[TerraMobility]

Terra Mobility is pleased to announce the release of File Manager Pro version 1.5.

New features in version 1.5:

• View Files as Thumbnails. These are neatly laid out on a grid for easy viewing of all your picture and image files. You can select 3 different sizes as well as the display of the file name and attributes.
• Integrated Text Editor. Create new files or edit existing ones. Use the Find & Replace function, with options for matching by whole word only and case sensitivity. Also includes Edit and View modes, Zoom, Revert, SaveAs and more.
• Enhanced Shortcut Support. Quick access to many common actions and operations using newly expanded shortcuts, including file list sorting, list navigation, searching, zooming, Favorites and Options.
• Optimized File Operations. Now with faster performance for file operations, such as Copy, Move and Compress.
• Localized in Spanish. Spanish speaking users can use the application in their native language.
• Expanded Storm Support. Use your touch screen BlackBerry the way it was intended! We've extended our Storm support to include flick scrolling and touch selection in the Thumbnail view and the Text Editor. Select by double tap, triple tap or multi-touch. Scroll smoothly and quickly using a flick motion.

Existing Features:

• Support for All Standard File Operations: Copy, Move, Delete, Rename. Also, Send as Email, New Folder and support for recursive Copy, Move and Delete.
• Zip File Support. Create and extract zip files, and navigate them like folders. Click on a compressed text file and have it open for viewing without the need to extract it first!
• Select Multiple File and Folders. Select multiple files and folder and do any file operation on them.
• Search. Search for files and folders, specifying to search subfolders, and whether to use case sensitivity or whole word only.
• Launch Files in Documents-To-Go. Click on any registered file types and have it automatically launched in the handling application.
• Favorites List. Fast access to your frequently used folders and files.
• File List Sorting. Sort the file list by Name, Size, Date or Type. Specify the display of file information and whether to show hidden files.
• Modify File Attributes. View and set the attributes on files and folders.

Visit the CrackBerry App Store or terramobility.com for screen shots and more information.

[tmp3150]

How is this different from BBFileScout? It seems the same to me and the BBFileScout is free.

[TerraMobility]

There are several differences between the two applications. I've listed a few of the major features which are exclusive to File Manager Pro below as a summary of those differences.

1) File Manager Pro fully supports the Storm. Unlike many of even the built-in RIM applications, File Manager Pro supports flick scrolling, and touch and multi-touch selections. This allows Storm users to make full use of their touch screens.

2) Powerful Search Features. File Manager Pro provides file search options for case sensitivity, whole word matching, and allows you to specify whether to search subfolders. Also, directly from your Search Results list you can select any number of files and do any file operation (Copy, Move, Delete, etc.). This is a great way to select files across multiple folders and apply a file operation to all at once.

3) Powerful Text Editor Features. Support for Find & Replace, with case sensitivity and whole word matching, Revert, Zoom, Select All and more.

4) Thumbnail Grid Layout. File Manager Pro's Thumbnail view uses a grid layout to maximize the viewing experience. Supports selecting from 3 different thumbnails sizes (Small, Medium and Large) and associated labels (zero, one, or two line display).

5) Advanced Zip File Support. File Manager Pro provides the most seamless and powerful support for Zip files. You don�t need to extract the contents of a zip file just to see what's inside--simply browse them just like you do folders! In addition, you can directly open and view text files in a zip archive without extracting them.

6) Speed is important on a mobile, and File Manager Pro has the fastest BlackBerry file browsing available (even faster than the built-in Media app!) We've designed and optimized the application to be able to handle folders with 1000's of files with virtually no performance penalty. And with version 1.5 we've further optimized our file operations to be as fast as possible.

7) Intuitive UI. We've designed the UI to make user experience as intuitive as possible by adhering to the BlackBerry UI Guidelines. This provides a consistent interaction model that matches your standard BlackBerry apps. And since it works just like the built-in BlackBerry apps, there's no learning curve. A few examples of this are:
* Shortcuts keys. Uses same key sequences that you've already learned in other BB apps like Messages. For example, pressing the Space key will page down one screen.
* Menu items. Uses standard naming, such as "Properties", "Help" (and locates it at the top), "View Thumbnails", and others.
* Selection Highlighting. Uses the same highlighting that is system standard to denote selections (also, it's visually easy to see which items are selected).

Lastly, BBFileScout is donationware rather than freeware.

There are several screen shots with additional detail as well as a 7 day trial at our terramobility.com web site.

Thanks,
Logan Carroll
Terra Mobility

[tmp3150]

I agree with some of what you said, but no way is #6 true. Let me re-download your app again and compare both and see what is true. I do appreciate the time you took explaining this to me, it is appreciated. And you are correct, filescout is donateware, but you guys are charging $11.95 / $7.95 on sale for this. To be honest there isn't that much of a difference between the two to justify the 11.95/7.95 hefty price tag.

The reason I say #6 is true is because when I browse my photos (all 500+ of them) and load them up to browse, the browsing is just as slow as on the bb when I view them through the Photo manager. Then when I look at a few and scroll down, more thumb nails have to be loaded which is the same way the bb photo manager does it, so it really isn't faster (imo). Am I doing something wrong or should this be faster and this is on the small thumbnail setting. I also need to mention this happens only in the photo viewing, other files do load fast.

[ltrtiger]

Just grabbed the update. Many thanks. One feature I hope you consider adding in the future....password protection or individual file/folder encryption. Again, thanks for the great work.

[TerraMobility]

tmp3150,

Thanks for querying us on the file browsing performance. While preparing our reply when re-ran some tests and discovered we had introduced a late bug which had slowed our file list browsing. We've released a new v1.5.1 which fixes this issue. If you had downloaded v1.5.0 please try this new update which should significantly increase the file list browsing performance. As a bonus, we managed to slip in Spell Checking for trackball devices, which hadn't quite made the previous release.

In the description for the file browsing performance I should have been more specific. Item #6 was in reference to viewing the standard file list rather than viewing by thumbnail. In general, the file list view is used for file browsing since it displays more information that is easier to digest. For most users, the thumbnail browsing will only be used when viewing images. My apologies for any confusion that may have caused.

In our comparative tests we created folders on the Media Card which contained 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 files respectively. We then ran tests which measured the initial display time as well as scrolling performance. The scrolling performance portion was done using all of the standard scrolling methods; we found the best gauge was scrolling by Alt-trackball, which should scroll a screen at a time. The results were fairly dramatic. These tests are easy to reproduce on your own device if you're interested in seeing that for yourself.

Displaying in thumbnail view has additional rendering overhead, which involves scaling a copy of the original image file and then saving the downsampled version. That activity occurs the first time the image is displayed as a thumbnail; after that the cached version will be used, which will display much faster. If you change the display size of the thumbnails in the Options screen the cached versin will need to be regenerated, however, you can freely change the label display without requiring rescaling/recaching.

We've also implemented a price reduction with this release to $9.99.

Logan Carroll

[jcp007]

Is it available on the CB App Store?

[jcp007]

Version 1.5 is on CAS. Version 1.1 is on BAW. Is the BAW version going to be updated?

[jcp007]

How much "clean-up" can FM Pro do in terms of freeing up space? Can I remove the pre-installed picture, wallpaper, ringtones and apps?

[cdf3]

I agree with some of what you said, but no way is #6 true. Let me re-download your app again and compare both and see what is true. I do appreciate the time you took explaining this to me, it is appreciated. And you are correct, filescout is donateware, but you guys are charging $11.95 / $7.95 on sale for this. To be honest there isn't that much of a difference between the two to justify the 11.95/7.95 hefty price tag.

The reason I say #6 is true is because when I browse my photos (all 500+ of them) and load them up to browse, the browsing is just as slow as on the bb when I view them through the Photo manager. Then when I look at a few and scroll down, more thumb nails have to be loaded which is the same way the bb photo manager does it, so it really isn't faster (imo). Am I doing something wrong or should this be faster and this is on the small thumbnail setting. I also need to mention this happens only in the photo viewing, other files do load fast.

Actually #6 is true. That's one of the main reasons why I use this app daily. Another reason that makes this app better is the ability to select multiple files. Similar to Shift+Click on a PC. It's the only app that I'm aware of that will allow you to select multiple files. When those files are selected you can copy them, delete them, move them, zip them,.....and best of all, Email them. It's the best way to Email multiple pictures. No other app has this feaure. That in itself is worth the $11 I purchased the app for. RIM nees to take note. This app blows their file navigation app away.
I can wait to download the new upgrade.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[cdf3]

The new thumbnail feature is extremely slow on my device when viewing pictures. I'll stick with the List View, or use the default BlackBerry explorer to view pictures.
I wish they could add a feature that would allow us to cancel a Search, as well as being able to cancel a folder that's being zipped.
I was searching for a file. After 5 minutes had passed, it was still searching. There was no way to cancel the search. I had to do a battery pull.
A cancel feature would be great.

[mariadee]

Actually #6 is true. That's one of the main reasons why I use this app daily. Another reason that makes this app better is the ability to select multiple files. Similar to Shift+Click on a PC. It's the only app that I'm aware of that will allow you to select multiple files. When those files are selected you can copy them, delete them, move them, zip them,.....and best of all, Email them. It's the best way to Email multiple pictures. No other app has this feaure. That in itself is worth the $11 I purchased the app for. RIM nees to take note. This app blows their file navigation app away.
I can wait to download the new upgrade.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

FileScout allows you to do all of that as well. It's a pretty nifty feature.

[TerraMobility]

Yes, we'll be updating the version on BAW as well. It's currently going through their review/approval processed and should be updated soon.

[TerraMobility]

The new thumbnail feature is extremely slow on my device when viewing pictures. I'll stick with the List View, or use the default BlackBerry explorer to view pictures.
I wish they could add a feature that would allow us to cancel a Search, as well as being able to cancel a folder that's being zipped.
I was searching for a file. After 5 minutes had passed, it was still searching. There was no way to cancel the search. I had to do a battery pull.
A cancel feature would be great.

You're quite correct that the initial painting of the thumbnails can be very slow, especially for Curves, 8800s and 8200s. Once the thumbnails have been cached, however, they can be painted at a reasonable rate. In tests we've conducted here on a 8220, the first time paint for a screenful of thumbnails (Medium size, 12 per screen) took 33 seconds. Subsequent paints, which used the cached version of the thumbnails, took slightly less than 4 seconds, which is about 1/3 seconds per thumbnail. Performance on higher end devices will be even better. For example, on the Bold painting 12 per screen from the cache takes less than 2 seconds. However, while the painting from cache seems to be a respectable rate, we're continuing to investigate ways we can further improve the performance.

Also, thanks for the feedback on the cancel for operations. We'll be looking into that as a feature for a future release.

[tmp3150]

This is what I was saying before. File scout does EVERYTHING this app does and it is free, so why would anyone pay for this? I'm not seeing any reason why. Plus the cost is outrageous. $9.99 vs free, let me think about this for a minute. I pick FREE!!

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing this app, but as I said FileScout does everything this app does and its free. I'm not seeing the reasoning behind paying that much for this app.

FileScout allows you to do all of that as well. It's a pretty nifty feature.

[kinggeoff]

Having tried both filescout and file manager pro, I enjoy using file manager pro MUCH more. I love the multitouch selection, though I do wish the flick scrolling was more of a gradual acceleration curve (as it is in app world etc)
But overall file manager pro is a much better program to me. I'll go the trial period and see if it's worth the $$ for my situation

[M2Schibs]

Is any one having trouble moving files on the tour? I can't copy and paste.

[cdf3]

This is what I was saying before. File scout does EVERYTHING this app does and it is free, so why would anyone pay for this? I'm not seeing any reason why. Plus the cost is outrageous. $9.99 vs free, let me think about this for a minute. I pick FREE!!

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing this app, but as I said FileScout does everything this app does and its free. I'm not seeing the reasoning behind paying that much for this app.

Actually File Scout does not do EVERYTHING this application does. The one feature this application shines over FileScout is the ability to select multiple files. Ever tried Emailing multiple pictures? You have to attach each one separately. File Manager Pro allows you to select multiple files, and Email them right on the spot. You can also select multiple files, then Copy them to another directory, or delete them. You can't do this with FileScout. To me, that's the one feature that shines over FileScout. If you do not have the need for that feature, then File Scout should suit you just fine.
I love that feature because I Email multiple documents often. That's why I'm giving a + to File Manager Pro.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[tmp3150]

Excellent feature, thanks for pointing it out! It is nice selecting multiple files. I will admit that. I was used to adding one at a time before. One drawback that I see is there needs to be a cancel button ( I think this was mentioned before). I was messing around and compressed 500 pictures which took some time to do. I was going to pull the battery to cancel it but I had nothing better to do so sat back and watched all my pictures being compressed.

I do have to give kudos for having a trial app (which so many applications don't have).

What is the maximum attachment size allowed on a Storm? I zipped 32 meg and got this error message when trying to email the compressed file..." The total attachment size exceeds the maximum allowed"

What other nice features have I missed? And once again thanks for pointing this out.

Actually File Scout does not do EVERYTHING this application does. The one feature this application shines over FileScout is the ability to select multiple files. Ever tried Emailing multiple pictures? You have to attach each one separately. File Manager Pro allows you to select multiple files, and Email them right on the spot. You can also select multiple files, then Copy them to another directory, or delete them. You can't do this with FileScout. To me, that's the one feature that shines over FileScout. If you do not have the need for that feature, then File Scout should suit you just fine.
I love that feature because I Email multiple documents often. That's why I'm giving a + to File Manager Pro.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[cdf3]

I don't think you can Email a 32 MB file. Emails are sent and received over RIM's network I believe. I think they have a cap on the size file you can send and receive.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[racinwarrior]

This is what I was saying before. File scout does EVERYTHING this app does and it is free, so why would anyone pay for this? I'm not seeing any reason why. Plus the cost is outrageous. $9.99 vs free, let me think about this for a minute. I pick FREE!!

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing this app, but as I said FileScout does everything this app does and its free. I'm not seeing the reasoning behind paying that much for this app.

you bash every app

[tmp3150]

I was wondering what the cap was, do you know by some chance?

I don't think you can Email a 32 MB file. Emails are sent and received over RIM's network I believe. I think they have a cap on the size file you can send and receive.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Branta]

Last number I heard for the attachment size limit/cap was 2.9 Megabytes

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[tmp3150]

Thanks for the info. I wonder why such a low cap, maybe due to the low amount of bandwidth maybe. I do have to give credit due where credit is due. The ability to zip and then email is a nice feature of this program. I can see if you use this feature a lot then it would be worth the price of the app.

Last number I heard for the attachment size limit/cap was 2.9 Megabytes

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jcp007]

What exactly is the difference between v1.5 and v1.5.1 that makes the newest version worth $10 versus the older version at $7?