The Inbox tab functions much like the Calendar and Contacts tab in that you can select an email message and preview its contents in a pop up window on the Today Screen.  Your email itself is sorted by accounts available on your device including your ActiveSync email, SMS, MMS and Hotmail.  If you choose to reply to an email, simply tap-and-hold that email and select "Reply".  This will open your Outlook Inbox and allow you to compose your email.  Unlike Calendar and Contacts, Inbox does not integrate into 3rd party applications such as WebIS FlexMail 2006. 

Figure 10:  The Inbox Tab in Spb Diary 2.0

Figure 11:  The Email Pop Up Windows

The Task and Notes tabs are somewhat intuitive and function much like the Calendar and Contacts tabs in that pop up windows are available for you to see the content of a note or task without having to open the Task or Notes application.  Tasks and Notes can be sorted a variety of different ways which allows you to manage these items that fits your personal needs.  With this new version of Spb Diary, Phatware's PhatNotes are now accessible.  PhatNotes is one of the leading notes applications available in the Windows Mobile space and this attention to popular 3rd party applications by Spb in Diary will make the application more appealing to more users.  Additionally, text documents are visible to the Diary's Notes tab, further lending itself to being a true document management applet and not just one for notes.

Figure 12:  The Spb Diary Task Tab

Figure 13:  The Greatly Improved Notes Tab Allows You To See Text and PhatNotes Files

While the features of Spb Diary 2.0 alone make it a must-have application, the ability to customize the application and truly personalize it only add to its credibility.  Virtually every feature of Diary is customizable which allows you to make it work the way you need it to.  For example, you can have your Tasks displayed on your Calendar along with the events of the day.  As you can see by Figure 3, I have chosen to keep my Calendar separate from my Tasks.  Other customizations you have available include the date format, the format which items are displayed, the font used and how much of the Today screen you want the Diary plug in to use (measured in pixels).  There is also an auto-sizing feature of the Today plug which will allow Diary to dynamically adjust the size of the plug in based on the amount of space available. 

Figures 14, 15, 16:  Some Of The Customization Available in Spb Diary Via The Options Menu

With all of the features available in Spb Diary along with the customization and the outstanding new features and improvements in version 2.0, it is an application that most will be hard pressed to pass on.  It takes the Windows Mobile Today screen to a whole new level, making it fully functional and not simply a pretty picture.  With the attention to detail and tight integration with Spb's own applications as well as other developers, Spb has quickly become one of the, if not the, unofficial standards of Today screen plug ins.

Spb Diary 2.0 is available from a variety of online retailers for $19.95 (US).  For owners of version 1.x of Spb Diary, the upgrade will be $7.49 (US) to version 2.0.  Support for Diary is provided via well defined FAQs on the Spb Software House site as well as email.  For more information on Spb Diary 2.0, visit the Spb Software House website at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/diary/?en.  To purchase or try Spb Diary 2.0 from the Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! software store click here.

Clinton Fitch ~ MVP-Mobile Devices
Principal
Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!