INTRODUCTION

    Pocket PC phone users: ever find
yourself wanting for a better way of searching through contacts when
you need to send a quick email or text message, but are stuck with a
clunky scroll up scroll down D-Pad? SBSH is on the assault
with the new ContactBreeze v2. It puts your communication needs in its
sights with Quick-Dial like functionality (only found for Smartphone users) for Pocket PC phone. Read on to find out if it dials in or dials out!

WHAT’S HOT

    ContactBreeze aims at dialing
down the time it takes for you to communicate with your contacts,
overall enhancing your Windows Mobile experience. It is simple in form
and function and takes a shot directly at the missing link in the
native contacts app. The giant keypad with accompanying letters are the
key role in this app and SBSH’s solution to the native windows mobile
contacts application. 

SETUP

Running the install program from the desktop we walk through the usual set up screens. 

Accept the license agreement

According to the setup up program we can see that the space required is 711KB

    Once
you are asked where to install on your device you can see that the
memory requirement has shrunk to a meager 356KB. Very small indeed!
Once Contact Breeze has been installed it would be prudent to
immediately assign a hardware key to launch it. Once it is running we
can see how much memory it uses to run.

The
screen shot on the left is before launching ContactBreeze, on the right
is after launching. We can see that the footprint while running is only
.26MB, very negligible.

PRODUCT FEATURES

    Contact Breeze intends to ease
our everyday woes when it comes to dealing with contacts and
communication in Windows Mobile. The native Contacts app in Windows
Mobile is not very one-hand friendly, Contact Breeze 2 takes aim at
that. It supports WM5 and WM% as well as VGA screens and portrait,
landscape and square screens. 

    The
main screen for Contact Breeze consists of a dial pad and contact view.
As you tap the keys your contacts are searched like T9 input allowing
you to reach your contacts quicker. Pressing and holding the <<
key will clear the entry and allow you to start over if you need to.
Pressing dial while any contact is highlighted will call their main
number. 

    Once
you have selected your contact, you are given different options with
how you wish to communicate with this person. Choosing exit will return
you to the main screen.  

Selecting
Menu > Options will bring you to this screen where you can fiddle
with various settings. On the Right is the ‘General Options’ screen.

    On the
left is the ‘Layout Options’ Screen where you can choose to have your
contacts shown as a single line, names only or expanded. Expanded
basically splits the single line format into two lines, which can make
it easier to read for some. The screenshot on the right is expanded
layout with font size 24. 

    The
Tweaks Options are for your PIM, if you have a number in the subject or
notes of a task or appointment then Contact Breeze will allow you to
dial the number or send an SMS from the tap and hold context menu.

HELP SUPPORT

    Even though
Contact Breeze is fairly straight forward and simple we do from time to
time encounter something we need a little help with. SBSH provides a manual for download in both English and German in PDF and Word formats. A support forum
is also available where the responses are quite timely. If you have a
feature request there is a place for that and SBSH does respond to
those as well. 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    The system requirements are
very minimal: you need Windows Mobile and about 356KB of storage space
to install. 

BUGS AND WISHES

    Since the
keypad for entering characters to search through contacts is not
standard, this presents a problem as the user needs to learn a new
layout in order to be efficient. This greatly comprises how much more
efficient one could be. 

    My
wish is that the keypad layout on the left would match the standard
number/letter layout on the right. Upon checking SBSH’s support forums
it appears that an update will be available in the next few weeks that
will allow a user to select which layout they prefer. Additionally, an
audio feedback as an option would be nice for those of us on the move,
so we can dial and drive .

PURCHASING

    ContactBreeze 2 is available as a 12 day trial or for purchase from the pocketnow.com store for $9.95. A free trial is also available via our store.

PROS

• 
  

  Super fast contact searching

• 
  

  Large buttons for ease of use

• 
  

  Integrates with PIM and PocketBreeze

CONS

• 
  

  Keypad layout is not standard

• 
  

  No audio feedback

• 
  

  Does not display contact photos in contact list

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

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OVERALL IMPRESSION

    If you do not mind learning a
new keypad format then ContactBreeze can be a welcome addition. Fact
is, the different layout really dialed me out on ContactBreeze. I was
hoping for a new main application from which I could launch all my
communications but feel a bit let down. It does deliver superbly on
what it says it will do but the ergonomics just isn’t there. If the
standard keypad we are used to was available then this app would have a
4 and half rating for an Overall of 4 but until then I say wait for the
update.