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After many months of development I'm very pleased to announce that the new Facade 2.0 for WM Smartphones (non touch) is now available!
Facade is stepping up to the next level with many exciting improvements and new features! Facade 2 is designed to run on Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone devices running WM5 through WM6.5, and using QVGA or higher resolution (240x320, 320x240, 320x320).
Before moving ahead to all the details about the new version, I'll mention that all Facade 1.X registered users can find complete upgrade details for the new version at the following URL:
http://www.sbsh.net/.../facade/upgrade
Upgrade details and trial version downloads are also included towards the bottom of this post, following the new version description.
And now the details of the new Facade 2.0 release!!
What's new in Facade 2
1. Facade Home
The new default Facade layout, Facade Home, features a Home tab which includes all of your most important information at a glance. Included are date and time, alarm information, profiles, carrier, counters for email / voice mail / sms / missed calls, appointments and tasks, all in one powerful "tab" view that is 100% Facade, no other plugins needed. There is even a detailed battery meter under the date, shown as a small bar that takes up no additional space on the screen. But that is just the default tab; there are more features available by scrolling the top bar left or right. Also included are tabs for Schedule, Tasks, Calendar, Weather (if PocketWeather is installed), and Program Launchers too.
New formatting options allow a single Facade layout to support both portrait and landscape devices -- Facade Home is an example of this. This is particularly useful for devices which support rotation, as they can operate in both modes.
2. Multiple background images
Three professionally designed background images are included with Facade 2.0. Additionally, the default Facade layout was designed to look great with as many other backgrounds as possible, using new semi-transparent drawing on top of your background selection that will make the display look great with any background image of your choice!
The selected background image can be easily changed from the Layout settings screen.
3. Appointments and Tasks
Facade offers separate views for appointments and for tasks, but it is also possible to combine appointments and tasks in a single view, which can be easily scrolled to view future appointments and tasks as well.
In addition to viewing your appointments and tasks in one joint display, you can also easily create new items, edit existing items and launch your preferred personal information manager.
4. Custom Plugins
Other non-SBSH home screen plugins may now be hosted within Facade, and even within a tab. This powerful feature allows home screen plugins from other vendors to be combined with Facade in interesting and creative ways. On top of that, you can even host several home screen plugins within a single Facade tab! This allows creation of many virtual "home-screens" with different home screen plugins hosted within each tab!
5. Skin packages
A new skin package format allows Facade layouts and skins to be easily packaged into a single file which can be downloaded and easily installed by other users. This format, based on a .zip file with a bit of additional information, allows our creative and power users to build creations that can be packaged up and posted in the forums for easy sharing with our great user community here! Watch the resources forum for upcoming exciting skins.
We will publish how to create such skin packages in the next few hours following the new version release announcement!
6. Thumbnails
Skins can also include a thumbnail which gives a quick glance of what the skin will look like when selected. For layouts which do not include thumbnails, the settings screen will display a mini version of the background image instead, to help distinguish between the various layouts that may exist on your phone. Similarly, when choosing a background image from the settings screens, a small "thumbnail" version will be shown.
7. Softkey color
The color of the soft keys (the bottom bar which normally accesses the Start menu) can now be controlled from Facade settings. Additionally, a background file can specify its preferred softkey color, known as the BaseHue. This allows the softkey colors to change dynamically as different background are selected. For example, the three background images supplied with the 2.0 installer each use a different softkey color.
8. PIM Integration
Facade now includes integration with the major PIM applications: SBSH Calendar, Pocket Outlook, Pocket Informant, AgendaOne and Agendus. From the schedule/task views it is possible to jump directly into your PIM and view details in various views, or add new entries.
Users who use SBSH Calendar with Facade will enjoy even greater integration - including both category colors and icons display! More details included in the following bullet point.
9. Category Icons and Colors
Within the schedule/task views, custom colors may be assigned to each category, allowing easier recognition of appointment types at a glance.
SBSH Calendar users will even enjoy great integration! When using both the new Facade and SBSH Calendar on the same device, Facade will automatically import and display your category icons within the Facade display too! This provides complete category icons and colors support for our users - directly on your Smartphone home screen!
10. Monthly Calendar
A new monthly calendar tab shows the days of each month within a Facade tab, and allows easy scrolling between other months and years.
Like all tabs, the Calendar Tab is designed to automatically adopt to all display orientations.
11. Program Launcher
The program launcher allows quick access to all of your favorite programs, but that is just the beginning. MRU support allows access to the most recently used applications. Meters show your current battery, signal, and memory usage. And many other special functions are available, including message counters and reboot/reload features.
The launcher tab in Facade Home combines multiple rows of launcher buttons, providing a full screen of buttons. When scrolling through the buttons, a popup label will appear to indicate the function of each button.
12. PocketWeather integration
When PocketWeather is also installed, the Facade Home tab now includes weather forecast information, current temperature information, and moon phase information in the evening. A separate weather tab now shows the PocketWeather home screen plugin.
Note: For PocketWeather integration, please download the latest PocketWeather version, 2.3.1 RC4 or greater.
13. Advanced configuration settings
Additional configuration screens allow customization of the available tabs and the functions performed when clicking on the tabs. New "color picker" screens allow easy customization of all colors used by Facade. And many other options allow the home screen to be customized to fit your unique usage patterns.
14. Windows Mobile 6.5 support
Facade 2.0 supports Windows Mobile Smartphone versions 5 through 6.5 (QVGA or higher resolution required).
15. Language support
In addition to English, Facade currently includes translations for Dutch, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish.
16. And much more
The above gives a view of the highlights of the Facade 2.0 release, but there are many other new features. Here is a quick "bullet" listing of some additional features:
- Redesigned notification logic
- Font options that affect the entire screen
- Automatic font sizing to fit
- Relative font sizing
- Contact birthdays and appointments
- Limit schedule to specific categories
- Human time defines the start hour for your day
- New formatting options for screen designers
- Images can now contain text regions
- Show date inline with appointments
- Store certain settings globally (applied to all layouts)
- Performance enhancements
- PortraitOnly / LandscapeOnly regions
- Relative label positioning
- Conditional formatting logic
- Weather buttons
- Samsung alarm manager support
- Many keywords for reporting phone state/counters/etc.
- Rounded shading and "glow" effect
- Set default tab
- Ring menus
Installing and Upgrading
Upgrading to Facade 2.0 for Facade 1.x registered users
Users who registered Facade 1.x before July 1st 2009 are entitled to upgrade to the new version for only $7.95. User can complete the upgrade to the new version at the following link:
http://www.sbsh.net/.../facade/upgrade
* Full upgrade details will also be emailed to all our registered users within the next 72 hours.
Users who registered Facade 1.x on or after July 1st 2009 are entitled to upgrade for free. Users entitled to a free upgrade will receive an email including free upgrade information within the next 72 hours.
Because this is a major version release we recommend uninstalling the latest version before installing the new one.
New Facade users
Facade 2.0 costs $14.95 for new users.
Users that would like to register the new Facade 2.0 can do so at our online store using the following link:
https://www.mobihand...id=362&pid=7010
Download Facade
Facade 2.0 comes with a 12 day trial version. Use the links below to download the new Facade trial version.
Click here to download PC installer (EXE)
Click here to download OTA (Over The Air) installer (CAB) - direct download to your Smartphone (for Windows Mobile 5 / 6 / 6.5)
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We really hope you enjoy the new Facade 2 version. We've spent a lot of time creating, refining, and testing, and we are excited about the results. As always, feel free to post back with your comments and any feature requests or bug reports. Many of the improvements in Facade 2 were a result of user feedback and suggestions.
Have a wonderful day!
Best Regards,
Todd
MultiQuote
