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AppShelf - A Different Kind of Launcher
AppShelf 1.04 Official / 1.1 Beta
Developer:
Hiroaki Imazeki
$12.00
from Handango (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&&productId=94394)
 Hiroaki Imazeki is one of my heroes and if you use a Palm,
especially an OS5 device, he should be your hero too. The Sony Clie UX50 is my device of choice and, like a lot of new
form factors, there were (are?) growing pains as software adapts to the
capabilities of the hardware. Tungsten T3 users have had very similar
experiences in the early going.
Imazeki is the author of the sort of utilities that unlock the
potential of these breakthrough devices. CodeDiver
was a godsend for users of Clie (and later Palm)
OS 5 devices with hi-res+ screens (NX, UX, etc.) by making it possible to
force many applications to use the larger screen real estate created by
Virtual Graffiti. KeyQuick offers similar
advantages for keyboard-enabled devices. And McFile
made managing applications and files on memory cards feasible long before
most launchers figured out how to do this.
That's
quite a run for one developer. Imazeki has
single-handedly changed the value proposition of OS 5 devices for countless
PDA power users.
Now
he's out to redefine the crowded launcher category with his latest effort
-- AppShelf.
What? Another launcher?
 This
software category is chock full of choices and often leads to discussions
on forums that might be categorized as passionate (OK, some might say
religious!). Lately, ZLauncher seems to dominate
the category due to the unrelenting stream of updates offered by its
developer ZZTechs, and their seemingly
instantaneous response to customer feedback. I've been a satisfied ZLauncher user myself on my last two PDAs, the NR70 and now the UX50.
But
the feature-laden ZLauncher poses something of a
problem as it has matured. It's gotten complicated. It offers so many
features and ways to customize the launcher that it's become daunting for
many users. And this is where AppShelf has the
opportunity to carve out its niche. It's deceptively simple, you see, and
quite adequate for many users right "out of the box".
Built
from the ground up as an OS 5-only application, AppShelf
offers a clean display of a tremendous amount of information using the
hi-res and hi-res+ displays offered by most of the devices running Palm's
latest system. AppShelf by default, combines a
conventional launcher screen with a calendar, application shelf (hence the
name) and data from the Datebook application for
today. The top bar has widgets for switching categories, changing the
display mode (large or small icons, stacked or in a list), beaming, battery
state, and memory.
Basic Launcher stuff -
assigning categories
 Adding an
application to a category is as simple as dragging its icon to the menu
button and selecting a category. In similar fashion, you can add an
application to the application shelf with a simple drag-and-drop. AppShelf uses a less intuitive method for adding
categories but it's simple once you know how to do it. In most launchers
(or other Palm apps for that mater), adding a new category is accomplished
directly from the category menu. In AppShelf,
there are a number of options for what kind of files you wish to organize
on the main area of the display so this becomes a multi-step process. First
you select "Edit Categories" as you would in other applications.
On the screen that is displayed next, you select the frame style (Normal is the
traditional icon display for apps). Then, on the next screen, you assign a
name and a keyboard shortcut (if desired). In addition to Normal, AppShelf
offers the following frame styles for the main display area:
Card
Application
DA
Contents
Viewer (News, etc.)
Docs
(generic Palm book format)
CrsImgView (JPEG images)
McText (Text)
NetFront (HTML)
and
more, including a Custom option where you can assign your favorite application and its document format (all my
Bonsai outlines for example)
This
ability to create application specific frames is pretty powerful stuff. In
all fairness, this can be done in other launchers but I like the way it's
been implemented here. And it reveals one of AppShelf's
strengths - almost everything is associated with the keyboard. On a device
like my UX50, this is a truly wonderful thing as I've become a keyboard
person since adopting this unit. Part of the reason is that the keyboard is
so good. The other is that I'm not a big fan of Graffiti 2 or the Decuma recognizer on the UX50. You can use the jog dial
on Clie devices or the five-way navigator on Palm
units to select icons and launch applications as well as the arrow keys on
the keyboard. You can literally keep the stylus stowed away with this
launcher.
Advanced launcher stuff -
customizing the display
Virtually
every aspect of AppShelf can be customized. Be
warned that this application could use a good translator to clarify the
menu commands and dialog boxes. The meaning of commands and options can
usually be intuited (or at least discovered by a little trial and error)
but this is the one area that really needs a bit of work for the
English-speaking audience for AppShelf.
On the
sidebar (which can be toggled to appear on the left, right, or hidden)
appears the time (analog or digital), date, a
calendar of the current month, and a list of the current day's appointments
and to do items. Like everything else in AppShelf,
this area can be completely customized. You can hide or show any of the
components I've just mentioned, a clip viewer which displays a thumbnail of
an image file that opens to a full view when tapped, and an icon pad
(another launcher area). You simply drag the items on or off the sidebar
area to create your own perfect layout.
You
can control whether the sidebar (called Ext. Window in AppShelf
parlance) is displayed when the Virtual Graffiti area is expanded or not.
If displayed, it moves below the main launcher area (in landscape mode). If
not, it simply "disappears" until the Virtual Graffiti area is
collapsed.
Each
launcher category can have its own icon setting and like other advanced
launchers, you can use a background image or wallpaper, either captured
using AppShelf's clipper DA or imported from an
image file on disk. You can also assign sounds to different system events
(beam, shutdown, etc.). A favorite option I
discovered is the ability to assign the home button to switch to a category
view in the launcher area (Options > Operate > Home button assigned
category select). When this option is invoked, a series of folders, each
bearing the name of one your categories is displayed.
And
finally, the coolest trick of all is the ease with which you can associate
data from your favorite PIM applications with the
module components. Drag your Agendus or DateBk icon to the agenda and/or To Do list in the
sidebar and your data is now linked to that application. Tap an appointment
or task in the sidebar and the associated application is launched. This
only works with applications that use the built-in Palm application
databases so KeySuite and Beyond Contact users
cannot use this neat feature completely. If you drag KeyDates
to the list area, it will display your daily events but you will get an
error message when you tap on an appointment.
There's even more good stuff
waiting to be discovered
If Imazeki adheres to his usual development style, there's
more to come as the new 1.1 version moves through beta to official release.
At $12.00, AppShelf is competitively priced with
other advanced launchers like ZLauncher and YiShow. If you use an OS 5 device, especially one with
a keyboard, and are up for a little experimentation, I can wholeheartedly
recommend you take AppShelf for a test drive.
It's become my daily launcher.
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