May I present for your tasting pleasure, The iWindowsMobile Communication Suite

Ever been walking along and decide to make a quick call, and you have to drag out the silly non writing pen just to find the person’s number?. Or, your phone beeps, you have a text message and want to respond, and then realize (shudder) that your stylus is gone?

Windows Mobile Professional Devices (Touch Screen) are moving more toward finger friendly every day. Sometimes it just isn’t convenient to drag out the stylus. So what do you do?

Recipe:

1. Start with a WM Professional Device.
2. Add in equal parts: Goodwin, Fun Contact, SMS-Chat, and Zoomboard.
3. Do Not Shake or Stir.

Now for the taste test. And you even get to use your fingers.

The IwindowsMobile Communications Suite consists of 4 applications.

1′st is Goodwin: It is a combination of a power on info screen lock, and program launcher.

As seen in the above picture, when the device is powered on, you are given visual indications of: Top Bar – Battery status, Phone profile (more on this later), Time, and Carrier / Signal level. Next line: Unread SMS, Incomplete tasks, unread email, and missed calls. If you have unread items, a count is displayed in a red bubble. Middle of the screen: Time & Date. Last, the Lock allows you to unlock your screen by sliding your finger to the right.

This is the main Goodwin Launch screen. As displayed, I have 1 unread text message, 4 incomplete tasks (deleted 66 others to make it look like I keep up), no unread email, and no missed calls. Favorites include two additional parts of the communications suite, and M$ Activestink.

By flicking your finger from bottom to top, the screen will move (very smoothly) to allow selection of programs. If you press and hold any given icon, a small red bar will appear, and if held, you will be presented with options related to that program.

For example: If you tap & hold with your finger, as in the above example AppToDate, you will open a menu that will allow you to Run the program, Add it to favorites, or Uninstall the program (FROM YOUR DEVICE).

To access other programs, simply flick from bottom to top, and the screen will move.  System settings are toward the bottom of the list, and the options of Goodwin are at the very bottom.

The small arrows on the lower left & right can be used instead of flicking for finer control.

The 2nd part – Funcontact:

A very straightforward program, again, movement can be made by flicking your fingers.  An extremely nice feature – if you slide your finger down the bar on the side, you can select what letter you want the screen to display!

When a contact is selected, you are presented with a contact picture (if selected), a star (when selected) that indicates a favorite or frequently used person, and the available numbers.  If you select the SMS icon, SMS chat will start.

Call history displays just that.              And the final tab brings up a menu.

Next – SMS/Chat.

The initial screen shows any existing chats, with the dates they were active.  When a chat is selected, the actual chat screen is displayed.  As you can see, Blue indicates sent, green indicates received.

When starting a new chat, you select from the above screen, which functions just like FunContact.  Flick or drag.

From the main chat screen, these are the options provided.    The templates menu is for “canned” text.  The four above are provided, but more can be added.

Options from the chat screen are as pictured above.  Note:  You have the ability to “Add Recipients” essentially sending group sms’s.

The Final part of the suite is Zoomboard:

Zoomboard is an excellent screen input method.  Options for the type of zoom are as follows:

Full Zoom will magnify the entire keyboard.

Glass Zoom provides the magnifying glass centered & showing the selected key,

And finally, float zoom, where the magnifying bubble moves with your selection.

Conclusion

The entire suite is designed to work hand in hand, and does an outstanding job.  Whether starting from the Goodwin lock screen, or from FunContact, the transitions are smooth and well thought out.  Using these applications together can make stylus use a thing of the past.

My personal feelings with regard to the programs?  I think SMS-Chat and Zoomboard are “There”.  Goodwin & FunContact are solid, but some things that I think would improve the software……

For Goodwin:

1. Task count should be selectable-currently shows ALL tasks.
2. Program list should be user selectable.  For example:  I have Pocket Informant installed.  The launcher shows every shortcut in the PI subdirectory.

For FunContact:

1. Needs to have a sort by “File As”.
2. Cannot remove calls from the call history display.

The iWindowsMobile Suite will set you back $39.95, which is quite a decent discount if you buy the applications seperately.

The suite is compatible with Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and is available at iWindowsMobile, or you can also access it from the Vito Technology Homepage.

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