Our 38 expert judges for the Pocket PC Awards
had plenty to say about the 438 products they judged. We published their
comments on multimedia applications, personal software, and text reference
software in our last issue; and their comments relating to information managers,
Internet-related software, multimedia applications, personal software, text
reference software, communication programs, and games in previous issues of
Pocket PC magazine. In this issue we are publishing their comments on a variety
of utility programs.
The purpose of publishing experts' comments is
to give insights about a variety of products, not to show how the judges voted.
(The winners and finalists in the Pocket PC Awards can be found on our Web site
(www.PocketPCmag.com/jan03/winners.asp).
For the sake of brevity, we've included only one judge's comment per product,
and we've edited each comment down to its essence.
CALCULATORS
David Shier www.shier.com
CoolCalc (www.applian.com)
is still the number-one calculator program for the Pocket PC. You can customize
the keyboard to include lots of functions, or include fewer but have larger
buttons for faster input. It also supports both algebraic and RPN input modes.
Few developers bother to provide serious calculator users with RPN.
RapidCalc (www.developerone.com)
is one of the most innovative calculator ideas for the Pocket PC. It installs as
a SIP (Software Input Panel) that pops up in place of the soft keyboard or
character recognizer at the bottom of the screen. It's great for inserting
figures into documents and other programs.
Nathan Clevenger
www.clevrware.com
Abacus XT (www.ksesoftware.com)
is the best all-round calculator available. It is fairly inexpensive, but has a
very wide variety of functionality. In addition, it has a nice looking as well
as intuitive user interface design.
MxCalculator (www.trancreative.com)
is the best programmable calculator.
Pocket MBA Calc (www.odysseyinc.com)
is the best business-related calculator.
FILE
MANAGEMENT
Nathan Clevenger
www.clevrware.com
Resco File Explorer (www.resco-net.com)
is a very high-quality, reasonably priced program, with a very aesthetically
pleasing user interface that follows standard file management conventions. The
integrated file viewer, combined with the searching and filtering capabilities,
demonstrate it to be a fully-capable, functionality-rich application.
Matthew Miller
www.geek.com
PE Zip Plus (www.vieka.com)
and Resco File Explorer look and function almost the same; however, if you want
Zip functionality built into your file explorer, PE Zip Plus is for you.
HANDWRITING/INPUT
Nathan Clevenger
www.clevrware.com
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