PIEPlus by ReenSoft: Enhance Pocket Internet Explorer [Archive]

Jason Dunn

08-25-2003, 03:00 PM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&jid=A17D4C146E45DE451AXE96XBXED785X8&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=84128&sectionId=0&catalog=30' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/brainstore/...Id=0&catalog=30</a> </div>Looking to enhance your browsing experience? If you've got a Pocket PC 2000 or 2002 device, this look like a useful application, but it's a little expensive at $19.99. It's not Windows Mobile 2003 compatible yet either. :( The "optimize content" function looks very interesting - I'd be interested to know what everyone thinks about how well it works. <img src="http://www.handango.com/include/pictures/178405/pieplus_intro1.gif" /> "ReenSoft PIEPlus is software that adds lots of enhancements to Pocket Internet Explorer. Feature List: • Optimize the web contents to fit for PIE • Open multiple PIE windows • Fullscreen mode • Extended context menu • Identify PIE as IE5.5 or IE6.0 • Set default charset • Enable/disable script and script warning • Enable/disable ClearType"

Jason Lee

08-25-2003, 03:26 PM

I would buy it for $4.99. But it says $19.95 now. I already payed for Multi-ie and poclet plus... :(

08-25-2003, 03:28 PM

I downloaded the trial and it seems to work just as they say. Full screen in landscape orientation is rather nice.

I also was able to check my credit card balance by switching to IE6 mode.

The (rather large) downside is that the price on the Handango page is $19.95, unless there is a coupon or somethng I missed.

I would buy for sure for 5 bucks, not for 20.

Jason Dunn

08-25-2003, 03:36 PM

08-25-2003, 03:41 PM

I would buy it for $4.99. But it says $19.95 now. I already payed for Multi-ie and poclet plus... :(

You know, I don't normally comment on price, because that's up to the developer to decide, but I'm pretty ticked off that this developer changed the price on me. At $4.95 this would be an easy buy, but at $19.95? No way.

I don't understand this at all. For $5.00 this would be a nice add on to IE and I'm sure a lot of people would buy it. There are much better ways to spend $20.00 so I can't see many sales here.

Shame. :evil:

rhmorrison

08-25-2003, 03:52 PM

I don't understand this at all. For $5.00 this would be a nice add on to IE and I'm sure a lot of people would buy it. There are much better ways to spend $20.00 so I can't see many sales here.
I agree 100 %.

I think that the developer would make much more money selling this for $ 5 instead of $ 20 because I don't think too many people are going to buy at the higher price. At $ 5 / copy I bet he would sell a bunch of copies! I know the developer wants to recoup the effort put into the software but he won't be able to do this if he can't get anyone to buy it!

GadgetMan

08-25-2003, 04:00 PM

Jason Dunn

08-25-2003, 04:10 PM

You know what? I'm wondering if he jacked the price up because I told him I'd be posting on this today....man, I hope that's not what he did. :?

PJE

08-25-2003, 04:12 PM

I would have gladly paid $4.99, but there is simply no way I will pay $20 for it :evil:

In any case, free ftxPBrowser (http://www.af.wakwak.com/~ftoshi/pocket/index_e.html) works just fine for me.

I agree 100% with GadgetMan. ftxPBrowser is one on the unsung heros of PocketPC software in my opinion. I use it to browse my Mazingo content and the tabbed multiple windows is excellent.

I'd only pay more than $5 for PIEPlus if it generated full screen landscape pages while my pocketPC was running in Portrait mode.

gpspassion

08-25-2003, 04:13 PM

That would indeed be pretty "sucky"...had you congratulated him on the $4.99 price in your previous exchanges?

Still worth a try!

08-25-2003, 04:14 PM

You know what? I'm wondering if he jacked the price up because I told him I'd be posting on this today....man, I hope that's not what he did. :?

Jason, you better tell him that if he wants to maintain credibility with the PPCT readership, he needs to issue us a code for $15.00 discount. :D

David Johnston

08-25-2003, 04:15 PM

Actually, that's very likely what did happen.

Mr Developer, if you're reading this - lower it back down to $5! Obviously, you'll get less per sale but many many more sales and greater profit - you need to get the ball rolling before it gets anywhere. The above comments have shown that.

Personally, I find PPC prices quite ridiculous. Paying £15 or whatever it was for the Resco Utility Suite 12 months ago was a good deal, but really, some people take it too far (£24.99 for Chess?!!!!). I don't plan on placing my next game at any more than £4...

PPCRules

08-25-2003, 04:20 PM

Same here. I've found ftxpbrowser very nice, but as I was reading, I thought, for $5 bucks it'd be worth trying, even if it does only one thing extra. But for $20, I wouldn't even be trying it out if ftxpbrowser didn't exist.

Also right, it's up to a developer to charge what they want, but at $20, they'll stay pretty lonely.

As for "sucky", yes, I wouldn't even try it for $5 now.
There are notable marketing mistakes that have been made in history, and this one would have to be included.

jkendrick

08-25-2003, 04:30 PM

You know what? I'm wondering if he jacked the price up because I told him I'd be posting on this today....man, I hope that's not what he did. :?

If he'd never mentioned a price increase to you before then that's exactly what he did. Not cool. :evil:

CTSLICK

08-25-2003, 04:32 PM

Aside from the pricing issues, the tap n hold open in new window functionality did not seem to work. I kept getting error messages stating the URL was not formatted properly.

Oh well, off to look for other solutions.

PJE

08-25-2003, 04:45 PM

After trying it I've changed my mind...

...I wouldn't even buy it for $5!

ftxPBrowser just blows it out the water functionality wise.

Sorry.

Jason Dunn

08-25-2003, 05:24 PM

08-25-2003, 05:35 PM

The developer says he didn't change the price, and it's possible I made an error - but I swear it said $4.95 when I did the post on Saturday! I certainly wouldn't have written that it was "affordable". I've updated my original post, and I don't want to point fingers at the developer - let's just say it was a mix-up and leave it at that.
Bollocks to him. I've already deleted the trial version I downloaded. It's a nice little freeware type add-on to IE, but you can buy a real application like Pocket Informant for the kind of money he wants.
No Thanks Reensoft!
When I get the time I'll check ot ftxPBrowser.

ReenSoft

08-25-2003, 06:17 PM

Dear Pocket PC Thoughts users,

At first, please understand my poor english.
I am not the native english speaker.

I swear that I didn't change the price of PIEPlus.
It was $19.95 before I posted to this site.
I have registered user with that price before
I posted to this site.

I may quit the sell and pay back to the registered
user if I changed the price.

It's your decision if you don't want to pay for it.

I have plan to upgrade this small utility to make
the best web browser and web clipping tool for
Pocket PC. Yes, it's not so at present.

But I want to make PIEPlus to help more Pocket
PC users browse web easy.

I'll post again after some thinking about the price
and other things.

Thanks for your interest in PIEPlus.

Best regards,

---
ReenSoft
http://www.reensoft.com/

08-25-2003, 06:27 PM

Like I said, your application worked fine for me and I would have bought it already had the price really been $4.99. For something that is basically an enhancement to an existing product that would be a reasonable price.

As someone mentioned, what would make it worth more would be the ability to switch between portrait and landscape easiliy. I use the Pocketop keyboard driver to change orientation which needs a reset each time. Bit of a pain.

Please do post again if you have any new ideas on the pricing.

petvas

08-25-2003, 06:38 PM

It is certainly very expensive and not compatible with WM2003...How can someone write a new application that is not WM2003 compatible? I mean, WM2003 is the current OS and every new app should run on it... 8O

Master O'Mayhem

08-25-2003, 07:39 PM

My vote is for FtpxBrowser. it works great is about <60k in size and is FREE!! give it a shot

PJE

08-25-2003, 08:10 PM

Hi ReenSoft,

Thanks for the Clarification.

Please don't take my previous criticism too harshly, but with ftxPBrowser being free any program being sold for $5 never mind $20 needs to stand up to a comparison.

I have plan to upgrade this small utility to make
the best web browser and web clipping tool for Pocket PC. Yes, it's not so at present.

I'm all for this! I would pay $20 for a PIE add-on as long as it works well. Paying the full price for this on the current version in hopes that it will be improved will not get my money.

Anyway, here's what I'd like to see in a PocketPC PIE enhancement:
Full screen viewing - page scrolling needs to be performed correctly so reading long passages is easily performed by a single page down at the bottom without needing to hunt for the text at the top (MultiIE had this problem as the scroll distance was slightly too short ).
Adding extra blank lines to end of page to ensure proper scolling (see above)
Multiple windows open at once via tabs with quick switching of tabs without needing to reload content (See ftxPBrowser).
Ability to operate in landscape mode, even if the PocketPC were running in Poertait mode.
Easy access to favorites.
Ability to selectively remove some graphics (such as back, next, banners/etc.) while keeping the main graphics.
Use buttons to navigate.
Keep last X visited pages in memory to enable quick switching between them. Going back to the previous page should be as near-instantaneous as possible.
Regards,

PeteTh

08-25-2003, 08:10 PM

Yes but FtpxBrowser doesn't work at all well with 2003, many people including myself have tried it.

PJE

08-25-2003, 08:21 PM

Yes but FtpxBrowser doesn't work at all well with 2003, many people including myself have tried it.

I'm currently using PocketPC2002 on my Axim... The FtxPBrowser states it's for PPC2002. I haven't tried it on a PPC2003 machine.

I'd pay $20 for a slightly improved ftxPBrowser that was 2003 compatible as I should have the upgrade I ordered for my Axim a couple of months ago by Christmas!

Oh I forgot:

Gestures - Stoke left, Right, Up. Down & combinations...
Abiliity to enter addresses from full screen - Press button and type address returns to full screen without address bar. I don't want to hide it again.
Press and hold over graphic 'holders' to load graphic if all graphics have been switched off.
addresses which don't start with www. or have .??? should be sent to google by default as a search item.

doogald

08-25-2003, 08:49 PM

You know, I tried it out and it is a pretty good little application. I think that I agree that it is not worth $19.95 - but $9.95? Maybe...

It does seem to handle wrapping large web pages fairly well, certainly better than PIE alone, and I think better than NetFront. That alone is a nice feature. I am trying to find something that does this well, and was considering Thunderhawk. This may be a better solution, for me anyway.

I guess I have a few weeks to try it out anyway.

jkendrick

08-26-2003, 12:35 AM

Anybody know how it wraps pages compared to PIE in 2003? I've found that PIE works pretty well with a lot of sites.

Certified Optimist

08-26-2003, 03:23 AM

I use the Pocketop keyboard driver to change orientation which needs a reset each time. Bit of a pain.

I do the same thing. And... for those who're not aware of it... You can down-load the Pocketop driver (it's free), i.e. no need to get they keyboard (even though I actually have the keyboard and love it). :D

Certified Optimist

08-26-2003, 03:34 AM

And about the US$20 price tag... If you develop a software you can, of course, charge whatever price you feel is reasonable.

Most people who have commented seem to feel that US$5 is a reasonable price... And... you have more than 4 people who have said "I'd buy it for US$5" but no-one who's said "I'd buy it at US$20"...

4 x US$5 = US$20
0 x US$20 = US$0

:)

daS

08-26-2003, 08:13 AM

Come on people, give this guy a break. It sounds like the pricing was a misunderstanding. As a former developer and one time marketer of software and hardware for handheld computers, I can tell you that pricing is a tough thing to figure out. It's real easy for those of us that didn't put in the time and effort to design something to say that it should be cheaper and to throw around numbers, but it's another thing if you had to put your own time into a product. Also, it's not fair to compare the value of something that someone wrote as a hobby and elects to give away for free, to something that another developer is trying to feed his/her family with. If you feel a product is too expensive for you, or is not a good value compared to other things, that's certainly fine, but to berate the developer is not.

There are many factors that go into pricing of such low volume products: Sure he may sell five times as many copies if the price was one forth the current price, but that also means five times more customers to try to support for only slightly more revenue. It may not be worth it, or even practical for a small vendor.

In any case, I would suggest that we try to encourage such developers. Otherwise, when other potential developers read these threads, they may elect not to bother to provide us with what may turn out to be the next killer app.

Pony99CA

08-26-2003, 08:15 PM

Come on people, give this guy a break. It sounds like the pricing was a misunderstanding.
Hear, hear. MultiIE costs $14.95, and I thought that it was useful enough to pay for. I don't pay for much software, thanks to all of the good freeware out there, but MultiIE was a must-have product for me. This sounds very similar, and is only $5 more.

As for comments about not supporting WM 2K3, come on! If the guy isn't a professional Pocket PC developer, he may not be able to afford a new Pocket PC right now. If I started developing Pocket PC software, I know that I couldn't right now, so I'd just hope that it worked on WM 2K3. :-)

I agree that pricing is important, but $20 won't likely break your budget. If the product works well, and does something you need, buy it. I'd rather pay $20 for something like this than $30 for HandMark's versions of Monopoly and Scrabble. :roll:

Steve

08-26-2003, 08:34 PM

If the product works well, and does something you need, buy it. I'd rather pay $20 for something like this than $30 for HandMark's versions of Monopoly and Scrabble.
Steve
I think the issue here is that this software is not something that most people must have. It's more a nice to have product. I tried it and liked it, but woold not pay $20.00 for it.
Instead I downloaded ftxPBrowser for free, which I like almost as much.
Even the ReenSoft guy said this is a small app that that he wants to make better. Hey, I hope he does, he has made a good start.
By the way. I agree with you about the price of the HandMark games. They are beautifully done, but again, not a must have.

Certified Optimist

08-27-2003, 03:51 AM

Come on people, give this guy a break.

Fair point. Sorry if I came across as being stroppy... :|

I do realise that he must have worked hard to get this product out, and it's not that easy to get the price point right. If he adds the features suggested I would probably pay US$20.

And... if only Opera would release a Pocket PC version I'd definately pay US$20... (too bad that seems quite unlikely...)

ReenSoft

08-27-2003, 04:07 PM

Dear Pocket PC Thoughts users,

We love this site and believe that most users in this site are the opinion leaders in this domain. We respect the opinion from you and any potential customer.

We thought about the price of PIEPlus and made very difficult decision. We cut off the price from $19.95 to $14.95. It may not what you wanted. But it would be most grateful if you would understand that it's our best offer. We'll do our best to fullfill all your reqirement so you could buy this product someday although you now think that it's not worth the price.

We've sent the email to registered users how to pay back the money cut off. We may have less profit with this decision but we really hope this decision helps more people to enjoy PIEPlus.

I would like to say that I really appreciate Jason Dunn and Pocket PC Thoughts users since we could decide the proper price of our product for us and more people could be able to enjoy PIEPlus with this decision.

Best regards,

---
ReenSoft
http://www.reensoft.com/

doogald

08-27-2003, 05:32 PM

A question: does a purchase of this release give the user a lifetime ability to upgrade, or are you planning to charge for future updates/upgrades?

ReenSoft

08-27-2003, 06:04 PM

A question: does a purchase of this release give the user a lifetime ability to upgrade, or are you planning to charge for future updates/upgrades?

Every purchase includes free upgrade within 6 months or the same major version.
Thanks for your interest in PIEPlus.

Best regards,
---
ReenSoft Support
http://www.reensoft.com/

08-27-2003, 06:24 PM

Thanks for the change. I've loaded the trial again and I do like your app. I do think the price is still on the high side but......

Anyway, I do have one concern, again on the topic of upgrades. I'm using an Axim with PPC2002 but I have ordered the WM2003 upgrade. Assuming that this ever arrives, I would need a compatible version of PIEPlus.

Is there a plan to produce this and would this be a free upgrade? If not, I would wait and purchase the '03 version in the future.

Thanks

ReenSoft

08-27-2003, 07:00 PM

Thanks for the change. I've loaded the trial again and I do like your app. I do think the price is still on the high side but......

Thanks for your trial and please understand the decision of price.

Anyway, I do have one concern, again on the topic of upgrades. I'm using an Axim with PPC2002 but I have ordered the WM2003 upgrade. Assuming that this ever arrives, I would need a compatible version of PIEPlus.

Is there a plan to produce this and would this be a free upgrade? If not, I would wait and purchase the '03 version in the future.

Thanks
As I wrote in Announcements forum, we started to develop PIEPlus before the launch of WM 2003. But the internal structure of PIE on WM 2003 is different from those of PPC2000, 2002. Every features except PWO (Pocket Web Optimizer) works on WM 2003. We can release for WM 2003 without PWO. But we think that PWO is the most important feature in PIEPlus. So we released only for PPC 2000, 2002.

The next version of PIEPlus will work on most Pocket PCs. You can use it on 2002 or 2003. You can upgrade free within 6 months and I believe that the next version will be available in 6 months.

Best regards,
---
ReenSoft
http://www.reensoft.com/

Jason Dunn

08-27-2003, 07:10 PM

pkwjr

08-27-2003, 07:53 PM

I have been using the software for 2 days now and it rocks. Going to my local newspaper is now a great read, sites like si.com and espn.com work fantastic. Worth the 14.95 for me.

08-27-2003, 07:59 PM

I have been using the software for 2 days now and it rocks. Going to my local newspaper is now a great read, sites like si.com and espn.com work fantastic. Worth the 14.95 for me.
I agree, I like it too. As I said, my concern was that when (if) I upgrade my Axim I would want an upgraded PIEPlus to go with it.

Since it is now the same price price as MultiIE, which looks as thought it will never be '03 compatible, it is probably the way to go. (I thought MultiIE was free by the way - wrong again)

I also tried ftxPBrowser, but this seems to have a conflict with my Pocketop driver so I had to remove it.

jkendrick

08-27-2003, 11:12 PM

FYI: The developer has dropped the price to $14.95. Let's not pick on him any more, ok? David is right - this was all a misunderstanding and we NEVER want to discourage development for the Pocket PC platform. If you think an application is too expensive, don't buy it. :wink:

I agree with you 100% Jason! I'm not a developer for the PPC platform but constantly seeing users complain about $15 or $20 for a program that the author has put a lot of effort into must be very frustrating for them. Everyone wants all programs to either be free or $5 with lifetime free upgrades.

It's a wonder any development takes place at all.

08-27-2003, 11:31 PM

I agree with you 100% Jason! I'm not a developer for the PPC platform but constantly seeing users complain about $15 or $20 for a program that the author has put a lot of effort into must be very frustrating for them. Everyone wants all programs to either be free or $5 with lifetime free upgrades.

It's a wonder any development takes place at all.
I don't think it's a case of wanting everything free, at least as far as I'm concerned.
It's a case of the value that an application brings to the user.
I would not pay $20.00 for this app because I don't feel it brings me $20.00 worth of value.
Having said that, I paid for Textmaker, Repligo, PI, WebIS Mail, Backup Plus and many others quite happily because they brought me something that I believed was worth the price.
The market sets the acceptable price at the end of the day, just like with any other product.

jkendrick

08-27-2003, 11:47 PM

I don't think it's a case of wanting everything free, at least as far as I'm concerned.
It's a case of the value that an application brings to the user.
I would not pay $20.00 for this app because I don't feel it brings me $20.00 worth of value.
Having said that, I paid for Textmaker, Repligo, PI, WebIS Mail, Backup Plus and many others quite happily because they brought me something that I believed was worth the price.
The market sets the acceptable price at the end of the day, just like with any other product.

I agree with you 100%. I have licensed more s/w than I dare try to remember. It's just that with a very limited user base how can any of these guys make any money? And then they have the cost of support which is ongoing for them. And invariably users start flaming the developer when they don't offer lifetime upgrades for a $5 - $20 product. How can anyone stay in business that way?

doogald

08-28-2003, 12:34 AM

08-28-2003, 01:10 AM

The only developer I know giving free upgrades for life is Omega One, the Battery Pack people.
Some others are rather generous with upgrades, noticably Alex at WebIS who I believe should have charged for his most recent PocketInformant upgrade.
I agree that it is tough for a commercial developer to make a living producing software for a product like PPC with such a small customer base. I'm sure that of that small number of potential customers, there are not too many who are visiting sites like this, looking for new applications.
Maybe the key is for MS and the OEMs to make better products and market them better so that there is a larger installed base to sell applications to.

jkendrick

08-28-2003, 01:59 AM

Janak Parekh

08-28-2003, 02:55 AM

So maybe if we evangelicize about the platform more people will buy into it and everything gets cheaper- hey wait, that's just what we're doing!
There's a limit, though. You don't want to make a platform so unattractive that no developer feels it's worth their time to make software for it. While some people have the time and ability to make free software, other people use development as an opportunity to earn a living. We really don't want to deny either.

--janak

disconnected

08-28-2003, 04:12 AM

If this could be released for PPC 2003, even without the Optimizer feature, I'd buy it. That's assuming I've read the specs correctly, and you can open links in new windows. That alone would make it worth it for me.

jkendrick

08-28-2003, 04:46 AM

Honestly, the only reason that I asked about the possibility of free upgrades was that the developer had hinted in an earlier thread that the appliaction would gain more features going forward. I'd just like to know if these features appear that when I buy now that I'll be able to get them at a fair price later, having invested in the application early.

I am giving this very serious consideration...

I really didn't aim my comments to anyone here. I have been involved in this so long and I see the same complaints and comments everywhere. It's just so tough on these developers and if we make it too tough they will disappear.

jkendrick

08-28-2003, 04:49 AM

There's a limit, though. You don't want to make a platform so unattractive that no developer feels it's worth their time to make software for it. While some people have the time and ability to make free software, other people use development as an opportunity to earn a living. We really don't want to deny either.

--janak

I agree with you janak. That's what I said in an earlier post that if we make it too tough these folks will disappear along with all the neat s/w they would have written. And as we all know without s/w the platform will die. One of the main reasons I started reviewing s/w was to give the developers that do a good job an audience with the user base that will really benefit from their talent and hard work. It's an interesting topic and I will start a new thread about it.

jwf

08-29-2003, 01:02 PM

All said and done. There's no other program available for PPC 2002 that does what PIEPlus does to optimize web pages to minimize horizontal scrolling. It's not perfect but it's a darn sight better than the pathetic effort that Microsoft originally put out.

UCCOFFEE

08-30-2003, 05:30 AM

this program is very similar to JAPANESE software PIEP (also called pie plus), which is FREE!!!!

nevertheless, the official homepage is currently down...
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~rbc-soft/

anyway, I would recommend all of you to use ftxPBrowser
http://www.af.wakwak.com/~ftoshi/pocket/index_e.html

ftxPBrowser's SIMPLE view, FORCE a page to fit in the 160 pixel windows, so NO horizotal scrolling at all, but it ll make most of the complex homepages looks funny....

It's a FREEWARE!!!!!!!!!!