Unfortunately for Windows Mobile users, a lot of developers have switched to other platforms (most importantly, iPhone) recently. This is one of the reasons there haven’t been, for example, any decent game releases for Windows Mobile for quite a long time, except for Gameloft’s products only available via mobile phone operators. (Check out PocketGamer.org, the leading Windows Mobile gaming news site for more info. Note that it’s just been gone through a serious facelift, also meaning many of my emulation-related articles have been frontpaged there.)
Unfortunately, almost the same stands for applications and tools. Fortunately, much more established WinMo developers have stuck with the platform than games developers. This also results in the remote device controller applications’ (still) being worked on. These programs let you control your Windows Mobile PDA or handset using the keyboard / mouse of your Windows desktop (or notebook) computer
There has been a lot of changes since I’ve published my last all-in-one roundup of device controller applications. (Note that I’ve also elaborated on these apps, at least as far as capturing screens is concerned, in my all-in-one bible “ALL Secrets of making Pocket PC screenshots – everything you will EVER need to know!“.) Several new applications (My Mobiler, EveryWAN Remote Support Personal Edition and mDesktop) with direct control capabilities have been released in the meantime and the already-existing ones (VirtualCE, SOTI Pocket Controller) have undergone a serious facelift. Now, there are much better and more sophisticated phone controller tools than in 2006, during the writing of the previous roundup; this is why I don’t elaborate on outdated and/or plain not recommended applications like rCE, VNC server-based ones, MS Windows Mobile Developer PowerToys and PDA Controller but only on recent and (with the exception of mDesktop) recommended ones:
VirtualCE 4
My Mobiler
EveryWAN Remote Support Personal Edition
mDesktop
and, last but in no way least, SOTI’s Pocket Controller, which has just been updated to 6.02.
As the last batch of my reviews doesn’t contain a well-documented performance comparison (it was back in 2005 that I published [a Pocket PC Thoughts frontpage] my last performance comparison with real videos), I found it necessary to augment my past reviews with a real performance evaluation.
This also means this roundup doesn’t really compare features and capabilities (just follow the My Mobiler, EveryWAN Remote Support Personal Edition, mDesktop and VirtualCE reviews for a complete overview) but another very important aspect: performance. (Except for a row dedicated to elaborating on the image capturing features of these apps.) When you control your phone with the mouse / keyboard of your desktop (notebook) computer, you’ll want to see as good performance and responsiveness as possible. With QVGA (low-resolution) screens and using standard operating system or utility / application (read: no games), this won’t really be an issue – all the current phone controller apps are able to deliver acceptable to excellent results, performance / responsiveness-wise.
Not so with the CPU usage of the controller app (which does need some handset-side processing – for example, compressing and send the current screen), which should be as little as possible (the more the CPU usage of the controller app, the less responsive the entire phone becomes). There are huge differences between these apps, even in QVGA mode (let alone the far more demanding high-res ones). This is why I paid special attention to measuring the CPU usage of the controllers.
And, there is a question of high-resolution (VGA or WVGA) screens and capturing game screens / videos, which, in cases, put an enormous burden on the phone (CPU usage-wise) and/or don’t result in any kind of usable control.
Test videos; evaluating them
I’ve, in addition to exactly measuring rendition speed with them, I’ve also published the benchmark test videos. They are at http://winmobiletech.com/012009PDAControllers so that anyone can evaluate / review my benchmark results him/herself.
There are several videos there for each of the five apps and the four test cases: two for QVGA, two for VGA and one-one for the GUI rendering speedtest with my benchmark tool elaborated on in my already-linked, 2005 benchmark article and another for the full-screen game animation test with Nanobotz. Note that while I talk about five apps, I offer six sets of videos: with SOTI’s Pocket Controller, for both 6.01 and 6.02 so that you can evaluate the performance differences yourself; note that with the two 6.02 gaming cases, I’ve also published comparative videos of an interim and the final 6.02 build for both QVGA and VGA.
The filename convention of the videos is as follows:
Phone name (either the VGA HTC Universal or the QVGA HTC Wizard) – either Draw (my tool) or Game (Nanobotz) – one of the five[/i] (six/seven) apps.avi
That is, Univ-Draw-mDesktop.avi means it
- has been taken on the Universal
- shows the GUI benchmark results (as opposed to the game)
- using the mDesktop remote controller app.
Evaluating interface speed; slowdown of the device
The easiest way to do this is playing back the counter benchmark videos slowed down and checking out how many figures are left out of the rendering. For example, if, in a video, all you see are 1, 5, 9, 13 etc., then, this means every fourth animation phase is displayed on the desktop.
The easiest way of slowing down the video playback is using Videolan VLC. Being playback and, then, right-click the 1.00x label on the bottom right, to the left of the elapsed/remaining time display. Drag down the slider so that the animation becomes far slower so that you won’t miss any number shown. This way, you can be absolutely sure you’ll see all (even the slightest) changes.
There is another issue some controllers (most notably, mDesktop on both QVGA and VGA and MyMobiler on QVGA) suffer from: the phone slows down because of them running. You can easily spot these problems too: just run the counter tests and check how much time it takes for them to get from 0 to 299. Basically, it should be 9 seconds; with the, in this regard, worse apps (most importantly, mDesktop), this can rise to as much as 14-15 seconds. Note that, in parentheses, I’ve also published these results.
Computing gaming fps
It’s pretty easy to compute the exact speed (frames per second, FPS) of rendering games: just divide the number of frame changes by the total time. For example, the VGA video taken with the current build of Pocket Controller 6.02 is 20 seconds long, and it contains 13 frame changes; that is, the net speed is 13/20 = 0.65 fps. Of course, the bigger, the better.
Key differences between SOTI Pocket Controller 6.01 and 6.02
As is pretty much clear from the performance results, (if you have the money,) the most recommended application is SOTI Pocket Controller. Let’s take a brief look at how the old (6.01; released about two years ago) and the brand new, 6.02 versions compare, performance-wise. (Feature / compatibility-wise, take a look at the list HERE) Note that the comparison chart contains numeric data on both versions (so does the video repository) in the second and third columns, respectively; here, I just emphasize the differences.
First, there is a notable CPU usage decrease on both QVGA and VGA devices. This is a definite plus as Pocket Controller used to have quite high CPU usage on particularly VGA devices. Now, this has been heavily decreased – without a (major) impact on the responsiveness and the speed of rendering the phone screen on the desktop. On the three VGA devices I’ve directly compared the CPU usage on (x51v, Universal – both in the chart – and the HP iPAQ 210, where SOTI 6.01 scored 23% [by clicking around, not significantly higher] and 6.02 scored a more than two times better result: 11% [clicking around: about 25%]), there is a definite CPU usage decrease.
Second, while standard operating system (non-gaming) rendering hasn’t really been sped up (see the counter test), the is a HUGE increase in the VGA gaming capture performance: the new version is about five times(!) better and more responsive. Incidentally, at this stage (and also the QVGA one), I’ve also listed (and published) the performance results (and videos – hence the “final” for the two [QVGA / VGA] gaming videos in the video repository; the other 6.02 videos apply to both builds) of an interim, non-public build, b1385, I’ve been using since January. As can clearly be seen, the biggest difference between b1385 and the current 6.02 build, b1426, is the VGA gaming responsiveness. In this regard, the final, public version of Pocket Controller 6.02 blows everything else out of the water.
Note that while the in-game speed and efficiency remained the same with QVGA and radically increased with VGA, I’ve measured a little bit of speed decrease in both VGA and QVGA with my drawing benchmark (counter) tool. Nevertheless, it’s still way faster than any of the alternatives.
The comparison chart
Note that I haven’t listed subjects that all the tested apps are capable of; for example, Windows 7 compatibility.
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Verdict
Basically, you get what you pay for. That is, if you want to control your VGA device and/or want to capture game screens, you’ll want to bite the bullet and purchase a Pocket Controller license. If, on the other hand, you only have a QVGA device and don’t want to take screenshots of apps / games making 100% use of the CPU of the phone, you can consider sticking with the cheaper (or free) solutions.
As a rule of thumb, however, you should avoid using the desktop controller functionality of mDesktop altogether.
Note that, as has already been mentioned in the mDesktop review, mDesktop isn’t just a phone desktop controller: it’s far-far more than that. Actually, directly accessing the desktop of the phone is just a subfunction of the app. This means you should still consider giving it a try if you, for example, want to quickly edit / write SMS messages, , manage files, make/receive calls, install apps, edit your contact list etc. on your desktop as quickly and conveniently as possible. The test results above only emphasize mDesktop’s phone desktop controller functionalities are definitely worse than that of “true” phone controller apps. The latter, however, don’t offer any ways of the other, direct control facilities.
Also note that the current version of mDesktop is 2.1. The version I’ve reviewed (and compared to Jeyo, its main alternative) in my previous review was 1.0. There have been some major improvements to mDesktop in the meantime (between version 1.0 and 2.1), which I couldn’t elaborate on in this roundup, as it’s all about desktop performance and CPU usage assessment and nothing else.
If you do find mDesktop useful (to, say, access your SMS messages etc.), you still may want to stay away from its direct access functionality and use something else for that purpose (only), particularly if you plan to use this often. This is what the results in the current roundup state. Nevertheless, the *other* functionalities of mDesktop are completely unrelated to the pretty bad-working desktop control and are pretty good. All you need to do is comparing it to Jeyo’s app and decide which way to go.
A brand new review & benchmark & comparison of REDFLY Mobile Viewer: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3612241#post3612241
Related
Many game buffs know the name of Isotope244, the developer of Acky’s XP Breakout, the, in my opinion, (particularly music-wise) best Breakout clone for Windows Mobile Pocket PC’s.
Their latest development is an Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game, Machines at War, promised to be released in a week and already having a public beta HERE.
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((Q)VGA Pocket PC / Smartphone)
(176*220 Smartphone)
I’ve thoroughly tested the game and found it, apart from some problems (of which I’ll later elaborate on), definitely better than the two other native (!) RTS games for the Pocket PC, Warfare Incorporated and Argentum.
(Here, I don’t count in the Age of Empires port; neither do I take emulation into account. Just keep in mind that some early RTS games like Dune II can be very well emulated under even free (!) MS-DOS emulators on the Pocket PC and Smartphone. See THIS for more information on all this. Note that there are a lot of other “ancient” home computer / console platforms with early RTS games too; of them, however, you’ll want to prefer mouse-based ones like the above-mentioned MS-DOS emulators, the Amiga and the Atari ST emulators. See my emulation-related articles for more information. You might also want to give a try to n0p’s Stratagus & Wargus port to play, say, Warcraft II.)
As usual, instead of publishing a full tutorial to the game (just start playing the title and you’ll very quickly learn how to play it), I publish several tricks & tips, mostly in the extensive Comparison & Feature Chart.
What makes this game good?
First, great news for MS Smartphone (WM Standard) users: it runs on all kinds of Smartphones – even on low-end, 176*220 ones. Regardless of the lack of the touch screen, it’s pretty much playable even on these platforms – particularly, if you have a Smartphone with a built-in QWERTY keyboard. If you define keyboard shortcuts (in which this title is exceptionally good at) for, for example, group assignment / recall, you can really quickly operate even without a stylus.
There are some welcome additions missing from even desktop-based strategy games (for example, deploying the same building multiple times with a simple stylus drag (or, on Smartphones, D-Pad + hold down left softkey) operation, parallel unit production in parallel factories with little stylus (D-pad + left softkey on Smartphones) usage, really good stats (see the “Stats” row in the Chart for some screenshots to see how freaking good they are) or the ability to select any number of units at the same time. For example, Starcraft, probably the best RTS of all times on desktop Windows, lacks all of these features.
It allows for grouping units – only Argentum allows for this (and, of course, Starcraft) – Warfare doesn’t. What is more, you can even use hardware buttons / keys to quickly access these groups – which is particularly nice with devices having a built-in keyboard, which the game makes full use of (along with the traditional Pocket PC / Smartphone keys like red/green phone buttons, softkeys, volume buttons, home / back buttons on the Smartphone and app buttons on the Pocket PC).
It has full keyboard / button redefinition support. In this respect, it’s FAR better than anything else.
Graphically, the game is MUCH prettier than Warfare. Explosions are great, so are trails. Damage done to the terrain is visible throughout all the game – no other PPC RTS game offers this (and not even Starcraft, of course.)
Last but not least, the developer is REALLY open to discussions and requests. This means the bullets listed in the “Bad” section below may soon be last year's snow.
The bad
Currently, there’s no multiplayer support; albeit, the developer promised he will look into implementing it if the game sells well
If you only have a 176*220 Smartphone, some of the texts / explanations will be pretty hard to read (see for example the “Tech tree” screenshots in the Chart).
There is (still?) no multiplayer support, unlike with Warfare (and, of course, Starcraft)
The lack of Attack-move is a real pain in the back (as is with the two other native RTS titles – see the “Attack-Move (instead of simple move)” row in the “Unit movement & selection” section). Hope the developer fixes this – I’ve been discussing this issue with him in several mails. Incidentally, there are no Patrol and waypoint functionalities (see the “Patrol?” row) either.
Also, the game, currently (the developer also promised he will look into this) lacks automatic moving to position and answering to fire upon an attack to a very closely placed, friendly unit. In this respect, both Starcraft and Warfare Incorporated are far better – unless the units in the former are explicitly ordered to Hold, in which case they in no way will leave their position to answer fire out of their range.
The comparison / feature chart
It’s available HERE. As usual, it’s a MUST to check it out. Also make sure you check out the (several) screenshots linked from the chart – I’ve made a lot to show examples of what I speak of.
As I’ve already explained the meaning of most of the rows in the chart, I don’t elaborate on it any more. If you don’t understand something or need help with a specific issue, let me know, though.
Quick note for QVGA (as opposed to 176*220) Smartphone users
By default, as of the current beta (I’m pretty sure the problem will be fixed in the final, commercial version), the game runs in 176*220 mode. To switch this to QVGA (and to use the standard PPC GUI), you’ll need THIS file. (Right-click to download as it’s an XML file – don’t left-click it!) Just copy it into the home directory of your game, overwriting the old one.
Verdict
Without doubt, this title is by far the best and most promising title. A must, particularly if you “only” have a MS Smartphone (that is, without any other real RTS titles). I really hope it does receive multiplayer support, attack-move functionality and a way to disable the default ‘hold’ setting for units.
UPDATE (06/30/2007):
version 0.91 out with a LOT of enhancements and bug fixes, most of them are in direct response to my suggestions. This means the majority of my grieves with the game (for example, the lack of attack+move mode) are no longer topical. Please see the list of enhancements on the product feedback page.
PPCT frontpage.
As you may have noticed, I’ve started working on the Multimedia Bible, the premier resource of all info on multimedia playback, streaming etc. I don’t know when I get it ready. I’ll announce when the first chart versions are ready for public scrutiny.
After some 13-14 months of the 2.x -> 3.x series jump, the excellent S-K folks have just announced they will release a brand new, 4.0 version of SKTools, the, IMHO, best (albeit a bit overwhelming and, because of its capabilities and complexity, hard-to-discover) all-in-one systems management tool available for Windows Mobile. The new version will have the following new features:
- Cab Manager: SKTools can show all CAB,CPF,TSK files on device, show content (with full names, installation path, registry keys, shortcuts, _setup.xml), extract with full names, install to ANY location (full installation made by SKTools) for WM5/ WM6; SKTools can be associated with CAB files
- Replaced ROM Files: show which ROM files have been replaced by another version, show version and date of these files; the user can see if the "newest" file (the file having the latest time stamp) is, in reality, older than others and, therefore, remove it.
- Move Data: move application, folders, files to any location with automatic (!) registry and shortcut modification (and other data about files and their path)
- Storage Analyzer: show what files and folders (by types, attributes, ...) are stored on the device
The open beta starts next week (I already have a pre-beta); I’ll let you know when it becomes ready.
I’ve reported on LogMeIn Rescue Mobile more than two months ago. Now, a similar product, LogMeIn Hamachi has also been released, which – as opposed to ALL the other, similar tools – even the otherwise BEST Pocket Controller by SOTI – uses HTTP(S) tunneling for remotely controlling your Windows Mobile handheld from a remote desktop PC. This means any Windows Mobile device can be accessed, even ones behind firewalls and/or in NAT’ed networks (like about 60-70% of current mobile networks). See THIS and THIS MoDaCo threads for more info.
Spb has just released an updated version of their flagship, brand new product, Spb Pocket Plus 4.0, of which I’ve reviewed some modules HERE and HERE.
The dialup-sharing-over-Wi-Fi (which is of extreme importance with non-BT DUN and/or non-BT PAN-capable devices like, for example, Symbian smartphones (neither of them) or other Windows Mobile PDA’s based on the MS BT stack (no PAN support)) method (see THIS) has been GREATLY enhanced and automatized. See XDA-Dev forum member TalynOne’s excellent tutorial and tools HERE.
Moving to dialup and DUN: XDA-Dev forum member Technology has come up with a decent tool for making it work on the T-Mobile Dash.
CrazySoft released another puzzle adventure game
Their last “adventure”, “Lost in the Pyramid”, was a complete disaster. The new game is certainly MUCH better, albeit I’ve found some of the steps similarly illogical and/or plain stupid (for example, dying right away if you smash a tile; getting caught by the guards if you, for example, exit your prison through the window etc.). It’s still a far cry away from “real” (even emulated – see my emulation-related roundups and Bibles HERE) adventures like those of Legend Entertainment or Fade Team (Fade / Acedior), but you may want to give it a try nonetheless. Be warned: the trial can be played through in 10-15 minutes and I’m not really sure whether the full game is really worth the money. I’ll wait for either Eric’s or Ben’s reviews; I definitely won’t request a review copy (because I don’t really like biting the feeding hand, which, I think, may happen this time too.)
Therefore, just some remarks: The game is multiplatform and supports both VGA and QVGA on the Pocket PC. I’ve tested it on both VGA and QVGA Pocket PC’s, QVGA Smartphones and the Symbian S60v3 Nokia N95. With the latter two platforms, it’s pretty hard to control because of the lack of the touchscreen (and a sophisticated control system). At least you can use the 3…0 buttons to quickly access the inventory items.
UPDATE (11/03/2007): Oops, I’ve forgotten to tell you the name of CrazySoft game (see the last bullet above): Final Battle. It’s available HERE. You can already read a review of it for example HERE. Note that it’s a Symbian-related review. As Symbian has even less games (not taking Java MIDlets into account, where it’s much-much stronger, let alone the forthcoming N-Gage Platform, which, as of now, is slated for a December release) than Windows Mobile, the review is pretty much positive. I’m not absolutely sure it’d stand so well against the Windows Mobile competition, particularly if you take into account the platform’s (compared to Symbian, much better) ability to emulate platforms with tons of high-quality adventure games (for example, MS-DOS) and having native adventure engines like ScummVM (ok, Symbian (including even S60v3) also has it) and other interpreters like those of Magnetic Scrolls.
Some (VGA) screenshots:
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An example of the guard’s catching you
Smashing your hand 1 2
End of demo (again, the demo of the game is VERY short: I've managed to reach it in about 4-5 minutes after starting to play!)
Finally, as with their previous title “Lost in the Pyramid”, this game is also suffering from the same problem: it takes the operating system a lot of time to find the icon of the game. The CrazySoft folks should fix this issue as soon as possible.
UPDATE (later on 11/03/2007): Because of the insignificance of the release, I don’t devote a separate post/threads to the next game. Exosyphen Studios has released Hacker Evolution for the Pocket PC (no Smartphone version is available), following the May release of the desktop original.
(VGA screenshot; as can be seen, there’s no hi-res support)
Unfortunately, I’ve found the game almost exactly the same as their much older, but VERY similar title, BS Hacker Mobile Console, reviewed HERE. If you don’t believe they’re almost exactly the same game (except for the different colors and the slightly more on-screen buttons) just compare, in addition to the GUI, the built-in help to that of BS Hacker Mobile Console. See? It's, gaming-wise, is exactly the same as the older title. In addition, it is, as with BS Hacker Mobile Console, a much-much worse, much less interesting version of the original desktop Windows version - this is how a desktop conversion should NOT be done.
All in all, I in no way recommend this game, particularly not if you’ve already purchased the very similar BS Hacker Mobile Console.
More info / discussion in THIS PG.org thread.
Menneisyys sorry to "interrupt" you, but we are in SMARTPHONE area and we are looking for SMARTPHONE stuff, not PPC. So please post only smartphone related articles/news/posts.
This is not the first time I see cross-posted topics and PPC related posts on Smartphone area.
Thank you.
DSF said:
Menneisyys sorry to "interrupt" you, but we are in SMARTPHONE area and we are looking for SMARTPHONE stuff, not PPC. So please post only smartphone related articles/news/posts.
This is not the first time I see cross-posted topics and PPC related posts on Smartphone area.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Several (of course, not all) bullets also applies to the MS Smartphone platform (serach for the word Smartphone); this is why I've also cross-posted this news item to the SP General forum.
UPDATE (11/13/2007): in THIS German-language PocketPlayers.info review (published after mine), Hacker Evolution is also trashed. (Let me know if you need help in translation - I assume everybody either knows German or at least knows Babelfish / Google Translator.) This shows I was 100% right about NOT recommending the game at all.
Note that the thread also states exosyphen Studios is planning to release a FULL WM port of their desktop games. This is certainly VERY good news.
Web browsing is one of the major application areas of portable devices – no wonder the iPhone is also Web-centric with its excellent Safari browser.
The “accelerated” scrolling mode of Safari is widely copied in the Windows Mobile world. The latest title to support this kind of screen dragging mode is Touch Browser by Makayama available for purchase and, now, trial download HERE (manual HERE).
It’s an external wrapper to Internet Explorer Mobile (IEM), just like Webby and unlike traditional IEM plug-ins like Spb Pocket Plus, PIEPlus and MultiIE. This also means it has some of the inherent problems common to all these solutions; more on this later.
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OK, enough talk, let’s get straight to the facts: frankly, as of version 1.0.2, I’m not at all satisfied with this app. Currently, there are far better alternatives. Why? Let’s take a detailed look. (Note that this list is pretty much terse. If you don’t understand it, make sure you read my other Web browser reviews and Bibles; in them, I’ve thoroughly elaborated on all the issues I’ve referred to in this review.)
The keyboard is either vowels on top or numbers – there’s no QWERTY layout, unlike on the iPhone or with, say, Spb Full Screen Keyboard. This itself makes URL input very hard – iPhone’s QWERTY inputting is just far better and, if you’re (as most people) used to QWERTY, faster. Screenshots showing this: Landscape 1 2, Portrait 1 2. System-level auto-completion works in URL input mode (see THIS), but there’s no address completion (based on the history / the favorites) the like in Opera Mini 4.1 or all versions of Opera Mobile. Also note that it’s impossible to enter symbols like ~, ? and & - this is a MAJOR problem too! All you can do is assigning a hardware button to <Input Panel> and use it to quickly bring up the keyboard and enter anything on it, unrestricted.
It’s in no way possible to access the standard menu. Fortunately, it’s possible to access favorites via the context menu and the usual PIE / IEM context menu items, including for example Save Image for images (which doesn’t work?!), are all accessible. The lack of menu access results in, say, the inability to switch between low and hi-res modes on VGA Pocket PC’s on the fly. What is worse, it’s not possible to access the three (One Column / Fit to Screen / Desktop) different rendering modes in View, should you want to switch between them on-the-fly. Yeah, sure, ZB does have an entire button for one-column view, so, the problem is mitigated to some degree. Nevertheless, the default mode seems to be the desktop (!!!) view, which is, in most cases, completely useless and to-be-avoided. That is, you’ll end up having to switch to the one-column view, which, with some kinds of content (for example, charts) results in a huge decrease in readability (in general, the “Fit to screen” mode, which isn’t supported by Touch Browser, is the best of the three modes).
Speaking of the (W)VGA hi-res mode switch introduced in WM5 AKU 3.5, independent of its state, documents will ALWAYS be rendered in low-res. This is not what you may want to prefer if you have a hi-res device and want to take advantage of the resolution to fit as much data into the screen as possible.
The Settings menu has been hastily designed for Portrait devices and needs scrolling in Landscape – (this is, of course, a minor issue, compared to the major problems of the app)
No tabs or other enhancements; the only enhancement is the one-column mode, which doesn’t add much to WM2003SE+ devices (it was in WM2003SE that One Column mode was introduced). Compare this to the tab support of Spb Pocket Plus
No way to switch to text copy/paste mode – VERY bad!
No hotkey support at all – all you have is the D-pad (and, of course, the on-screen menu) for shortcuts
Dynamic scrolling is just far less spectacular and far slower than with Spb– mostly because of the slow CF-based engine
The D-pad can’t be used for scrolling and the Action button to select links – it’s strictly for bringing up / hiding the menu (up/down), navigating to the previous/next page (left/right) and showing the actual position of the viewport in the page (Action). The latter (displaying the actual position with scrollbar-alikes) doesn’t let for scrollbar-based scrolling and is far-far inferior to, say, Opera Mini 4’s or NetFront’s minimap / page overview solution. That is, there’s absolutely NO way of scrolling the page without using the touchscreen, only via the buttons. This is a REAL disadvantage compared to ALL other browsers or PIE plug-ins, where you can not only use the D-pad for scrolling, but you can also configure how scrolling should be done (link / line / page-based scrolling) or, in cases, can even use other hardware buttons for scrolling. Touch Browser doesn’t allow for the latter (that is, assigning scroll or page down functionality to hardware buttons as is explained in the Button Enhancer Bible.) It isn’t compliant with SmartSKey either, configured to page scrolling using the volume slider – unlike with most other Web browsers (or plug-ins).
Sometimes it just crashes – for example, when just entering http://www..com or the random URL given in the system input panel tip above. The latter can only be helped with the phone buttons. Also, upon exiting the app with the X icon, it always throws exceptions (like THIS and THIS). This certainly shows it needs some HEAVY, additional debugging.
Absolutely no feedback on the state of loading pages – unlike with the underlying IEM.
Verdict
While I pretty much liked Makayama’s past Windows Mobile-related software titles, all I can say is you’d better stay away from this title for the time being – that is, before it undergoes a real facelift and enhancement. It’s just worse than the alternatives. If you do need iPhone-like accelerated (!) scrolling, go for any of the newer browsers: Opera Mobile 9.x, NetFront 3.5 or, if you plan to stick with IEM, Spb Pocket Plus 4. If all you want to have is screen-based dragging (without the nice “acceleration”), then, other, even older browsers will do: NetFront 3.3/3.4, Opera Mobile 8.6x, Thunderhawk, Opera Mini (all versions) or the two traditional IEM plug-ins: PIEPlus and MultiIE. Technically, these browsers are ALL far superior – far more reliable, far more feature-packed, easier-to-use (buttons, fast scrolling, minimap etc.) and, with some of them (Opera Mini, for example) even free.
Also, this browser (as with Webby) certainly shows Compact Framework is just unsuitable for writing fast-scrolling apps. Use native C++ for implementing applications that rely on quick (!) graphics.
Knowing the Makayama folks are pretty adept and knowledgeable people, I really hope they do improve this browser and that, once, Touch Browser will become a decent alternative to screen-dragging solutions. For the time being, I don’t recommend it, however.
Acknowledgements
Thanks for the Makayama folks for providing me with a test version. This was about a day before the trial version has been released. Should I have known beforehand they were going to release a trial, I definitely wouldn’t have requested a test (read: registered) version, though – after all, I hate biting the feeding hand. Exactly this is why I’m asking ALL software developers to ALWAYS release trial versions of their titles. Then, I would have a far easier time writing bad reviews of titles I’ve received a test version (practically, a freebie) of.
What to come?
Now that I’m getting prepared for my W3C speech at Saturday, I plan to quickly update my YouTube playback & browsing-related stuff, particularly now that
1, CorePlayer 1.2.3 has just been released - with enhanced YouTube support;
2, a new and, according to the dev, somewhat faster compile of the YouTube TCPMP plug-in has been released
3, finally, firmware version v21 for the Nokia N95 has been released, adding Flash Lite 3 and, consequently, native YouTube support in Nokia Web. So far, I’ve found it excellent with its full features like stereo (!) audio playback, full screen mode etc – it’s certainly worth updating my Windows Mobile articles too to see how they compare to the native Flash Lite 3-based solution of Nokia.
Other reviews
JAMM’s review - definitely worth a read
Nice review, I think i'll stick with Opera Mobile...
On the youtube front I'd suggest this as an alternative. It uses TCPMP Codecs, but is so much faster and more efficient...
Thanks, Menneisyys ... for another excellent review. Personally, I use PIEPlus 2.2, and am pretty satisfied with what it has to offer, outside of the fact that the History Menu feature is extremely buggy.
I recently installed a test upgrade of SPB PocketPlus, from 3.x to 4.0.2, and find that it's implementation of IE features is not going to make me uninstall PIEPlus anytime soon ... Too bad, as I don't see any new development from ReenSoft at all, and fear they have abandoned their software efforts. PIEPlus 2.2 is really pretty good, but it is not perfect. I would have loved to see them DO something with it in the past two years.
Oh well ... the wait goes on (and on and on and on )
-pvs
.... or
http://www.skyfire.com/
UPDATE (04/23/2008): version 1.1 has just been released with the following fixes / enhancements:
- Qwerty keyboard option
- Button to turn TouchFlo on/off
- Improved animation algorithm (smoother)
- Sound on/off
- Saves custom home page
- Options page screen lag fixed
- (compared to pre-1.0.2 versions,) Added hyphen (-) on the keyboard
I keep you posted of the future versions. When most / all of my grieves are fixed, I post an entirely revised review.
A major breakthrough in C64 emulation: the long-awaited version 3.0 of Pocket Commodore 64 Plus Vic 20 has just been released!
If you’ve read the Commodore 64 Emulation Bible (make sure you read it; in this article, I will NOT elaborate on how you can import / run games under the emulator), you already know that Pocket Commodore 64 has, apart from the CPU usage problem, always been the best C64 emulator for the platform.
The new version, along with a plethora of new features,
- also fixes the CPU usage problem (on the 624 MHz Del Axim x51v, while just idling, while the previous version uses all the CPU cycles, the new one about 35%... 45% (measured on the x51v and the iPAQ 210, respectively; both running at 624 MHz).
- has built-in support for the Commodore VIC 20
- it supports edge softening on VGA devices (accessible via Settings / Soften video). This has excellent results. For example, compare the following two screenshots:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(non-smoothed)
(smoothed)
The smoothed version is indeed much easier on the eyes – as is the case with, say, ScummVM running on high-res devices (not only on Windows Mobile but also, say, high-res Symbian devices like the E90).
Multiplayer - a full tutorial
Another major new feature is supporting a non-multicast IP-based LAN / Internet multiplayer games (read THIS if you don't know what they are and how they should be used). This works the following way (unfortunately, it’s pretty vaguely explained in the original docs so I found it better to explain it more verbosely).
1. Connect the two Pocket PC’s to the Net; make sure at least one has a direct IP visible. This is always the case in p2p networks like an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection between the two Pocket PC’s or two PPC’s connecting to the same access point. However, as the IP model is VERY flexible (much more flexible than, say, doing the same with an app with native Microsoft BT support only), you can play a multiplayer game over any kind of connection – even with a remote friend.
2. Start the standard (PComm64) emulator on the server, on the client PCRemote64
3. On the server, go to Settings / Setup Controls (the third button from the top on the bottom left):
Click Network Game in the upper right corner of the interface (well above the huge Close button).
Now, PC64 will report the server running and will also display the IP you’ll need to enter to the client:
4. On the client, enter the server address (the input field takes the same area as the three virtual drive icons normally); here, 169.254.155.017 (note that it’s different from the previous screenshot)
and click Connect under the IP input field:
Note that all the file loading icons are disabled. This is because it’s always the server that must initiate file loading; the client doesn’t need to do anything.
I’ve played Wizard of Wor in this setup (over a Wi-Fi p2p LAN connection). Worked flawlessly (apart from being a little bit slow), particularly after increasing the, by default, 1 frameskip a bit. With Archon, however, firing didn’t work at all on either the server or the client, rendering the battle useless and, consequently, the game unplayable. I haven’t tested other, multiplayer games.
Emulation core compliance tests
The new version also boasts of a brand new emulator core. I’ve thoroughly tested it with my standard tools (games & demos) to see whether it’s true and how much it has been improved.
The emulation indeed seems to be better, meaning more games being compatible with the emulator. For example, while nothing happened after the cracking note with the old version, with the new, it got as far as the other, desktop-based emulators - with the Guild of thieves (Blast! 336 / *).
The demo tests have shown HUGELY improved compatibility:
- while it’s still incompatible with Altered States 50% by Taboo (compatible with VICE 1.21 on the desktop), it at least displays the first textual message screen (“His drive”…))
- Bumpmania by Arise resulted in exactly the same results than the other emulators (the first part ran OK; after that, it just showed a white screen)
- Biba 2 - Dream Injection by Arise – it sees a distorted, useless directory; can’t load anything
- Dutch Breeze by Blackmail runs pretty well
- Cycle by Booze Design: runs – with graphical glitches because of the FLI mode. At least the initial soundtrack selection screen is presented OK
- Follow the Sign 3 - Unsound Minds by Byterapers runs OK until after the logo:
Then, in the default Fast CPU emulation mode, it exists with an invalid opcode message and asking for enabling the accurate mode. Unfortunately, running it in the accurate mode doesn’t help either: it immediately hangs after the logo above.
- One-Der by Oxyron is played back OK in both(!) modes.
- Tower Power 100% by Camelot: works great (including the animated countdown) until the title in Fast CPU mode; then exits. Accurate mode doesn’t help either: it crashes.
All in all, the emulator core has indeed been made MUCH, incomparably better.
Cons
As far as the cons are concerned, unfortunately, the game still doesn’t seem to be compatible with MS Smartphones. That is, you’ll need to stick to the recently-updated and, now, by default QVGA and Landscape-compatible PocketHobbit. It has other bugfixes too and is (still) free.
Note that it does ask on touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s whether it has a touch screen. The "do you have a touchscreen device?" shows it MAY support non-touchscreen devices. However, on none of my Smartphones (HTC s310 WM5, HTC s710 WM6) did it work. While installing WMCab.cab worked, as opposed to PCommodore64Vic20Setup.exe - when installing the latter on the platform, the installer transferred a CAB file fully incompatible with the Smartphone –, the emulator itself refused to run complaining about a missing component. (Screenshots of the two Smartphones I’ve tested it on HERE and HERE).
I’m still waiting for the answer to some of my questions from the developers (for example, on possible rebates for 2.xx owners); as soon as I have some relevant info, I post an update.
Verdict
This is indeed a major breakthrough. The multiplayer, the lack of the CPU usage bug of the old versions and the really cool, new, MUCH more compatible emulator core makes this title a REAL must if you’re into Commodore 64 (and/or VC-20) emulation. While it’s a bit pricy, now, with all these enhancements and bugfixes, the emulator is certainly worth the money.
UPDATE (10/31/2009): Posted three videos demonstrating how multiplayer needs to be set up and used on three great two-player games.
Note:
1. in order to have access to the “fire” functionality, I had to manually assign each and every direction to the hardware D-pad and use the on-screen fire button to fire.
2. I needed to enter the IP of the server only once; this is why I don't enter it on the videos at all
3. I switch to "no slowdown" mode during loading of sll the three titles to speed up loading and skipping intros
The videos:
Adept (Archon II)
Wizard of Wor
International Karate
Hey Menneisyys!!
Long time no see you around
Cheers,
orb3000 said:
Hey Menneisyys!!
Long time no see you around
Cheers,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still here - it's just that there are so few new apps / games to review (most devs have switched to the iPhone) that I much more rarely post than, say, two years ago.
tried it on my HTC Leo, it starts but the interface (on screen keyboard) does not works at all...
Same on TD2 with WM 6.5. Also the emu has totally disappeared from the manufacturer's website. I wonder what is going on? Not compatible with 6.5? Simply abandoned the program?
Anyone know if this is still available? I would love to try it on my TP2.
Joe USer said:
Anyone know if this is still available? I would love to try it on my TP2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know either - have been trying to contact them (I'm a paying customer); no answer so far.
(The worst is that I cannot activate it on my iPAQ 210 any more - that is, the device I've originally purchased it for.)
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):
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
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....