SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 For Android

There is one area where I seriously digress from most other tech geeks and that is in the UI (User Interface) experience with devices and software.  I like eye candy!  Most serious geeks might scoff and deride too much UI stuff as an unnecessary waste of system resources that do little of actual value.  I disagree with that!  Personally I feel that if I'm going to be using a computer operating system or smartphone on a daily basis I want it to at least be a pleasurable experience, and a good UI can do much to accomplish that.  It's one of the reasons I like the Palm Pre so much, despite so many other short comings.  It's a pleasure to use and despite the fancy UI of WebOS with its gestures and swipes aplenty it's quite a usable platform to get stuff done.  In other words, eye candy counts.

That brings me to the topic of this post, it seems that SPB Mobile Shell is coming to Android soon!

For those who may be unfamiliar with Mobile Shell it's a programming for skinning the user interface of your smartphone, as well as a few extra features.  Up until now it's pretty much been a Windows Mobile only product but that looks to be changing, and that's a very good thing!

Let's face reality here, plain Android has one of the most boring user interfaces in history.  Actually, boring is giving it a compliement.  The one thing I liked the most about the HTC Hero was the SenseUI custom user interface that HTC is bringing to a lot of their devices (both WinMo and Android).  There are other options for plain Android users but most do not have the sort of support that SPB Software throws behind their products.

I've used Mobile Shell before on my two previous Windows Mobile phones and liked it enough I paid for the product to unlock the full functionality over the base "free" versions.

Smartphones with plain Android may deserve another look after this coming week.