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Spb Online v1 ReviewOctober 28, 2008 As cellular networks have expanded and improved, data communications have exponentially increased in speed. This increase in speed has dramatically changed the way that most of us use our Windows Mobile devices. No longer are we waiting for pages to load in Pocket Internet Explorer but rather they are up in an instant. Other services such as streaming video and music are not making their way to the mobile platform and the ability to download software directly to your device is very common today. Leveraging this increase in throughput on mobile devices, Spb Software House has released a new application Spb Online. As the name suggest, Spb Online provides a collection of online services, games and information all in one application on your Windows Mobile device. These services include streaming television and radio broadcasts, newsfeeds, games and software store. It is comprehensive in nature but easy to use thanks to its finger-friendly user interface and is one of the best online-centric applications I have seen to date - so much so that it is already a strong contender to be in my annual Top 10 applications for 2008. Yeah, it's that good. Spb Online has been available to mobile operators world wide for about 2 months now, giving them an opportunity to develop and include the application in their device ROM updates. While no carrier has done this yet, it is clear to see where carriers will have a big advantage by including it. Spb Online is installed either via ActiveSync (or Windows Mobile Device Center on Vista) or directly through a CAB installation and requires approximately 10MB of storage on your device although installation to a storage card is supported as well. The application requires that your Windows Mobile device be running v5.0 or later and that you have a 3G or wireless access on your device if you want to take advantage of streaming television and radio. For all of the other services, EDGE connectivity is sufficient. Finally, Spb Online is supported on QVGA and VGA devices with the VGA installation taking another 2MB of storage. When you first start Spb Online you will quickly see that Spb has drawn on their experience from Spb Mobile. The user interface is strikingly similar and the animations throughout the application are identical. Here you will also find all of the various components that make up Spb Online: Streaming television and radio, News, Weather, an online shopping and games section, ringtone and themes, all of which can be purchased securely and downloaded directly to your device. The real beauty of Spb Online is that there is nothing that the application offers that requires you to synchronize or even touch your PC. Everything, including secure credit card transmission directly from your device. Even better, the application's updates are done via your device's data connection and applied automatically. Gone are the days - at least as far as this application is concerned - of having to uninstall and reinstall an application to get the latest version. As you would assume, I've had Spb Online now since it's early beta days. Having automatic updates for various Beta and Release Candidates throughout the process has made reviewing this application a breeze!
The Streaming Television in Spb Online allows you to stream live television from a variety of broadcasters throughout the world. To utilize this feature your device will need to have a 3G connection or a wireless connection. EDGE does not provide enough bandwidth. The selection of channels includes SkyNews, France 24, KNBC Weather Plus, NASA and many more. The selection of channels is broad and covers English, Spanish, French and Russian speaking stations. Spb has stated that over the next several months more channels will be added to Spb Online as more television stations around the globe begin to stream their broadcasts. The list of channels available are displayed on the bottom of the screen which you can slide your finger across to scroll through them. After selecting a channel to watch, the view is changed to a full-screen, landscape view to provide you the maximum viewing area. Quality of the streams are pretty good, similar to that of video quality on YouTube. While viewing the television stream, you can adjust the volume up or down or pause the stream by tapping on the screen. This will display an overlay menu on the screen so you can adjust these settings.
Similar to Streaming TV, the radio function of Spb Online allows you to stream over-the-air radio broadcasts that are simulcasted onto the Internet by that station. Like the TV function, this gives you an opportunity to listen to radio from parts of your country or the world that you would normally not have the opportunity to enjoy. Unlike the Streaming TV however, you can listen to streaming radio on EDGE networks as it requires for less bandwidth. To begin listening to streaming Radio, tap the Radio button on the Spb Online interface then tap a channel you want to listen too. If you want, you can tap the "Click to add station" button. From here you can search for a channel to listen to by category - Music, news/talk, etc. - by region or by languages other than English. In all there are dozens of channels to enjoy. If you know the URL of your favorite Internet broadcast channel, you can also add it by using the Menu>Add URL menu.
The News section of Spb Online is essentially a built-in version of Spb Insight, Spb's RSS feed reading application. You can read a review of that application here at Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!. You can add channels via the Menu>Add Channel menu and can add them either by using the Spb Online catalog, searching for it, inputting the feed's URL or importing from an OPML file. Once you add the channels you can also choose to have Spb Online store the channel data on the device or on a storage card, making it memory friendly especially if your device is limited in this regard. Of all of the components that make up Spb Online, this is the most disappointing component of the application. Essentially nothing has changed from the latest version of the stand alone version of Insight to that built into Online. The application still does not have an automatic update nor does it handle podcasts well. Hopefully in future versions the News function will be improved.
The Weather function in Spb Online is fantastic both in appearance and functionality. If you are a user of Spb Mobile Shell then the Weather function is going to look strikingly similar to that application which makes it clear that Spb is wisely writing their code to be used multiple times. How does this benefit you? Keeping costs down keeps the prices low!
While there are clear similarities, there are difference for sure. The Weather function in Spb Online provides a much greater level of detail to the forecasts as well as providing up to 7 days of forecasts. If you tap on any of the days, including the current one, you will see a breakdown of that day's weather including the amount of cloud cover or precipitation, the humidity, wind and barometric pressure forecast for that part of the day. Because Spb Online is touch friendly, you can flick your finger up the screen to scroll down to see additional days. Likewise, you can have multiple cities and can slide your finger side-to-side to scroll from city to city. Adding a city is done by tapping the Menu>Add City menu. From the menu you can also change between Celsius and Fahrenheit as well as remove cities you no longer need.
As disappointed I am in the lack of improvements in the News section versus that of Spb Insight, I'm overjoyed with the Weather application in Spb Online. It is attractive and functional, making it a must have for people who travel a lot (Clinton raises his hand). The next four sections of Spb Online - Shop, Games, Ringtones and Themes - are what really make Spb Online shine in my opinion. While streaming radio and television are great, the ability to have fun and personalize your device to your liking without having to tether your device to your PC is fantastic. It not only shows the power of the devices themselves these days but also the power of this well written and thought out application. As the name suggest, Shop in Spb Online allows you to shop, preview and purchase programs, games, ringtones and themes for your device to make it more "you". Better yet, you can download these straight to your Windows Mobile device over-the-air (OTA), eliminating the need to connect your device to your PC. This OTA aspect includes the actual purchase of the product! Your credit card information is encrypted and transmitted to the secure Handster.com site, giving you peace of mind about inputting your card information into your device. How easy is it to purchase online using Spb Online? Let me show you! I'll use the example of selecting a new Theme to purchase. First, tap the Shop (or in this case Themes) button on Spb Online. Next, select the category of theme that you are interested in purchasing. In my case, I'm interested in the Nature themes.
Next, tap on a theme you like and it will display that theme in a small version on your screen. If you want to see what it looks like taking up the full size of your device's screen, just tap it and you are given a full size preview. To close the full screen preview just tap the X.
If you like what you see and want to purchase the theme, tap the Purchase button and you will be prompted to enter your name, credit card information and security information. This information will be stored on your device so you only have to enter it once.
Once your purchase is verified and completed, you will see a button to download that item that you purchased. Tap it and it will automatically begin the download process.
Once the theme's download is complete, tap the Select Soft Key and your theme is automatically installed!
If you go back to the Themes page you will note something important. Now next to the theme you have purchased you will see a small green checkmark icon. This indicates that this times - application, ringtone or theme - has been downloaded and installed on your device. While you can still tap and purchase something again - it doesn't prevent that - it is a quick and easy way to see what you have purchased already.
You will find that with almost every aspect of the Shop application you can preview or download a trial before you purchase. Take for example the Ringtones. You can selected a ringtone and you will be presented a play button which you can tap and the application will play the ringtone for you. You will know exactly what you are purchasing when you do so so there is little chance of you not liking it one you have purchased it.
As I mentioned before, the Ringtones and Themes can be accessed and purchase either through their respective icons on the Spb Online display or through the Shop. The functionality is identical whichever way you decide to access them. The last major component of Spb Online are the Online Games. In all, there are three games which you can plan online: Checkers (in English and in Russian), Hexagon and Reversi. With all three games, you can use either a 3G or EDGE connection with no problem given their low bandwidth requirements. The first thing you will need to do is create a profile by tapping My Profile. Here you can create your nickname as well as a small icon that represents you in the Spb Online gaming world. Once you done, tap the game you want to play and you are automatically connected with another player to being playing.
The games themselves are full screen making them easy to see and big enough for you to use a finger instead of a stylus should you desire to do so. At the top of the screen you will see your icon and name on the left while your opponent is show in the upper right. Between them is a countdown clock showing how much time you have left to play your turn as well as a speech bubble icon which will allow you to chat with your opponent during the game.
If you tap on your opponent in the upper right you will be shown their record - Wins, Draws and Losses as well as their device and location.
While most people know how to play Checkers, Hexagon may be a bit of a different story.
While all of the games give you an indicator of the legal moves you can make, most would still like to understand how the game is played. No problem! Just tap the Menu>Help menu and you will have instructions on how to play any of the games.
If you look at Spb Online as a whole you can see that it is a fantastic concept that is well executed by the Spb team. There are some rough edges for sure, especially around the News function but it is workable. The ability to buy securely online from the application itself is fantastic and makes the buying experience quick, simple and fun. The automatic updating of the application over the air is another nice feature and one that frankly every developer should figure out how to do. Spb Online is a definate winner and I can't wait to see how this application continues to grow. Spb Online is available for $29.95 from our software store. It is also one of our Top 50 applications so you can save 20% through December 2008 by using the coupon code CFTOP50 when you check out. What I Like: What I Don't Like: |
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