PIEPlus provides great IE Mobile enhancements for my Treo

I guess for most of Windows Mobile users have already understand that the Internet Explorer (IE) Mobile, which comes pre-installed with every Windows Mobile devices, isn't that great for browsing the net.

To say the truth, the current version of IE Mobile is just offer a sub-par experience or even below for avid mobile users. The next version, IE Mobile 6 is promised to be released soon, so in the mean time we need to find something to fill in the gap.

Not everyone wish to completely replace the IE Mobile with other mobile browsers available in the market today like Opera Mini, Skyfire or Iris. Take for an instance: me, I don't want to bloated up the limited resources of my Treo 750v with power hungry apps. I just need the already existing mobile browser inside my Treo for simple web browsing, with few additional features to make me more enjoy surfing the net.

That's why after I fixed my Treo, I didn't forget to re-install back one of the best enhancement apps for IE Mobile: ReenSoft PIEPlus. But first, before we get to the PIEPlus, allow me to straighten up the naming of the app. PIE or Pocket Internet Explorer, is the formerly known name of IE Mobile before Windows Mobile 5.0 was born.(as explained by the Wikipedia).

PIEPlus does a good job in providing additional features that are needed in the aging IE Mobile, you can find the complete list of PIEPlus' features at its website complete with screenshots. I'm just going to mention the most useful ones, which I often use for day to day browsing.

Extended options for more features

When you have finished install PIEPlus into your Windows Mobile device, there won't be a shortcut icon to launch it because automatically PIEPlus will start along with IE Mobile. You'll immediately see the difference in IE Mobile user interface; especially on the bottom you'll see a row of small icons which represent the new add-on features you can use.

The first icon is the PIEPlus logo, is represented with the shape of a plus ("+"). Click on it, you can open and access the app's features such as: Tab, View, Zoom, Scroll, Tools & Edit. For an important note, users can still access IE Mobile's original options through the Tools settings. There are many settings in PIEPlus options for power users, but for average users can start using PIEPlus right away without make any changes.

Next to the PIEPlus icon is the icon for customizing the Tab options, or if you wish to open a new tab and/or start opening links in new tabs. PIEPlus also capable to reopen back the closed tabs, no more affraid of mistakenly close tabs. After the tab icon, there are the usual web browser icons: back, forward, refresh/stop, home, favorites, and full screen.

Now there's a neat feature in the back & forward buttons; PIEPlus can show users the history. So users can quickly jump to the desired previous pages, it works like the history drop-down view in IE 7 desktop.

Like any mobile web browsers we know of, PIEPlus also has its own engine to fit the wide websites into the small screen of your mobile devices. Pocket Web Optimizer (PWO) helps to remove horizontal scroll, but at the same time make you scroll vertically more often because the websites are sized in long page format.

Although some pages may have horizontal scroll bar even they're opened with PWO, like for an example is the PalmAddict weblog page. You can set the PIEPlus to view the pages with PWO feature, or in the standard (desktop) view.

Save file, image, or page

The first obstacle I encountered when I found an image I like in a website opened with IE Mobile, is that I couldn't save the image because IE Mobile simply has no feature to do so. I was frantically writing down the website's address so I can get the image later using my dektop computer at home, talk about a waste of having a Palm smartphone on the go. ;-p

But with PIEPlus, I can now easily save images whenever I see the ones I like. All I need to do is, press the screen with Treo's stylus long enough until a context menu window appears. If a file is not found in the cache, it can be downloaded. And PIEPlus doesn't only able to save file or image, the app can also save a page with all of its elements.

Treo users can use hardware buttons mapping with PIEPlus for faster single-handed usage, map the functions of IE Mobile or PIEPlus to hardware buttons. Example: You can map 2 functions to 1 hardware button for press and press-and-hold.

As for users who installed PIEPlus on keyboard-less Windows Mobile devices, can take advantage of PIEPlus on-screen pop out window which shows the necessary commands for browsing the net. Those commands are like: back, forward, select all text, copy address, refresh, etc.

Save pixel space with hide address, full screen & screen drag features

These features may seem trivial, but I really appreciate neat features like those because of Treo 750's small screen resolution (240x240 pixels). So whenever I can save some more pixel space on my Treo screen, then I'll do it to ease my eyes. ;-D

At the most left screenshot of the images above, you can see when PIEPlus is still showing the address bar along with the Go & the URL Service icon buttons. While the middle screenshot shows the address bar is hidden, and the page is being opened in a tab window.

And when I really want to enjoy reading a web page, I'll just push the Full Screen button and you can see the result on the most right placed screenshot. There's a very small icon on the bottom-right corner of the full screen, its use is to restore the view back to normal.

I'm most enjoy the Full Screen feature from PIEPlus for reading long pages, when it's combined with Screen Drag feature. There are no vertical, nor the horizontal scroll bar so the whole screen is fully reserved for the pleasure of your eyes only. ;-)

There are more features which I can't mention them all in here, otherwise this post will be too long. Head on to PIEPlus website to know them all. ReenSoft is offering 14 days trial version of PIEPlus, and if you're satisfied then you can buy the license at US$14.95 price.

The latest version avaible is 2.2, and it's still compatible for old Windows Mobile 2002 & 2003. But you got to download the right CAB file, or get the desktop installer if you're not sure which version is your Windows Mobile device.

Although there's no mention of PIEPlus compatibility for Windows Mobile 6 (or 6.1) from the developer, I never experience troubles at all whenever I use it with my Treo. But I've been told by Hyun Kang who is the man behind ReenSoft company, that there are features which don't work well such as:

• D-Pad and User Agent settings don't work with WM6.
• And the Zoom feature on WM6.1 does not work with PIEPlus.

But there's a good news; Hyun Kang informed me that a new version is coming to address those bugs, it's slated for release next year. I'm for one looking forward to get the new version of PIEPlus, especially if the upcoming IE Mobile 6 is not gonna make it into my Treo 750v.

Seidio Spring-Clip Holster for my Treo

I've promised to tell you about the two jolly episodes that are happening after I fixed my Treo, the first was one year anniversary for my Treo and I (and also with PalmAddict).

And now for the second is; I've received my order of Seidio Spring-Clip Holster for my Treo. I got it with a help from my brother's friend, who live in Canada. Two weeks ago he went back here on vacation, and I asked him to buy me the holster.

I'm so happy to finally able to put my beloved Treo on a rightful place, not in my jeans pocket anymore, but strapped around my waist for easy access. The Seidio's holster rest comfortably on the belt and yet at the same time feel so tightly secure too, the secret lies on the swivelling aligator type belt clip.

Like what you can see at the picture above, yes that's my hip and hand you're seeing in the pic ~LOL~, I much prefer to put the holster in horizontal position. So I can both easily grab my Treo out of the holster, and it won't limit my movement because the position doesn't block my leg & stomach. With a flick of a finger, I can push open the spring-clip while the rest of the fingers hold the Treo.

The spring-clip concept is this holster's main trait, it provides a long lasting lifetime compared to the usual rubber clip which often got broken after a rough usage. The spring-clip creates a comforting sound whenever I put in my Treo, assures me that my Treo is gripped secure and tight within the holster.

In the end, I kept on pulling out my Treo and put it back inside just to hear the nice snap sound effect created by the spring-clip. It's very addictive. ;-p

Upon a closer examination, there's a small rubber placed along inside the spring-clip side that face directly with the Treo. The rubber avoids the spring-clip from scrathing the back of my Treo, I'll just let the detailed picture on the right do the talking.

Seidio made this holster with a face-in design to protect the Treo's screen, which I think this way also protects Treo's keyboard from being accidentally pushed on. The inside of the holster is layered with a soft cloth material, colored in black.

To put inside a Treo into the Seidio Spring-Clip Holster, the user must placed the bottom of Treo first and then only with a gentle push is enough to snap in the Treo under the spring-clip. The holster has a cut-out hole, specially made for easy access to the Treo's connectors (battery & headphone jack).

But what really makes me love this holster is its soft-touch rubberized texture finish, it's really-really-really soft and smooth. And by saying really three times is, because I mean it, it feel incredibly smooth! ;-) The soft texture of the holster feel like being applied with baby powder, my finger feels like skate-gliding on ice. I just can't stop touching it... ~LOL~

The holster's soft-touch finish is going along well with Treo 750's soft-pain finish too, they both compliment to the sense of having luxurious gadgets.

So far, I'm very satisfied with Seidio Spring-Clip Holster. I believe I didn't waste my US$24.95 money on having it to accompany my Treo from today onward, the holster adds a secure hold for my trusty Treo and also a more stylish way to carry it around.

For more official photos of this Seidio Spring-Clip Holster (product #HLTR750AS), you can visit this link. Although to tell you the truth, the reason why I include lots of photos of my own in this post is because I was having a hard time to find more detailed pictures of the holster on the net. So if you want to see the pictures above in bigger size, then click on each one of them.

Winterface, brings a cool refreshed interface for your Windows Mobile

Vito Technology, the software developer behind the successful iWindowsMobile apps, has just released a very cool interface for the boring Today screen of Windows Mobile, called Winterface.

It just happens that I'm taking my two days off from work, so I immediately installed and launched it in my Treo 750v to see how it will work, and I must say that so far I’m very impressed with Winterface. At first I was afraid that Winterface v1.0 will face compatibility issues with Treo 750’s square screen resolution (240x240 pixels), like many modern apps do. But looks like my skeptic perspective has been proven wrong, Winterface works very well.

The main interface

Upon launching Winterface, it first taught me how to re-launch Winterface with the left to right angled finger movement on the touch screen, and other infos such as how to add more apps into the main menu. After that, it quickly takes me to the main menu where I’m greeted with 12 icons that resemblance of the basic operation from Windows Mobile. Here they are in random order:

• Calendar, will takes you to WinMob’s Calendar. The Winterface’s Calendar icon shows exactly the date and day of today, so you don’t have to click it to know what date and day it is.
• Clock, the same as above where the icon shows the time and if you click it will take you to WinMob’s Clock & Alarms settings.
• Phone, will takes you to Today Screen.
• SMS, takes you to Messages.
• Email, takes you to Email.
• Memory, will takes directly you to Memory Settings while shows you on-screen the available memory left.
• Running, opens up a mini menu window which shows every applications that are currently running on the background. At each of the apps icon, there’s a small Stop symbol red button on the top-right corner, to close the running app just simply click it. Very handy to stop the unnecessary apps you don’t need, and save up some more memory.
• Battery, will takes you to Power Settings.
• Menu, opens up Advanced settings for Winterface. Such as add more Applications, Settings & Contacts icon to the main menu, or change the language of Winterface.
• Profile, will quickly opens up a mini option window to choose the appropriate profiles you wish: Ring, Vibrate or Silent.
• Internet Explorer, takes you to the home page of Pocket IE.

Changing the position of the apps icons in the main menu is very easy, I just click on one of the icon long enough until the icons are floating & rapidly jiggle on the top of the black-colored background screen, and a small ‘X’ symbol red button will appears on the top-right corner at each of the icons. This indicates that the icons are now able to be move to the desired place, simply by drop and drag. The icons will automatically self-arranged themselves, and the existing icons will move aside when you put an icon on the occupied space. To finish editing, just push the middle buton of the D-pad.

Winterface allows up to 10 screens of the main menu, so you can put app shortcut launch icons as many as you want. And while you’re at the main menu, the only Treo’s ribbon buttons that you can use are ‘Off/On’ and ‘ok’ buttons. Other buttons such as the D-pad, Windows and both of the Select buttons are all disable.

The look & feel

What I really love from Winterface is its lock screen, where it’ll always shows up the first time I turn on the Treo 750v screen. The lock screen shows day, date and a big digital clock in the middle. On the bottom under all that, there’s a lock icon which requires us to slide it to the right in order to unlock it. Pretty much like iPhone’s unlocking feature, so Winterface gives me a little bit feel of owning an iPhone. ;-)

In the end of the day, I disable the WinMob’s built-in KeyGuard and use Winterface’s lock screen instead. Now, I have a very cool on-screen if I turn on my Treo. ~LOL~

The black-colored background screen of the Winterface’s main menu makes all of its icons look spectacular in contrast with the brilliant simple design, either they’re just black & white colored (the 12 basic icons) or even better if you placed colorful apps icons on it.

Flipping through the main menu windows with the finger gestures are fast and nimble, I’m very pleased with the smooth operation of each menu and whenever I launch the apps through their representative icons. And adding the apps into the main menu is a breeze, all are done only with finger touch.

Another thing I’m falling in love with Winterface is its About page, which is accessible through the Menu option and will be opened with 180 degrees of pivoting page. A small detail, that says on how much efforts from the iWindowsMobile team had put into Winterface. Gotta love the small details, cuz that’s what make life worth living for… ;-D

Winterface also capable to show on-screen whenever you have unhandled calls in, new messages and emails. Again, it’s shown with just a simple notification of numbers in a small red circle at the top-left corner of each respective icon on main menu.

Pros & Cons

What can I say? No matter how much I like an app, there will always something that feels missing or need to be improved better. I believe you do that too… Let’s start with the short list of pros first, since I’ve been talking how good Winterface is:

• Fast launch
• Smooth operation
• Fabulous on-screen lock and main menu view
• Simple in design & functionality

That last one up there, simplicity, is the key of all the cons I can found and listed below:

• No advanced customizations (ex: change colors, themes, names, etc.)
• Can’t show on-screen the updated apps (ex: RSS aggregators, weather, etc.)
• Unable to turn off Treo’s screen manually, without putting Winterface into the background process
• No D-pad navigation, makes it harder to use Winterface with only one hand

Overall, Winterface is a game changing app for WinMob’s UI shell. Even though its design is going towards a certain similarity with other popular mobile phone OS (read: Mobile Mac OS X), Winterface can bring a fresh air for the usual boring type of WinMob’s UI shell apps that are available out there.

If you’re interested, you can grab the trial version at iWindowsMobile’s website or grab this CAB files and install it right away. And if you’re falling in love with it, then I’m sure you’ll agree like me that the $19.95 price tag for the registered version is very well worth it. ;-D

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Hands-on: Logitech's Rumblepad 2

The last gadget that my brother bought along with the other two, that I previously mentioned before; is Logitech's Rumblepad 2.

Since he loves to play games such as Oblivion 2, the Simpson, Sam & Max, and some racing games; he's long for using a game-pad after abandoned his PS3 console. So, lucky for me and you; this is a good chance to take a closer look of Rumblepad 2.

Especially when my brother also love to take pictures of his gadgets, and made animation out of them. Like what you can see at the left animated pictures, is the opening process of the Rumblepad 2. Some of the thumbnail pictures can be clicked to view them larger, no need to squint your eyes.

Inside the plastic package, there isn't much to be found besides the usual basic stuffs. There is the main unit itself, one USB transmitter, two AA batteries, one mini CD driver installation, and one small user manual. When we opened it up, well actually it's my brother who opened it and I was only watching from behind ;-p, we're surprised by how compact is the small plastic package inside.

And by small, I mean very tight and close together. Everything is placed so neat in that small space, like you can see it yourself at the right animated picture. Made us feel sorry to cracked it open... ~LOL~

Head on to the features, I can't say much besides like what are said in its manual:

• Dual Vibration Feedback Motors: Feel all the hits, crashes, explosions, and effects.
• 2.4 GHz Wireless with 30-foot Range: tested and it's indeed pretty far.
• 10 Programmable Buttons: nice feeling when pushed.
• Dual Analog Control: smooth 360° control with good spring feedback.
• Familiar Layout: 8-way D-pad, plus Mode and Vibration selectors.
• Finishing: plastic rubber with black matte finish.
• Construction: light weight & high durability

Oh, and yes. It is a wireless game-pad, thus allow my brother to use it far away from his 17" LCD monitor while playing games. Quite of an experience, when I tried it myself.

Back to the main unit, the Rumblepad 2 offers ease of use when my hands are gripping on both of its palm rests. At first I thought the black matte colored paint will make it slippery, but in fact it's the opposite. And its weight also make it feels sturdy when in use, overall it assures you of Logitech's famous reputation for making mobile devices.

One thing that might be missed in most of the reviews I read on the net, this Rumblepad 2 is able to save power when not in use. It will only try to find signal that match with the USB transmitter, when you push one of its many buttons. An important and yet often neglected feature for mobile devices. Well, you don't want to ran out of battery juice when you're about to enter a crucial level in the game, right?

And for the last words, I'd like to give advice to you who're going to buy any of Logitech's products. When my brother opened this Rumblepad 2, he had hard times trying just to find a crack to cut it open. And the plastic packaging is really-really hard, not to mention very close to the product inside. So in the end, he was able to open it up with a cutter. But he accidentally sliced the right handle, when he's doing it.

It's not only with this Rumblepad 2 packaging, I also always find it hard to open other Logitech's products I've ever bought. Either they are cordless mouse, keyboard, etc. And I happened to came across a customer feedback, where one of users said he too had troubles to open every Logitech's packaging.

Perhaps this is just Logitech's tactic to avoid having cutomers returned its products, because if the packaging is broken; then the customers aren't entitled to return the goods. Is this the case?

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Hands-on: NexStar Hard Drive Dock

The second gadget that my brother bought from the computer event held last time, is the Vantec's NexStar Hard Drive Dock; the NST-D100S2 serie.

Now I know some of us are often whining about storage, and on how much left of space there in our hard disk drives. And so, this is also what my brother had in mind when he bought the NexStar. Since he's very often to ran out of DVDs and hard drives space for his manga (Japanese comic), anime, movies, tv series & shows; which most of them are in high-def format.

And like the previously nice photo shots of the tablet-notebook, he's kind enough to made pictures for this one too (I think he wants to show-off his new gadgets to me & you ;-p). Do enjoy them all, by clicking on each of them to view them in larger size.

Opening the package of the NexStar was fun, it was neat and compact. As you may see in the animated picture above; there are not much besides the main unit, USB & power cable, mini-CD of driver and small sized manual book.

The main unit itself is colored with white glossy paint, a good match if placed next to his new tablet-notebook. On the front there's a big on/off button, and a long-thin line of read/write activity light. While on the top is where the hard disk slot located, it has a hinged compartment for 2.5"/3.5" SATA HDD. At the back, there is a power and a USB 2.0 interface.

There's no need to install any drivers for the NexStar, since Windows XP & Vista will automatically recognize every SATA HDD that you inserted as removable drive. A small squarish button next to the HDD slot will pop-out if the HDD is successfully inserted, and to remove can be simply done by pressing down that button while pulling out the HDD.

The big on/off button at front will emits cool blue light when active, a nice combination with the white glossy finish paint. Another good point from this NexStar Hard Drive Dock, is its performance. My brother tried several times to made "Ghost" copy with new SATA HDD, and it took only 5 minutes to restore around 15GB of data.

I've never thought that backing up and restoring huge data or files can be so easy before, no more hassle through many opening and closing the workstations' casing again. And of course the best of all it is mobile, the NexStar is light weight and just plug the USB jack into USB ports which can be found anywhere nowadays. And lastly the US$39.5 price tag, is a hard to miss bargain.
[blogged with my Treo 750v]