Unofficial Spiceworks

So the Spiceworks iPhone Application came out a while ago but I wasn’t able to post much or do much with it as well… I don’t like apple… Plus android is the way forward. This time around though will be different! I have and LOVE my HTC Desire with custom rom, fish and now the all important Spiceworks app! Also just to warn you, while writing this I was a little hyper… it shows…

The Spiceworks Android App is on its way and I have a copy… I have been warned and need to warn you guys before I start this is an INTERNAL build I have managed to get hold of, the UI is not what it will be when its finished, some of the stuff will change and I think there will a lot of improvements on what it does at the moment. For now its a very basic very powerful and quick way to browser and update some of your data on the move.

Personally though… even in the state its in I LOVE IT! I even delayed going to sleep last night to play with it and today I haven’t put it down. If I could have one thing on my phone, this would be it.

Anyway you don’t want to hear me witter on you want to see it and get a feel for it!

Once the application is install it pops an icon into your normal menu or what ever its called (more excited about the app than remembering the name of things) I’ve popped mine on my home page… do you like the fish? One died today… I forgot to feeds them *sniff*.

Its quick and simple to put the server and your login details in, it supports HTTPS like the iPhone app to ensure your data is safe and doesn’t leak.

Dashboard

When your have logged in you reach the dashboard (the SpiceRex does move about which I thought was very cool!) no noise though… feeling a feature request for a RAWR sound when it opens…

Back to the subject, its very simple and easy to understand, the design will probably change to be more “funky” but it gives a rough idea of what it might look like for now. The buttons to the different areas are big clean and easy to click while walking which is always important.

Tickets

The first section we will look at is the tickets, to protect my companies user’s i have removed names (other than mine) they do show up in full but I’m using my real install to test the app with so couldn’t fake a load of stuff.

When you open up the tickets section you can see a overview of recent tickets, your tickets and open tickets. When you found a ticket of interest you are able to quickly select it to view all the data, edit it, close or open it, assign it, add comments or perform ticket anywhere commands. All of the actions were simple to perform and updated the install perfectly. All the information you need while walking around your office is right there for you. Over 3g it loads just as fast as it did on the wireless, I used it a few times just in one day.

Here you can also see the first advert, they don’t appear on all the pages only the main ones tickets, inventory, community and people. When your trying to look at the information rather than just the overview the don’t show and as always with Spiceworks they are carefully picked to be stuff relevant to SMB business. When I started with the app I didn’t even notice them and when using it around the office, I knew it was there but wasn’t bothered by it.

Inventory

The inventory is almost as good as the tickets, while you can’t yet update device information (not sure if this is planned yet or not) you can view a large amount of the data for a device, information about the disks, the config and what I think will be really useful… the timeline so you can see what was install and what has happened with that device in the past x days or hours to help you narrow down a problem while your sat as a user’s machine thinking *i haven’t changed anything* forgetting you deployed xyz last week which the user may have only just started using.

Again it loaded very quickly over 3g and wireless and had a nice feel to it while wondering around. It wasn’t too hard to find the device you wanted.

People view

Lastly the people view (I’m missing out the community bit at the moment as it was slow to load and I don’t feel its as finished as the other bits), the overview page is simple to use. Its a big list sorted alphabetically not much more you could ask for… maybe showing the groups would be nice? I suppose groups and a “all people”… When you have found and open up the person view you can see the contact number with which you can click to make a call or send a txt message and you can click there email address to send them a email. One thing I feel was missing on this was the ability to open a ticket for that user… remembering how to spell someone’s name can be hard when opening a ticket… but it worked well.

And I did like that the same as the iPhone you can take a photo and upload it direct into your Spiceworks install! It was super quick and while my screenshot doesn’t show it… was simple to work out and do.

That’s it

That’s it for now on the right you can see the settings page, its nice and simple just had a logout and view help button.

As mentioned at the start this is an internal version the first alpha is due out in a few weeks time… No dates as to when yet though and as / if i get more internal versions Ill be sure to keep you in the loop with that changes and how well its going.

If you have any questions of feel I haven’t covered something feel free to leave a comment and ill try to cover it off .

For now though keep an eye on the community group for updates and the drop.

And yes I rate it 11 out of 10! I have been waiting for this for so long! And now it’s here… Just because Jay has an iPhone they built the iPhone one first… lol