Wisbar v. Pocket Facelift?

adashe · 08-02-03, 10:16 AM

About to install wisbar, but ran into Facelift on pocket gear. Chris Leckness also gives this a good review on here.

Do they do the same things? Of course wisbar is free, but is facelift better?

One other note -- just to make sure -- icbar and wisbar both do the same thing, right? You don't need both of them, do you?

Thanks,
Alex

lukas44 · 08-02-03, 10:45 AM

Facelift does a simple "bar on top, but is really better for it's cascading start menu.
I use Wisbar Facelift together. I just disable the bar option on facelift.

Power users will notice a slight delay on their axims, but it's ok.
Pocket Facelift works better with Wisbar, than ICbar, as I got an error with ICbar/facelift combo.

For power users:
Fastest/smallest combo is ICbar with "startmenu" assigned to one of it's extra assignable buttons.

For those that don't care about cascading menus, "RhinoLaunch" is THE BEST program launcher...better than others(even bat pak prog bar) because is categorize & assign shortcuts, and is small and does not get in the way of the "right side scroll bar" which appears if you have alot on your today screen.

FrstdOne · 08-02-03, 11:28 AM

Maybe I didn't see it but RhinoLaunch doesn't seem to have a soft-reset option. On my first Ax. before I started using software that could soft-reset, I wore out the rubber where you push in with the stylus...

Raynne413 · 08-02-03, 11:44 AM

Pocket Facelift will skin the bottom bar and top bar if you use a full-screen theme. It allows for a cascading menu, includes a battery and memory percentage moniter, and a launcher. There is a tast manager built in and the option to actually close a program and not just minimize it.

Gigi · 08-02-03, 12:17 PM

I had icbar and wisbar installed together (to compare)and it was a BAD combination. I kept on getting wisbar icons when only icbar was running. Even when I had uninstalled wisbar, it still seemed to linger on my system. Later I read that icbar is based on wisbar, and I believe, share the same registry settings (or something like that...).

Sorry, slightly off topic, but still relevant I think!

FrstdOne · 08-02-03, 12:27 PM

I'm still a huge fan of...

Battery Pack - Click Me

Oblox · 08-02-03, 02:21 PM

I tried Facelift on my 2002 axim and it seriously slowed it down, some of the features were nice but overall i wouldnt rate it, i have battery pack 2003 as one of my ipaqpoints choices but have not used it but have heard good things.

I personally prefer ICbar its easy to set up and use and works great since the 1.1 beta version came out both on my axim and even on my 2003 iPAQ.

Raynne413 · 08-02-03, 03:16 PM

Pocket Facelift was one of the first things I installed when I got my Axim, so if there is a slowdown, I don't notice it. :D

Oblox · 08-02-03, 05:09 PM

Maybe facelift just didnt like running with icbar, thats all i can think that caused it.

adashe · 08-02-03, 05:55 PM

so again, Wisbar v. Facelift? Is the answer "both"? Facelift costs money - what exactly does it get me that I can't get elsewhere (e.g., from Battery pack software, etc.).??

Raynne413 · 08-02-03, 06:47 PM

Oblox, it probable was the combination that caused the problem since Facelift does just about the same thing as ICBar.

Adashe, as for the differences, with facelift you can skin the buttons, background, menu, and both bars without using multiple programs. I don't know of any other programs that allow for cascading menus (but I haven't really looked, either). I actually use Battery Pack with Pocket Facelift. Plus, Battery Pack software you have to buy also, and all it does is give you a program launcher and battery/memory moniter. It doesn't change the appearance of your today screen, menu, etc.

adashe · 08-02-03, 10:44 PM

Thanks Raynne413.

So what you're saying is that with facelift I get all of the functionality of Wisbar, plus other abilities. Cascading menus isn't very important for me - good battery monitoring is. So do you prefer the Battery Pack monitoring over the battery monitoring within facelift? If so, are't I just as good to get wisbar and battery pack and then be done with it?

Anyway, this whole 'skinning' thing is new to me - I haven't done it before. All I've done is use a variety of themes on my today screen using theme master - which I really like. I still want to keep using these themes.

Raynne413 · 08-02-03, 10:59 PM

Theme Master works with Pocket Facelift. I actually use it myself to switch my themes around. As for battery monitering, I actually don't use Battery Pack or Pocket Facelift. I use Pocket Facelift for the customization, Battery Pack for the program launcher (it only takes up one line and you can move through lines using an arrow) and Pocket Backup Plus for my Battery Monitering. Pocket Facelift won't estimate how much time is left, it only measures the percentage. I mainly use Facelift for the full Screen themes. So you can see what I am talking about, I will attach a few of my favorites below. THe buttons and bars you see are made into the .tsk file automatically, so you don't have to have anything special to make them show up.

Raynne413 · 08-02-03, 11:00 PM

Another full screen theme.

adashe · 08-03-03, 10:45 PM

Thanks Rayanne. That helps. How about the 'weather' on your screen - is that Journal bar?

Thanks again