Spb Diary 1.5 Released

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en' target='_blank'>http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Spb Diary is a feature-rich Today plug-in for your Calendar, Tasks, Contacts and Notes. 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, contacts and notes can be performed even without leaving the Today screen at all."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050706-SpbDiary.gif" /><br /><br />Spb Diary has just been updated to v1.5, and it features a collection of new features worth talking about. The first is support for notes. Spb Diary 1.5 allows you to create and edit notes, as well as browse through a list of existing notes in a new, easy-to-use Notes tab. The second is integration with <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/weather/?en">Spb Weather</a>. Spb Diary now has the capability to display weather on the day title, which makes it quick and easy to work out what to wear on the day of your big meeting! Other minor features and bug fixes have also been implemented.<br /><br />Spb Diary 1.5 is a free update for all existing Spb Diary 1.x users. If you've been meaning to try Spb Diary but haven't got round to it, now's the perfect time to give it a run. It can be purchased from <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=163904&productType=2">Handango</a> for $14.95. A free trial version is also available for download. [Affiliate]

[ctmagnus]

I installed this just now and it said that I needed Spb Weather 1.1.0 in order to display the weather in Spb Diary. I checked the site and it said the Weather 1.1.0 had been released in February, but I could've sworn that I downloaded 1.0.1 since then. :confused totally:

[Clinton Fitch]

I ran into the same problem while I was writing the review for the application. If you have Weather, just download the trial and reinstall using your old key. it is a free upgrade and it works great.

Regards,

[ctmagnus]

Also, the Tabs tab in General options looks promising! I'm hoping they'll integrate the ability to have other Spb plugins integrate into Diary. Vertical tabs displayed as icons makes much more sense to me than horizontal tabs displayed as words.

[Clinton Fitch]

I couldn't agree more and I think that is the trend from them.

Personally, I can't wait until they get Inbox integrated into Diary.

[StarTide]

The only thing that bugs me about SPB is all of their downloads are for an exe file. Since I am a mac user I have to install via the cab file, and for some strange reason they refuse to allow the cab file to be a direct download, so I always have to ask SPB support to email me the file :(

Other than that I like SPB Diary quite a bit.

Startide

[ctmagnus]

But the nice thing about the exe installer on the windows platform is that it asks for your registration code during the install, and that code gets written to the cab file so if/when you have to reinstall that product, you just have to copy the cab over to the Pocket PC and execute it there.

If you have access to a Windows machine (even one without ActiveSync), you should be able to run the exe on it, go through the installation process and enter your registration code when asked then go into C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync\[name of Spb product] and grab the cabs out of there and copy them to your Mac. afaict this should work.

[StarTide]

ctmagnus,

You are correct I can do this, just not worth the time and effort and I do think Activesync needs to be installed. I'll just wait for SPB to email me the cab, within the next day or two. Virtually all other main PPC products allow for direct cab download, PI, AF, Listpro, etc.. Pocket Breeze includes the cab in the zip download, along with the exe file. I just wish SPB would do so as well.

Startide

[tdcao]

And why didn't SPB do something with that dashed line at the top of the screen? That darn line shows up on almost all of SPB products. It ruins everything!!

[Darius Wey]

And why didn't SPB do something with that dashed line at the top of the screen? That darn line shows up on almost all of SPB products. It ruins everything!!

What do you mean? :confused totally: That dashed line is a battery indicator - the functionality is only included in Spb Pocket Plus, not all of the Spb products. Firstly, it can be enabled and disabled at the user's free will, and secondly, the majority of users actually find it to be a useful addition to the Pocket PC interface. A quick glance at the screen, and you'll get an approximation of the Pocket PC's battery life.

[Darius Wey]

I installed this just now and it said that I needed Spb Weather 1.1.0 in order to display the weather in Spb Diary. I checked the site and it said the Weather 1.1.0 had been released in February, but I could've sworn that I downloaded 1.0.1 since then. :confused totally:

IIRC, it was released some time ago, since I've had v1.1.0 on my device for as long as I can remember (but then again, it could've been a beta build). The main thing that matters is whether you have Spb Diary and Spb Weather working nicely together (which I think you finally do). :P

[tdcao]

And why didn't SPB do something with that dashed line at the top of the screen? That darn line shows up on almost all of SPB products. It ruins everything!!

What do you mean? :confused totally: That dashed line is a battery indicator - the functionality is only included in Spb Pocket Plus, not all of the Spb products. Firstly, it can be enabled and disabled at the user's free will, and secondly, the majority of users actually find it to be a useful addition to the Pocket PC interface. A quick glance at the screen, and you'll get an approximation of the Pocket PC's battery life.

:oops: OMG!!!! :mrgreen:
Who asked for such a hideous battery indicator!!!!! Don't they have a nice looking one down on the lower section already? http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~kaichi/LOVELOG_IMG/2005011713af60fb.JPG

If it were up to me, I'd use the windows logo on the "Start" menu as the battery indicator...

Full battery --> http://www.bitsbytescomputer.com/store/assets/bitsbytes_03_2004/images/bitsbytes_03_2004/microsoft_windows_logo_small.jpg
Mid level --> :alfdance:
Almost dead --> :multi:

[WolfUK]

And why didn't SPB do something with that dashed line at the top of the screen? That darn line shows up on almost all of SPB products. It ruins everything!!

What do you mean? :confused totally: That dashed line is a battery indicator - the functionality is only included in Spb Pocket Plus, not all of the Spb products. Firstly, it can be enabled and disabled at the user's free will, and secondly, the majority of users actually find it to be a useful addition to the Pocket PC interface. A quick glance at the screen, and you'll get an approximation of the Pocket PC's battery life.

:oops: OMG!!!! :mrgreen:
Who asked for such a hideous battery indicator!!!!! Don't they have a nice looking one down on the lower section already?
Ah, but you can see the one at the top of the machine regarless of which application you are running (excluding games that use the full screen area) which is very useful.

[Darius Wey]

Who asked for such a hideous battery indicator!!!!! Don't they have a nice looking one down on the lower section already?

Yes. And that's why if you don't want to see the one in the taskbar, you have the option of disabling it. As WolfUK has stated, it's handy having the indicator there so you can have a quick glance at how much juice you have left, regardless of what application you have on the screen. ;)

[Darius Wey]

I installed this just now and it said that I needed Spb Weather 1.1.0 in order to display the weather in Spb Diary. I checked the site and it said the Weather 1.1.0 had been released in February, but I could've sworn that I downloaded 1.0.1 since then. :confused totally:

IIRC, it was released some time ago, since I've had v1.1.0 on my device for as long as I can remember (but then again, it could've been a beta build). The main thing that matters is whether you have Spb Diary and Spb Weather working nicely together (which I think you finally do). :P

Nah, you were right. Spb Weather 1.1 was just released, which means I was confusing it over the beta I had. There are some nice enhancements in this new version so I'll be making a front page post on it shortly.

[ctmagnus]

Nah, you were right. Spb Weather 1.1 was just released, which means I was confusing it over the beta I had. There are some nice enhancements in this new version so I'll be making a front page post on it shortly.

Ha! Me is smart! :p

[StarTide]

Overall version 1.5 is quite good especially the notes tab, and the weather integration is kind of cool. But having Weather as a separate tab in Diary, just like notes, would be cooler.

Has anyone tried using SPB Diary inside of Snoopsoft Dashboard. I loaded the latest Dashboard, and when I activate Diary inside it continually flashes or refreshes. Anyone else see this?

Startide

[Darius Wey]

Overall version 1.5 is quite good especially the notes tab, and the weather integration is kind of cool. But having Weather as a separate tab in Diary, just like notes, would be cooler.

Have you got it integrated into Pocket Plus?

[StarTide]

Overall version 1.5 is quite good especially the notes tab, and the weather integration is kind of cool. But having Weather as a separate tab in Diary, just like notes, would be cooler.

Have you got it integrated into Pocket Plus?

No, I do not use Pocket Plus.

[Jason Lee]

how many other diary users still have the default inbox today plugin enabled? Or even some other email today plugin?

ok, how many of you had a note today plugin enabled before this?

the only thing i can think is that note support was easier to add because the display code was already used on the other tabs.

it is nice i guess but i think most people would get a lot more use from an email tab. hopefully some day soon...

[ctmagnus]

That's what I was thinking.

However, I sync PhatNotes rather than Notes, so when I need a quick scribble, I just do it in the Notes tab and I can see it on the Today screen for when I need it later.

The one thing that I hope over and above all else is that Spb will enable the ability to display any Today plugin in Diary, regardless of who makes it. That would be a godsend, considering the fact that Diary's tabs are vertically oriented rather than horizontally like Pocket Plus' tabs are.

[Jason Lee]

That's what I was thinking.

However, I sync PhatNotes rather than Notes, so when I need a quick scribble, I just do it in the Notes tab and I can see it on the Today screen for when I need it later.

The one thing that I hope over and above all else is that Spb will enable the ability to display any Today plugin in Diary, regardless of who makes it. That would be a godsend, considering the fact that Diary's tabs are vertically oriented rather than horizontally like Pocket Plus' tabs are.

Yeah any other today plug-in as a tab would be very nice. Pocket Breeze already does that, has for some time now. But i'm not sure Spb will ever do that. They are much more conservative. They could just as eaisy have built any custom tab support into pocket plus but the didn't. They only support their today plugins because they can control them. They can garantee functionality. that they will work. If they allow you to put anything as a custom tab you will get all kinds of strange issues. Just check out the Pocket Breeze forums. :)
I'd say one thing that Spb is known for is stability. They test the crap out of most things before releasing it. which makes for stable programs but very few updates.. :( Good and bad.

So i don't ever see custom tab support for any Spb products.

[Jason Lee]

Wow! Just found something cool while digging through the registry. Diary supports seperate hight settings for portrait and landscape modes!! This was the biggest drawback about this plugin.

To set your landscape hight just switch to landacape mode on your pocket pc and open the options on diary! The hight value you set there will be used for landscape. When you rotate back it will use what you had it set to before! This is great! I found no mention of this on their site. :)

[Jason Lee]

Version 1.5.1 was just released.

Version 1.5.1 (July 18, 2005):

* Bug with freeze on expanding selected item fixed
* Several bugs in integration with Spb Pocket Plus 3.0 fixed
* Problem with Letter Recognizer fixed
* Some danish letters added to search panel


Neat that it mentions Pocket Plus 3.0. Hope it will be out soon too with lots of cool features.

[ctmagnus]

Version 1.5.1 was just released.

Version 1.5.1 (July 18, 2005):

* Several bugs in integration with Spb Pocket Plus 3.0 fixed

Neat that it mentions Pocket Plus 3.0. Hope it will be out soon too with lots of cool features.

I can hardly wait!

[Jason Lee]

Version 1.5.2 was just released.

Version 1.5.2 (August 04, 2005):

* Problem with incompatibility with RussKey SIP resolved
* Bug with creating notes on storage card fixed
* Tab names in Spb Pocket Plus are localized now


Also note. After installing I was missing almost 1 mb of storage space. After a bit of digging around I found that it does not delete it's cab file after install. You will need to go to where ever you installed it, default is /Program Files/Spb Diary/, and delete the cab. Deleted the cab and ran the installer 2 more times just to verify. It left the cab everytime.

Hopefully they will fix he installer soon. :)