PPC essential software

[probe]

i'm completely new to PPC. i'm receiving my Dell Axim tomorrow and am very excited about it. i know that it will not be coming with a lot of software so i would love to hear from you guys which tools will be great as a
1) ebook reader
2) organiser
3) music player
4) word processor
5) graphics viewer

and, lastly, the must-play games for PPC. no PDA experience will be complete w/o it. :)

thanks.

[trachy]

1) ebook reader
2) organiser
3) music player
4) word processor
5) graphics viewer


Man, do we ever need a FAQ around here! ;-)

Your PPC will likely come with Microsoft Reader, Media Player, and Pocket Word, so you won't be dead in the water right off the bat. If you're just looking to manage contact information and appointments, it should also come with MS Outlook equivalent capabilities. Again, this is a start.

A good image viewer is PicturePerfect, and one game that everyone seems to rave about is Snails. Head on over to Handango (www.handango.com) and look for the link in the upper right corner for 'First Timers'.

Oh yeah, and one last thing. Browse through PPC Thoughts and use the search function to find out just about anything. If you still can't find what you're looking for, there's about 8000 people waiting to help.

- Drew

[Pony99CA]

A good image viewer is PicturePerfect, and one game that everyone seems to rave about is Snails.
The Dell comes with Resco Picture Viewer (http://www.resco-net.com/PicView.asp). Probe should check that out to see if it works for him before buying another one.

Steve

[trachy]

Probe should check that out to see if it works for him before buying another one.

Good suggestion. I'm on a 3835, so I have no idea what comes standard with the Axim.

[Sven Johannsen]

i know that it will not be coming with a lot of software
1) ebook reader
2) organiser
3) music player
4) word processor
5) graphics viewer.

I think you will be impressed with what it does come with. I know numerous folks that use their PPC just like it came. For it comes with

1) ebook reader - MS Reader
2) organizer - Full outlook suite, calendar, contacts, tasks, e-mail
3) music player - Media Player
4) word processor - Pocket Word (more like WordPad :(), Notes
5) graphics viewer - Internet Explorer will show several types

Beyond that you get other built in apps. As has been indicated the Dell comes with Resco Picture Viewer on CD. That is my standby, and now that PQView is a fee program (as it should be), Resco would be my recommendation in any case.

Play with the device as is for a week or so, at least, before you start loading it up. Not just to get familiar with it, but also to get used to it in a stable configuration. Just like any OS, it works best, the way it comes. If the thing works great as it comes out of the box, then when you load up a couple dozen shareware apps and start having little niggles, you have a better idea where the blame might lay.

[chrisleeuk]

Here are my personal suggestions for the applications

1) Ebook reader

MS Reader is a good choice and the one I use most frequently. It comes with the OS so you have already paid for it and it is usually stored in the ROM so it does not take up any of your memory.

For reference works such as encyclopaedias and dictionaries MS Reader is not really suitable. For this I use Tome raider (www.tomeraider.com)
, this has the benefit of cross platform compatibility (so lots more documents) plus the files are really compressed so you can get more for your memory.

2) Organizer - Full outlook suite, calendar, contacts, tasks, e-mail

I am not sure if a full suite to do all this is available. For calendar, contacts, tasks etc the two big players are Agenda Fusion and Pocket Informant. I use the former but it is probably a personal thing. I recommend trying them both out.
Not sure about email, you could use the basic email program like I do, other full feature packages exist but I have never looked into them in detail.

You might look at this, I have never tried it but it looks interesting..

http://members.home.nl/cvonken/lookout2/lookout2/about.htm


3) Music player - Media Player

I use WithMp3
http://www.citsoft.net/product.asp?lang=ENG&menu=S

I like it because it has a winamp style interface, graphic equaliser, good sound quality, pre-amp.

4) Word processor - Pocket Word (more like WordPad ), Notes

The basic tools are ok for some basic text editing. If you want a fully featured word processor the only real choice has to be Textmaker.

http://www.softmaker.de/tmp_en.htm

When I say fully featured it really is. It can edit Word documents just has you can on the desktop without loosing the formatting and re-save them as word documents!

All the regular stuff you find in Word is here:pictures, tables, text boxes etc.

The problem is the price at $49.95 it’s not cheap, but if you need it, it’s worth it.


5) Graphics viewer

Resco Picture viewer is probably the one I would go for. It’s fast and has some nice features.

Hope this helps?

[Sooner Al]

...this very long and extensive thread concerning software that folks use on a day to day basis...

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10402

[probe]

thanks for the prompt replies. my dell came in pretty fine. the only complain i have are of the flimsy front buttons. still its really a great value-for-money machine. i still searching around for free software 'cos i can't really justify the cost to pay too much for them.

[Andy Whiteford]

i still searching around for free software 'cos i can't really justify the cost to pay too much for them.


While free is always good, justifying the cost of something really is down to how much you use it. It's worth paying a little extra for something that is going to prove fundamental to your usage of the Axim.

[spursdude]

thanks for the prompt replies. my dell came in pretty fine. the only complain i have are of the flimsy front buttons. still its really a great value-for-money machine. i still searching around for free software 'cos i can't really justify the cost to pay too much for them.

The most comprehensive freeware site I've found it PocketPCFreewares (http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com). It's in French, so it needs a web translator, but it's updated very often and has a lot of freeware.

[Buddha]

ebook reader: Ubook/MSreader
music player: WinamPAQ
word processor: Pocket Notepad/PWord
graphics viewer: PQV
games: PocketSCUMM to play all your favourite lucasarts adventures games (monkey island, indiana jones etc)

[probe]

spursdude, thanks for the great frech site recommendation. i've found what i've always wanted, a good english dictionary (Pocket Beik). i've to pay for most of the dicts beiks have...

[tewmgd]

I use PeanutPress.com (http://www.peanutpress.com/) reader. It's simple to use and the number of books available is quite decent. Besides there's "pre-publications" ,i.e. exclusive publications before paperback version.