Spb Pocket Plus 3.1 Released [Archive]

Darius Wey

03-02-2006, 07:00 PM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en' target='_blank'>http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pro.../pocketplus/?en</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The most powerful Today plug-in with tabs. Close button that really closes. ZIP support in File Explorer. And many other features missing in official OS updates in one product."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050720-SpbPocketPlus3.gif" /><br /><br />Spb Software House has just released Spb Pocket Plus 3.1 with plenty of new features and bug fixes for you to enjoy. Among the changes, you'll find improved compatibility with Windows Mobile 5.0, a new component uninstall tool, alpha channel support for the Today plug-in icons, a new icon library, extended backlight indicator support, and a battery drain fix. It's a free update for all v3.x users. If you've yet to try the application, you can download a free trial version from our <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=50351&productType=2">affiliate software store</a>, and purchase the full version for $24.95.

ctitanic

03-02-2006, 07:31 PM

I installed in the morning and I like the way they changed some icons and it seems to me that it's using less memory now. But.... The System Icons for Memory and Storage Devices are big now (32x32) and I can't find a way to make them look smaller (16x16), that was the way I had them before.

Anyone knows how to change them to that size?????

WorksForTurkeys

03-02-2006, 07:44 PM

Is it me, or does it now have a much bigger footprint? I seem to have 2MB less storage memory after installing v3.1 compared to v30.

Silver5

03-02-2006, 10:24 PM

Can it be installed over top of 3.0 or do I have to unistall first.

ctitanic

03-02-2006, 10:42 PM

Hey!!! I want my small icons back! How can I change them????

Jason Lee

03-02-2006, 11:05 PM

I love that you can remove features that you don't use now! Great idea!

2 questions about that:

If you remove features can you get them back by reinstalling?

And do the today themes show up as items to be uninstalled? I forgot to look as i always move them to my storage cars. :)

Edit: I just copied the today themes back from my SD card and they do show up under the remove parts!! And you can remove them individualy or all at once! Great work.

What happens if you delete all the icons? Is there any one that you need to leave for plus to work?

Darius Wey

03-02-2006, 11:19 PM

Darius Wey

03-02-2006, 11:21 PM

Can it be installed over top of 3.0 or do I have to unistall first.

The general advice is to uninstall the older version, then install the newer version. If you have a Windows Mobile 5.0 device, you'll have little choice in the matter, anyway, since it now forces an uninstall/reinstall routine.

Jason Lee

03-02-2006, 11:25 PM

Ok, i got impatient so forget most of my original post. ;)

I uninstalled everything I don't use including all icons except the tab icons. I have LoAdS more space now!

This has to be the best update to pocket plus ever. :D

Darius Wey

03-02-2006, 11:29 PM

If you remove features can you get them back by reinstalling?

I'd imagine. Reinstalling should simply "repair" the original installation by deploying the default program files. Generally, I think you only need to resort to uninstalling components if you're running really low on storage space. If you have a lot to spare and you don't use a certain feature in Pocket Plus, simply disable it.

Edit: I just copied the today themes back from my SD card and they do show up under the remove parts!! And you can remove them individualy or all at once! Great work.

You can also remove them in the Today applet by tapping Start > Settings > Today. Actually, this feature has existed for a long time now.

Edit: Oops, didn't see your new post.

urologyhealth

03-03-2006, 01:03 AM

Jason,

After doing full install--how do you get rid of those items never used to free up space and RAM?

Thanks,

Jerrold

Odyssey

03-03-2006, 01:04 AM

I first installed 3.1 over the top of ver3 and noted the amount of memory used. I then uninstalled version 3 and then installed 3.1. The amount of memory used did not change at all. I do like the new icons though.

Can anyone tell me if its safe to turn on the SD card memory monitor in the advanced section? I get a warning that it may cause a hard reset. I have an XDA IIi. Thanks

ctitanic

03-03-2006, 01:14 AM

Hey!!! I want my small icons back! How can I change them????

Aren't these linked to the extended themes? If you enter the Pocket Plus settings, highlight "Today Plug-in", select Feature Options, then the Appearance tab, you can choose whether to have those indicators follow the original theme or the extended theme.

got it! thanks!
question? what I about if I want to use the ext vga theme but the small icons? Everytime time I change to the ext vga theme those icons come back!

Odyssey

03-03-2006, 02:06 AM

I also noticed that by installing 3.1 from the Cab file I did not have the new icons. I uninstalled it again, downloaded the full version, installed that and now I have the new icons. Memory useage is still the same though.

Jason Lee

03-03-2006, 03:59 AM

Jason,

After doing full install--how do you get rid of those items never used to free up space and RAM?

Thanks,

Jerrold

go into the pocket plus options page and click on the tools menu. The uninstall components option is there.

pocketpcadmirer

03-03-2006, 04:27 AM

Selective Uninstall feature is great IMHO. This is great because I really didnt use some of the features which P+ offered

Sunny

ctmagnus

03-03-2006, 05:48 AM

Interesting thing: the new version uses different icons for some third-party apps than the default icons in the Start Menu.

Jason Lee

03-03-2006, 05:57 AM

Interesting thing: the new version uses different icons for some third-party apps than the default icons in the Start Menu.

Yeah, i thought that was pretty neat. Then i removed them. :lol:

ctmagnus

03-03-2006, 06:32 AM

Interesting thing: the new version uses different icons for some third-party apps than the default icons in the Start Menu.

Yeah, i thought that was pretty neat. Then i removed them. :lol:

D'oh! I glanced over that part of the description just briefly enough to have forgetten it. :oops:

Anyways, some of the new icons I like, some of them, not so much. I somewhat like the new ListPro icon but greatly despise the new PhatPad icon. So that one went back to the default. And I'm ambivalent at this point in time on the new Spb Time, FlexWallet and Bluetooth Manager icons.

Darius Wey

03-03-2006, 12:00 PM

Can anyone tell me if its safe to turn on the SD card memory monitor in the advanced section? I get a warning that it may cause a hard reset. I have an XDA IIi. Thanks

It's just a precautionary measure, I suppose. I have the storage card indicators enabled on all my devices and it works fine. If you're worried though, backup using an appropriate application (e.g. Spb Backup or Sprite Backup) before you enable it.

Darius Wey

03-03-2006, 12:14 PM

got it! thanks!
question? what I about if I want to use the ext vga theme but the small icons? Everytime time I change to the ext vga theme those icons come back!

If you switch to the Windows Default theme, then select the "Always use indicators from theme "<default>"" option, Pocket Plus will remember to use the small icons. So, if you switch to one of Spb's extended themes, that setting should still stick and the small icons should appear on screen (hopefully).

SHC

03-03-2006, 05:47 PM

Not happy! Installed new version and most of the programme icons have changed, I can't even find them to change them back. I restored from my back up file and they have still gone. Any ideas?

Darius Wey

03-03-2006, 06:14 PM

Not happy! Installed new version and most of the programme icons have changed, I can't even find them to change them back. I restored from my back up file and they have still gone. Any ideas?

It's because Pocket Plus' icon library has changed. The older icons have been replaced with a set of new, modern, glassy-looking icons. You can use those or revert back to the default program icon by tapping-and-holding a shortcut, and selecting "Change Icon". You can switch between icon libraries by using the drop-down menu that appears in the top-left.

SHC

03-03-2006, 07:34 PM

[/quote]It's because Pocket Plus' icon library has changed. The older icons have been replaced with a set of new, modern, glassy-looking icons. You can use those or revert back to the default program icon by tapping-and-holding a shortcut, and selecting "Change Icon". You can switch between icon libraries by using the drop-down menu that appears in the top-left.[/quote]

The problem icons are from the pocket plus icon set (installed separatley)which dont seem to show up and the icons (from a few skyscape programmes) have disapeared too - its a blank space where the icon should be. I can tap and hold to select the default icon, but the other icons have gone. Will try a reinstall again.

Update: managed to install and find the relevant icons except they are practically transparent and can hardly see them at all. Back to V3.0!

vassiliphilippov

03-03-2006, 08:21 PM

Thank you all for your feedback about Spb Pocket Plus 3.1.
This release was a bit risky for us in a way that we worked several months and did not create almost no new features (except new nice icons) but only improved speed, stability, customization and battery life. But I hope you will "feel" these resources were spent in right direction after you use version 3.1 for few days.

Let me answer some of the questions about Spb Pocket Plus 3.1:

Spb Pocket Plus 3.1 has almost the same footprint as 3.0. We have added new nice icons that increased our footprint but the same time we converted all icons to compressed format so altogether it is about the same size.

But what is good is that Spb Pocket Plus 3.1 is now customizable. You have control over its footprint on your device. If you do not use some features or some themes or icons you can uninstall them (Options->Tools->Uninstall Components). So if you need only basic features its size can be as small as about 300K.

If you uninstall some of the feautres you can retore them by reinstalling Spb Pocket Plus over existing one.

And about the the SD card memory monitor in the advanced section on XDA II devices. It is a bug in XDA II drivers. If ANY programs reads the storage card when battery is low it could cause hard-reset. It does not matter which program. For example you can read a book for the storage card using Microsoft Reader. Since storage card indicator in Spb Pocket Plus checks storage card we do not recommend activating this indicator on XDA II devices.

About battery life. We have improved our code in 3.1 so make sure there is zero activity of Spb Pocket Plus when it runs in background. We specially tested this scenario and in all our testings on different devices there was no measurable difference between battery life on a clear device (after hard-reset) or on a device with Spb Pocket Plus 3.1 installed.

Vassili Philippov
Spb Software House

Jason Lee

03-03-2006, 09:11 PM

I really think you guys did a lot in 3.1.
Most of the improvements were behind the scens but those were very important improvements.
I for one love the new features, especially the uninstall components and the battery life enhancements.
I use the program for the function not fire look. So the new icons really don't matter to me so I removed them. :)
I'll get used to the new glassy power button, no biggie.
I also don't use ext themes and cannot read the little font on the default ones so i edited the default icons to make the the font bigger. :D I just have those in a zip file for when i update plus. I just overwrite all the icons in the default folder. :) That way all my themes use my icons.

tospappy

03-04-2006, 05:25 AM

I have 3.1.0. Not sure when I last upgraded. What is the build on this latest release. Should I upgrade?

thanks

Jason Lee

03-04-2006, 06:55 AM

I have 3.1.0. Not sure when I last upgraded. What is the build on this latest release. Should I upgrade?

thanks

Version 3.1.0 Build 5287

ctmagnus

03-04-2006, 07:11 AM

Does anyone else not get Bluetooth Manager in the Close Menu? It shows up in the Running Programs list on my iPaq 5550 and it appeared in the Close menu with v3.0 but not with v3.1.

Jason Lee

03-04-2006, 06:40 PM

Does anyone else not get Bluetooth Manager in the Close Menu? It shows up in the Running Programs list on my iPaq 5550 and it appeared in the Close menu with v3.0 but not with v3.1.

nope, i don't get it either. Plus tapping the (x) does not close bluetooth manager anymore. :(
I know why the did this though. On my old hp 2215 if you closed the bluetooth manager the bluetooth radio would shut off. my sx66 doesn't have that problem but i bet some other ppcs do. I don't like this idea. It won't even close if i choose close from the pocket plus menu...
Of course the phone app does not show up in the list either, and tapping the (x) doesn't close the phone. I had a task manager one time that would actually kill the phone process. hehe. oops. time for a reboot. ;)

I think i would rather have the control to actually close the bluetooth manager but this is probably for the greater good. besides, if you turn off the bluetooth radio it closes the bluetooth manager for you.

I also use ITaskMgr for a full blown xp style task/process manager or you can even close it with the process tool in SK Tools.

galt

03-04-2006, 10:49 PM

How long until Menneisyys posts his review of this update and comparison to the other today screen apps? :wink: I'd really like to know if it is still slower than Resco's.

Frootloop

03-05-2006, 08:26 PM

ive just popped it on my hx2410 and am happy with it so far :) - i especially like the unwanted feature uninstall. new icon set is nice too

ive got most of the spb stuff, its made my ipaq much easier to use imo

ctmagnus

03-11-2006, 09:45 PM

Has anyone else noticed their Today plugin battery meter getting wonky? Mine tends to jump around - after a full charge, it can be anywhere from three hours reportedly remaining to four-and-a-half hours. The previous version had my device reporting towards six hours on a charge.

:confused totally:

Jason Lee

03-12-2006, 01:12 AM

I use it in % mode all the time. it works that way just fine. I've always found the estimated time a little quirky anyway.

Darius Wey

03-12-2006, 02:35 AM

ctmagnus

03-12-2006, 06:57 AM

I use it in % mode all the time. it works that way just fine. I've always found the estimated time a little quirky anyway.

I generally have it in % Mode as well. But I tend to tap on it every once in a while just to see what kind of battery life it's reporting.

Are you sure it's not your battery starting to show signs of aging? Bear in mind it's all an estimation, anyway.

That didn't occur to me. Another reason for me to upgrade. ;)

However, this just started happening with the new version of Pocket Plus. But I suppose if the battery is going, then uninstalling Pocket Plus and reinstalling (as was necessary with this upgrade) could reset the historical reading that existed for months prior.

ctmagnus

03-12-2006, 11:08 PM

Bear in mind it's all an estimation, anyway.

8O When I go into the power settings on the device, it reports towards eight hours left on a fresh charge, even though PP reports less than four hours. So I guess a grain or two or salt is needed here.

Darius Wey

03-13-2006, 01:03 AM

pocketpcadmirer

03-13-2006, 08:50 AM

Has anyone else noticed their Today plugin battery meter getting wonky? Mine tends to jump around - after a full charge

I'm getting the same weirdo thing. And yes, I am having a brand new HTC Blue Angel. I must mention that this happens only when the device is switched on. After few secs, battery indicator works fine

Sunny :?:

Darius Wey

03-15-2006, 02:03 PM

8O When I go into the power settings on the device, it reports towards eight hours left on a fresh charge, even though PP reports less than four hours. So I guess a grain or two or salt is needed here.

So, here's the deal:

The Pocket Plus battery meter is based on estimations and statistical data collected over time. Somehow, when you upgraded to the latest version, the stats cleared, thus forcing the battery meter to use a generic value.

As you continue to use Pocket Plus over the next few days/weeks, it will gather data related to the life of your battery, and so the battery meter will (should?) eventually work the way it used to.

ctmagnus

03-16-2006, 10:08 PM

The estimated time remaining has slowly been inching up but, at this rate, it should be reporting what the previous version did by mid-August. 8O iirc, previous versions got up to speed with battery life much faster than this version does.

Another version, another bug - ya gotta love software development cycles. ;)

Darius Wey

03-16-2006, 11:47 PM

Another version, another bug - ya gotta love software development cycles. ;)

I'll let the development team know.

pocketpcadmirer

03-17-2006, 06:55 PM

The estimated time remaining has slowly been inching up but, at this rate, it should be reporting what the previous version did by mid-August.

May be they have some tweaking with the formula which works on the battery data. Just a wild guess though

Sunny :lol:

ctmagnus

03-17-2006, 09:47 PM

I'll let the development team know.

Do you have a direct contact, or do you use the web-based contact form?

Darius Wey

03-18-2006, 02:53 AM

Do you have a direct contact, or do you use the web-based contact form?

I have direct contacts, plus I'm in the beta team, so we work together in ironing out any bugs.

StarTide

03-21-2006, 02:16 AM

All,

Been out of the PPC game for a bit... Does the current version PocketPlus allow the entire SPB Diary app to show as a tab/plugin? I want one tab for Diary with all of the Diary vertical tabs within the one PocketPlus tab. If not anyone know if it is on the request list?

Startide

ctmagnus

03-21-2006, 04:39 AM

All,

Been out of the PPC game for a bit... Does the current version PocketPlus allow the entire SPB Diary app to show as a tab/plugin? I want one tab for Diary with all of the Diary vertical tabs within the one PocketPlus tab.

That's exactly what I want as well. Unfortunately, you can only load individual Diary tabs into Pocket Plus at this point. That doesn't keep me from using both of them, though!

Darius Wey

03-21-2006, 06:04 AM

Been out of the PPC game for a bit... Does the current version PocketPlus allow the entire SPB Diary app to show as a tab/plugin? I want one tab for Diary with all of the Diary vertical tabs within the one PocketPlus tab.

As ctmagnus has pointed out, you can only integrate it as individual tabs.

If not anyone know if it is on the request list?

Yes, it has been requested by users before.

BukTop

03-21-2006, 04:52 PM

I want one tab for Diary with all of the Diary vertical tabs within the one PocketPlus tab.
We are planning to implement one tab integration in one of the future versions of Spb Diary :D Just want to ask if there is anyone using Spb Diary and Spb Pocket Plus who wants the existing (multi tabs) integration to be kept as well? :?:

Jason Lee

03-21-2006, 06:50 PM

BukTop

03-21-2006, 07:38 PM

I think if diary shows up complete with the verticle tabs under plus there really won't be a need for the single tab integration.
Did I understand correctly that it will be OK if we remove the current type of integration and replace it with new one (i.e. Spb Diary to be a solid tab in Pocket Plus and vertical sub-tabs)? Is there anyone who does not want this to be done?

Jason Lee

03-21-2006, 08:02 PM

Did I understand correctly that it will be OK if we remove the current type of integration and replace it with new one (i.e. Spb Diary to be a solid tab in Pocket Plus and vertical sub-tabs)? Is there anyone who does not want this to be done?

yes, remore the current integration and replace it with your new method where diary works under plus exactly like it works as it's own plugin. :)

I never put diary in plus because I loose all the functionality from the side tabs. Mostly the popup calendar.

I've tried it a few times to see if I liked it but always went back to having diary as it's own plugin.

Darius Wey

04-08-2006, 01:21 PM

The estimated time remaining has slowly been inching up but, at this rate, it should be reporting what the previous version did by mid-August.

I'm back with an update. :)

When you get a chance, download v3.1.1 (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en) (just released today). It resolves an issue with memory leaks, and of course, battery life prediction times.