This year over 90 experts judged over 650 nominations for the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine Best Software Awards 2006. Our judges had plenty to say about their favorite products. In this issue we are publishing their comments about the programs nominated for the Internet and Travel software categories. We will publish their comments on other software categories in future issues.
The purpose of publishing the comments is to give insights into a variety of products—not to show how the judges voted. For the sake of brevity, we've included only one or two comments per product and edited them for clarity and conciseness. A listing of the 2006 winners and finalists can be found on our Web site (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/main.asp).
Internet Software
Browsers and Web Utilities
General comment: This category provided an interesting mix of approaches to accessing Internet content, including alternate Web browsers, enhancements to Internet Explorer Mobile, and online proxies that reformat Web pages for smaller screens. Many of the custom browsers had problems rendering complex sites. (Russ Terrell)
Hubdog
http://www.hubdog.com
Hubdog has a very nice user interface that allows you to fetch news via categories. It also has the ability to share feeds, play enclosures, and also has OPML import support. It is very easy to set up, and best of all, it's free. (Steven Hughes) Nice idea and interface, but it has strange content that isn't very useful. It needs more information on how to set the program up. (Russ Terrell)
(Available for Pocket PC and Smartphone)
NetFront 3.3
http://www.nfppc.access.co.jp/english
NetFront is a super Web browser that handles Java and Flash! (Carlo Guerrero) It's not as good as Opera Mobile, but still much better than Internet Explorer Mobile. (Werner Ruotsalainen) Full installation occupies 10 MB, making it a must to install this program on a storage card. Also, it's much slower starting up than Pocket Internet Explorer. (Remzi Semsettin Turer)
(Available for Pocket PC only)
NetFront is a good alternative to Internet Explorer Mobile.
MultiIE
http://www.southwaycorp.net/multiie.htm
Adds loads of features to Pocket Internet Explorer, including an efficient URL maker that cuts down input time tremendously. I love the tabbed interface—opening new windows or going to active frames in Web sites has never been easier. However, the menu system needs to be updated to take advantage of the two soft keys used on Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PCs. (Carlo Guerrero)
(Available for Pocket PC only)
Opera Mobile
http://www.opera.com
Hands-down, this is the best in its category. It has much better context menus and features.(Werner Ruotsalainen) It has a simple UI and renders Web sites fast. There are some issues on the Dell X51v, though, and more configuration options are needed. (Rishad Alam)
(Available for Pocket PC, Smartphone, and other mobile devices)
Opera Mobile is available for Pocket PCs and Smartphones.
PIEPlus
http://www.reensoft.com/PIEPlus
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