Our 38 expert judges for the Pocket PC Awards had plenty to say about the 438 products they judged. We published their comments on information managers and Internet-related software in our last issue and their comments relating to communications programs and games in the issue before that. In this issue we are publishing their comments on multimedia applications, personal software, and text reference software.
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.
Multimedia—Audio
Nathan Clevenger
www.clevrware.com
Audible Player: Audible has an enormous collection of books (fiction, non-fiction, business, comedy, history) in audio format. The system has four basic compressions: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Format 1 is extremely compressed and thus quite distorted. Format 4 is much less compressed but has much clearer sound. I have found that after listening to any one format for several hours, my ears can become accustomed to even the distorted sound provided by Format 1. Audible has changed the way I travel and the way I read. I am personally subscribed to the Serious Listener plan, and I have over 100 titles in my personal library. Not only can I put the books on my Pocket PC for use when traveling by taxi, bus, or airplane, but I can also burn the titles directly onto CD from the Audible Manager application for use at home or in my car. I would recommend this product for everyone who never can seem to find enough time to read all of the books that they know they should be reading. (www.audible.com)
Robert Bogue
Resco SPA is such a cool idea. It's a software program that turns your Pocket PC into a digital micro recorder with Vox support and accelerated playback. It has all the features of a digital recorder so you don't have to carry around another device. (www.resco-net.com).
Multimedia—Music composition
Markus Schweiger
www.pocket-expert.de
PocketDrums is one of the most amazing programs I've ever seen. Being able to use my Pocket PC for creating realistic rhythms is just fantastic. I used it on a Toshiba e570 with the Toshiba headphones and the sound was amazing. Creating rhythms is very easy, requiring just a few taps on the board. Play a snare drum, bass drum, hi-hat, conga, and more. The quality of the sound is fantastic and the user interface great.
(www.pdamusician.com)
Multimedia—Power Point and Presentation
John Hung
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