TamsPPC – the PocketPC Blog

Windows Mobile phones have evolved out of the PocketPC/Windows CE platform – a platform notable for its contact management power and multimedia handhelds. Phone support was an afterthought added in 2002…and even though the UI has improved a lot since then, it still lacks at least some of the polish inherent in other platforms. Resco’s Contact Manager wants to fix this – but can it stack up?

RCM consists of multiple modules which are integrated into a folder of the programs folder:

The program furthermore attaches itself to the ’start call’ key of your handset. While the screen may look a bit overwhelming at first glance, it is extremely useful – you can enter both numbers and contacts easily (in a T9esque fashion):

BTW: the little SMS icon allows you to SMS a contact directly…

RCM displays detailed statistics for each contact – you can easily find out whom you called when and how long you talked:

Resco Contact Manager furthermore acts as a threaded SMS viewer:

The real strength of RCM is its ability to handle contacts with associated photos. Once a photo is associated with a contact, the product displays it whenever the contact is referenced:

Unfortunately, the folks at Resco’s could not resist the urge to create a today plugin. It uses an obscene amount of space and IMHO offers little value, as it can not be configured:

This review looked at version 1.10 of Resco Contact Manager on a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. RCM needs 1917KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.

In the end, Resco Contact Manager can likely save you quite a few clicks. If the boys at Resco’s would add a graphical contact chooser like the one found in UltimatePhone for Palm OS and add a few small tweaks(like displaying the currently active network), RCM would be a total must have. As it stands now, the price of 25$ is too steep…but keeping an eye on it is a great idea…

Use the discount code RSS4CHEAP to get 20% off the product’s list price (20$) in the TamsShop!
While RSS is almost universally loathed by blog operators (RSS readers dont display sponsor ads,…), users can save a lot of time with them when it comes to reading multiple blogs at once. This has always been an application for handhelds (anyone remember Plucker?) – but lets see which of the RSS readers for Windows Mobile is best?

Our first contender is SPB’s Insight. The product displays a settings wizard while being installed, and contains a today plug-in:

Channels can be added to Insight easily. SPB has chosen to store the list of feeds online: while this requires you to download a catalog every time you wish to use the built-in list, it also makes sure that all channels advertised actually exist:

Once your channels are in the list, updating them is easy:

Feeds can even be displayed while being updated – SPB apparently dislikes waiting as much as I do:

The rendering quality of the product is good (read: Pocket IE). To cut a long story short: all my test feeds rendered well, embedded images were displayed.

This review looked at version of SPB Insight on an XPERIA X1. The product needs 2276KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.

In the end, SPB Insight is a good reader with a lethal flaw: it does not allow you to bookmark articles for later processing. If you can live with this omission, take the trial of this program for a spin. If not, stay tuned for the next program!

By all means, use the discount code RIGHTWEATHERPRICE to get 20% off the regular price of SPB Weather in the TamsShop!
The display of weather information is one of the oldest applications for smartphone devices – as always-on internet connection is one of the defining properties of PocketPC smartphones, SPB was in an ideal position to offer a compelling solution – but can it stack up?

SPB Weather supports literally thousands of cities – picking the right one is straightforward:

Unfortunately, rather little information is displayed about the individual places – other products display more:

One of the most impressive features of SPB Weather is its 3D globe view, which can be used to display various parameters. Unfortunately, it is of little use as the program jumps from city to city like a rabbit on steroids…

SPB Weather can integrate itself into the today screen. This plugin is excellent – the screens below show a few of the millions of possible configurations:

SPB Weather has various options – it unfortunately seems to miss a command which disables self-updating while roaming:

Various data sources can be used to supply the data used – as the default source has served me well so far, I saw little reason to change it:

This review looked at version 2.0 of the program on an XPERIA X1 running its stock WM 6.1 ROM without added GL drivers of any sort. It needs about 10MB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.

Like many other PocketPC programs, SPB Weather unfortunately got “iPhoneitis”. It is loaded with weird transitions and non-standard UI widgets to the point of obscenity…I have opened the main program two times on my rather fast X1 and closed it immediately due to lag and disgust. The today plug-in, on the other hand, is excellent – my main eeker is that 16 USD (after my rebate) is a bit steep.

If SPB would offer the plug-in as a standalone, it would get rave reviews here. As the package currently stands, I feel that better offers are available…

I just stumbled across this review part in the drafts folder. As I recently wondered myself about StyleTap performance, I decided to run it even though it is now one year old…

In the last installations of our StyleTap review, we looked at what StyleTap could do. This part focuses on something entirely different…how fast is StyleTap compared to a real handheld?

Palm OS handheld speeds usually get measured via Speedy, which is a very popular(and fast…30secs max per test) benchmark that gives pretty accurate data. At the first glance, my 400MhZ ipaq is about as fast as a classic 144MhZ Tungsten T:

However, comparing the benchmark details shows that the ipaq is much slower Graphics-wise, while it beats the TT hands down in memory and CPU-related tests:

PalmPi reports a calculation time of just seconds, which is a record value never ever seen before on a Palm OS handheld. Our sister site TamsPalm has loads of PalmPi results – visit them there for further comparison!

Accessing SD cards is really fast. The values below are much higher than the ones the memory card scored in real Palm handhelds – apparently, the ipaq’s highspeed SD card subsystem speeds up VfsMark to new heights.

Overall, StyleTap’s emulator window could be the fastest Palm OS handheld ever – if it didn’t have the huge bottleneck in the graphics routines. As already shown in previous parts of the review, games suffer badly from this. Nevertheless, StyleTap is more than fast enough for productivity applications…

The TamsShop contains a plethora of products related to this review. use the discount PHATISCOOL to get discounts on the following PhatWare products:

PhatNotes for WMS
PhatNotes WMS for Outlook

From day one, handheld computers were intended to store textual data : the very first handhelds actually were clamshell devices like Atari’s now-famous Portfolio. Thus, a plethora of text processing apps was created – while some of them just concentrated on editing, other applications also deployed their own storage formats. PhatWare’s PhatNotes is of the second variety…but can it stack up?

After starting the program for the first time, a plethora of Windows pops up. The window on the left shows the available container files, the window at the top contains the notes and the window at the bottom contains a preview. While this layout may work well on VGA screens, my rx4240’s QVGA screen can’t really handle it:

Notes can be formatted:

Voice samples can be attached too notes with relative ease. Users of PhatPad can even embed hand-written doodles…unfortunately, there’s no way to do that without PhatPad (which costs an additional 40$ – a pricing policy I personally consider outrageous):

Alarms can be assigned to notes, too:

Notes can be “colorized” in a fashion similar to Microsoft’s Outlook – this makes finding individual notes easier:

A context analyzer tool detects numbers and email addresses automatically:

A plug-in for the Today screen allows you to access recently-edited notes quickly:

Unfortunately, the program does not allow you to export all notes to industry-standard formats like txt or doc. However, individual notes can be exported to txt and rtf when opened:

Screen rotation works very well:

This review looked at version 5.3 of PhatNotes on a hp ipaq rx4240 running Windows Mobile 5.0. The program needs 1434KB of memory and works well from an external memory card!

In the end, PhatNotes is a well-programmed application that unfortunately adheres to a concept will be swept away by the sands of time. As storage cards become bigger and bigger, the overhead of storing individual text files becomes negligible (and offers higher security in case of data corruption). Leaving the issues outlined above aside, the program offers everything needed to manage rich-text notes – if you can live with the idea of database files, give this (very expensive – 40$) app a spin!

Apple’s iPod touch debuted a new kind of thumb keyboard – whenever a key was tapped, a bigger picture of it appeared on the screen above. Vito Technologies now went one step further – their program not only displays the key, but also the surrounding area.

In case you wonder about how this looks – the image below shows the program working in default mode. Whenever you press one of the keys, the bubble containing the magnification is popped up:

The product includes a variety of layouts that can be chosen with th key on the left – the images below show English, numeric and German modes:

A menu can be opened to configure various aspects of the program:

Last but not least, ZoomBoard has a variety of different zoom modes:

This review looked at version 2.0 of the program on a hp ipaq rx4240 running Windows Mobile 5. The program automatically installs itself into the RAM when the cab is launched – no information about the file size is given(and the program cannot be installed onto an external memory card).

In the end, ZoomBoard succeeds in taking Apple’s thumb keyboard system one step further – here, the zoom view really helps when it comes to hitting characters. In case the concept outlined above sounds attractive to you, try out the free trial and purchase this 15$ app in the TamsShop if you like it…

P.S. The text in the screenshots is a short story written by Dr. Kohrs of abc texte. A big thank you goes out to her for permitting us to use it as sample!

Microsoft did an excellent job with the implementation of the PocketPC’s input system – openly-accessible API’s have led to a plethora of input options coming from literally hundreds of software houses. Resco’s Keyboard Pro has recently seen an update – let’s see what it can do:

After installing Resco Keyboard Pro, the application immediately launches a small “setup wizard”. This wizard asks you a few questions in order to determine how you will use the application:

Version 5.0’s most-advertised new feature is called iSkin – a “fullscreen” keyboard that emulates the one found on an iPhone/iPod touch. Resco’s implementation is very faithful and works well, although typing can get a bit hard on the rx4240’s tiny screen:

The keyboard does an excellent job at adjusting to landscape mode:

By the way – Resco’s nifty baby calculator also made it iSkin – this is a feature that Apple didn’t implement into their devices as of now(I can hear someone in Cupertino firing up the copying machines):

As for the other layouts, they are rather plain and do not really adjust to landscape mode:

However, their gesture mode(can also be enabled for iSkin) is a real timesaver. Instead of forcing you to enter commas and spaces by tapping an extra key; gestures allow you to determine the next character by keeping the pen down after pressing a key and pulling it along the screen in a specified direction:

This review looked at a prerelease version of Resco Keyboard Pro 5.0 on a hp ipaq rx4240. The program needs 920KB of memory and can be installed onto a memory card without any issues.

Cutting a long story short: people who like to use the standard PocketPC keyboard will definitely love Resco Keyboard Pro as its gestures save loads of time. People looking for a real full-screen keyboard face a little dilemma: real fullscreen keyboard applications have bigger keys; but cover up the screen. Luckily, a free trial of Resco Keyboard Pro is available from Resco’s web page – head over and see if it saves you 20$ worth of time!

The first part of Sebastian Sell’s review looked at the Opera Mobile browser in general. Part 2 focuses on tabbed browsing and resource consumption – read on to find out how much memory you will need for comfortable tabbed browsing!

tabbed browsing
Tabbed browsing is one of the main reasons, why you will prefer Opera Mobile. It’s possible to have several pages opened at the same time, to toggle between them just tap onto the title of the tab you want to open.

Also, I thought the resource consumption with more tabs opened would be interesting. Read the details in “Opera resource consumption”.

Opera settings
The settings of Opera Mobile can be found under Menu –> Tools –> Settings. In the first tap “General” it is possible to change the home page which should load up every time the browser is started. The “Identify as” option can be set to “Desktop computer” or “Handheld device”. To see the difference, try to visit “www.pdassi.de” in “Handheld device” mode first, then in “Desktop computer” mode. In the first case, the version which is optimized for mobile devices will be displayed, in the second you get the default, for desktop computer optimized page.

Opera comes with a build-in pop-up blocker, which can be either enabled or disabled in the settings. To clear the browsing history, cookies or cache, just navigate to the “History”-tab in the settings and hit the desired button. The cache size can be set here too, by default, it’s 8000 KB. The security protocols (SSL2, SSL3, TLS1) can be disabled in the “Security”-tab, they are by default enabled (recommended).

In the misc. settings tab, JavaScript, Plug-Ins, animations and cookies can be disabled. If Opera should be your default browser for opening web pages, just check the “Set Opera as default browser” checkbox if it isn’t already. Grab and scroll can either be enabled here or on any page, through the context menu (long tap onto the web site).

Opera resource consumption
I measured the RAM consumption with DinarSofts MemMaid:

note: this test was done with DSL 2000 KBit/s and the following settings: PIE: One Column, Text Size = Medium, High Resolution *not* enabled; Opera: Desktop Mode, High Resolution enabled, Zoom = 90%

Startup time Opera: 15.87 sec.
Startup time PIE: 04.75 sec.

Security
Opera supports the security protocols SSL 2, SSL 3 and TLS 1. I had no problems with any web site which requires SSL like Google Mail, or Avant Go. Unfortunately, the Opera Password Manager “WAND” is not included in the mobile version of Opera. Maybe they will add this feature in upcoming versions.

pros and cons
+ good CSS support
+ Flash Player compatible
+ “grab and scroll” feature
+ tabbed browsing
+ PIE Favorite Importer
+ full screen mode
- sometimes slow page rendering

Opera Browser for Pocket PC

Many of you might use the Opera Browser on the desktop PC. This review will show some features of the version 8.65 for Windows Mobile Devices.

Test system:
Dell Axim x51v

• 624 MHz Intel XScale PXA 270 processor
• 64 MB RAM
• 256 MB ROM
• Windows Mobile 6 Classic
• VGA Screen

page layouts
The Opera browser for Pocket PC can display web pages in two different modes: desktop mode and fit to screen mode.

In desktop mode, the web browser doesn’t change anything at the web site and the layout should be the same as on a desktop computer. Anyway, there are many pages which can’t be displayed, because the mobile browser’s CSS support isn’t by far as advanced as on a desktop.
The second display mode is called “Fit to screen”, and I would recommend this one for most of the sites. The browser resizes every site to fit to the screen of a Pocket PC, so that you only have to scroll up and down, but not left and right.

In every of these modes, it’s possible to zoom in and out in a range from 25% to 200 % zoom, as well as disable image loading for a lower traffic consumption. There is a full screen mode too, which hides the upper windows bar and the menu bar to have more room to display the webpage. The display can be rotated right out of the browser, just tap “Menu” –> “Display” –> “Landscape” to toggle between landscape and portrait mode. I have no idea if this works only for the WM5/WM6 version or for the WM 2003 version too. If you are owner of a WM2003 device, please try it out and post the result as a comment!

browser compatibility
For this, I visited http://aadmm.de and tried several things. According to this page, Opera handles CSS 1, 2.1 without problems (the basic things), but I wasn’t sure at CSS 3. Opera had trouble with JavaScript on a site, which could be handled without problems in PIE. Anyway, except the flash player, opera can not handle any other plug-ins like QuickTime, RealPlayer or Java (as far as I know). The flash player plug-in can be downloaded at the Adobe Homepage. After installing it, make sure “Enable Plug-Ins” under “Menu” –> “Tools” –> “Settings” –> “Misc.” is checked and restart the browser to enable the Flash Player. Opera Browser can even handle YouTube if you install it and set “Identify as” to “Desktop computer” – but don’t expect too much, it runs very slow and by far not every video is loading:

MyVideo doesn’t work at all. Compared to the Pocket Internet Explorer, Opera can display many sites correctly where the PIE failed, especially if CSS is used. Some pages, like Google Mail (the desktop PC HTML version) look ugly and become unusable because of text overlapping and other things (in both Opera and PIE).
(Opera Mobile)(Internet Explorer Mobile)

Downloads are handled different than in the PIE. When a download is started, the Opera download manager will open up where you can get an overview over the current downloads. You have the possibility to stop, resume or delete them. The download manager can be find under “Menu” –> “Tools” –> “Show Downloads”

An other interesting feature is the Favorite importer, which can be accessed under “Menu” –> “Tools” –> “Manage Bookmarks” –> “Menu” –> “Import IE Favorites”

Please tune in soon for Part 2 of the review – it will look at resource consumption, tabbed browsing and a variety of other fun topics!

The 3rd program of the Spb Business Pack – Spb Diary – is a replacement for the default Pocket Outlook today-plugins.

The installer lets you choose if the program should disable the Pocket Outlook today plugins automatically. It is recommended that you let it disable them – SPB Diary replaces them completely Now lets take a closer look at the program. You will notice that it is divided into 3 parts: the left column has several tabs to toggle between calender view, tasks, contacts, notes (displays word documents, excel sheets, voice notes and hand drawn notes), messaging and special events.

Now what’s so special? At first, you may notice, that if you have an appointment in the next seven days and Spb Traveler installed, there is a small icon at the right side of the date which shows the weather for this day. Tap on it and a window with a detailed weather view will appear.

The appointments are listed in a neatly arranged way:

The contacts tab lists all contacts of Pocket Outlook in different ways: the default list and photo thumbnails (if you have assigned a photo to the contacts. Those which don’t have a photo will be shown as text) :

The mail-tab is very different from the one Pocket Outlook uses, there isn’t only listed how many unread messages you have. Spb Diary shows all messages stored in the ‘Inbox’-folder with sender, subject and the time when it was received. New messages are shown with a bold font.

Interesting for those who can’t remember birthdays: the ’special events’ tab shows upcoming anniversary’s and birthdays:
Overall, SPB Diary is a potentially-useful add-on for your PocketPC’s today screen. Get the free trial to see if it suits your taste – if you like it, get it for 20$ in the TamsShop.

Welcome back to the TamsPPC StyleTap review. Part 1 looked at the installation and setup process of StyleTap – now that StyleTap is running, let’s see how a bunch of popular Palm OS apps like it:

AcidImage
An old version of AcidImage laying around on a memory card worked and displayed images in QVGA mode – however, the program had a bunch of weird display quirks:

Discovery
PalmSource’s ever-popular bluetooth device scanner does not work with StyleTap – apparently, the program does not support bluetooth(yet):

Documents To Go 9
DocumentsToGo 9 worked well in StyleTap. Parts of the application even appeared in native resolutions – but other parts of the suite had incredible display problems leading to parts of the UI being displayed entirely in red:

PocketTunes
PocketTunes worked well in StyleTap – it could even run in the background.

Resco Explorer
Resco Explorer worked flawlessly, although it had its issues with the display resolution:

SrcEdit
Jogn Wilund’s source code editor works with StyleTap – as long as custom fonts stay disabled:

VersaMail 2.7.1
Palm’s ever-popular, always-crashing email client works in StyleTap but does not display the emails in list mode. This could be due to a missing file though…as the rest of the program works fine:

Overall, most Palm OS applications worked pretty well(although in lowres – Palm developers rarely support QVGA natively). Some applications still have minor but annoying quirks – however, the manufacturer is busily chasing these down. Tune in soon to find out more about compatibility with games!

Welcome back to Part IIb of the SPB Traveler review by Sebastian Sell. In case you missed Part a, it can be found right here.

Unit Converter:

The unit converter works like the currency converter. It will convert length, temperature, area, speed, weight, volume and pressure units. The program seems to support all units in everyday use…

Meeting Planner:

Select a city, time and date of the appointment. You can then assign a subject and some notes, and if you tap create, SPB Traveler will create an appointment in Pocket Outlook. A simple, but useful feature.

Clothing Size:

Different countries, different clothing sizes. Not much to say here, it does it’s job very well with a nice interface. Supported sizes are from Europe, US, UK, Japan, US Named, JP Named, France, Mexico, Russia, Australia, inches and centimeters. You can choose betwen ‘Man’, ‘Woman’ and ‘Child’ as well as ‘Hats’, ‘Shirts’, ‘Shoes’, ‘Socks’, ‘Suits and Coats’, ‘Waists’, ‘Dresses/Blouses’, ‘Rings’ and ‘T-Shirts’.

Time Converter:

This gadget is very useful if you travel around the world. You can enter the time in any time zone, and the time converter shows you the time in the other time zones you select.

Tip Calculator:

If you are in a restaurant and you have no idea how many tips you should pay, this tool will help you. Enter the amount of your bill and the tips rate, then, the tip calculator will calculate the total sum. Optionally, you can split the bill among up to ten people.

Conclusion:

With this program full of useful information, you will be (almost) never lost if you travel around the earth. My personal rating: 5 out of 5 points. SPB Traveler is available in the TamsShop.

SPB Traveler is an application which could be helpful if you travel a lot in different countries. The program comes with a currency converter, a flight assistant, a time converter, tips calculator, a light version of SPB Weather and a unit converter. You can also find a game with questions like ‘Which country has this flag? [picture of a flag]‘ or ‘What country has the capital Nassau?’. You have multiple choices and you have to give a right answer before you proceed to the next question. There is also a time limit which can be set to 1, 3 or 5 minutes.

Main application:

The main application is the most important part of SPB Traveler. It is recommended to add your hometown if you start the program for the first time. If you found your city and selected it, SPB Traveler will show the most important information you have to know about this city:

• the current time in the selected city (useful if you travel to another time zone)
• the weather (temperatures, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and the wind direction and speed)
• the area code (for instance for Dortmund/Germany: +49 [<-- German area code] 231 [<-- local area code] )
• the tips rate
• important links, like the homepage of the city
• a currency converter (more information later in this article)
• a unit unit converter (more information later in this article)
• clothing sizes (more information later in this article)
• Sunrise and Sunset
• location (coordinates)

You can adjust the view of the city list according to your wishes: Wide icons, narrow icons, two lines or one line. It’s also possible to show a map where the cities added are marked with a flag.

Currency Converter:

The currency converter knows (nearly) all currencies of the world. The input is done with a calculator which pops up if you tap into a text box. You can convert one currency into 3 others at one stroke, but don’t forget to update the currency rates via the Internet before you convert them! Any connection type to the Internet is supported.

Tune in soon for Part IIb of the review!

Sebastian Sell currently works on reviewing SPB’s recently-released Business pack. Here comes the first part looking at SPB Finance:

With Spb Finance, you can easily manage your incomes and expenses.
When you start Spb Finance for the first time, you need to create a new account. Tap ‘new’, and choose between several account types: ‘Cash’, ‘Bank’, ‘Credit Card’, ‘Asset’ and ‘Liability’.

After tapping next, enter an account name, description, currency, and an opening balance. You will return to the main window and as you see, it’s quite easy to handle with Spb Finance.

In the tab ‘Register’, all transactions are listed with the date when it was created and the Ending Balance. If you create a new transaction, there are some fields to fill out like a category, a date, the currency, payee, and of course the amount. In addition, you can write a memo and set a schedule with a reminder.

Now lets come to the tab “Reports” which I find quite interesting. You can choose between 8 different graphs and if you choose one of them, Spb Finance will draw a graph for example for the accounts and their balance or ‘Spending by Class’ (pie chart). The option ‘Profit and Loss’ will show 3 graphs: profit, loss, and the difference, the option ‘Income and Expense’ shows – and who guessed that? – the income and expense

The options menu lets you choose a data file location, an automatical backup file location, customizable fonts, and you can switch between soft-keys style menu (use this for WM5 and higher!) and default menu.
Spb Finance comes with a today plugin.

Conclusion:
Spb Finance is a powerful finance manager with export/import function and several other features. Because of its password protection, you don’t have to worry that you fellow citizens will get any personal information. I would give the program 4 1/2 of 5 points.

Use the code CHEAPRECORDER to get 20% off Resco Audio recorder at the TamsShop

Handhelds have had audio recording capabilities for quite some time. However, they all were limited to recording audio in formats that either required loads of storage space or were impossible to use on the desktop. Resco’s Audio recorder can record MP3 and OGG files…can it stack up?

The program has very clean interface. The list shows all the files on the machine, the buttons are used for starting the recording process. The bar on the left side of the button serves as a ‘volume indicator’, showing the volume of the incoming audio signal:

The format of the output data can be chosen easily in the menu(5 presets):

If more control is needed, the presets can also be customized(format and audio encoding). The images below show a few of the possible formats:

Resco Audio recorder can record to both internal memory and an external memory card. The program can also turn the PocketPC’s screen off while recording:

Most audio recorders fail when a variety of speakers must be recorded, as their voices are differently loud. Resco audio Recorder contains a “Gain control” mode that guarantees more-less constant volume under such circumstances…altough it can slightly increase noise:

This review looked at version 4.0.0 of Resco Audio recorder on a hp ipaq rx4240. The program was very stable in the reviewing period and showed no weird behavior whatsoever even when run from a memory card.

Overall, if you record voice with your PocketPC, get this program by all means. The direct MP3 export alone is such a time saver that the 20$ are well invested. Resco Audio Recorder’s additional features make this an almost-perfect voice recorder that you definitely don’t want to miss!