Motionapps’ mDesktop (homepage HERE) has got pretty much press coverage in the last weeks; it’s been frontpaged at PPCT / SPT (link), Dial.ca (link), PalmAddicts (link) etc. As it was me who has published the most thorough comparative(!) reviews of all the comparable solutions (see the last one HERE, making sure you follow the links to the earlier ones), I’ve given the new title a very thorough try so that I can find out whether it’s worth checking out – that is, the question no one has answered so far. Also, I’ve thoroughly tested the new features of the recently-released, 2.1 version of Jeyo Mobile Companion, the most important, directly comparable application and compared it to mDesktop.
In a nutshell, mDesktop has the following features:
Control your smartphone from your desktop computer or laptop with mouse (on PPC devices), scroller and/or keyboard
General info on you device displayed on the screen of your desktop computer or laptop (info on network provider, battery state, received SMS or e-mails etc.)
Do all of this by using your desktop computer or laptop screen and keyboard:
Simple file management - view images and files on your device or transfer some from your desktop computer or laptop to it (or vice versa)
Tasks and appointment management (view and change existing ones or add new ones)
Search contacts, send SMS or e-mail
Call someone or respond to a call, click to put a call on hold or speakerphone, ignore call
Chat - no more browsing received SMS or typing in replies on your smartphone. mDesktop also saves all the words you wrote or received from someone.
Install applications by drag and drop - no more endless typing, tapping and clicking on your smartphone
Get all the system info on your smartphone displayed in one convenient place
OK, let’s see how it fares in practice and how it compares to the alternates. (Please DO read the above-linked articles; here, I will NOT present you an explanation of every single issue I list.)
First, some demo shots of the capabilities of the app:
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Threaded(!) SMS list (I’ve reduced the vertical size to hide personal phone numbers and such). Another example:
As can clearly be seen, the same list contains all the incoming messages – and the outgoing ones too for a quick and easy view of what has taken place.
Listing the contacts. Unfortunately, unlike with adding new appointments, writing SMS’es, e-mails, calling a number etc., it’s not possible to add new contacts.
Desktop control
Compared to other controller tools without(!) explicit phone application / PIM support (VirtualCE 4; Pocket Controller and My Mobiler being currently the three best):
Cons
Very high (at least three times compared to other solutions) CPU usage all the time (NOT ONLY in desktop controller mode!!); THIS screenshot shows about 80% on the QVGA 195 MHz TI OMAP-based HTC Wizard (about 70% on the 176*220 HTC Oxygen, also based on the 195 MHz TI OMAP). This is VERY bad and should be addressed at once. Why heating up the CPU when the user doesn’t even need the most CPU-intensive desktop controller mode?
Can’t run on non-phone devices
No text copy/paste between the desktop and the mobile
The remote controller keeps crashing on the high-res VGA WM6.1 HTC Universal (running Ranju’s v7.6), unlike on the non-high-res the s310, s710 (both with factory ROM’s) and HTC Wizard (with the AMP WM6.1 ROM))
Minor problems:
No JPEG quality setting when exporting screenshots (not that big a problem – you can decrease the quality afterwards)
Impossible to rotate the image of the screen (would be very handy at, say, looking at landscape GAPI games, the Thunderhawk browser etc.)
No video recording (unlike with, say, SOTI’s Pocket Controller)
No TCP/IP-based remote access / control (unlike with many of the alternatives)
With MS Smartphones, not any kind of (virtual) stylus emulation, not even the hotkeys (which are all supported by other device controllers)
Pros
Direct desktop-side GUI for writing SMS and e-mail messages, making appointments etc – much faster than doing the same through the controller (like with the other tools).
Access to everything (file system, system state, e-mails, SMS, contacts, calendar, tasks etc – traditional remote controllers only offer access to the first two)
Screenshot can export in all the four most common format (albeit without JPEG quality setting)
The HTC S710 keyboard works; so does the s310 dialpad
Phone-specific features:
Compared to Jeyo Mobile Companion 2.1 (which has lately received really nice phone-specific functionalities)
Pros
Full desktop control, as opposed to “just” taking screenshots (Jeyo screenshot of the latter)
System info is a bit more advanced than that of Jeyo
You can add tasks and appointments; in Jeyo, “only” contacts.
Jeyo doesn’t have a dial interface with buttons (not that entering the number directly into the dialog box would be THAT big a problem); mDesktop does.
Has direct access to the pictures on the PDA – and the files too (not that this would be THAT important)
Cons
Jeyo’s SMS writing interface is much better (see THIS)
In Jeyo, you can add new contacts (screenshot) – in mDesktop, you can’t
In Jeyo, you can set the home (Today) screen and the sounds
Jeyo also has a process list dialog
Jeyo allows for (even mass) copying between phone and SIM memory
Jeyo allows for clipboard synchronization
Jeyo has no measurable CPU usage
Jeyo has access to the full call list; no such feature in mDesktop
Jeyo has more sophisticated CAB installation: as can be seen, it even allows for installing CAB’s directly in ZIP files. mDesktop’s interface is much simpler: all it allows for is dragging a CAB file on it; then, it’ll automatically start ActiveSync to start installation
Both mDesktop and Jeyo support threaded SMS view (see THIS) and are very similarly priced ($19.99 / $19.95)
Verdict
mDesktop is pretty promising and is better than standard remote controllers like that of SOTI if you plan to add appointments, write SMS messages etc. very often, without using for example Outlook on the desktop (and relying on ActiveSync to synch the new records to your handset). However, being version 1.0 only, it surely has some major lacking functionality otherwise present in Jeyo (and the other way around). Currently, on the whole, I’ve found Jeyo 2.1 better – as long as you don’t need to mass-enter new tasks and appointments or don’t need the remote control capabilities. If you do, you’ll want to give a try to mDesktop; otherwise, stick with Jeyo (or, if you don’t need the phone-specific desktop functionality, “only” remote controlling, one of the three most recommended remote controllers). I really hope mDesktop will be improved in the (near) future and the most annoying bugs (most importantly, the HUGE CPU usage resulting in massive overheating and slowdowns) fixed. Fort the time being, I’m a bit hesitant to nominate it for this year’s Best [Windows Mobile] Software Awards, of which I'm the Nominations Manager (also this year).
Version v1.0.1 has just been released, fixing many of the issues I've pointed out, particularly the CPU usage bug.
Related
TomeRaider is a well-known book/dictionary/reference work reader having a lot of useful application areas, most important of them being reading Wikipedia on your PDA. As I definitely wanted to add a complete, comparative review of TomeRaider to my series of dictionary / reference roundups (links in the article below), I spent quite a lot of time evaluating it.
Note that in this article I both compare the brand new (3.2.00) version to the previous (3.1.30) one and to the dictionary / reference alternates. Yeah, killing two birds with one stone
Also note that I directly compare TomeRaider3, as far as its dictionary engine is concerned, in the Definitive Roundup of All Pocket PC Dictionaries Part I – WordNet-based English Dictionaries. You will also want to check out the comparison chart in there to see how it compares to the alternates as a dictionary engine.
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Availability, compatibility
It’s available here, compatible with all Pocket PC platforms (yes, even MIPS/SH3 Pocket PC’s – I’ve even tested it on my MIPS Casio E-125 and was very happy with what I saw) and costs $38.00. The upgrade is free for all 3.x users – previous registration numbers will work.
What’s new compared to the previous, 3.1.30 version?
There have been major changes in mostly the GUI and how the screen dragging mode works.
The new version no longer has the icons at the bottom and the taskbar at the top – it defaults to full screen mode. This also means the Action button (or, the center switch of the Jog dial, if present) no longer switches between the normal and full screen mode, but between the index (subject) and the article view. (Also see the “Navigation” section for more information on how the hardware controls work.)
Now, all the necessary functionality is available via the additional icons on the vertical scrollbar and the context menu (there was no context menu in the previous version, except for a single “Copy” item after selecting some text; the same stands for the old vertical scrollbar, which was a plain one without additional icons / functionality). For example, in this screenshot showing in-text searching, the previous/next icons are also placed on the vertical scrollbar, along with the previous/next article icons (the latter are always displayed. That is, you don’t end up having to tap-and-hold and, then, click the needed menu item).
In cases, the new GUI is highly advantageous. For example, in the old version (as opposed to the new one – see below for more info), if you explicitly enable the Page dragging mode in Options, you won’t be able to click links and, if you really want to do that, you need to click the Opt icon again, then, Preferences and, then, disable the “Page dragging” checkbox and click OK. This is four clicks as opposed to one click in the new version (the “T” (“Text Select Mode”) icon, which is always displayed on the scrollbar).
Also, as has already been pointed out, another great advantage of the new version is the ability to click links in page dragging mode too. This has long been waited for.
Incidentally, the new version is much smaller (613k as opposed to 1800k) than the previous. Part of this can be easily explained by the missing skins and icons (the new version contains no fancy icons / skins), part of it by missing functionality (for example, the removed history list).
What are the newly-introduced problems and bugs?
There is an unfortunate bug in the new version. While the old version had absolutely no problems with rendering text, the new does (see how the word “Soviet” is rendered). This isn’t a VGA problem: it is equally a problem on QVGA devices as can also be seen in this screenshot. Also, you can’t fix it by changing the character size and/or switching screen orientation either and is also present on all operating systems (yeah, checked them all - even Pocket PC 2000! That is, on the WM2003SE Pocket Loox 720 , the WM5 Dell Axim x51v (A12), the WM5 hx4700 (2.01), the WM5 HTC Wizard, the Pocket PC 2002 iPAQ 3660 and the Pocket PC 2000 Casio E-125).
This problem is clearly related to the application’s using a non-native scrollbar (remember the beta1 version of Opera Mobile? It had exactly the same problem with its non-native text input area). Earlier versions used native Windows scrollbar controls (widgets); this doesn’t. This may be the reason the end of the last words are often invisible (and they can’t be scrolled, even if you enable the horizontal scrollbar in Preferences).
Finally, I seriously miss the backward / forward history. It seems it has been completely removed from the new version.
Note that the application is still (as with older versions) unable to copy any text to the clipboard on WM5 devices. When you select some text (if you switch off the default Screen drag mode with the T icon), you will end up being unable to copy it to the clipboard – there is just no “Copy” context menu item. It’s only on pre-WM5 devices that you can copy text to the clipboard.
What is still missing?
Unfortunately, there is still missing any advanced index searching (“Subject Lookup” – in older versions, “Quick Find”) capabilities. Everything it offers is plain character matching. It doesn’t even offer in-string (substring) searching (some dictionaries like those of ReferenceToGo refer to this as ‘Smart word list’), which is common in many (also) Pocket PC-based dictionaries. For example, Revolutionary Software Front’s reference/dictionary applications (Lextionary, Lexipedia) etc. are far better in this respect.
The lack of fuzzy search and typo / spelling mistake correction capabilities is a pain in the back too. In this respect, for example Lexipedia (please see ROUNDUP: Read / browse WikiPedia on your Pocket PC for more information), Lextionary or ReferenceToGo’s Dictionary and Encyclopedia Personal Reader (DEPR) are far superior to TomeRaider3.
Also, it still (?) lacks the ability able to open and handle multiple databases at the same time. This is especially important with dictionaries and reference works where you may want to search for a given word in several dictionaries or lexicons at the same time. See for example the example of Paragon’s SlovoEd 2005 and DEPR in the Definitive Roundup of All Pocket PC Dictionaries.
Navigation
Speaking of hardware buttons, it’s worth mentioning how the jog dial (when present) and the D-pad can be used to navigate pages.
On Pocket PC’s equipped with jog dials, it scrolls link-by-link in articles.
Under pre-WM5 operating systems, D-pad scrolls page-by-page. Under WM5, on the other hand, it scrolls link-by-link. You can, however, override this by explicitly overriding the Registry as is explained in the full tutorial & roundup “Windows Mobile 5: How do I modify the default scrolling behaviour of Web browsers?”. This is certainly good news.
In the index, both the jog dial and the D-pad scrolls entry-by-entry.
As far as devices (for example, the HTC Wizard or the Universal) with plain volume sliders (as opposed to jog dials) are concerned, unfortunately, the otherwise excellent SmartSKey (see this article for more information) doesn’t work in articles (which is certainly bad news), only in the index, where it scrolls page-by-page (tested on both the HTC Universal and Wizard). In this respect, the previous and the new version behaves in the same way.
The left/right D-pad buttons move to the previous/next article.
How does it compare to the alternates?
As far as dictionaries are concerned (if we plan to use it as a dictionary), it has both its weaknesses (really restricted searching capabilities, no studying support, no copy to clipboard under WM5, unable to use more than one databases at once, no system-level means of quick word lookup etc.) and strengths (a lot of freeware dictionary databases already available, including a WordNet 2.0-based one etc). I’d say many of the alternate dictionary engines (using the same database) are better (for example, the free MDict); therefore, I would NOT go for TomeRaider3 as a primary dictionary engine. Give MDict, or, as far as WordNet is concerned, Lexisgoo and/or WordBook a try instead first.
As far as reference works are concerned, the situation is completely different. Most of the Pocket PC-based references have a really bad front-end: for example, the PocketDirectory reference works (IMHO) have a definitely worse (for example, it uses pixel doubling on VGA devices) front-end than TomeRaider3. The same stands for Lexipedia, the other, remarkable Wikipedia port – except for the excellent fuzzy search capabilities, it’s much worse (mostly because of the complete lack of HTML support.)
Unlike all of the alternate reference works, it has excellent filtering / categorizing capabilities. It may prove useful in some (pretty restricted) cases – for example, in IMDb categorization. If you want the Internet Movie Database on your Pocket PC, TomeRaider3 is the way to go - you'll love it.
Verdict for upgraders only
I’m not sure you will want to upgrade to the new version. Particularly the “end of the rows is invisible” problem and the lack of history are clear steps backwards, while bugs like the missing copy to clipboard under WM5 are still not fixed. Let’s wait for a bugfix release, which fixes at least the rendering problems – that is, for the time being, it’s better to stick with version 3.1.30.
Article slightly updated.
It was some months ago that the previous, 2.5 version of the Pocket Internet Explorer plug-in (enhancer) Webby was released. Now, the new, 2.6 version has just been released.
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I really recommend the above-linked article to see what the advantages and the disadvantages of the previous version were. Here, I “only” elaborate on the new features and whether the problems or, at least, missing functionality I’ve emphasized in the previous version(s) have been fixed / implemented.
Webby is available here. It requires CF2 to run (make sure you download and install SP1, NOT the old, original version), which also means it’s “only” compatible with WM2003+ devices (bad news for pre-WM2003 (PPC2k, PPC2k2) users).
It has two versions: a free, severely “dumbed-down” (two tabs at most, two buttons definable – hardly any good, particularly when compared to the generous 2-4-week fully functioning trials of all comparable products, except for the slightly less dumbed-down NetFront) and a full (Pro) version. The latter costs $20, which is, in my opinion, quite much compared to the price (and capabilities / speed / compatibility) of Opera Mobile, NetFront or PIEPlus, the best, highly recommended alternatives (not to mention the free Mozilla / Firefox port Minimo, which gets better and better all the time and, now, is a pretty decent alternative at least on WM5 devices), particularly taking into account that the new add-on extension mechanism (still) doesn’t work in Webby.
Pros; new functionality
Add-in modules
Probably they are the most important features of the new version. These (are supposed to) implement additional functionalities like the URL builder known from MultiIE / PIEPlus.
Their list can be found here. Note that you should only visit this page from either Opera or Mozilla / Firefox on your desktop computer; for IE, it only returns the first part of the page.
Installing them is (that is, is supposed to be) pretty easy: just go to the above-linked plug-in homepage from inside Webby (you can use the “Get More Extensions” link in the Extensions tab in Options) and click the extension you’d like to download and install. It’ll ask you whether it’s allowed to install it; after the install, you’ll need to restart the browser.
The problem with these extensions is that they (still?) don’t exist on the homepage of the developer. Webby states them to have been installed but, in reality, nothing is downloaded (you can also check this in the \Program Files\Webby\extensions\ directory in the file system of your Pocket PC if interested). To make sure I'm not missing something, here’s a HTTP-level communication trace (two pairs of requests from Webby / PIE and two 404 Not found answers (that is, there indeed isn't anything in there; not even the linked extensions remote folder!) from the server): 1 2 3 4.
That is, you will want to wait until this problem is fixed, which I’ll surely report of. In the meantime, don’t even try to download extensions - it's just a waste of time because nothing will be downloaded.
Button support
The second most important new feature (which I probably missed the most from earlier versions) is the hardware button support.
As can be seen in this and this screenshots, the most important functionality (Back/ Forward; Previous/Next tab, Close everything but the current one / the current only; Full Screen toggle) is accessible.
It only allows for configuring six buttons on all PPC models (with wildly varying number of buttons). It seems all Pocket PC developers should read all my articles as I’ve elaborated on how all the available hardware buttons can be (very easily!) read out of the Registry more than one year ago ( Where does the PPC Registry store button mapping info - a tutorial (alternatives: PPC Magazine, BrightHand; make sure you also follow the link to More Programmers'/Hackers' Stuff, along with some cool Pocket Loox 7xx Hold Button Tips: More on Pocket PC Hardware Buttons for more info.)
Unfortunately, there is no way of for example using the tap-and-hold buttons of the WM5-upgraded hx4700 or the Pocket Loox 720. It’s not possible to define additional functionality for WM5 softkeys, unlike in PIEPlus 2.0+ and MultiIE 4.0+ either. However, it’s possible to enable WM5 softkeys for menus as can be seen in here: 1 2. This is certainly good news.
Also, it should be noted that the free version only supports two button redefinitions.
Cons
View: One Column mode still not supported
One of my biggest grieves with the past versions was the native support for the One Column mode of the underlying PIE. Unfortunately, this hasn’t changed.
This means if you must work on the full (unstripped) version of a page and, therefore, can’t use any Web compression / content stripper / online cruncher service like Skweezer, MobileLeap, Google Mobile or WebWarper (the four services Webby 2.6 supports out of box), you may end up having to switch to the normal view mode, which will result in a need for horizontal scrolling on a LOT of pages. This is a VERY bad bug in Webby!
Lack of context menus
Unfortunately, there are still no image / link / page context menus as can be seen for example here (which shows clicking an image link will bring up the traditional PIE context menu and nothing else).
This means you need to access all advanced functionalities like link target saving from the main menus. It’s only saving images (in WM5 IEM’s; it’s not available in pre-WM5 PIE’s) that is accessible via the context menu – as with IEM. Please also consult the Download Bible for more info on all these questions.
Verdict
The plug-in architecture is indeed promising. Too bad it doesn’t work yet. Hope it’s only a temporary problem, which will be fixed really soon. When it’s fixed, I’ll return to testing and let you know about how these plug-ins fare agains the competition (for example, the Address Bar plug-in against PIEPlus / MultiIE's comparable capabilities).
Plug-in problem aside, I still don’t really recommend this title over the latest version of stand-alone browsers like Minimo, Opera Mobile or, to a lesser extent, NetFront or Thunderhawk.
The same stands for PIEPlus, which I consider currently by far the best PIE plug-in. The latter is just far more capable (just compare their capabilities one by one!) and faster (don’t be mislead by the seemingly small download times: Webby uses the compression / content stripping service Skweezer by default; this is why it seems to be faster than any else PIE plug-in by default) than Webby.
Recommended links
The Web Browsers category in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog
There are several sound recorder applications for the Pocket PC (please see the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible for more info.) Now, the previously Palm OS-only Audacity Personal DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) has also been ported to the Pocket PC.
The title is available for all WM2003+ operating systems and is accessible here.
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In this review, I “only” provide a list of pros and cons and compare the title to other PPC sound recorders.
Pros
Filename may contain full date / time (screenshot 1 2 3. Very few other PPC recorders are capable of the same (see the “Additional recording features: Auto recording numbering?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible and my Audio Memory System by Personal Memory Systems review). Currently, as far as non-MP3-recording (but either Speex or Ogg) is concerned, the best Resco is able to include both the date and time in filenames but it’s not so configurable as Audacity Personal DVR.
It can pause/resume (not possible with all recorders; see the “Recording pause/resume?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible) and even append to recordings (even rarer; see the “Append new recording to file?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible)
Alarms can be defined and added with your own recordings (as opposed to the built-in notification / alarm mechanism in Windows Mobile)
Buttons are freely redefinable for all the four types of dialogs / recording states. See here and here (button shortcuts on the Home dialog), here (Idle state), here (Record state) and here (Playback state). Note, however, that the hardware button support is certainly lacking; also see the Cons section on this.
You can start recording with a looooong-press of any (and the same) hardware button (after assigning Audacity to a button first in Settings / Buttons and assigning the same button to the Record functionality in the Home and the Idle dialogs / states and to either Stop or Pause/Resume for the Record and Playback states. (Remember, however, to disable the tutorial at startup by checking in the related checkbox!) Most alternative Pocket PC sound recorders require, in general, TWO button presses to achieve the same (see the “Buttons: One-button recording? Does it need to show the app window?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible.
Free (currently)
Desktop-side file synchronization support
Cons
Exceptionally high CPU usage – much higher than with Notes or anything else only using built-in OS-level codecs (check out the related remarks in the Audio Recording Bible – you WILL see other apps, which are only based on the built-in codecs, consume far less power)! (Some figures: Dell Axim x51v: 25% at 624 MHz; Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720: 60% at 416 MHz.). This, unfortunately, not only means vastly reduced battery life when you make a lot of recording (and even playback! – unfortunately, the CPU usage is very high even when you play back stuff), but also skips in the recording on some devices as is the case for example on the HTC Wizard, even when overclocked to 240 MHz. These problems render the application useless on some models.
Only built-in codecs may be used, unlike with the Palm version (see the codec chart at the bottom of the page). A decent sound reorder should support something better than PCM WAV / GSM; for example, MP3 or Speex.
Doesn’t see CF cards in devices sporting them – an example x51v screenshot is here (the situation is exactly the same on all other devices with a CF slot; for example, the PL720). This also means it won’t be able to make recordings into file stores on pre-WM5 devices (and unlocked Extended ROM’s on PPC PE devices) either – only (mini / micro) SD cards.
It doesn’t handle the two side buttons on the Dell Axim x51v and Pocket Loox 720; there is no support for the HP iPAQ hx4700 side button either (tested on a WM5-upgraded device). On the HTC Wizard, it only handles the Camera, Mail, Wireless and Notes buttons (that is, there is no support for the Explorer button and the two WM5 softbuttons); this means at least you’ll be able to use it in the one-keypress mode if you redefine any of the supported (preferably side) buttons. The button referred to as the “Side button” (the only one to have a record functionality assigned to by default) is not supported on any of these devices; this means you MUST redefine one of the accessible buttons (which will be one of the front buttons on non-PPC PE models and can also be the side buttons on PPC PE models) in order to be able to use it to start / stop recording. The developers, as with many others not having read it, should read on my past tutorials / articles on enumerating the available buttons on a given Pocket PC ( Where does the PPC Registry store button mapping info - a tutorial (alternatives: PPC Magazine, BrightHand; make sure you also follow the link to More Programmers'/Hackers' Stuff, along with some cool Pocket Loox 7xx Hold Button Tips: More on Pocket PC Hardware Buttons for more info.). I’ve discussed this problem with the developers; they have assured me support for all accessible buttons will be implemented really soon.
No built-in screenoff support; all the utility offers is backlight dimming (but NOT locking – now, compare this to how Resco allows for full even button protection!) the screen after 30 seconds (independent of the system setting; that is, you don’t even need to enable screen dimming on the system level at all); see for example the button reassignment list above. Of course, you can still use independent screenoff utilities even assigned to hardware buttons, as long as you don’t re-map these buttons inside Personal DVR to inner functions. The fact that only screen dimming takes place also means the graphics-related excess CPU usage will always be a problem.
On the 624 MHz x51v, it takes seven seconds for the application to start recording when started anew – in no way so fast as Notes (not to talk about its CPU usage) or even most other alternative recorders. In this respect, preferring a two-buttonpress-required, but much faster-to-be-invoked recorder may pay out.
Verdict
As with many other direct Palm (and Symbian – see for example Lonely Cat Games’ products like ProfiMail and LGC Jukebox) ports (see for example my review of mVoice 5 by MotionApps, which suffers from exactly the same problem – that is, a title that has been one of the best on the Palm can’t really be compared to the commercial alternatives on the Pocket PC), this application isn’t really a match for current top-of-the-line, commercial (!) Pocket PC sound recorders like Resco – the Pocket PC platform is just far stronger, software-wise, than Palm.
However, given that it’s free (and I’m comparing it to commercial titles like Resco Audio Recorder), I still recommend it, particularly if you’re looking for a one (as opposed to most alternative Pocket PC recorders which almost all require two (consequent) presses) button-press application if you can live with the (current) limitations and problems (no CF, no support for side buttons of non-Phone devices, very high CPU usage, lack of screenoff, long activation time when it needs to be loaded etc.). Hope the problems will soon be ironed out in subsequent versions.
UPDATE (02/03/2007): PPCT frontpage
Updated review posted.
Because of the huge prices of traditional (non-Internet-based) video phoning services, several Symbian users have been praising TiVi, a VoIP app / service with video phoning and, at least on Symbian, front camera support capabilities. As it also has a Windows Mobile version, I gave it a very thorough, three-platform (desktop Windows, Symbian and Windows Mobile) ride to find out what it's really capable of.
1.1 Registration, Web page
Fortunately, using the service for TiVi - TiVi connections is absolutely free (as opposed to what some people state in some Symbian forums) and works over fully (on both sides) firewalled connections. To being able to reach your buddies, you'll need to register a nickname on the central server. This is pretty easy and can be done HERE.
You'll also need to download the client software; it's available for the desktop HERE and for mobile platforms HERE. Install it; after starting it, press the left softkeys on both mobile platforms and go to Config. There, fill in your login name / password. After this, you'll become available for the others; using your nick instead of a "traditional" number will work when calling you. Note that it also has a built-in Contacts list and also has access to the system-level contacts, offering (of course, non-free - as opposed to in-network calls) dial-out capabilities for them.
Note that the page and the service themselves are pretty far away from being professional. Latvian is used on some both the Web pages (even when using English) and, which is even worse, in the answering machine. This, of course, isn't that problematic, particularly if you speak some Slavonic language because, then, you'll understand at least the last two words of the answering machine message and can deduce what takes place. And, it's only in the first occasion that this can cause any kind of confusion.
1.2 Screenshots
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(a Symbian shot showing the output of the HTC Universal - that is, the Nokia itself, me trying very hard to make a screenshot on it. In the upper left corner, you can also see Nokia's own camera image (of the Universal, with 180 degrees rotated screen, in front of it). Note that the Symbian version, in addition to stopping / restarting video, also supports switching between the front/back cameras if you press 0. By default, the front camera is used, of course.)
(a Windows Mobile HTC Universal screenshot showing the image received from the Nokia N95 and its own picture in the upper left corner. As you can see, the client doesn't even display a button shortcut to switch between the front and the back cameras)
1.3 Operating system compliance; issues
Under desktop Windows operating systems, the client is not really polished but, at least, works. Its usage is pretty tricky and not really intuitive (requires a lot of getting used to): for example, you need to click a given button twice to initiate an audio-only / video call. Nevertheless, it has no problems using my Creative Live! Cam Vista IM webcamera.
Let me know if you just can't find out how the client needs to be operated and I publish a mini-tutorial on it. Again, it's not really intuitive; it took me at least an hour to find out how the three clients work, how they differ and how calls should be initiated.
On Symbian (thoroughly tested this on the Nokia N95 with both Wi-Fi and GPRS / 3G connections (the latter being firewalled and NAT'ed), it worked pretty well: it's able to use both cameras and any kind of connection type. The only problem is the lack of the speakerphone support (despite the title of the left softkey). This means you must use some kind of a headset when using the app.
On Windows Mobile, the situation is a bit worse (tested this with the latest version with CAB internal filedates of 03/2008): as I've guessed, it doesn't support front cameras at all - as is, unfortunately, the case with MS Portrait 3.1 (see review and report HERE). Second, very few models (currently, from HTC, only the HTC Tornado and s620 MS Smartphones and HTC Universal / Wizard Pocket PC's; from HP, the hw6515, and, from Asus, the A716) are supported. Note that at least the two Pocket PC versions (that of the Wizard and the Universal) are exactly the same. Also note that the names are pretty much messed up; for example, under HTC, the Qtek names are listed.
Incidentally, upon installing it on a pretty much crowded HTC Universal on a card, it only seemed to support cellular connections; it just coulnd't make use of Wi-Fi connections. Furthermore, after the first (or second?) restart, it wouldn't connect to the server any more (not even thorugh, of course, a cellular connection) - it just displayed the "Cannot register. Reason: Connection timed out" message. Needless to say that under exactly the same circumstances the Symbian and the desktop Windows versions worked just OK. After a hard reset and reinstalling the client on a clean machine, everything started to work just fine.
The lack of the front camera support can only be fixed in some special cases; for example, the rotatable Universal where you can use the back camera while still seeing the screen; in no other cases. But, then, it's somewhat better to go straight for the way better and reliable MS Portrait instead because it's just more thoroughly optimized and bugfixed. Unless, of course, you need to talk to other TiVi users.
1.4 Speed, data usage
Video phoning is astonishingly good even over slow-speed GPRS. In these cases, you'll want to avoid using uplink video so that uplink audio get all the uplink bandwidth (which, in most cases, will only be sufficient for a stream with moderate pauses) - as has already been explained in my past VoIP articles. Otherwise, should you have at least an EDGE connection, you won't encounter any problems.
As it doesn't really require 3G speeds (unlike the audio-only Skype), if you do have EDGE (and not just GPRS), you can safely switch to 2G mode to avoid excess data usage - and, of course, power consumption, particularly if you always let the client run in the background, waiting for incoming calls. I've explained how this needs to be done on both Windows Mobile and Symbian in THIS article.
2. Verdict
On Windows Mobile, the only usage area I recommend it (if you run it on a rotatable model like the Universal) is connecting to a Symbian phone. Symbian having no other video phoning-capable software (Palringo - see the multiplatform review HERE - is only capable of sending static shots), Symbian users will need to use this client. For talking to other Windows Mobile phones (preferably, HTC Universals with their 180% rotatable screens), you may want to prefer MS Portrait instead - and, again, for talking to desktop Windows clients too.
On Symbian, this is a highly recommended solution, should you want to talk to other Symbian folks with a front camera and/or desktop folks and/or Windows Mobile folks with HTC Universals.
REVIEW & COMPARISON:great, free(!) PDA controller software EveryWAN Remote Support PE
Sparus Software is going to release a free(!), slightly (but not that much) dumbed-down version of their pretty useful EveryWAN Mobility Manager software currently offered for enterprise customers.
The new EveryWAN Remote Support, Personal Edition will be completely free. The biggest difference between it and the already-existing enterprise version is that EveryWAN only supports connections via ActiveSync. This means no (remote) TCP/IP connections are allowed.
Note that this isn’t a full review of the app as most of the functionalities the new application offers are already known from other remote controller applications; for example, VirtualCE, SOTI Pocket Controller or My Mobiler (see THIS for more info on these) or mDesktop, of which the new, 1.0.1 version has just been released, fixing many of the problems / issues I’ve pointed out in my review of the initial, 1.0.0 version. This means you’ll want to read my just-linked reviews and comparisons of what a decent phone controller app should be able to.
Now, let’s take a look at how EveryWAN compares to the above-reviewed & compared apps.
In a nutshell, in my very thorough tests it proved to be VERY good. It has really decent CPU usage, is compatible with both Pocket PC’s and Smartphones, has excellent goodies like a built-in task manager, registry editor etc.
Unique features: direct drawing on client screen, VoIP
Drawing on the client’s screen is really unique (but is, of course, somewhat limited usability in traditional, local USB environments):
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VoIP (Voice over IP) works just great (tested with several setups), with very moderate CPU usage:
Of course, the lack of real IP connections (and, therefore, remote assistance / connections) make this feature pretty redundant. As with drawing on the phone / PDA screen, it’s over the classic "let’s access an employee’s handset from the enterprise via, say, a mobile phone connection" that this feature can really be used for.
CPU usage
It’s VERY low – much lower than that of ANY other controller application. Excellent! Some example screenshots showing this:
(VGA(!) iPAQ 214 – around 3%; the same on the 520 MHz VGA HTC Universal running WM6.1)
(s710 QVGA Smartphone – around 2%)
(WM2003 iPAQ 2210)
That is, it’s really low even on VGA devices – where alternative solutions consume at least an order of magnitude more CPU time.
Built-in registry editor
(Remote) registry editors built into remote tools are very useful – I very frequently use the one built into SOTI’s Pocket Controller. Unfortunately, the other, highly recommended controllers (VirtualCE and My Mobiler) don’t have a built-in registry editor; hence, I was relaly delighted to see EveryWAN does.
Following is a quick elaboration on the registry editor’s capabilities (see the Registry Editor Bible http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/UltimateRoundupOfRegistryEditors.asp for more info)
It’s capable of all the numeric systems with DWORDs:
There’s a dedicated editor for REG_BINARY values:
and for multi-line strings:
It’s also capable of advanced searches:
However, it’s incapable of exporting / importing; in this respect, it’s definitely inferior to SOTI Pocket Controller’s registry editor – or, advanced Registry editors like Resco running on the handset.
File Transfer
EveryWAN also supports built-in file transfer:
(Note that this isn’t essential – both ActiveSync and the Total Commander WinCE FS plug-in support it –, still, it’s nice to have it built-in.)
System info; task manager
The system info dialog is pretty detailed too:
The task manager dialog is also pretty cool:
Note that, as expected, the CPU % usage meter doesn’t work – you’ll need to run acbTaskMan to get a detailed info on CPU usage.
Skin manager
It also has a very nice skin editor:
MS Smartphone (touchscreen-less devices) support
The keyboard doesn’t work with MS Smartphones with slide-out keyboard when the keyboard is closed (it does when opened).
The on-screen softbuttons can’t be clicked (not that big a problem though), unlike with the other apps.
Note that, by default, it couldn’t install its client to my WM5 HTC s310 (Oxygen). The CAB file, EWRemoteSupportPESetup.ARM.CAB, the installer transferred to the root of the phone, turned out not to be compatible with Smartphones at all. However, manually transferring \Program Files\Sparus Software\EveryWAN Remote Support Personal Edition\EWRemoteSupportPE.ARM.CAB to the phone and executing it there worked:
(Note that the Wm6 QVGA HTC s710 / Vox didn’t have this problem.)
All in all,
Pros
FREE!!!!
Very low CPU usage – while still delivers pretty quick results even on VGA devices
VoIP – working just great!
Registry editor (albeit without export / import)
Lets for emulating button presses (four application keys; two softkeys; the Home (SP) / Start Menu (PPC) button; the Back button on SP’s)
Cons
Save screen only in BMP; no video recording
While clipboard copying does work in both directions, it must be manually initiated every time – via a menu or an icon on the icon bar (no keyboard shortcut is available). SOTI’s approach is MUCH better in this regard, which even allows for very quick Ctrl-C / V / X shortcuts and, of course, clipboard auto-synchronization.
No manual screen rotation for, for example, GAPI games
Verdict
This app is really a gift if you don’t need remote (TCP/IP) connections. Highly recommended!
Note that, in addition to the Sparus Software folks, the XDA-Developers people should be also thanked for this excellent app. The Sparus folks have decided to release this application for free because they wanted to give back something to the XDA-Devs community, which has been very helpful as an information source while the Sparus folks were developing their product.
(Note that the app is still not available. It’s promised to be released in some days. When it’s released, I post an article update so you will surely get noticed of it.)
It is possible to define softbuttons using the skin editor
In fact, the on-screen softbuttons can be clicked if they have been defined using the skin editor
Hello,
I'm one of the devs at Sparus Software, and I'd like to comment on your great review :
* the CPU % usage meters actually works, but its precision is 1%. As a result, any measure below 1% is shown as zero ! Your device probably wasn't really doing anything significant at the moment you measured. But I'll quickly increase the precision to 0.1%, to track those little CPU eaters.
* I'm really puzzled about the installation issue you encountered on your SmartPhone. It seems the file transfer failed, ending with a corrupted file. I'll add an automatic retry in such a case.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback !
EveryWAN Remote Support free download available
You can get it here: EveryWAN Remote Support Free Download
hmm. still cant get it clearly.. anyway.. push on this thread..
UPDATE (08/26/2008): it has been released and is available HERE
EveryWAN Remote Support direct download link (no form)
For those of us who don't like filling forms ...
Direct Download Without Filling a Form:
EveryWAN Remote Support Direct Download
Just a quick precision: it is free even for commercial use (but reselling it is prohibited )
You can put it on BitTorrent and Emule.
There's a check in the setup for current version, so if we release a new version it will detect it automatically...
PS: I work for Sparus Software
EveryWAN Remote Support Entreprise Edition ?
hasta_la_vista said:
For those of us who don't like filling forms ...
Just a quick precision: it is free even for commercial use (but reselling it is prohibited )
You can put it on BitTorrent and Emule.
There's a check in the setup for current version, so if we release a new version it will detect it automatically...
PS: I work for Sparus Software
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, hasta_la_vista !
I know this is an old thread, but what happened to your infamous (and totally impossible to find) solution "EveryWAN Remoet Support Entreprise Edition" ? It seems to be able to do what i'm looking for: remote controlling my WM6.5 phone from PC over 3G... Mind you i'm within 2 private networks so it'd need to have the option to connect from phone or PC and i should be able to choose which port to communicate over, depnding on which ports are open on both sides...
I'm of course not asking for any crack, i'm just looking for that software. Ready to register, pay , or anything that comes with it, as long as it does what i want. There are a number of softs available, none are capable of doing this....