http://www.sbsh.net/products/ilauncher/index.php?page=summary
Ever wanted to put icons to your favourite programs/documents on your Today screen, as you'd do with your desktop Windows' desktop?
Unfortunately, you do need third-party applications to do this. Luckily, there are quite a few of them; a new version of
iLauncher, one of the most important ones, has just been released. It has really excellent capabilities (please see their list
in here).
In this review, I compare the new version to the previous version(s) of iLauncher and also the current versions of the alternative, competing Today launcher applications. That is, this is a
comparative review, emphasizing on the
differences between the new and the older versions and the competing products. To see the "
entire picture" of the reviewed Today launcher applications, please see my old roundup(s), linked from the "Recommended links" section. In the current review, due to space/time constraints, I can't repeat the information already present there.
Pros of the new version
- text captions – that is, giving always-visible names to icons. They were painfully missing from all previous versions, as with almost all the other alternatives, including Resco and Spb's solutions (except for, most notably, the free (!) cLaunch).
Naturally, you can have an influence on the settings of a lot in here – even more than with cLaunch. For example, you can even set the caption shadow style - unlike with cLaunch.
- D-pad navigation has been implemented (note that the two directly competing products, Resco and the Spb Pocket Plus, also support this). This was also missing from the previous versions (you couldn't use the D-pad to even enter the Today screen area of iLauncher) and is a welcome addition.
Now, you can select an application to run/document to open/metering dialog to open by using the D-pad and the Action button on your PDA. Both WM2003SE and WM5 support this (unlike the old(er) Pocket PC 2002 and WM2003 operating systems). Here's a screenshot of the related setting screen – and another one, of the other D-Pad navi-related settings item, which lets the user set what he or she wants to happen upon pressing the Action button.
- it now properly detects the real VGA mode – the real VGA switcher menu now has an auto-detect option. Switching works perfectly, as can be seen in this native VGA and, after switching back, this SE/stadard VGA screenshot. The older versions didn't have this option, as can be seen in here. (Note that Spb Pocket Plus' area is at the top; then follows Resco Today Plug-in, and, finally, iLauncher at the bottom.)
As can also be seen in the native VGA screenshot, the latest Spb Pocket Plus version still can't be configured to automatically double the size of its icons in the native VGA mode (you'll need to use, for example, ozVGA's excellent configuration switching capabilities to do this. Please see my ozVGA/native VGA tutorial in the Recommended links section for more information.) Furthermore, Resco's Today plug-in is still using small and non-enlargable program launcher icons in native VGA mode. Clearly the best in this respect is iLauncher, which automatically adjusts (enlarges/decreases) its icon sizes, according to the current VGA mode.
- Also, it has a lot of other GUI enhancements; the most important being the ability to assign any icon to any application. The developer also ships some sample icons (both low-resolution QVGA and high-resolution VGA ones) with the application. They're just lovely and look much better than the built-in ones in Windows Mobile!
- compared to the latest version of its direct alternatives (as cLaunch hasn't been updated since my last review, I don't include it in this comparison), it offers total access to both the entire file system and control panel applets, including both the built-in, standard applets inside cplmain.cpl and third-party CPL's like that of Spb Pocket Plus in this screenshot. Resco's Today plug-in, as of Resco Explorer version 5.35 and Spb Pocket Plus, as of version 3.04, are still definitely weaker in this respect. The former still doesn't allow for putting any shortcut to any control panel applet on the Today screen (without manual registry editing; fortunately, not even then can you access any standard applet inside cplmain.cpl); the latter still doesn't list third-party control panel applets in the "Settings" configuration/add-on screen.
Cons
There don't seem to be any (except for, maybe, the lack of Pocket PC 2000 support. This is, however, no longer an issue because the Resco folks have also stopped supporting PPC2k starting with version 5.30.) My biggest grieves with earlier versions have all been addressed in this one.
Other remarks
It still doesn't add memory cards' icons upon insertion – of the major Today launcher/meter apps, only Resco does this (not even Spb Pocket Plus 3.04),
as can be seen in here. As with Spb Pocket Plus (
see this Spb Pocket Plus screenshot), you need to manually add all icons to be monitored by long-clicking an empty area and choosing
Add shortcut and, then, going to the
Meters tab,
choosing the icon you want to assign the to-be-metered peripheral/memory card to, clicking
Select and
choosing the right card manually.
The same stands for removing of cards. When you remove a card, it's only Resco's app that hides the icons of the two cards; iLauncher still refers to it as having '0' bytes free (see the two of the lowermost three icons) and the latest Spb Pocket Plus still refers to them as
N/A. If you compare
this screenshot (two memory cards (a 8-Mbyte CF card with about 7.5Mbytes free and a 256 Mbyte SD card with about 150M free) are present and also the file store is metered with 2.5Mbyte free capacity) to the one
taken after removing the removable memory cards, you can clearly see the difference in the approach of metering memory cards.
Both approaches (that of Resco and that of Spb/iLauncher) have strengths. Resco's approach doesn't need additional configuration (to enable displaying of additional memory cards). Spb/iLauncher, on the other hand, while being a bit more complicated for a novice user to configure, offer more freedom, especially for people having a USB host-enabled Pocket PC and often using an external hard disk with it.
Resco's polling all memory cards, USB hard disk(s) included, mean external USB hard disks will most likely crash (slow to a crawl) while Resco is active (fortunately, Resco only polls hard disks when it's active – that is, the Today screen is visible). With the other two apps, if you don't
actively configure them to poll the USB hard disk, they won't do it and, therefore, they won't cause any problems either.
Verdict
Now that all the missing functionality has been added, I can only recommend the new version.
You may, however, want to compare it to the direct alternatives and, depending on your needs, pick the right one. For example, if you need the absolutely lowest dynamic memory consumption and/or being free and the complete lack of metering and the slight VGA incompatibility aren't a problem,
cLaunch; or, if a considerably lower memory consumption is advantageous, Resco's Today plug-in. Spb Pocket Plus also has its merits. That is, the decision should be made by you.
Compatibility with my test Pocket PC's
My tests with the latest version have been run on
the PPC2k2 iPAQ 3660, the WM2003SE Pocket Loox 720 (ROM version .712), the Dell Axim x51v (ROM version A06 WWE) and
the HTC Wizard (ROM version Qtek 1.6.7.1). iLauncher worked well on all my test devices. I,
unlike some AximSite folks, haven't encountered major slowdown problems on any of my test Pocket PC's.
Recommended links
My latest roundup of Today launcher apps (alternatives:
MobilitySite,
AximSite,
PPC Magazine,
FirstLoox,
BrightHand)
VGA demystified - the definitive guide to OzVGA, SE_VGA and everything VGA-related (alternatives:
MobilitySite, AximSite (the
x50/x51 forum and the
Tips and Tricks forum),
PPC Magazine,
FirstLoox,
BrightHand) – this article also contains a lot of additional information of making Spb Pocket Plus much more native VGA-friendly and automatizing the transition between the two (native and standard) VGA modes.
ADDITION at 10:37 CET, the same day: I really recommend
SBSH's thread on the application: it has a great introduction to the new features (packed with screenshots) and you will also see some (minor) bug reports in there.
Also, the developers of SBSH have also announced (see
this thread) they will really quickly fix the above-mentioned bugs; even today. That is, a new, bugfix version can be expected as early as today.
ADDITION at 15:35 CET, the same day:
I've measured the memory consumption of the new version, as opposed to that of Spb Pocket Plus and Resco Today plug-in (the latest versions of the latter two apps).
The SBSH people must have done something pretty damn well because (or, used the memory model of WM5 very good / dynamically swap their stuff in and out the dynamic memory when it's not needed – I don't know yet) I've consistently measured far better (lower) memory consumption results with the new version than with the previous version.
The results (I've done several tests on my clean x51v to be absolutely sure. I'm also sure about the test methology.):
New iLauncher: about 200-300 kbytes
Previous iLauncher: about 400 kbytes
Spb Pocket Plus 3.04: ~1600 kbytes (everything enabled); ~1400 kbytes (only battery bar and Today plug-in enabled so that it can be directly compared to iLauncher)
Resco 5.35 Today plug-in: about 300 kbytes
This means iLauncher occupies little dynamic RAM on WM5 devices, unlike the latest version of Spb Pocket Plus, which occupies considerably (about 3-4 times) more memory.
Note that these are all WM5 results. I haven't done pre-WM5 memory consumption tests because of lack of time. That is, on PPC2k2/WM2003(SE) devices, the situation may be the opposite.
ADDITION at 20:22 CET, the same day:
Threads to check out with additional info/discussion:
SBSH's own thread (already linked)
AximSite 1 (already linked)
AximSite 2
MobilitySite
PPCT
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