SEVENCLICK
Mobile Technology Evangelists

We all know that Apple’s iPhone represents a brand new concept in mobile phone interaction. Little by little, the rest of mobile phone manufacturers are iPhone-izing their devices with bigger touch-screens, improved interactivity, ease of use, simplified interfaces,etc.. Day by day new devices are launched with a clearer bet on design and user experience.

Windows Mobile represents the opposite extreme, with a PC-based operating system. Far from being easy to use. Fortunately, users can access third-party software that improves some of the operating system capabilities. This is the case of Fun Contact 2.0.

What’s this?
Fun Contact is, as iWindowsMobile website explains, “Windows Mobile contact manager like on iPhone”. It replaces the contact management software included in Windows Mobile with this new solution. This way, you can update this windows mobile feature with a more advanced solution which follow current trends in user interaction.

Fun Contact is distributed under a shareware license. You have a 14 day trial. The commercial licence cost US $19.95.

The software loads when you first open the application, being able to keep it running in background. This is important, since the loading period takes some time. We have tested Fun Contact in a HTC 3600 running Windows Mobile 5. The average results in terms of speed has been completely satisfactory.

What does it offers?

• Contact List: The first thing the user is shown is the contact list, featuring full screen navigation. Forget about the old windows mobile style. Now you can take advantage of the whole screen size. This way, users will be able to find their contacts faster and in a clearer way. Each contact is presented by the contact name and company name. You can navigate the contact list in a similar way than you do on the iPhone. Click with your finger on the list and move it upwards and downwards. The effect is not as good as the iPhone, but is an interesting approach.

• Quick Access List: On the right side of the screen, you can see a list of letters. Clicking with the stylus on one of the letters moves the contact list to the first contact which name starts with the chosen letter. You can try to use this feature with your finger, but mine are much too big.

• Contact Description. When you choose one of your contacts, a descriptive window opens. The information is shown in a clearer and more attractive manner than Windows Mobile does. The information is categorized with different icons referencing mobile numbers, fixed numbers, email, website,etc.. Clicking on each field automatically executes an associated action like calling, sending an sms, sending an email,etc.

• Contact Edition. In the Contact Description window, you can edit your contact information. You can edit, delete and add new fields to the field list. You can also edit the vcard associated with the contact, through the icon representing the vcard.

• Phone Keypad. Do you see an arrow close the Quick Access List? Click on it, and the Phone Keypad appears. It allows you to dial a phone number directly, without choosing a contact. If you want to hide it again, click on the right arrow in the lower right corner of the keypad.
• Favorites. The Star takes you to the Favorite list, where you can find your most used contacts. Well, you can place whatever contact you want. Just navigate to a contact and highlight the star in the contact description window. Very useful.

• Phone Log. Fun Contact also provides a Phone Log, providing information of incoming calls, missed calls and outgoing calls. The presentation is more attractive than Windows Mobile Phone Log. You can answer a missed call, or redial a previously made call.
• Language support. Here is the list of supported languages. English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. Quite impressive, Isn’t it?

Despite this list offers a clear vision of Fun Contact features, I think that best you can do is try it by yourself. You can download a trial copy in iWindowsMobile Software website. Find the link at the end of the post.

Pros

• Full Screen Navigation.
• Ease of use
• Finger friendly interface
• Visually attractive
• Language Support

Cons

• Minor screen glitches
• When you block your windows mobile device, the upper tittle bar is replaced with Fun contact upper part of the screen. Take a look at the screen capture, my explanation is not very precise

Conclussions
In my opinion, Fun Contact provides a great alternative to Windows Mobile Contact Manager. I think it’s time to change Windows Mobile concept of user interaction, moving away from Windows desktop to a more intuitive and simpler interaction. My advice, if you accept it, give it a try. Oh, Don’t forget to share your impression with us through our blog comments.

Thanks to our friends from Vito Technology and iWindowsMobile for the support in this review.

Link iWindowsMobile