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REVIEW: new phone call recorder LivePVR

REVIEW: a brand new phone / meeting call recorder with great, unique rolling recording capabilities: LivePVR by Softtrends LLC
This sound / voice recorder application is both a phone call autorecorder and a meeting recorder with a, on the Pocket PC, really unique (yes, I know what I’m speaking about – I’ve thoroughly tested all the alternate voice/sound recorder applications – please see the “Recommended links” section for links) feature: “rolling recording”.
In this article, I thoroughly compare the just-released, latest (2.4) version to the already existing alternates, particularly PMRecorder (please read the review of the latter here – I will NOT explain why you can’t record the other party on most Pocket PC Phone Edition in this article!)
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Compatibility, availability
It’s available here and costs $9.95. The trial version is pretty usable and only time (30 days) constrained if you want to take it for a test ride.
It’s only compatible with WM5. I’ve tested it on two WM5 PPC Phone Edition devices (HTC Universal and HTC Wizard) – both worked OK (except for the VGA incompatibility problems on the former).
The unique feature: “rolling recording”
It may happen to you many times that you would like to record things that have just been said. In these cases, “rolling recording” can be of help. It makes it possible to record things that have already been said – before you pressed the “Record” button.
Please note that you will need to read the online documentation on the “rolling recording” in order to be able to properly utilize the unique rolling recording facility of the app. (Note that the homepage has a dead link to the Virtual Demo). In my extensive tests, rolling recording worked flawlessly and really delivered what it's supposed to.
Compared to...
Yes, as applications (fortunately) don't exist in isolation, it's the best to compare this app to the numerous alternates to get a clerar picture whether it's worth getting (or even trying).
As opposed to other “standard” voice recorders...
Pros
Buffering functionality – no other voice recorder is capable of the same. Note that the “Rewind Length” slider in Vianix Pocket Talk Enterprise Pro only sets the amount of seconds the Rewind icon steps back on each press (the same stands for forwarding).
It puts the entire date/time (incl. seconds) in the filename. Except for iPlay (which puts hours and minutes in the filenames – not the seconds) and Personal Memory Systems’ Audio Memory System (which is quite revolutionary in that it puts both the date, the time (incl. seconds) and a user-supplied remark in the filename), no other recorder does the same: they “only” autonumber the files. This approach can be easier for many people, particularly if you see the filelist from an application (for example, the FileList control itself in Windows Mobile itself when listing files created more than a day ago) without timestamps or, when the timestamps are lost (because, for example, you FTP the files or ActiveSync synchronizes them to the desktop).
Isn’t overpriced, unlike many of the alternates
No excess CPU usage: in both “conference” mode and while actively recording, around 1% only (measured on the HTC Wizard, recording to a storage card), which certainly shows it’s well-written and bugfree (in this respect)
Can record as a background task (unlike Notes)
Moderate memory usage: with 45 sec pre/postbuffers (as can also be seen in this Settings screenshot), it’s 2 Mbytes only
Cons
On the Pocket PC, no touchscreen support: must be operated by the D-pad + Action button + WM5 softkeys or the built-in keyboard (if present)
Sometimes, on the HTC Wizard, D-Pad only started to work after a forced screen orientation change while the app is active (this isn’t a problem on the HTC Universal though). This was also the case when traversing the focus to another application and then, switching back to LivePVR: you must change the screen orientation in order to be regain control on the GUI. After resetting the Pocket PC, these problems generally went away. It’s still be good to be aware of the solution if you want to avoid resetting your PPC.
Recording quality can in no way be set - everything is recorded as lengthy (about one Megabyte for every 45 seconds) PCM files, no matter what the system-level quality setting is. (Needless to say, it sports no codecs either, unlike many of the alternates.)
There are no niceties like Voice Activation System (VAS)
No VGA support – it only occupies the upper left quarter of the screen on VGA devices like the HTC Universal even in standard (SE) VGA mode
WM5 only (tested on other, previous platforms – a no-go)
As far as phone recording is concerned, as opposed to PMRecorder:
Pros
Resulting file doesn’t have an additional header and, therefore, need to be converted in order to be played in any media players. (Note that PMRecorder, thanks to my documenting the header and a Russian coder coding the converter, already has a third-party decoder.)
Cons
Doesn’t store the number of the caller/called
Auto-phonecall-recording must be reactivated by hand after every single reboot
PMRecorder has two recording quality settings (one of them using the space-saving GSM vocoder); this only one
Costs $10 (as opposed to the free PMRecorder)
Verdict
For a phone call recorder, stick with PMRecorder. The latter is definitely better in every respect. The same stands for recording individual voice notes where rollbacking isn’t needed (because you know beforehand what you want to record and what not).
However, as far as conference/meeting recording is concerned where rollback capabilities are a must, you won’t find anything better for the Pocket PC. It’s only in this case that I heartily recommend this application.
A TIP: how can you make it record all your phone calls without explicitly starting LivePVR?
It must be done exactly the same way as with PMRecorder: you just put a link to the executable of the program, \Program Files\LivePVR\sftLivePVR.exe, into \Windows\StartUp (with PMRecorder, the executable can be found by default at \Program Files\PMRecorder\PMRecorder.exe).
Unfortunately, while with PMRecorder it’s sufficient to just minimize the task when it’s (auto)started (and it will record everything), with LivePVR, you MUST explicitly go to the Phone Call PVR menu (one Action button press) and explicitly reactivate phone recording (two Action button presses). After this, you can safely minimize it, just as with PMRecorder, and it will record all your calls.
Note that while, seemingly, auto recording is activated upon reboot, in practice, it doesn’t work. This is why you will need to reactivate it after every reboot. In this respect, PMRecorder is certainly easier to operate, particularly if you often reboot your device.
Recommended links
In addition to the most important PMRecorder article, I also recommend the following articles:
Everything you may need to know about sound recording on the Pocket PC
and, to a lesser degree, my following reviews:
Personal Memory Systems’ Audio Memory System
MotionApps’ mVoice 5

does LivePVR record phone call with ear and without loudspeaker ?
Does LivePVR record phone conversation with in-ear and without loudspeaker ?
is there another software that does this?
I know the law!!
thank

goodmanbrt said:
Does LivePVR record phone conversation with in-ear and without loudspeaker ?
is there another software that does this?
I know the law!!
thank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to XDA-Dev
Nope - it's suffering from the same, hardware-based problem as all other call recording apps, as has also been pointed out in the article.

REVIEW: Bluetooth chatter / Bluejacking app Sniper

Ever wanted to use the Bluetooth capabilities of your Pocket PC for local (text) messaging and file transfer, including local broadcasting? Take a look at Sniper, which is a comparatively new, constantly updated native Bluetooth messenger utility.
Unfortunately, there are very few local Bluetooth-based applications on the Pocket PC platform. As has pointed out in my article on Microsoft (MS) Portrait, the only really usable, Bluetooth-capable, internet-less text messaging / file transfer application, Portrait isn’t able to work over the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, only over real TCP/IP networks (including BT PAN and Wi-Fi P2P), which the Microsoft Bluetooth stack doesn't support because it lacks support for the Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN).
The same stands for the very similar but already abandoned Gphone . Finally, the other two, similar applications, ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat, are no longer supported and have never really worked. (Note that I elaborate on the latter two apps and, particularly, the current, similar project of the developer of the former in the Appendix at the end of this article.)
At last: native Microsoft Bluetooth stack messaging solution; on the other hand, some compatibility problems
The new application is definitely good in that it supports the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, as opposed to Microsoft Portrait. If you have a device with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, you’ll certainly welcome the new application – at last, a local native Bluetooth messaging solution that doesn’t require Wi-Fi peer-to-peer networks or an active Internet connection.
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Unfortunately, it has some severe problems. First, while the homepage of the application advertises the app as PPC2k2+-compliant, it doesn’t seem to work with pre-WM5 Windows Mobile operating systems. I’ve tested all the available versions with both Pocket PC 2002, WM2003 and WM2003SE. I've made some example screenshots (see this and this) to show you it doesn't work: as can be seen, the installer can’t even install the WM5-only CAB files.
Furthermore, it’s incompatible with Widcomm/Broadcom Bluetooth stack-based devices like all HP iPAQ Pocket PC's (an example screenshot of it refusing running on the hx4700 is here), the Fujitsu-Siemens T800 series, the Acer n series and, of course, the Widcomm-hacked, WM5-based Dell Axim x50(v)/x51(v)'s. This is a very bad problem: developers of Bluetooth applications should at last notice that, as has already been pointed out in my articles (example here), Broadcom has in the meantime made its WinCE SDK freely available.
Available versions and differences between them; Bluejacking support in the trial version
There are two versions worth mentioning; first, of course, the latest one, 1.2.368, available here.
Bluejacking (see this article for a complete description), one of the most important and innovative (no other Pocket PC application is capable of this) feature of the application, is completely disabled in the latest, above-linked version. Older versions (for example, version 1.1.237 available here at ClickApps), however, still support this functionality in the demo, except mass-sending more than one file at a time. That is, if you want to give this functionality a try in the demo version (I certainly recommend it), get the older version.
Some examples of it in action
A Pocket PC device discovering two other Pocket PC’s.
Compared to MS Portrait or any other TCP/IP-based chatter application (including IRC clients), its chat feature is a bit more complicated to use. This is how it happens in practice: Sending a message: step 1, step 2. On the receiving end, you get it (note that if you see it this way, it means you’ve forgotten to disable the auto-receive of incoming beam) and save it. If you answer Yes, you’ll be taken to the messages; it's only then that you'll be able to read it. There, you can, for example, reply to the sender.
Examples of file transfer (sending files) 1, 2 3 (sending multiple files like this doesn’t work in the demo). At the receiving end, they’re saved in the pre-set save directory.
An example of bluejacking.
Verdict
If you want local chatting with other Microsoft BT stack-based Pocket PC's or non-Windows Mobile Bluetooth phones, give it a try. If you can’t use a Wi-Fi peer-to-peer connection (or full Internet connectivity) between your WM5 Microsoft BT stack-based devices, give it a try. If you want to do some bluejacking, give it a try. Otherwise, particularly if you have a pre-WM5 or Widcomm/Broadcom-based device, stick with the free MS Portrait.
Appendix: What about ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat?
Unfortunately, the other two native (non TCP/IP-based, unlike MS Portrait and Gphone) Bluetooth messaging applications, ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat (latest, tested, still available versions 1.44 and 0.5b, respectively) are both useless and no longer developed.
The former, ProximityMail, will never be updated; the developer, Inventop Corp, has removed all references to the product, including even the old download link (also see this). Its successor, BUZZeeBee (see the homepage for more info), still only has a desktop PC version. (They have been promising the Pocket PC version for months; there is still no sign of it).
The latter, Bluetooth Chat by Andrey Demidov, hasn’t been updated for three years and also seems to be completely abandoned. Needless to say, it has never really worked either.

personal i find it odd whne somebody who have that many posts
deside to make something i can only describe as a commercial

Rudegar said:
personal i find it odd whne somebody who have that many posts
deside to make something i can only describe as a commercial
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there were a REAL alternative to this app, it wouldn't sound a commercial (check out my other, comparative reviews - I "trash" many apps I test). Unfortunately, when there is only one program for a given purpose, it's hard to write an article that doesn't sound like "musch as it has its share of problems, go get it".
As soon as there will be another, directly comparable alternate to this app, I promise to write a decent comparison

not working on omnia T_T

is there anything similar for android?

REVIEW: CorePlayer, the successor to TCPMP, is finally out!

CorePlayer, the long-awaited, commercial successor to the well-known multimedia player TCPMP, has just been released.
TCPMP has (rightfully!) won the Multimedia / Video category of the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards last and this year.
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Thanks to BetaBoy, I’ve received a test version so I had the chance to thoroughly test it.
Availability
It’s available here (direct link) and is compatible with WM2003 devices and above. It, officially, costs $24.99, but it’s supposed to have a $5 rebate for AximSite (and, probably, Pocket PC Thoughts) forum members too (go register yourself ASAP ).
Compared to TCPMP,
Changes on the interface level
The GUI, currently, is very similar to that of TCPMP (but, later, will be completely changed - the old GUI is still present because of a bug in the new, which the Core folks are just fixing). This means (at least for a while) you won't need to re-learn everything as can be seen for example here (Settings in main menu), here (file selector) and here (video settings screen - compare this to the screenshots here).
Changes on the underlying engine level
The good
A plethora (and I really mean this! Not even I have had, up to now, the chance to test all of them - will later elaborate on them more thoroughly) of new codecs, which means a lot of new formats to play.
Note that, unfortunately, “exotic” formats like RealOne are (still?) not supported. This isn’t a major problem, however, given that the format of RealOne files are kept in secret very strictly.
Midi support (please see the Midi Bible for more information), as has been promised, has indeed been added. I’ve thoroughly tested the midi module, the quality of instruments and found them to be of very good quality. Of course, for example the piano in ultimate.mid (please DO see the just-linked article if you don’t know what I’m referring to) doesn’t sound so excellent as the custom patch set published here - it definitely exhibits some compression / downsampling effects. However, this is pretty understandable, given that the application only takes some 1.3 Mbytes storage memory, of which, at most, some hundred kilobytes may be taken by the (compressed) Midi instruments themselves.
Other than that, I have no complaints with the Midi quality at all - it sounds MUCH better than HTC's own midi library coming with all PPC Phone Edition devices and I haven't run into a single problem with any of my test Midi files.
The bad
Currently, it has no AVRCP support at all. This applies to both WM5 (which was also the case with TCPMP) and WM2003SE. TCPMP supports the latter OS – CorePlayer, it seems, doesn’t. Hope this will be fixed really soon (along with, preferably, adding AVRCP support for WM5 too). (Note that you’ll see remarks stating CorePlayer supports AVRCP if you install additional, operating system-level software. This is not really the case - currently, it's not possible to make it work. You'll need to wait for the bugfix version.)
Also, it seems it’s not possible to use “old” TCPMP codecs. For example, CorePlayer doesn’t support Speex files (see the Sound Recording Bible for more info on this format) by default. By installing the “old”, TCPMP-specific Speex codec, this problem hasn’t gone away (unlike with TCPMP, of course).
Verdict
Go for this app if you’re serious multimedia user. This application (and its author) certainly deserves paying for and I don’t think the above-mentioned problems (which will only affect few people – for example, only those with Bluetooth stereo headphones) will be only fixed in the distant future.
I really hope, however, that some advanced sound functionality will be also added - gapping, industry-strength reverb DSP's (see the case of 40iPlay), in addition to, of course, AVRCP.
Recommended links
Just Another Mobile Monday’s great review
The AximSite thread
UPDATE (later the same day): PPCT frontpage. I recommend this thread too for some additional info.[/b]

I like it, its works smoothly. I use it when I'm feeling simple and don't want to bother with pocket music.
It was said to have a fully customizable interface, but I look in the menus, and there isn't anything for skin selection? So I look in the folder and it had only two files in it. So I guess skinning isn't possible for this version.

weezy said:
I like it, its works smoothly. I use it when I'm feeling simple and don't want to bother with pocket music.
It was said to have a fully customizable interface, but I look in the menus, and there isn't anything for skin selection? So I look in the folder and it had only two files in it. So I guess skinning isn't possible for this version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They promise a generic update for tomorrow.

Gasp, there are no trial version sadly :'(. As I am experiencing some issues with TCPMP, i would be interested in testing it, but I don't want to pay 25$ for having the same issues.
Does anyone know if the imageon gpu of the tytn is correctly used for MPEG4 acceleration with this soft?

Menneisyys said:
They promise a generic update for tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The update will only be released on Tuesday.

fun_key said:
Gasp, there are no trial version sadly :'(. As I am experiencing some issues with TCPMP, i would be interested in testing it, but I don't want to pay 25$ for having the same issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to test subsequent releases and report on them so that the lack of trial version isn't a problem.
Unfortunately, as has also been pointed out in my review, the current, 1.0 version is a "bit" on the buggy side.

Audacity releases FREE (!) Audacity Personal DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) for the PPC

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.

REVIEW & COMPARISON:great, free(!) PDA controller software EveryWAN Remote Support PE

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....