Review: GoodWin — a winning launcher/task manager?

Posted by: Ragart on Jan 20 2008 - 1,478 views

I’ve never been a fan of the round-about way you have to access programs by default, and the Microsoft team didn’t really leave users with any clear cut way to manage programs (I’m sorry, but Start –> Settings –> Memory is no replacement for true task switching. Developer VITO seems to be in the same boat, and have offered their own program to help users:

• Forget about the stylus and the Start Menu
• Run, close, uninstall, and switch between programs with ease
• Add programs to favourites for quick access.
• View battery’s charge level and switch phone profiles

How does GoodWin measure up as a task manager and program launcher? Is it going to help users finally take more control over their system?

Hit the jump and let’s find out!

[NOTE: GoodWin was updated a month or so after I wrote this review. Here are some of the updated impressions]

 

Just like the recently reviewed ZoomBoard, GoodWin is part of VITO’s iWindowsMobile mini brand. These products aim to bring a stylus-free Windows Mobile experience to the user. But before I get into specifics, let’s get the program onto the device….

 

Installation

Installation with GoodWin is a breeze — consisting of an .exe you download from the iWindowsMobile website and double-click to install via Activesync. It automatically installs itself to the main memory, taking up around 1 MB of space.

GoodWhat?

So what exactly is GoodWin going to do for you? At its core, it offers a complete replacement (or shell) of the regular Windows Mobile Programs (shown right) and Settings sub-menus. Once the program is installed, you’ll never need — or want — to look back. Gone are the days of:

1. tapping the Start button,
2. tapping Programs,
3. waiting for Programs to load,
4. scrolling with the stylus or d-pad, and then launching

GoodWin cuts out all those steps and includes all programs and control panel applets in one long, touch-scrollable list.

Let’s Get Started…

The first screen upon boot-up is the lock screen. It also comes on after waking the device from sleep. Simply holding down on the white padlock and dragging it to the right unlocks the screen. Once that’s done, the digital clock and padlock disappear and are replaced by a slew of icons.This is the main screen.

The Lay of the Land

GoodWin has five basic sections:

1. The Top Bar — Battery, Phone Profiles, Carrier/Signal
2. Indicators — SMS, Time, E-Mail, Phone/Missed Calls
3. Favourites & Running (henceforth written as: F&R) — Icons of all user-defined favourites, as well as currently running programs
4. Programs — Icons of all the programs installed on your system, sorted alphabetically.
5. Settings — Icons of all the control panel applets you’d normally find in Start –> Settings. Also sorted alphabetically.

The top bar’s battery meter can apparently be tapped to activate the Windows Mobile battery applet, but the shortcut didn’t work on my HTC TyTN. The small bell icon beside it activates a pop-up menu of phone profiles (shown left).

Just below the top bar are the indicators. These four light-blue buttons (as shown in the above lock-screen screenshot) are quick shortcuts to essential phone applets: SMS, E-mail, Alarms, and the Phone application itself. They will also light up with numbers when you have a new item in one of those applets (e.g. a missed phone call). Although the manual says the SMS and E-mail indicators take you to Text Messages and Outlook E-Mail respectively, they both just took me to the last account I used in Messaging.I reported this bug to VITO and I believe they’re looking into it. Right underneath the indicators lies the F&R section. There are a few status icons to differentiate the large icons:

• Favourite programs are designated by a small star under the icon.
• Favourite settings are designated by a green spanner.
• Currently running applications have a blue arrow underneath them.
• A small red ‘x’ indicates the program can be uninstalled by GoodWin (a unique feature in a launcher, as far as I know)

Below the F&R section lie the Programs and Settings sections. Clicking on any icon in these sections will launch the program or applet (e.g. Buttons, Wi-Fi), while tapping and holding presents you with a pop-up menu (shown right). Once you add an icon to favourites it’ll show up in the F&R section. Simple enough. Finally, at the bottom of GoodWin’s list, is the program’s menu button (shown below):

A Solid Program

Having used GoodWin as my primary launcher for around 10 days, I’ve actually grown quite fond of the simplicity of its design. It really is markedly easier managing all your programs on one screen (rather than multiple screens a la Windows Mobile), and the idea to put favourites and running programs together in one section is unique to GoodWin. Other popular launcher solutions (SPB Mobile Shell, SPB Pocket Plus 4, SBSH iLauncher 3.1) include task managers as well, but they’re always separated from the launcher sections. Kudos to VITO on this one: it does make sense to put what you are using alongside what you’re most likely to use.

The release version is solid and I never experienced any crashes or memory leaks. The program itself takes up about 3 MB of my RAM, which isn’t bad considering all of what it does. One strange thing I encountered was that the "System Info" applet kept opening up in my F&R section, although I’d never launched it. But that might be a purposeful move on VITO’s part to provide easy access to more, well, system information. What is really puzzling, however, is the lack of landscape support. Each of the other iWindowsMobile programs I’ve tried features landscape support, and I’m not sure why GoodWin was left out. Other than that, all I can really discuss now is how I think the program could be polished.

Polishing It Up…

Lock Screen — There are a few inconsistencies that struck me during my use, the first of which is the lock screen. The lock screen is completely functional, but the animation isn’t quite as smooth as it could be. Dragging the padlock along tends to be a skipping process more than a sliding one. This is inconsistent with the smooth animation of the way that icons slide up neatly in the lists, or the way a small red loading bar appears above icons as you tap-and-hold them.

Task Management — The task manager works well, though I did have some issues with its loading of currently running programs. Pocket Player 3.5 (a music program with a large .exe) takes half a second to switch to when using Pocket Plus 4, but four seconds when using GoodWin. Additionally, I found it perplexing that Phone and Messaging show up in the list of F&R, since they are already accessible just above as indicator buttons. It would save two icons of space if GoodWin just excluded these two programs from the F&R section.

The Indicators – I am also surprised that the indicators (the four light-blue buttons, shown right) are actually part of the scrolling list in GoodWin, and not left static like the top bar containing the battery meter. So when you scroll down to the Programs or Settings section, you don’t have quick access to phone notifications. It would definitely be handier to have the indicators’ information visible at all times, especially since one of them is a live clock (and there is no other way to tell the time when inside GoodWin).

Potential as a Today Screen Replacement

One thought that popped into my head during testing was how well this program presents itself as a today screen replacement. Sure, it didn’t have any plugins for calendar information, but with the F&R section, the calendar’s just a click away. With new PDA’s like the HTC Touch (which are very minimal on the hardware button inclusion), it can become more difficult to find spare keys (even soft keys) to launch programs with. I thought it would be useful to have a simple do-it-all screen for PDA users, and the today screen seems like real estate that GoodWin could easily replace. I do not think it was VITO’s intention to try and replace anything, but the possibility is there nonetheless. A lot of the key functions are already in place.

Wrapping Up

GoodWin is definitely a recommendable piece of software for users looking to make their device more finger-friendly. It completely removes the need to go through the slow, microscopic start menu to operate your daily driver applications. VITO has also done a good job of introducing some new, unique features (uninstallation, favourites and running) to a launcher, which certainly helps it stand out in an already crowded product category. It’s all good with GoodWin.

Product Info:

Name: GoodWin

Version: 1.0

Price: $19.95

Availability: iWindowsMobile

Some images were taken from iWindowsMobile.com

Technorati Tags: VITO,iWindowsMobile,GoodWin,launcher,Task Manager

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