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View Full Version : Spb Diary 1.7 Released - Support for Messages; Integration with Finance & Weather


Darius Wey
02-03-2006, 03:30 AM
<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 Software House announces the release of Spb Diary 1.7. Spb Diary is a feature-rich Today plug-in for your Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Notes and Messages. It enhances Pocket Outlook by gathering all of your PIM information in one place. The new version introduces a bundle of new features like the Messages Tab, an auto-height adjustment feature, native birthdays support and integration with Spb Finance as well as improved speed, better usability in the Notes Tab and many other changes. It is the hundreds of small features and improvements that altogether make a product truly useful and this is what we set out to accomplish with Spb Diary 1.7. The main goal for this release was to make Spb Diary so easy and fast to use, that you can almost forget about it and concentrate on your business."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060203-SpbDiary17.gif" /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en">Spb Diary 1.7</a> is here, and it includes plenty of new features of which you can learn more about below. You can download a free 15-day trial version or purchase the full version for $14.95 from <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=163904&productType=2">Handango</a>. Current Spb Diary users can upgrade to v1.7 for free. [Affiliate] Clinton Fitch has also written a detailed review <a href="http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/spb/diary-1-7/default.asp">here</a>. <!><br /><br />Here is the brief overview of new features and main changes introduced in Spb Diary 1.7:<br /><br />• <b>Messages Tab:</b> see your emails and SMSs, quickly preview them and perform most frequent action (reply, forward, delete, call) in one tap. This was the most frequently requested feature.<br />• <b>Auto height adjustment:</b> this feature forces Spb Diary to extend automatically in order to fill unused Today screen space. Never spend time trying to best fit your Today plug-ins anymore! We think this feature will become a standard for PIM Today plug-ins.<br />• <b>Notes Tab improvements:</b> one tap edit and delete from note preview, converting notes to appointment, task or contact. If you use notes you will immediately feel the difference.<br />• <b>Integration with Spb Finance:</b> Spb Finance users now can see scheduled transactions on the Calendar Tab<br />• <b>Speed optimizations:</b> the performance of initial loading, changes handling and synchronization handling was vastly improved. Windows Mobile 5 users should notice the greatest speed improvements.<br />• <b>Birthdays:</b> now birthdays and anniversaries are shown in the Calendar Tab along with other events.<br />• <b>Integration with Spb Weather:</b> weather forecasts are now shown and updated even if the Spb Weather plug-in is not shown on the Today screen.

ctmagnus
02-03-2006, 04:08 AM
• Auto height adjustment: this feature forces Spb Diary to extend automatically in order to fill unused Today screen space. Never spend time trying to best fit your Today plug-ins anymore! We think this feature will become a standard for PIM Today plug-ins.
• Notes Tab improvements: one tap edit and delete from note preview, converting notes to appointment, task or contact. If you use notes you will immediately feel the difference.

Auto height adjustment is something I've wanted in either this or Pocket Breeze for a very long time. And the ability to convert a note to an appointment, task or contact is something that even Pocket Informant can't do.

:rock on dude!:

My Today screen is so uncluttered now. :)

alex_kac
02-03-2006, 06:11 AM
And the ability to convert a note to an appointment, task or contact is something that even Pocket Informant can't do.

You can actually convert any text in the PI Edit menu to a task, appointment, or contact. So in that way, open a note, select the text and convert that bit of text to a PIM item.

ctmagnus
02-03-2006, 06:57 AM
And the ability to convert a note to an appointment, task or contact is something that even Pocket Informant can't do.

You can actually convert any text in the PI Edit menu to a task, appointment, or contact. So in that way, open a note, select the text and convert that bit of text to a PIM item.

If you open the note.

Thanks, I had forgotten about that. :duh:

pivaska
02-03-2006, 02:35 PM
Can't live without this app! Auto height just made it that much better and now the fact that I can do the message thing is over the top. First uninstalled the old version saving my options and then installed the new version....smooth as silk. Checked to see if they increased the size of the app but it was exactly the same. Job well done!!!

Jason Lee
02-03-2006, 05:27 PM
Wow, nice update. Love the new features as usual. :)
The Spb Finance integration is amazing! It is exactly what i need. Way better the Finance today plugin!
The new birthday feature is nice too, although i already had mine setup with icons and everything.
I think i like the new auto resize. I wonder if it will cause any slow down?
Absolutly love the new messaging tab.


It is a little bigger though. Somewhere between 100-200kb so not much bigger. :)

Muntasser
02-03-2006, 06:37 PM
pretty. Try SPB sphere theme - see if u like the look > so clean

gt24
02-03-2006, 06:40 PM
Why is this application out there when it is essentially the same as Pocket Breeze? What makes them different and why do they have to be seperate applications? Am I missing something here?

Jacob
02-03-2006, 06:50 PM
Why is this application out there when it is essentially the same as Pocket Breeze? What makes them different and why do they have to be seperate applications? Am I missing something here?

One word: Competition.

There are a lot of similarities between the two, but also some differences. What's wrong with that?

Muntasser
02-03-2006, 07:01 PM
Why is this application out there when it is essentially the same as Pocket Breeze? What makes them different and why do they have to be seperate applications? Am I missing something here?


dude! install it and see. its VERY different. its 2AM so i cannot be bothered explaining why. just check it out.

ps- remember to go into the options menu>general and tick auto-adjust box. really this should have been enabled by default - meh.

BukTop
02-03-2006, 07:12 PM
Wow, nice update. Love the new features as usual. :)
The Spb Finance integration is amazing! It is exactly what i need. Way better the Finance today plugin!
The new birthday feature is nice too, although i already had mine setup with icons and everything.
I think i like the new auto resize. I wonder if it will cause any slow down?
Absolutly love the new messaging tab.
Thanks for your report, Jason! Auto resize feature does not cause any slow down for sure because it works only when something is changed in plug-in configuration, i.e. very rarely. As for Finance plugin we do already have this request in our queue! :lol:

Sincerely,
Victor Bargachev
Spb Software House

Constant Caffeine
02-03-2006, 08:02 PM
Do you know if the trial version has any limitations to the full version?

Darius Wey
02-03-2006, 08:17 PM
Do you know if the trial version has any limitations to the full version?

They're exactly the same, except the trial version is set to timeout after 15 days.

Jason Lee
02-03-2006, 08:59 PM
Oh, the finance plugin is fine. I know that i will never use it again though because now diary does exactly what i used the finance plugin for. :D
I only used the finance plugin to see when my next scheduled transaction was comming up. Now diary does that but even better. It is in context with all my other appointments and tasks!
Great work guys.

As for why diary and pocket breeze both exist:
I own the registered version of both programs and let me tell you they are very different. They may kinda do the same thing but they go about it very differently.
I use diary most of the time because of how well it works with all my other spb programs. Plus it is much easier and faster to change display options.
pocket breeze is waaaaaay more customizable. I change it from time to time from everything turned on to the bare minimum only displaying what i want to see. Great fun.
also the development of both programs is very different. Pocket breeze is always in a state of beta. hehe. they are always adding new feature and fixing bugs. Updates come sometimes as often as once a week! Those guys are nuts. ;)
but such as it is there is always something wrong with pocket breeze. always a little bug here and there on the list to be fixed. but it will be fixed. they always are.
diary updates are few and far between. however when they come out they are complete and work right.

I like both ways. I've had a mail tab in pocket breeze for months now. when it was first released there were bugs and issues but they always get worked out.
now that diary has been updated it has a messaging tab and so far it works flawlessly. I had to wait a few months to use it though.

how you use and interact with diary and pocket breeze is very different as well.

It all depends on what you like. I happen to like both so i own both. :D I just try not to use them at the same time. hehe.
If you are a PB user and really want to know just install the trial of diary and give it a whirl. It uninstalls very well too so you won't have to worry about clutter left behind.

Jason Lee
02-03-2006, 10:54 PM
Oh, if anyone from spb is still reading, why is it important to remove the old version first?

When it said that i should remove the old version i hit continue, thinking that it was going to remove it for me. Which i don't believe it did. So i totally uninstalled diary and removed the setting and everything then reinstalled. But that was uninstalling 1.7 not 1.6. Was there something that uninstalling 1.6 was supposed to remove or clean up that i can do manually? Stray dlls floating around, extra images in the windows directory, extra settings in the registry?

Thanks. :)

BukTop
02-04-2006, 01:37 AM
Oh, if anyone from spb is still reading, why is it important to remove the old version first?
Hi, Jason! It is recommended to uninstall previous version first because due to a bug in the previous version there is a small possibility of spontaneous soft-reset while installing over. If this happens, after device is loaded you have old version uninstalled while new version not installed, which can be really confusing. So there is nothing else wrong with this warning ;)

Jason Lee
02-04-2006, 07:25 AM
ah, cool. thanks for the info. :)

myrampar
02-05-2006, 01:29 AM
Hello,

I'm sure that I've overlooked the setting somewhere, but how do you get the tabs for the Diary items to show up vertically on the left side of the Today Screen?

Thanks!

Darius Wey
02-05-2006, 02:22 AM
I'm sure that I've overlooked the setting somewhere, but how do you get the tabs for the Diary items to show up vertically on the left side of the Today Screen?

The tabs should show on the left, by default. Have you got Diary integrated into Pocket Plus? If so, enter the Pocket Plus Today plug-in settings, and remove the Spb Diary tabs.

myrampar
02-05-2006, 07:42 AM
Thanks Darius!

That was it. I had the SPB Diary items integrated into the SPB Plus today screen plugin. Removed them and now everything looks right.

Cheers!

Darius Wey
02-21-2006, 03:57 AM
Just a heads-up that Spb Diary 1.7.1 is out:

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

* Icon disappearing when Spb Diary is installed on a storage card (WM5) bug fixed
* Bluetooth tray icon disappearing bug fixed
* Birthdays shown one day later bug fixed
* Voice notes deleting if convertion is failed bug fixed
* Now notes and emails are loaded only when the corresponding tab is selected
* Several not translated strings are now translated
* Empty line in context menu bug fixed
* Inability to assign icons to some categories bug fixed
* Minimal plug-in height bug fixed