The Contacts feature of Spb Dairy is one of the best aspects of this outstanding application.  By having contact information displayed on the Today screen, it eliminates the need to use hardware or software buttons and multiple taps to view them.  This makes finding a contact, especially when on the road, quick and safer.  Further, the contact tab has alphabetical tabs along the bottom to allow you to tap to spell an contact name to narrow down your searches.

With version 1.5 of Spb Diary, you gained the ability to access Notes via the Today screen.  The Notes tab itself has a list of notes on your device and a single tap of notes icon will display a quick reminder of the contents of the note.  Now in version 1.7, you can also delete and open notes as well from the pop-up. Further, now have conversion tool which will allow you to convert your Note text, ink or voice to an appointment, task or contact.  This is a nice addition and very handy! 

Also new to version 1.7, you gain the ability to view their Inbox or Messaging from the Today screen.  When you have an account synchronized via ActiveSync, Exchange or have an account setup directly on your device, Spb Diary can now display your messages, eliminating the need for a separate plug-in to do so. Further, if you single-tap a message, the message is displayed in a pop-up box so you can preview the message!  This again is another example of attention to detail that the Spb team seems to strive in doing.

With all of the office suite applications, you have the ability to integrate not just to the standard applications but to 3^rd party applications such as WebIS’ Pocket Informant 2005.  This is a nice touch as it gives you the similar look-and-feel you have when using Pocket Informant 2005. 

While the functions of Spb Diary alone make it a must-have application on many your lists, the ability for you to customize each aspect of it pushes it even further up that list.  Simply put almost every visual and display aspect of Spb Diary can be customized to fit each individual user’s desires and needs.  To access the settings menu, tap-and-hold the tabs section of the Today plug in and choose Options….  The Options are divided into the various categories of the plug-in (Calendar, Task, Contacts and Notes) as well as a General category and Category Icons.  Each of the PIM categories allow you to change the appearance of the information on the Today plug-in to suit their needs and style preference.  For example, on the Calendar options, one can change the way appointments are displayed, the font used, the number of days to display and which icons to show on the appointment.  While Spb Diary does not have the huge amount of customization as similar applications, it does hit the ones that are most important and most widely used.  This makes the application far less confusing and easier to set up.

Along with the host of new features in version 1.7, Spb has also dramatically improved and stabilized the speed and performance of Diary with this release.  This is particularly true for Windows Mobile 5.0 owners.  There are other features as well not mentioned in my review that have come directly from Spb Diary owners. 

It is clear that Spb means business and this new release of Spb Diary puts them well ahead when compared to similar applications.  The improvements – both in usability and in performance – make Diary a first class application that should be standard issue for all Windows Mobile device owners.  I can only hope they develop a Smartphone version! 

Spb Diary is available from the Spb website for $14.95.  Current Spb Diary owners can upgrade free-of-charge.  The Spb Diary website is located at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en.

Clinton Fitch ~ MVP-Mobile Devices
Principal
Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! (http://www.clintonfitch.com) & HPC:Factor (http://www.hpcfactor.com)