SPB Mobile Shell provides a completely new user interface for your Pocket PC.
For me, the Windows Mobile user interface has always been poor. It's not particularly touch-friendly, it feels very rigid and above all, it's ugly.
SPB Mobile Shell rights the wrongs in the Pocket PC's front end - then adds new functionality on top of this. The application is essentially a new skin for your Windows Mobile OS, and this latest version of SPB Mobile Shell lets you apply all manner of new tools and features too.
SPB Mobile Shell comes with a completely customizable new Today screen. Not only can you change the background image, but you can alter the items that appear on this screen, such as weather, contacts, missed calls, battery status, etc. Each of these elements comes with its own stylish icon, and you can change the size of the icons and reposition them using SPB Mobile Shell's intuitive layout editor. You can have two default layouts that you can switch between with ease.
Quicker app switching
The 'Launcher' in SPB Mobile Shell offers a more user-friendly way of accessing your apps, documents and settings. It displays your Favorites at the top, then shows Recently Used items underneath in an easily scrollable view. Again, all of this can be customized. SPB Mobile Shell comes with a Coverflow-style task switcher that lets you flick between apps with the flick of a finger.
The Contacts section in SPB Mobile Shell also improves upon what you get by default in Windows Mobile 5 and 6. You can browse contacts via picture thumbnails, and the contact dialer includes more options such as shortcut buttons for SMS, email and other phone numbers.
Fun with widgets
Version 3.5 of SPB Mobile Shell adds a number of cool new 'widgets' to the program, giving you faster access to your social networks. For instance, you can connect with Facebook to make status updates and post tweets onto Twitter without leaving your Today screen. There's also a powerful Tasks widget for keeping on top of everything in your agenda. The widgets in SPB Mobile Shell are so addictive that you'll wish there were even more of them available to download.
SPB Mobile Shell is such a powerful tool that you could almost label it as 'essential' given the enhancements it makes to the Windows Mobile operating system.
