Navigating your contacts on your Windows
INTRODUCTION
Mobile device can sometimes be challenging, especially if you have hundreds
or even thousands of contacts. The built in contact manager is simple
but lacking. Sometimes it can be a chore to seek out someone, call them,
send a text message or email. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a better,
quicker way to navigate and execute commands in your contact list? Well
Sunnysoft has tried to do that with Sunnysoft Contacts 1.3 and you might
want to give it a try.
Sunnysoft has tried to perfect the way
WHAT’S HOT
you manage and navigate your contacts with a clean, useful and hassle
free interface.
To install this program you download a
SETUP
.exe file from the web site and it installs via Activesync. It installed
without any problems and the total size of the .exe was about 2.5 megabytes.
Kind of large for an isntall, and I found that while running it used around 400-500k of
memory.
In reading this review, keep in mind that I really only call about 15-20 people and have about
PRODUCT FEATURES
70 contacts, so if you have hundreds or thousands of contacts I think
you could benefit even more from this application. After install it
will replace the default contact manager. You can choose in the options
to not have it replace the default contact manager if you want.
The
first time you launch Sunnysoft if it’s not already running it does
take a second or so longer to launch than the default contact manager.
Not a big deal but I thought I’d mention it. Once it’s running in the
background it opens instantly. The first thing you will notice is the
number pad at the bottom. This in my opinion is one of, if not the best
part about this application. From here you can easily start typing the
letters or numbers of the contact you want to find. It works just like
T9 on a "regular" phone. It will automatically search the
names and numbers closest to what you type. This is very handy. You
can even dial a regular number from here and press send which will open
the WinMo phone app and dial. There is also an alphabetical index at
the top you can tap to search. Of course you can open the keyboard while
you’re in the default WinMo contact manager and start typing to find
contacts but it just feels more effective in the Sunnysoft application.
Although the T9 keypad
is handym it does take up some screen real estate. You can always disable
it by pressing the Keypad button on the bottom or changing its size
with the size button. More on those buttons later. There is a negative
about this application that I want to point out. If you decide you want to scroll through
your contacts with your finger, it’s not a good experience. It doesn’t register well to touch and doesn’t
have fluid movement, so I just stick to the keypad/dpad. If you use Spb Pocket Plus, you’re likely to benefit from flick-scrolling smoothness.
You
can also change the size of the keypad. Once you type in enough letters
to bring up your contact, another great feature about this application
shines through. Next to each contact name is a shortcut key to either
email, text or dial. That is very handy. You can also select what the
main phone number is of each contact by clicking left or right on the
dpad just like the default contact manager or if you tap the contact
name it will open up in the default WinMo contact manager and you can
choose from there. In my opinion these are things that should be in
the default WinMo contact manager by now but aren’t.
One
thing this application offers that I didn’t get a chance to try out
was an Exchange address book lookup. I currently am not hooked in to
my Exchange server at work due to some technical problems. Once you
press the exchange button at the bottom it pulls up a
search box with your default keyboard. I’m assuming this will work out
great for people connected to their work email and need to lookup a
contact.
Use can use your default keyboard when searching for exchange
contacts.
The history feature is handy and laid out well.
Another
feature of this application is the history feature. Once you click a
contact you can view your communication history with that contact including
emails, calls, text and MMS.
There is a menu button on the lower right There are a few useful features in the
that gives you access to other options within the program. You can create
new contacts in Outlook or on the SIM. You can send a contact via text
message which is cool and access the WinMo default speed dial app. There
is also an options button that will take you to the Sunnysoft Contacts
option menu.
options menu.
Once in the options area, there are 4 option
tabs at the bottom you can tap and then configure. First is the General
tab where you can decide to make Sunnysoft the default contact program,
change language, configure contact tapping command and whether to assign
Sunnysoft to the call button. The Look tab lets you control what skin
you want, font size of the contacts, title format, whether you want
to disable the unsightly vertical scrollbar or show the alphabetical
index. The Keyboard tab let’s you change the size and fonts of the keyboard.
Finally the Buttons tab. This tab allows you to control the soft buttons
in Sunnysoft. There is also an option to hide the email, SMS and call
shortcut buttons in the contact list. I’m not sure I would ever do that
though as those shortcuts are one of the greatest things about this
app that set it apart. You can disable the contact pictures if you want
as that might speed up the program.
And then you can assign predefined
commands to the two center buttons below the T9 keypad. There are a
lot of redundant commands in that list and really none that stood out
to me. Some commands are "resize keyboard font". I really
only need to do that once and don’t need it mapped to a button. Other
commands are more useful though like "show history for selected
contact" or adding special characters like *, # or +. But in the
end those two buttons aren’t as useful as I thought they would be. The
real meat and potatoes of Sunnysoft is it’s searching, managing and
execution.
In the options you can change settings and the appearance of
the program. Changing the buttons and keyboard are also in the options menu.
These are some other skins that are included in the program.
After installation I didn’t see any help
HELP SUPPORT
files. Neither on my device or my PC. It is a pretty straight
forward program though and navigating through it should be pretty self
explanatory.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
state whether it’s only compatible with Pro or Standard Windows Mobile
so I’m going to assume it’s compatible with both although I only tried
it on an HTC Touch running Windows Mobile Pro 6.0.
BUGS AND WISHES
issue I have would be the horrible scrolling in the program. Trying
to scroll through contacts with my finger or a stylus without using
the scroll bar is almost useless. It’s not a good experience to say
the least. However using the scroll bar does scroll much better but
to me it doesn’t look as clean and I’d rather use my fat finger one
handed.
PURCHASING
program can be purchased directly from the pocketnow.com store for $14.95 USD. There is also a free trial available via that link.
PROS
Quick contact searching with T9 pad
Great use of shortcut keys
Supports skins
CONS
Poor scrolling within contacts
- A bit slower than default contacts program
- Windows Mobile Pro only
| Value |  |
| Ease of Use |
 |
| Features | |
Overall |
|
At first I didn’t think this program was
OVERALL IMPRESSION
that big of a deal. But after having it on my phone for a few days it
really did come in handy and does improve the default Windows Mobile
contact manager. The shortcut keys and T9 searching are invaluable and
make navigating my contacts that much easier. Those two features alone
make this program worth while especially if you have a lot of contacts
to search through. I would recommend this application to anyone with
lots of contacts on their Windows Mobile device.
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