Of late I have been on a bit of a Mobile 6 kick - I bought my new PDA in November, and since this week I finally got the entire system cooperating in Canada I decided to expand my mobile experience beyond the basic Default settings.
Of course a few months ago this would never have occurred to me, but then iPhone was 
released, followed soon thereafter by the HTC Touch. Well of course the iPhone does not work properly with my environment, but I liked the idea of the touch interface. I got to test-drive an HTC Touch last week, and although I did like the interface, I did not like the fact that there was not keyboard on the device... I write too many e-mails on it and have gotten used to it, so that (and the slower CPU) was the unit's downside for me.
In conversation with a colleague over lunch today I was told to check out a new shell for Mobile 5/6 called PointUI (www.pointui.com). Rick didn't tell me anything more than the name, but I figured it was worth a shot.
The first thing I noticed from the images on the site were that all of the icons were large enough for my very big fingers... Not that I am not adept with a stylus, but my fingers still do the walking sometimes, and I do not like when I touch one item and get the one above it by accident. There were also twelve screen shots on the home page, and they all looked very friendly.
Installation was a breeze, but I was very impressed with the Help sequence. Most devices and programs I have seen will come with a help video with fictitious data; As soon as PointUI installed it started into its video, and the data was my live data. Kudos for doing that... all of the screens were MY data, MY applications, and MY settings, so there was familiarity to it.
The video showed me all sorts of features that I could not believe 
were included in this program, and yet there they were... and when the Help segment ended, I was able to use the interface exactly as promised.
I do not know that it is my favourite feature, but I definitely love that I can scroll between the six screens on the home page (Local Weather Forecast - Time & Date - Analog Clock - Monthly Calendar - Tasks - Appointments) by sliding my finger across the screen. They transition as smoothly as any I have seen, either on the iPod, Touch, or various similar programs on the computer. The home screen also has an Information Bar at the top with a screen lock, signal strength, your cellular provider information along with which services are on (Bluetooth, WiFi, Data), volume, battery strength, and a Settings icon. Along the bottom are four icons (all easily finger-touchable) for Recent Calls, E-Mail, SMS Messages, and Music Player, though I assume these are customizable. Below that 
the small bar hides the Applications screen, with its plethora of options.
The option that surprised me was that you can also go back to the standard Windows Mobile interface, though I do not plan to make use of that very often. I was looking for a new interface for my Mobile 6 and I found one... and I am sticking to it!
I showed the web site to a friend whose first comment was 'Well it looks nice, but it doesn't seem to add any functionality to the device.' I don't know that it does, but it is not meant to... it is meant to make the actual functionality easier to use. He uses a Touch... I'd love to put the two devices in his hand side by side for a comparison!
Oh did I mention the price? It's free. They are giving it away hoping 
that people will try it, fall in love with it, and make a donation through PayPal, an option which is given to you on the download screen of their site. They may not get rich off our donations, but hopefully we can help defer their costs... until either Microsoft of one of the mobile providers buys the company and they become millionaires :) Believe me, this free software will increase the value of any PDA!
A couple of down notes... though not major ones. Firstly there is no version for Smart Phones, so unless you have a touch screen this won't work... no surprise there, 
considering what the software does. I only point this out because after I installed it I called Rick (who told me about it over lunch) to rave about it and he promised to try it, until he realized that it will not install on his device. Also the Tasks screen shows my Completed Tasks as well as my Active Tasks, and though I have filtered those out in the WM6 settings it did not filter down to the Tasks Home screen. There may be a way but I got tired of trying and moved on to more cool stuff.
To say that this software is worth the time is an understatement. If it were selling for $29.99 I would have bought it after trying it out, but at the price (FREE) it is a real steal of a deal. If you have a PDA running WM5 or 6 GET THIS FREE APP!