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RSS feedsIn the mainstream, PDA reviews concentrate on the cutting-edge elements of the latest hardware or operating system. Whether it's Handspring's latest Springboard module or Microsoft's most recent tweak of the Pocket PC, it's these two factors that generally inform any buying decision. This is with good reason, as it's critical to get the right PDA for your needs.
In the rush to find the latest and greatest hardware, however, it's all too easy to overlook software. Specifically, what is available for the machine and is any of it worth having?
The three most popular PDA platforms are those running Palm OS, such as those made by Palm itself and the Handspring Visor range; Microsoft's Pocket PC; and those, mainly from Psion, using the EPOC operating system.
All three have spawned vast communities of users and developers, and a consequent smorgasbord of software.
This month we've examined the soft options for each to bring you a list of essential packages, divided into three categories: communications; office applications and utilities; and games. Many of our favourite applications are available either for download only or via the web. Where we've found a UK distributor, we've listed it, but some of the prices are in US dollars because that's how you're likely to be paying for your software.
EPOC Systems
Developed by UK PDA manufacturer Psion, the EPOC operating system runs on all of its popular machines - current models are the Revo, Series 5mx and the Series 7.
Acknowledging the fact that Psion's PDAs, unlike Palm and Pocket-PC-based devices, have keyboards, the company's PR staff are well known for claiming that "keyboards are for doing, while tablets are for viewing". The upshot has been that much of the Psion software on the market is for the business user, but there are some gems to be found with a little digging.
COMMUNICATIONS
Epocware Fax
When the Psion Revo was launched, most observers were surprised to find that the company had chosen not to include any fax software. Epocware has stepped in to fill the gap with its elegant little Fax program.
Fax is packed with features specific to EPOC, including the ability to save faxes in the native Psion Sketch format. It can both receive and send faxes, the first of which is often overlooked in lesser applications.
The interface is clean and simple and, most importantly, the end results are clear faxes that could as easily have been created on a desktop PC.
£24.95 (inc VAT)
www.epocware.com
PhoneMan Pro
PhoneMan Pro is one of those little programs that, once you've used it, will make you wonder how you survived without it. As the name suggests, it's designed to make your Psion talk to your mobile phone, with the biggest selling point being its SMS functionality. Although the Revo has a similar program built in, other Psion users will find PhoneMan essential.
Sending and receiving text messages from a PDA really is a killer application, yet PhoneMan can also be used to back up and edit the names and numbers on the phone's SIM card and can handle uploading ring tones and logos to suitable phones.
£15 (inc VAT)
SGS Software: 020 7328 4484
www.sgsoftware.co.uk
OFFICE APPLICATIONS AND UTILITIES
Notepad
All Psion products come well equipped with a spread of office applications for word processing and spreadsheets, which leaves little room for third-party developers. However, Purple Software has managed to find a niche to exploit effectively.
Notepad is an uninspiring name for an extremely useful tool that allows you to organise your most brilliant thoughts, notes and doodles in a hierarchical way and link them to other applications. For example, it can automatically pull in a contact from your address book and launch an email application to share project information with that person.
£49.95 (inc VAT)
Purple Software: 020 7387 7777
www.purplesoft.com
Essential Disk Utilities
Unlike lesser operating systems, EPOC rarely crashes, but that doesn't mean it has no need for a spot of spring cleaning once in a while. Essential Disk Utilities provides the sort of housekeeping applications that are found on desktop computers.
The package is actually four programs designed to optimise your Psion 5's memory, examine it for physical and logical defects, recover lost data and squeeze more into your memory cards. It all sounds rather dull, but next time your Psion gets amnesia, don't say we didn't warn you.
£39 (inc VAT)
Widget UK: 01438 818800
www.widget.co.uk
RMRArt
On the face of it, the Psion Revo and Series 5 machines are perfect for a spot of doodling - a touch-sensitive screen is ideal for the task. However, there are few decent complements to the built-in Sketch program.
RMRArt is an awful name for a great little doodle pad, which sports professional-looking (and useful) toolbars and is capable of some surprisingly powerful image manipulation. It can handle animation and supports third-party plug-ins to expand its capabilities. RMRArt is very impressive and a snip at twice the price.
£12 (inc VAT)
www.rmrsoft.co.uk
GAMES
SimCity
We never thought we'd say it, but there is finally a game worth playing on the Psion other than good old Pocket Chess. SimCity is a licensed version of the PC classic based on building and running your own town. The handheld version has just as much action and intrigue as the original and makes a perfect way to while away a spare few minutes.
One of the best features of this version is its ability to exchange city files with the PC version, so you can happily watch Godzilla destroy your version of Pleasantville at home and abroad.
£39.95 (inc VAT)
Purple Software: 020 7387 7777
www.purplesoft.com
POCKET PCs
When Microsoft relaunched Windows CE for the umpteenth time last year, it wisely chose to ditch the Windows branding and name its new handheld OS Pocket PC. Consequently, the platform has finally taken off and it's now much easier to find good software than it was 12 months ago. Pocket PC machines include Compaq's excellent iPaq, Casio's E125 and the HP Jornada.
COMMUNICATIONS
GSM Manager
GSM Manager serves a very similar purpose to PhoneMan Pro for Psion machines, and as such is indispensable to the discerning PDA-freak. The interface is slick and looks excellent on a colour Pocket PC.
It's very simple to operate and you'll soon be eschewing your phone's keypad in favour of GSM Manager for all your text messaging needs. As with its Psion-based counterpart, GSM Manager can also serve to back up and manipulate your phone's names and numbers, which, as anyone who's ever lost their mobile will testify, is a huge comfort.
$29.95 (approx £21)
www.sunnysoft.cz/gsm
OFFICE APPLICATIONS AND UTILITIES
HanDBase
Database software may not be top of your PDA shopping list, but it's certainly one of the things we wouldn't like to do without. HanDBase is the best of breed and has been available for Palm OS for some time now, but has only just appeared to fill one of the few gaps in the Pocket PC software market.
The product is a powerful relational database, but the beauty lies in the fact that it's a breeze to use and that there are more than 600 useful databases available for free download. Everything from recipes to CD cataloguing can be yours for nowt.
$24.99 (approx £17)
www.ddhsoftware.com
One Cat Doodler
The bizarrely named One Cat Doodler is a superb drawing program for Pocket PCs, but has more strings to its bow than simple squiggles. It manages to pack a lot in, including the ability to produce Powerpoint-style presentations (really!) and it even supports a library of commonly used drawings. It might not sound like much, but try finding those features on any other PDA program.
While we were researching this piece, authors One Man And A Cat Software went to great pains to point out to us just how powerful Doodler is. It wasn't necessary - this is the best PDA vector-based (as opposed to bitmap-based) drawing package bar none.
£29.99 (inc VAT)
Widget UK: 01438 818 800
www.widget.co.uk
eWallet
Ilium Software's eWallet appears to be the application that the term 'must-have' was created for. In principle, it's a very simple idea - it gathers together all the confidential data that you want to store on your PDA (passwords and credit card information, for example) and protects them in its own database with a single password as a padlock.
Your data can easily be filed as you see fit, rather then in one big lump, so your passwords can be in one protected folder and your non-confidential data, such as your bank account number, in another. Additionally, the interface is clear and easy to use on both the desktop and Pocket PC, so the strongest encryption allowed by the law Stateside is pretty to look at too.
£29.95 (inc VAT)
www.iliumsoft.com
HandyZip 1.52
There can't be many home PCs without some form of compression software lurking on the hard drive, so why should their Pocket siblings be any different? That's where HandyZip comes in.
It's a very straightforward compression utility for Pocket PC and is extremely useful for freeing up that vital few megs on your device, whether it be onboard or removable memory. It comes into its own when you have a previously unreadable compressed email attachment in your inbox.
$19.95 (approx £14)
www.cnetx.com
GAMES
ZIOGolf 2
In spite of the much faster processor speeds than other PDAs and commonplace colour screens, games still aren't the Pocket PC's strong point. By far the best we've come across is ZIOGolf 2 - an update of the original game that ships as a demo with many handhelds.
Colour is very well used to recreate one of the best parts of the game - a nice walk in the countryside - and the gameplay is more or less as good as the best desktop PC golf games. Although small screens can feel a little cramped, the animation and realism of ZIOGolf is more than enough to keep you interested. New courses can be bought for around $10.
$29.95 (approx £21)
www.ziosoft.com
PALM OS
The leading PDA platform in the world, there's little we can say about the Palm OS that you won't already know. Its elegant simplicity lends itself perfectly to independent developers coming up with everything from simple tweaks to multi-functional applications. Thanks to the latest additions to the family of organisers from Handspring, the user base is still streets ahead of the other platforms.
COMMUNICATIONS
IntelliSync (Pumatech)
An efficient conduit between your handheld and PC is crucial to both data security and peace of mind. The long-established IntelliSync is now available for the Palm OS and does exactly what it says on the box - allows you to reliably synchronise data between your PDA and your PC-based PIM. The appeal of IntelliSync lies in the fact that it allows your Palm to share data with a wide range of applications.
Those supported include Lotus Notes, ACT! and Outlook, as well as several less common ones, and all synchronise seamlessly. It is slightly expensive and can be slow, but if you rely on your PDA and need to use it with more than just Palm Desktop, it's worth a spin.
£57.99 (inc VAT)
www.amazon.co.uk
OFFICE APPLICATIONS AND UTILITIES
Documents To Go
The Palm operating system may be simple to use, but it is lacking in decent office software. Dataviz's excellent Documents To Go is the perfect solution, providing the means to read and edit Word, Excel and other files on your PDA.
Essentially, DTG is a collection of filters that translate desktop PC office files into versions suitable for the Palm OS. This is done through a desktop PC program much like Windows' own My Briefcase, which synchronises with the PDA-based equivalent at every HotSync. All the original formatting is retained and files can be beamed between organisers.
£49.98 (inc VAT)
Widget UK: 01438 818 800
www.widget.co.uk
TealPaint
For some time now, TealPaint has been the most popular graphics application for Palm OS, and deservedly so. It works well, even on organisers with greyscale screens, and the range of textures available are most effective on those with 16-bit displays, such as the Visor Platinum. Naturally, colour gives even better results, now that support for it (on the Visor Prism and Palm IIIc) has been implemented.
TealPaint has all the features you'd expect of a full-blown desktop PC application, including a range of drawing tools, zoom functions for detailed drawing, basic animation and dithered thumbnail views. TealPoint Software even offers a library of templates and clipart for free download. Don't just take our word that TealPaint is a corker - make like Tony Hart and take a gander at the user submissions in TealPoint's gallery.
$17.95 (approx £12.50)
www.tealpoint.com
FlashPro
FlashPro is an ingenious little utility that magically gives your Palm organiser up to 40 per cent more memory without a hardware upgrade. It does this by providing access to the flash Rom that is present in Palm-branded organisers.
The key here is that flash Rom is non-volatile (unlike Ram), meaning that applications and data can be safely stored within that part of the PDA without recourse to a desktop PC in the event of a system crash. The extra Ram freed up by moving applications is also very welcome, considering that devices like the Palm V can't be expanded easily. Be warned though, that the Handspring Visor series can't take advantage of FlashPro, as it has no flash memory.
$14.95 (approx £10)
www.trgnet.com
Hackmaster
If you follow our advice, we guarantee that Hackmaster will be the single most useful application you buy for your PDA. It is technically a 'system extension manager', which just means that it enables you to add extra bits to the Palm OS that aren't included out of the box. As it's an open standard, anyone can write plug-ins (or 'hacks') for it and be relatively confident that they won't conflict with those already in use.
As an example of Hackmaster's usefulness, we are never without the following hacks: Battery Level Hack (shows your remaining battery charge as a percentage), Invert Hack (makes the PDA back light more visible) and QuietSync (switches off the annoying beep on HotSyncing). There are literally hundreds more third-party hacks, and if you can't find the one you need, you can always write it yourself.
$5 (approx £3.50)
www.daggerware.com
GAMES
V-Rally
At last, a half-decent game for the Palm OS! V-Rally, as coded by Infogrames, is available on either CDRom or as a Springboard module for the Handspring range. The game features a set of 20 courses, which can be raced in Practice, Arcade or Championship modes. It's all pretty self-explanatory, but represents a fun way to pass the time and a nostalgic tip of the hat to the simple fun of early 1990s gaming.
£24.99 CD-ROM / £29.99 module (inc VAT)
www.palmtopsoftware.com
See also:
All Laptops & Portables
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