SPB Mobile Shell launched

Published by Steve Litchfield at 15:11 UTC, May 25th 2010

SPB Software launched SPB Mobile Shell a few minutes ago, a favourite of many on other mobile platforms, for Symbian, specifically for S60 5th Edition smartphones (and presumably compatible with Symbian^3 in months to come). Highlights of this replacement front-end are multiple customisable homescreens, widgets for tasks, agenda, weather (etc), photo contacts, app lau ncher, full kinetic scrolling, adaptive skins and support for OpenGL and a (somewhat mind-blowing) 3D carousel. Video, more details, links and screens below. Comments welcome once you've tried the trial version!

From the the full SPB press release:

"With recent Gartner statistics showing that Symbian smartphones are the fastest-selling mobiles in the world, SPB Software is catering to the huge demand for customisation and personalisation on Symbian platform-based devices.

“Up until now there hasn’t been a good user interface for Symbian, despite the number of users out there,” said Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, CEO of SPB Software. “Our aim is to bring our experience with Windows Mobile users to Symbian (and other OS) enthusiasts. Last year we launched six projects for the Symbian platform and partnered with Nokia, StarHub and MTS, customising and helping implement the products for Symbian. The simple implementation process means manufacturers and mobile operators can easily customise the products on a variety of platforms to offer the same capabilities to all users.”

SPB Mobile Shell was initially launched in 2007 and has seen global success with many award wins and several million licences being shipped by more than 15 device manufacturers. SPB Software has also joined the Symbian Foundation, the organisation which manages the open source Symbian platform, to ensure its applications can truly meet its users’ and community’s needs.

SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 for is available for Symbian-based touchscreen devices (works on Symbian S60 version 5 devices onwards) from 25 May 2010. It can be purchased for $29.95 or a 15-day free trial version may be downloaded here."

Here's an illustrated look at some of the main features:

SPB Mobile Shell screenshot SPB Mobile Shell screenshot SPB Mobile Shell screenshot 

Personalisation, two views of the new 3D carousel

SPB Mobile Shell screenshot SPB Mobile Shell screenshot SPB Mobile Shell screenshot 

(Windows Mobile/Android-like) Wireless manager, built-in Weather client, Application launcher

SPB Mobile Shell screenshot SPB Mobile Shell screenshot SPB Mobile Shell screenshot

Favourite contacts, plus the widgetised homescreen, and a Calendar view

At $30 (£18), this is one of the more expensive bits of software in the mobile world. But it's also one of the most comprehensive and, potentially, game-changing in terms of the interface between you and your smartphone. SPB have been working on the Symbian version of Mobile Shell for at least six months and the attention to detail shows - this is a very slick piece of software, even though it's treading on sacred ground - changing the familiar homescreen interface into something new - and so won't be to everyone's taste!

You can download or find out more about SPB Mobile Shell here. There's also a FAQ and the full manual is online (PDF link).

Steve Litchfield, 25 May 2010



 

Filed: Home > News > SPB Mobile Shell launched

Platforms: S60 5th Edition, Symbian^3

Categories: Software, Links of Interest

News Discussion

viipottaja
Does it come with the great looking female friends? ;) Especially like the one whose hair is blowing in the wind...

On a serious note, looks promising. The carousel seems too much eye candy (or should I say iCandy?) for me personally to stomach, but I am sure many a user will be happy.
malerocks
The question on the top of my mind right now is really how much of a memory hog is this thing. As we all know, RAM is not something we have a liberty of in our Nokias. If this eats a lot of RAM and also slows my phone, I would certainly not be interested in this, even if it were free.

Does anybody have any info?
carman58
Just installed the free trial and my free ram dropped by over 20meg !!! Looks great but not sure if the N97 will even run with it installed, it does install to E so not all bad but will really slow things down, because as a piece of 'eye candy' it is very impressive. Shame :(
Unregistered
10mb of my precious and scarce RAM... Sorry but no way, although I'll miss the numeric keypad for contact search...
Unregistered
Installed on Nokia 5800 (with Ver 50. s/w) and only lasted 5 minutes before I got rid and went back to the default Nokia. Much too busy and confusing. Maybe if I give myself time to study it then it would seem to be more of a benefit. The standard Nokia interface might not ne too sexy but its pretty fast and if you've been using it for a while you can be where you want to be very quickly. So not for an old Nokia stick in the mud like me!
Unregistered
Wasn't this suppose to be called version 5?
Hih
Excellent software. Suites great for N97 Mini. :D

It's like having Symbian^3. :o
Unregistered
I personally am very happy with Handy Shell
Unregistered
My default screen already shows me the majority of things I need to know (time, date, battery, signal, wifi, calendar, to-do, missed calls, text messages, voice mail, shortcuts) without taking up too much real screen estate, so looks nice but no thanks.
serious60
Anything that rolls the screen in when going from one menu level to another is retarded eye candy and misses the point that transitions should be there to guide you not to confuse.

However, looks like it capitalists on some of the awful UI decisions made for S605.0 which has to be a good thing.
carman58
despite the massive loss of ram , it works so smoothly ! If only nokia could get the touch ui to work so well with the standard software ! Shows what the N97 could do (with double the memory) as it is , going to have to remove the shell to keep the phone functional :(
boxieblue
this is the last time anyone complains of Symbian OS's GUI not being as good as that of iPhone :D
Unregistered
I just installed this on the c: drive on my 5800 and it looks like a really impressive piece of software. The kinetic scrolling is quicker than with the v5 firmware. The multiple home screens runs equally smoothly.
Unregistered
Very impressive video! Looks very similar in function to HTC's Sense UI. This should be the standard for Symbian!
Chase33
Just downloaded the trial version on my 5800 XM and I must say it is quite impressive. Had no problems customizing the home screens and the overall UI is beautiful! Since I use my 5800 for just about all of my personal mobile computing and communication (aside from my company issued Blackberry) the quick navigation and smooth scrolling is useful. Have noticed no performance issues with most of my frequently used apps. If this trial period continues this well, I will purchase.
seki
Installs and works rather nicely on the Satio ..

Will give it a try for the trial period .. see how my battery likes it EDIT .. the battery use is fine .. After a day and a half only one minor issue .. thats the screen sometimes has a redraw issue (it only shows half the home-screen) if you rotate it its fine .. but rotate it back its still only half drawn .. might be a memory issue but I still have plenty left.

I'm not game to try this on the N97 :)
brrip
heh. this is proof that spb should just develop it with full eye candy like it's gonna be on android. no matter how much you minimize the RAM consumption, it's never gonna be enough for the nokia symbian phones so far. at least don't hold the satio/viva/i8910 back
dg1974
OVI maps is unreliable when running this program. Strange anomalies with the screen occur, like when clicking drive home the icons do not disappear. Also could not change screen to 3D by swiping across the screen.
You do not appear to be able to display email from Nokia messaging on the home screen.

N97 Mini
yitwave
On the N97, the app works quite well, seamlessly integrating most of the phones' function with this new UI. It does feel like the sense UI and has some elements of Symbian 4 approach. Its simply amazing that SPB can put out such a fully features UI in 6 months, and it actually looks and works better than what we're likely to see in the UI in Symbian^3

Things i liked:
- its pretty fast
- better kinetic scrolling than the N97 v21
- really nice UI and generally clear
- a decent number of widgets
- Very finger friendly and highly customizable
- Stable, it hasn't hung on me yet

As always, not everything works:
- email only works with the default email app and doesn't provide previews
- when rotating to landscape, the format rearranges but you can reorganize and save the format
- takes up ram, i tried to push the N97 and it had shutdown SPB shell, where reloading SPB takes a while

Overall, I liked it a lot. There are a few things holding me back that stops me from buying right now despite the price:
1) Email integration doesn't quite work now. I use emoze and the homescreen implementation currently doesn't link with emoze email box
2) Music buttons to control music player on homescreen is important for me. Please add a music widget
3) Should allow disabling of original homescreen, hopefully this will save some precious RAM

Definitely recommended
UKJeeper
I've had this running on my ancient QTEK 910 for a while now. Totally transformed the phone (insert joke about polishing a turd here><). Much nicer to use, even my kids liked it.


Will i put it on my i8910? Maybe not. I did try the beta while back and just didn't like it enough to keep it on for long (less than a day). Perhaps because i'm used to the v5 interface now, but SPB just didn't 'float my boat', at least on the Symbian.
ashg77
Been running the trial for that last few hours... my early impressions are very positive! Unfortunately, despite it having great customisability, it is missing some 'must have' features for me:

1) Nokia messaging widget
2) Music player widget
3) RSS feed widget

Without those, I will not be buying the app.
dg1974
Even on N97 mini, there is just not enough RAM free to launch some memory hungry programs.
Nice and slick but as previous comment no widgets for Nokia messaging or music player.
Need further work and will be great on the N8.
Uninstalling, just hope Nokia bring Symbian^3 memory management to the N97 mini.
spaceprobe
Loaded trail onto my 5800 xm and very impressed. I already had the Blue Pearl theme on my phone and I think it compliments SPB mobile shell very well. Downloaded to memory card with no problems and screen sensitivity and scrolling seems to be greatly improved. You need to spend some time playing with it, getting it laid out the way you want and discovering all the stuff it does. So far well impressed and if no problems will be purchasing, who needs an Iphone my 5800 is flying:)
splus
I played with it for last 2 hours, and then uninstalled it.
It takes 20MB RAM, which means I am left with 35MB free RAM instead of 55MB on my N97 mini. Just not enough for most applications, esp. Opera Mobile which popped up few times with Memory full error.
UI is nice and all, but I found myself actually needing more time to access programs and do things. Better form but less functionality than S60 5th UI.

It has some very nice things, like shortcuts for Bluetooth, Wifi, search through contacts with T9 keypad and multiple home screens which I will miss.
But at the end it feels like a polished different kind of GUI plastered on top of S60 5th which you get when you start any application or phone settings.

Some people will like it, some not, but at this current form it simply takes up too much RAM memory which Nokia phones simply don't have...
Unregistered
Obviously this software doesn't aimed to N97 and N97 mini since they support widgets in their homescreen. For 5800, 5230 and X6, this piece of software does provide a fresh look for homescreen. It works very well and definitely save time when launching software. Of course, it hit hard on RAM, but for normal usage, SPB Mobile Shell really a nice addition. Though I must say the price is a little bit too expensive.

Full thread: 54 Comments / Post New Comment

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