Spb Diary the most of actions related to appointments, tasks and contacts can be performed even without leaving the Today screen at all."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050427-SpbDiary.gif" /><br /><br />Spb Software House have just released <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en">Spb Diary</a> - an all-in-one calendar, tasks and contacts plugin for the Pocket PC Today screen. With it, you can view up to 31 days of appoinments/events with your own customised interface. It is deeply integrated with well-known PIMs such as Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion, and it supports VGA and landscape display modes. <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=163904&productType=2">Handango</a> have a trial version of Spb Diary on offer, and if you like it, it can be purchased for $14.95. [Affiliate]

[Jon Westfall]

While there is some debate about this product in our forums already, I have to say that I just installed it on my 6315 and its running really nicely. A good addition to my Today screen!

[Darius Wey]

While there is some debate about this product in our forums already, I have to say that I just installed it on my 6315 and its running really nicely. A good addition to my Today screen!

I agree. It does run well, and despite the debate on it being a rip of PocketBreeze, I think those interested in finding an answer to that question ought to install it and play with it for several days, not several hours. Having said that, Diary is similar to PocketBreeze, but it is by no means a complete repackage of PocketBreeze. It's definitely not a "CherryOS / PearPC" sort of issue, and the way I see it, this is just another product in the market, and just another form of competition. May the best product win. 8)

[foebea]

now that SPB has that whole integration with tabs working with pocket plus, i am sad that this is not tabable. tab-able. tabbable. cannot be tabbed. yeah.

[Sully]

To be a true clone they would have to have killer support. And no one, I say no one, can match the support available for PocketBreeze.

[njl2016]

I love this program, but it likes to stay "on top" of Pocket Plus. I like Pocket Plus on the top, but Diary won't allow this. I won't buy SPB Diary until this is fixed. I'm just obsessive compulsive like that.

[MultiMatt]

I love this program, but it likes to stay "on top" of Pocket Plus. I like Pocket Plus on the top, but Diary won't allow this. I won't buy SPB Diary until this is fixed. I'm just obsessive compulsive like that.Huh?! I have it on the bottom of my screen... Not sure why that is happening for you...

See my review here (http://pocketpclouisville.com/reviews/Spb_Diary_review.htm).

Matt

[blazingwolf]

To be a true clone they would have to have killer support. And no one, I say no one, can match the support available for PocketBreeze.

I agree with this. SBSH definetly has the best customer service I have ever expeienced.

[njl2016]

Okay, I got the order problem fixed, but it's very picky. Anyway, I still love this program! Hopefully they'll include a note tab in the next version.

[bnycastro]

Nice to see that there is competition, SPB makes great apps but... I will still use PocketBreeze though because of the excellent support.

[KTamas]

This software is a SHAME. The have copied PocketBreeze, got out a LOTS of functions, renamed it, and here comes SPB Diary. No matter how nice the SPB P+ indicators looks, i've just un-installed it.

[bnycastro]

This software is a SHAME. The have copied PocketBreeze, got out a LOTS of functions, renamed it, and here comes SPB Diary. No matter how nice the SPB P+ indicators looks, i've just un-installed it.really? hmmm wonder if it is worth the time to take a look and see what they have copied (using the term very loosely) :lol:

[jimski]

Oh sure, and I finally got around to downloading and purchasing Pocket Breeze (and Contact Breeze) just last night. Guess this new entry will have to wait a least a few weeks until I get my money's worth out of Breeze. I would truly be amazed if it's better.

[ctmagnus]

Just this morning, I decided that PocketBreeze was a bit too much for me so I reverted to the standard calendar, tasks and inbox plugins. For a while, at least.

[dommasters]

I wonder if SPB will ever release something original instead of copying other company's apps. Just look at their catalogue. You'll struggle to find ANYTHING original there whatsoever.
Can't wait to see the reviews for this ;0) No doubt they will say things like it's the greatest, that you won't be able to live without it etc. The reviewer will give the impression he has never seen anything like it before :0)
One thing is for sure, the reviews won't compare it with, or even mention the applications it rips off sorry I mean 'competes' with.
If you like fake goods buy an SPB product ...
Dom

[SHC]

Just to put my two penneth in... I have been using PItoday for a long time and have also tried the latest version of pocket breeze too. Both significantly slowed down my device, PB was too complicated for me, more than I needed.
This new product is now on my device and is working very well with no perceptable slowing of my device. People will always have there own preference for a PIM plug-in just as some people prefer AF to PI. It doesnt mean its a "rip-off" though.
My car does the same things as my neighbours but he likes his car and I dont. Mines a Fiat his is a Nissan - doesnt mean Fiat ripped off Nissan just because they both have 4 wheels and are both blue hatcbacks? No doubt I will now get lots of "positive" feedback - will go and put my tin hat on.

[dommasters]

Just to put my two penneth in... I have been using PItoday for a long time and have also tried the latest version of pocket breeze too. Both significantly slowed down my device, PB was too complicated for me, more than I needed.
This new product is now on my device and is working very well with no perceptable slowing of my device. People will always have there own preference for a PIM plug-in just as some people prefer AF to PI. It doesnt mean its a "rip-off" though.
My car does the same things as my neighbours but he likes his car and I dont. Mines a Fiat his is a Nissan - doesnt mean Fiat ripped off Nissan just because they both have 4 wheels and are both blue hatcbacks? No doubt I will now get lots of "positive" feedback - will go and put my tin hat on.

LOL What a great sense of humour and a perfect analogy :?

[Phillip Dyson]

Just yesterday I turned the PocketBreeze plugin off. Don't get me wrong I think its a first class product. I just got to a point where I was questioning needing both PB and PI. And since plugins are memory intensive, I turned it off on a trial basis. Of course a few hours later, I immediately missed having ContactBreeze. :)

I simply expanded PockePlus and turned on large Icons for a better one-handed experience. 8O

When I saw this diary I was excited thinking that it would be tab-able, but saw that its not.

I may give it a few days and see if I get along without either. So far my Today is WeatherPanel, AudioNotes, SPB PocketPlus.

[Jason Lee]

omg, that is disgusting... Reading the review made it worse. The tap and hold menus are the same, most of the options are the same..
Some people... :|

[Clinton Fitch]

I love this program, but it likes to stay "on top" of Pocket Plus. I like Pocket Plus on the top, but Diary won't allow this. I won't buy SPB Diary until this is fixed. I'm just obsessive compulsive like that.

I have not experience this problem. I have it right below PocketPlus on my device and both run terrific.

[Clinton Fitch]

I wonder if SPB will ever release something original instead of copying other company's apps. Just look at their catalogue. You'll struggle to find ANYTHING original there whatsoever.
Can't wait to see the reviews for this ;0) No doubt they will say things like it's the greatest, that you won't be able to live without it etc. The reviewer will give the impression he has never seen anything like it before :0)
One thing is for sure, the reviews won't compare it with, or even mention the applications it rips off sorry I mean 'competes' with.
If you like fake goods buy an SPB product ...
Dom

As a reviewer I can tell you that I have seen applications like this before and I have used many of them. PocketBreeze is terrific and when it comes to complete customization, it has Diary beat hands down. However the point I made in my review that I just posted on Diary is that it cuts to the chase and provides the base, most commonly used customizations that most people use. Ultimately it is up to user to decide what level of customization they need.

As for copying... I will just leave that alone. That arguement is as old as software applications on any platform itself.

[dommasters]

the point I made in my review.
I hadn't seen your review. Can you point the rest of us to it ? Can I see your review of Pocket Breeze too ? Would be interesting to see them both.
Dom

[Clinton Fitch]

the point I made in my review.
I hadn't seen your review. Can you point the rest of us to it ? Can I see your review of Pocket Breeze too ? Would be interesting to see them both.
Dom

Spb Diary was just posted about 30 minutes ago so not surprised you hadn't seen it yet. :D

http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/spb/diary-1-0/default.asp

PocketBreeze 4.2

http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/sbsh/pocketbreeze-4-2/default.asp

[Sven Johannsen]

I gotta go with the guys suggesting competition is good. I don't think it is a 'total' rip-off. In the world of software apps there is just so much you can do, and some of it is natural and expected. With a calendar plugin, wouldn't you expect to see catagories associated with the event? Wouldn't it be normal to expect to be able to personalize the fonts and relate them to catagories? If you tap and hold, what would you expect to see in the menu? Seems like there is just so much you can do. The differentiation can come under the hood. One could be more efficient, or more user friendly (a personal choice). At this point it looks like SPBs Diary doesn't do as much as Pocket Breeze, and maybe that is a plus for some folks. I don't run PI or AF for example, because they are just overkill for me.

As far as SPB products are concerned, they have always struck me as solid products, that are done when released, unlike others that seem to be a stream of betas. (And no that is not my impression of SBSH. They have a very unique philosophy, it seems. There doesn't seem to be a need for many bug fixes, but rather continuous improvements, added features and response to user feedback.)

There's plenty of room for options in PPC software. I'd hate to go back to the beginning when the biggest complaint is there weren't any software choices, and in some cases no option at all.

[Clinton Fitch]

At this point it looks like SPBs Diary doesn't do as much as Pocket Breeze, and maybe that is a plus for some folks. I don't run PI or AF for example, because they are just overkill for me.

There's plenty of room for options in PPC software. I'd hate to go back to the beginning when the biggest complaint is there weren't any software choices, and in some cases no option at all.

Couldn't agree more. There is room for both of these applications and it totally depends on the needs of the end user as to which one to purchase. Fortunately both offer a trial.

[dommasters]

Is SPB Diary a rip off of Pocket Breeze ?
I've put a poll here:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39642

[dommasters]

the point I made in my review.
I hadn't seen your review. Can you point the rest of us to it ? Can I see your review of Pocket Breeze too ? Would be interesting to see them both.
Dom

Spb Diary was just posted about 30 minutes ago so not surprised you hadn't seen it yet. :D

http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/spb/diary-1-0/default.asp

PocketBreeze 4.2

http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/sbsh/pocketbreeze-4-2/default.asp

Quality reviews Clinton ! Not least because you have reviewed both of them. Have added your site to my favorites :0)
Dom

[Clinton Fitch]

Quality reviews Clinton ! Not least because you have reviewed both of them. Have added your site to my favorites :0)
Dom

Thanks Dom. I'm glad you found it helpful as well as my site. I appreciate it.

[encece]

One thing I like better about Disry is the contact support. I thing it is better than contactbreeze.

You cant really blame them for entering into competition with their own version of the product. Most screenshots I've seen for PocketBreeze included the SPb Plugins above it anyway. I could see why they said...let's just make our own.

It's pretty slow to return to the homescreen after changing today settings. But it's had no major problems other than that as far as I could tell....where PocketBreeze would freeze for about 30 seconds after the PPC was off for awhile.

My personal opinion...I like Diary better...rip-off or not.

[Jason Lee]

Well i installed the trial just to see. It is like an very simple version of Pocket Breeze. No were hear the functionality. I do like that when you tap and hold on an item app, contact, or task you get all the option that you would if you actualy had the calendar, contacts, or task windows open along with their options.

One very bad thing.. Try rotating to landscape.. yeah.. nice, huh?
Pocket Breeze has a seperate hight setting for protrait and landscape. With diary you get the lovely os scroll bar on the side. eeww..

If that were fixed it might not be too bad. I don't use half the features in Pocket Breeze but there are a few very nice things that i do use that diary will not do.

I really like the special events tab on Pocket Breeze. It will list all birthdays and aniv from your contacts database for however long into the future you want. even 365 days.. 8O too much for me. :) I like 30 days. You can also setup custom filters, i have it set to also show holidays for the next 30 days. :)

also there is no way to turn off the task check boxes just on the calendar tab. If you turn them off on the task tab the go away. but then they are also gone from the task tab. I want them on the task tab and just "Task:" on the calendar.

If it were a little cheaper i might buy it just to play with both. But i can't shell out $15 for something i am not really gonna use that much. :)

Amit has been very good to us and proven beyond a doubt that he deserves my business. :)

[bnycastro]

@clinton f nice reviews... I've bookmarked your site as well :D

personally I've uninstalled SPB PPlus for awhile just til I cool off I guess (so you know where I stand)... I've installed 4 applications to cross the gap that SPB PPlus left on my device namely, task management, meters, and screen off (I barely use the today shortcuts since installing handy launcher) anyway I installed Sprite Pocket Mon (free with Sprite Backup), Dinar HandyMenu, Dinar HandySwitcher, and a freeware screen off app. Suprisingly... I've reclaimed some RAM and now am a bit more BUTTON powered as compared to before. So I am pleasantly surprised with this new configuartion on my device. :D

[Jason Lee]

Spb Diary 1.0.1 just came out. I mean just minutes ago. I was looking at the page and hit the refresh button and noticed an extra .1 in there. :)

No clue as to what the changes are. Nothing obvious. I installed and dug through the options. Nothing new. So probably just a minor bug fix.

History:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/history.html?en

[ctmagnus]

Loading bug fixed

Is the only thing listed.

[StarTide]

Loading bug fixed

Is the only thing listed.

Interesting, I guess if version 1 loads fine for me then no big deal. So far this has been very solid for me. One strange thing in task view, sorting by due date, if there is only a due date for the task, with no start date in PO then the item is bold. If both start and due dates are filled in then the item is not bold. Anyone else see this?

I particularly like the ability to change from 1 day to 2 days, 7 days 31 days etc., right from the top bar. This is really handy when applying filters, to see what's upcoming. Also useful is the offset # which shows how many days from today an item occurs.

Overall, quite a good application.

-Startide

[Jason Lee]

Well, I've just discovered a major bug.
I just installed 1.0.1 and
with the today plugin enabled, if you go to start, setting, then open the "Sounds &amp; Notifications" control panel, then choose the notifications tab, then tap ok to close it.

I get the spinning wait icon forever. If I tap ok more the device will lock up. Powering it off and back on locks up as well.
If you tap ok once then get the wait icon you can still tap the start menu and use the pocket pc but any time you try to go back into the "Sounds &amp; Notifications" control panel it never opens, you just get the wait icon. Rebooting allows you to open the control panel again but as soon as you go to the notifications tab you'll have to reboot again. You can open and close the control panel and even change settings just as long as you don't touch the notifications tab.

If I disabled diary everything works fine.

Anyone else have this problem?

[kushaaal]

Nice to see that there is competition, SPB makes great apps but... I will still use PocketBreeze though because of the excellent support.
GREETINGS!
I installed trial and brought SPB Diary in a gap to 5 minutes.
Now I think Do I really need my PI, or should I request PI developers to bring out some toned down version, as my SPB Diary is goona give me all (almost all) I get by opening PI.
Somethings I found missing/Problems are:
1) There is no icon for link items, as is available for PI in Pocket Breeze.
2) And resheduling of appointment/task creates one journal entry in PI, even though I have dissabled them all in PI.
3) The icons if assigned to appontment/tasks crosses the tabbed line and appear distorted.
Otherwise I found, the contact tab is much superior to contact breeze, it loads faster than Pocket Breeze, when the program is crossed, the desktop screen takes little time to get to normal way especially around the area of Pocket breeze. All this is not there in SPB Diary!
GREAT WORK
Regards,
Dr. Kushal