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 nominees for the Communications, Information Manager, and Text and Reference categories. We will publish their comments on other software categories in future issues.
The purpose of publishing their 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 1-3 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://smartphonemag.com/awards/main.asp).
Pocket PC Software
Communications
Phone & Fax
EZdial 2
http://mesoftware.biz
This utility adds some capabilities to the Phone Dialer application found in Pocket PC Phone Edition devices. I really like the vibrate on touch feature, which gives you tactile feedback when a button is pressed. You can also dial by picture for your speed dial contacts. My favorite feature is that it lets you use the direction pad for speed dialing. You can download a skin designer tool that will let you change the search bar, but its a little difficult to use. They need to add a GUI front-end to it. (Steven Hughes)
Jeyo Mobile Companion
http://jeyo.com
This very useful application lets you back up and restore SMS Messages, contacts, and call history on any Phone Edition or Smartphone device. It ensures that you never lose your SMS when you change devices, or when you need to hard reset your device. You can even SMS using your notebook or PC when connected to a Phone Edition or Smartphone device. (Carlo Guerrero) (Also available for the Smartphone)
phoneAlarm
http://pocketmax.net
One of my favorite programs, this Today screen plug-in lets you set alarms to automatically turn on/off your GPRS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, headset connections, volumes, etc., at different times of the day according to profiles you set up. A skinnable interface allows you to customize features on the Today screen and switch between up to seven profiles. You can switch between landscape and portrait modes, but this process could be faster. (Steven Hughes) (Also available for the Smartphone)
Photo Contacts PRO
http://pocketx.net
This program adds full-screen caller ID with a photo. Microsoft should have included this functionality out of the box! Its a large application, however, installation requires 1 MB of storage memory. (Alan Zaks) (Also available for the Smartphone)
Skype for Pocket PC
http://skype.com
Skype is the most popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solution around, and this version of the program lets you place calls from any Internet-connected Pocket PC. This latest Windows Mobile version features almost the same capabilities as the PC version including SkypeIn and SkypeOut, but it lacks the video calling capability of its big brother. It should be on every Wi-Fi or 3G-enabled Pocket PC. (Alex Januschewsky) The call quality was poor over a GPRS data connection but good over Wi-Fi. This program consumes a lot of processor power. (Steven Hughes)
Spb GPRS Monitor
http://spbsoftwarehouse.com
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