Third Party Product Reviews

Pocket PCs have pushed the speed and graphics envelope far beyond the boundaries of traditional PDAs. In this issue, I look at some games and applications that take excellent advantage of these Pocket PC strengths. Also, Rich Hall noticed at PC Expo that many Palm developers are jumping on board the Pocket PC bandwagon and releasing Pocket PC versions of their software. I review two such excellent applications: BugMe! and Stock Manager. Remember, demo versions of most of these programs are available for free. Enjoy, and send your comments to nitin@PocketPCmag.com.

Chopper Alley

Select your helicopter, load your ammunition, and take off to the skies.

Chopper Alley lets you fly your helicopter past a backdrop of beautiful scenery, but watch out for attacks from the ground and air!

Fly your helicopter past a backdrop of beautiful scenery, but don't let the blue skies fool you—you're constantly under attack from ground and air. Your missions involve air combat, ground attacks, and stealth and rescue operations. You can choose from five locations and 25 different types of missions.

You have six helicopters to choose from: the Bell H13, the Huey Uh1b, the Super Cobra, the Apache, the SeaKing, and the Ka27. The helicopters vary not only in looks but also in terms of forward speed, reverse speed, climb rate, turn rate, acceleration, range, payload, amount of damage they can sustain, passengers, and weapons systems. Choose your mission, select your helicopter, load your ammunition, and take to the skies. Search for the enemy bases to attack, but keep your eyes open for enemy helicopters in your way. Fly too close to the ground and enemy radar will track your helicopter.

You can play this game in either portrait or landscape mode. You can even take a screenshot. It features excellent graphics and sound. Chopper Alley is priced at $19.00 and is available for all Pocket PCs. A free demo version of Chopper Alley, along with links to sites where you can purchase the commercial version, is available on the Amazing Games Web site (www.amazinggames.com) .

BugMe!

Get bugged for all the right reasons.

BugMe makes sure that you never forget an important task again.

BugMe! turns your Pocket PC into a "persistent assistant," reminding you of important tasks, appointments, and events by flashing handwritten reminders or playing voice recordings. The application has a simple interface, with text and iconic menus to help you quickly set up and modify reminders. Create a small note or large one, associate a voice recording with a note or use the voice recording itself as an alarm, choose from different line sizes and colors for your handwritten reminders, emphasize certain points with different colors, and customize the background colors for your notes. If a reminder is really important, lock it so that you can't clear it or delete it by mistake.

BugMe! is a simple, "must-have" application that helps you stay on top of important tasks. But if you overuse it and turn it into a "nag," you'll probably start ignoring the reminders, so reserve it for the important stuff.

Applian Technologies (www.applian.com) offers a similar application, called "RemindMe." BugMe! is a little more expensive ($19.95, compared to $14.95 for RemindMe), but it has a few more features and a simpler interface.

The Palm OS version of BugMe! lets you categorize notes and view them in thumbnail view. I would love to see that feature in the next Pocket PC version.