When I first moved from my Nokia S60 smartphone (the 6600), the one thing I missed the most about the Symbian platform was the lack of Profiles. No longer was I able to easily switch from Normal to Meeting as easily. Sure Windows Mobile had that speaker icon (and still does) where you can switch between On, Vibrate and Off very easily but I was looking for something more complete. There were a lot of applications made for this gap. One of them, PhoneWeaver by SBSH seems to stand out from the crowd with its beautiful graphics and simple to use interface.

First Glance

PocketWeaver was just launched to v1.2 earlier today so this could possibly be the first in-depth review of it. It does come with several improvements over the previous version such as counters support, profile icons and bugs fixing, among many others. For those new to PhoneWeaver, there are a whole host of features that you can check out. Thanks to SBSH, you can try it out for and if you are satisfied, licenses only cost $14.95. How does PhoneWeaver stand up to other Profile management software out there in the market?

Simple To Setup

For one, this software is very easy to set up. Installation was a breeze with no complications. And when go to the Options page to tweak the program, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. That’s because, unlike other SBSH software that we reviewed earlier (such as PocketWeather and PocketBreeze), PhoneWeaver does not a lot of settings for you to play around with. There’s one for general settings, one for profiles setting (which you will be spending most of your time navigating initially), another for configuring the Today plug-in and the last for the Popup menu. That’s a total of only 4 options that you have to worry about. However, don’t let that fool you because almost all the customizations and options you need to change can be found within those 4 settings.

Beautiful Skins

Original skin	User-submitted skin

We all love good-looking devices, even if that means it would slow our devices down. But thankfully, the skinning function of PhoneWeaver does not appear to do so. What’s great about this is that you can have a skin that will fit nicely with the rest of your device. I am not really much of a fan of skins because it used to hamper my productivity so much but for those of you still in the game, there are loads of resources you can tap into, both free and commercial, to skin your PhoneWeaver applications. For starters, you might want to check out SBSH’s forums.

But it’s not just skins that you can play around with on PhoneWeaver. That’s because the application also gives you the option to attach icons to your profiles. This means you can tell which profile you are on just by glancing at the icon instead of reading the words, perfect for you are on the move. This icon can be really useful and so it’s no surprise that it is reflected not just in the Today screen but also on the bottom taskbar (if you have activated that function).

Customizations Galore

Customizing your profile…	Never been easier

When I said earlier that you did not have much options to play around with, I did not say your customization options were limited. SBSH has given you the ability to really decide how you want to program each profile, from getting it activated based on time, agenda, power source or even doing it manually. I find this a really useful feature. Imagine your device going into Silent mode automatically because you just entered a meeting. And it goes back into Normal profile when the meeting is over. That’s just one of the scenarios PhoneWeaver can be really useful.

Another customization option that will please many users is the ability to decide if you want a larger or smaller icon on your Today screen. Each icon is customizable (and removable if you choose) so that you can show only the icons you want. At the size you want. So if you don’t use Push Mail, why bother having the icon show up on the screen right? How great is that?

Lock Profile

The lock profile was something I thought was a bit unneccessary at first. But after going through the various descriptions of the application, I could understand why SBSH decided to implement it. In the event that you need to activate 1 profile, you do not want other profiles to over-ride, if your setup has been in such a way. For example, say you are on a flight. The last thing you want is your phone going off right? Well that’s what Lock profile does. My only complain was that I could not lock a profile from the Today screen (bug maybe?) but I could do it from the Popup menu. Doing it from the former would really be great.

Assign To Button

One thing that caught my eye with PhoneWeaver was the fact that it had a Menu option. Upon closer inspection, I found out that it invokes a Popup menu where you can change profiles and toggle radios from just about anywhere. This means you no longer have to go back to the Today screen and do the switching. By linking it to a hardkey, you can easily switch between profiles with just a few keypresses and taps. I do not know of any other profile manager that allows you to do this.

Command Line Anyone

For users of launcher programs such as iLauncher (which we have also reviewed recently), you’ll be glad to know that PhoneWeaver supports command lines. This means you could create a shortcut to PhoneWeaver’s profile or radio toggling option on your launchers and activate/deactivate them without the need for Today-plug-in itself. Great for users who are short on screen space of do not use plug-ins. And don’t worry, it’s not rocket science to add. SBSH has a nice list of commands and instructions on how you can accomplish this.

Does Not Work With Eten WiFi Nicely

Like most profile managers I have come across, PhoneWeaver does not play well with Eten’ WiFi. This means that after each soft-reset, tapping on the WiFi icon will not toggle it. You have to go into Wireless Manager to do the initial toggling. After that, you can do the toggling from PhoneWeaver’s icon. However, this initial toggling is something that I hope SBSH can get sorted out in the next release.

No Location Based Profiles

PhoneWeaver does a great job of allowing you how you want to switch profiles but I think having the option to automatically switch profiles based on locations would be really awesome. A lot of profile managers out there already do this. Some use GPS, others use cell tower IDs. It would be great if SBSH added this function to PhoneWeaver. Imagine the next time you go to your grandma’s house, you don’t have to worry about your heavy metal ringtone scaring her. Instead she’ll be soothed by the joyous melody of a classic.

Backlight Shortcut Would Be Nice

While we are on the list of suggestions, I think having a slider where you can change backlight levels would be really great. While PhoneWeaver allows you to set the levels in profiles, doing it on the fly is not as easy. So SBSH, if you could add a backlight slider in your next version, it would really make this software even better.

Click Sound

Here’s something that got to me after a while. If you are on a profile that has sound on, you might notice that there is a click sound when you tap on any icon. While I am sure this does have its advantages, I wish there was an option for the sound to be turned off even with all other sounds still on. I tried looking in the menu but could not find one. Another interesting thing was that, even with all sounds off, I could still hear a faint click when I was alone in an empty and quiet room. I wonder if this is a bug?

Summary

What I Like

• Easy to setup navigate
• Beautiful skins and icons
• Customizable options to get the outlook I want
• Menu that can be bounded to hardkey for quick switching and toggling
• Ability to lock profile
• User-friendly software

What Can Be Improved

• Can the ‘click’ sound be turned off?
• Does not work well with Eten WiFi
• Location based profiling would be nice
• And so would a backlight slider on the Today screen

Conclusion

I think SBSH has a real winner here. Sure it is not perfect and some things can (and should be improved) but I think for the most part, this software works really well. It fills the void of Profiles Management that Microsoft has blatantly left out and it fills it nicely. Sure there might be other applications out there that can do even more than PhoneWeaver, but we have to keep in mind that we are reviewing a profile management software and in this area, it really shines through. Which is why we have decided to put PhoneWeaver in our list of Recommended Software. I can’t wait to see what the next version of PhoneWeaver will bring to the table. Thank you SBSH for this great software.

For those of you who would like to give it a shot, you can get a trial here. Licenses cost $14.95 a piece and can be bought here. Those who are already using this software, let us know your thoughts.

Tags: commercial software