One of the challenges for most Windows Mobile you face is making use of the Today screen.  While there are a variety of plug ins available from a variety of developers, the challenge becomes having the plug ins needed to make the device useful while not making the Today screen so crowded that it becomes useless! This is particularly true when it comes to plug ins related to the mobile office suite of applications. 

Spb Software House resolved some of this with the introduction with Spb Diary in 2005 and with the latest version, 2.0, takes an already exceptional program and makes it truly one of the most indispensable applications available.  The latest version builds on the already outstanding set of features and along with a host of fixes and adds a host of new features and functions.  In addition to Calendar, Contacts and Tasks Notes and Inbox that were available in previous versions, 2.0 adds the ability to displaying Special Events along with adding photos to Contacts, easy Notes management and even application "skins"  to match your personal tastes.  It is without question the most complete and advanced version of this award winning application to date and easily is classified as a must-have application for Windows Mobile users.

Spb Diary 2.0 is installed via ActiveSync and requires approximately 900K of storage space on your Windows Mobile device.  This new version requires at least Windows Mobile 2003 as your device's Operating System and is fully compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0.  During the installation of the application, you are prompted to either choose the new look of Diary or the classic skin.  The notable difference between these two are the icon graphics within the application.  It is expect that, like their other applications, Spb will offer more skins after the launch of Diary 2.0.

Figure 1:  You can choose which skin you want to display Spb Diary in on your Today Screen

After the installation is completed, the Diary 2.0 Today plug in is automatically enabled.  The vertical tabs each represent the various functions that are built into the application which include Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, Notes, and Tasks.  With this new version, an additional tab for Special Events is available.  This tab allows you to quickly see upcoming birthday's, anniversaries and Spb Finance events so you do not forget them.  While such events are also displayed on the Calendar, this new tab is a nice and quick way to see what events you have coming up in weeks and months ahead.  In future releases, look for more to be done with the Special Events tab from the Spb Software House team.

Additionally, like previous versions of Diary, this version can be fully integrated into Spb Pocket Plus (for the Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! review of Spb Pocket Plus 3.0, visit http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/spb/pocketplus-3-0/default.asp).  By allowing this integration, Spb saves precious Today screen space while still allowing full functionality of the application.  Diary 2.0 is also fully compatible with Spb Weather 1.6.  Finally, key improvement to Diary has been the database access speed.  In previous versions it was not uncommon when tabbing from one feature to another for Diary to take several seconds to refresh the plug in and display the new information.  With 2.0, the speed is substantially better and on some devices is almost instant. 

Figure 2:  The new Special Events Tab

Figure 3:  Spb Diary fully integrated with Spb Pocket Plus 3.0

Note:  All Figures of Spb Diary from this point forward will be show as they are integrated with Spb Pocket Plus 3.0

With the calendar tab of Diary, the application displays all of your calendar events for a single day up to a week in advance.  The number of days that are displayed can be selected by tapping Today on the menu bar and selecting the number of days you wish to see.  Additionally, you can display the monthly calendar by selecting Calendar from this menu.  When this is done a pop-up calendar of the current month is displayed and scrolling forwards and backwards between months is done via the arrow icons.  If you are a Spb Weather 1.5 or higher owner, you will see that it is also integrated into the Calendar of Diary.  The icon displayed gives you the current conditions while tapping it will provide the forecasts for upcoming days.  Finally, the time span of your day is also displayed on the date line of the Calendar screen.  By tapping this you will see at a glance the times which you have appointments scheduled.  The colors on the time span match those of Outlook on your desktop as well.  While Spb has done a great job of integrating the Calendar function with their own applications, they have done an equally impressive job of integrating it with other developers as well.  Spb Diary is fully compatible with the default Calendar function built into every Windows Mobile device but will also integrate with WebIS' Pocket Informant as well as Developer One's Agenda Fusion.

Figure 4:  Choose the number of days you want to display on your Calendar Figure 5:  The Pop-Up Monthly Calendar Figure 6:  Full Integration with Spb Weather 1.6

Figure 7:  The Time Span Pop-Up Display

The Contacts tab is where many of the changes to this new version of Diary have taken place.  In version 2.0, you can now display photo contacts and not just text.  This useful feature allows you to quickly scroll your contacts, highlight the picture and either tap it with your stylus or press the Action button on your device to display the contacts information.  Further, because 2.0 is designed to be "stylus free", you can scroll using your devices D-Pad and Action button all your contacts and can even dial their number by simply scrolling to it and pressing the Action button.  This new feature allows you to turn your Windows Mobile device into a single-handed operated device!  Within Contacts in Spb Diary, you can choose to have your contacts sorted by first name, last name or how they were filed in Outlook on your PC as well as being grouped by Company or Category. 

Figure 8:  The New Photo Contacts Feature of Spb Diary 2.0

Figure 9:  The Quick Dial Pop Up Windows

Continue to Page 2...