PhatWare Upgrades Calligrapher

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.phatware.com/pr031125.html' target='_blank'>http://www.phatware.com/pr031125.html</a><br /><br /></div>Whenever I get a new Pocket PC or rebuild one after a hard reset, one of the very first applications I install is <a href="http://www.phatware.com/calligrapher/index.html">PhatWare's Calligrapher</a> handwriting recognition program. We've debated <i>ad nauseum</i> about which of the various input methods is best, but for me handwriting recognition can't be beat. With a recent upgrade to v7.0, Calligrapher may become just as indispensible to you.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/calligrapher7.gif" /><br /><br />Along with its time-tested recognition capabilities, v7.0 includes:<br /><br />• New Configuration Manager for multiple user configurations.<br />• Customizable, 24-button Soft Keyboard.<br />• New Customizable Toolbar. <br />• Improved Correction Window.<br />• Full On-Screen Keyboard.<br />• European language support.<br />• 40-Color Ink Palette.<br />• Improved Ink Speed and Recognition Quality.<br /><br />With all of the additional customization that v7.0 offers, this looks really appealing. You can download a free demo or buy the full version for $29.95 from <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=18748">Handango</a>.<br /><br />One thing bothers me, though. PhatWare has historically given free upgrades to registered users of Calligrapher, but now only users who purchased v6.x AFTER September 1, 2003 are eligible. Everybody else must pay a $19.99 upgrade fee. I'm not saying that the enhancements aren't valuable, but for me the upgrade doesn't warrant an additional $19.99 fee. I MIGHT be willing to chip in a few bucks for this kind of maintenance upgrade, but the requested fee leaves a bad taste in my mouth.<br /><br />In any event, give the upgrade a try, and let me know what you think...And whether you feel it's worth an extra 20 bucks.

[dannyoneill]

how does this differ to Transcriber?

[dh]

I always wanted to use handwriting recognition but Transcriber and Calligrapher never quite worked for me and I would go back to Fitoily.

I installed the beta of Version 7 a while ago and have been doing really well with it.

Since I had never bought Calligrapher before and there is a discount for beta testers, it was an easy decision to buy it.

The only downside to me is that Calligrapher gestures don't work in Textmaker. I'm hoping that the two companies get together to correct this.

[SoftMaker]

I always wanted to use handwriting recognition but Transcriber and Calligrapher never quite worked for me and I would go back to Fitoily.

I installed the beta of Version 7 a while ago and have been doing really well with it.

Since I had never bought Calligrapher before and there is a discount for beta testers, it was an easy decision to buy it.

The only downside to me is that Calligrapher gestures don't work in Textmaker. I'm hoping that the two companies get together to correct this.
We are checking the interoperability at this very moment.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[drosenth]

PhatWare has historically given free upgrades to registered users of Calligrapher

One thing to keep in mind is that version 6 was released in July of 2001, and there have been at least 7 minor upgrades since then, so if you have owned it since July of 2001 it is probably time to charge for an upgrade. Your statement regarding enhancements and are they valuable current to owners is the real question. One important item to note is that scratchpad was removed from v7. Phatware's Phatpad offers this capability plus a lot more, but it is now an add-on.

Regards,
DaveR

Tips: As a die hard calligrapher user myself, gestures become extremely useful. Here are some of my favorites:

1) Quick correct. If you mispell a word, double tap on the word to select it, then stroke down and up quickly. This will give you a lookup of words to choose from.
2) Undo. A quick stroke up and down will undo your last change.
3) Keyboard pop-up. If nothing is selected, a quick down and up stroke will pop-up a keyboard. In the pop-up box, click on the keyboard icon and a keyboard appears. This is great for numbers, characters you have problems writing, etc...also, click on the pin if you want to anchor the window for multiple characters.

There are a lot more, these are just some of the more useful ones :)

[dannyoneill]

Still, what difference is there between this and transcriber.

Ive got really poor handwriting. I was either gonna become a doctor or get into computing with my handwriting.

It it faster than transcriber? more accurate? Settings wise it looks the same.

[Ed Hansberry]

So all Windows Mobile 2003 users (either new devices or upgrades) that have device lockups because they own Calligrapher 6.x that purchased it before September 2003 have to buy the upgrade to fix their device?

Bah. I'd be uninstalling all day long and using Transcriber. :bad-words:

[dannyoneill]

Now theres a situation. Will they say

1. "Your right, our product dosnt work, heres an upgrade to version 7 sir"

2. "Your right, our product dosnt work, here an upgrade that makes v6 work"

3. "Thats your fault for upgrading, we suggest buying the new version"

[Andy Roberts]

i AGREE!

Its a very bad buisness idea to charge for an update that fixes such a large problem such as lock-up.

where did they get their customer support advise from....toshiba??

I think enough is enough with Phatware and I shall be switching back to transcriber.

[Newsboy]

I have to agree. After paying $30 to upgrade to Calligrapher last Spring, I find it incredibly distasteful that 8 months later I have to pay ANOTHER $20 to upgrade to version 7. I would pay $5 or maybe $10, but now Phatware will just lose another customer.

[PeteTh]

I agree and recently contacted Calligrapher about this, stating that V6 doesn't work as advertised on PPC2003, therefore I would like a patched V6 or a free upgrade to V7.

No reply yet.

Maybe others should contact them as well.

[Peter Traugot]

Yeah, but does it work with the pocketop keyboard drivers yet?

I had to uninstall Calligraoher because one of the .dll files was incompatible with pocketop.

Of course, I don't know which company is at fault, but since these fine folks DO release so many upgrades, I would have thought they would (could) address it on their end.

I'd love to have both installed for those "lighter" travel days.

[Bilko]

I love Calligrapher and agree that, along with PI, it has always been the first app I re-install, even returning a previous PPC purchase when informed by Phatware that there were compatibility problems.

However after taking part in the beta testing I am not convinced that the upgrade is worth a further $19.99, or even $11.99 after beta rebate.

The lock up problem is fixed by using the existing Transcriber driver rather than overwriting it with a Calligrapher version, but in my experience this has only removed the incidences when my 2210 required a soft reset to switch on, it has done nothing to stop or reduce the number of times the screen freezes when in use. These may even have increased in frequency.

Posts to the Tekguru forum indicate that Calligrapher doesn't get on with some, unspecified, today plug-ins, and Phatware is waiting for MS/HP to resolve the problem. Whilst I know nothing about programming I can't understand why Calligrapher is the only program affected this way, if nothing else how does Transcriber avoid the problem as it is supposed to be based on the same underlying code.

Calligrapher does not appear to be fully PPC2003 compatible, at least not with my version, and as the beta is shortly to expire I decided to go back to Transcriber for a few days before deciding whether to reluctantly upgrade or go back to my old version.

48 hours later I have had 1 soft reset in total, rather than the 5-10 a day I have been averaging, and my machine seems quicker. Much though I miss the macros I am becoming increasingly tempted to stay as I am until the bugs are removed.

Even then $20 for an upgrade???

[dh]

Yeah, but does it work with the pocketop keyboard drivers yet?

I had to uninstall Calligraoher because one of the .dll files was incompatible with pocketop.
Mine works fine with my Pocketop driver, unless screen rotation is activated. In this case, Calligrapher does not function - at least for me.

It's a step forward than before, where the two programs seemed to hate each other all the time.

[Crash Biker]

I've been lucky enough not to see any lockups in v6 (iPAQ 3970 PPC2K & WM03) so I'm in no position to disagree with those feeling aggrieved.

To any others who have had success and enjoyment with v6 (and previous) I'd simply make the following observation:

Wondering whether $20 is "worth" the extra features is a fair and reasonable question, but I'd also suggest another parallel question "is $20 every 18 months worth this type of application being developed/supported vs being abandoned?"

I tend to replace my pocket device around every 18 months (less than some, more than some), I buy software I like even if I'm not sure I will ultimately get "full" value. (My impulse level seems to be ~$20. Still can't quite convince myself $30 for SOTI Pocket Controller is worth it for occasional use, would have just bought it without worry at $20.)

Way back in the day I chose a Philips Nino over a Palm Pilot because I wanted a system that adapted to me rather than vice versa and I liked the hw recognition on my Newtons. Good (and getting better yet - Calligrapher 7 seems better to me though early days) hw recognition is a unique killer app for me and $20 once per device for me is a steal.

I guess it's easy to wonder whether anti-aliased ink or custom toolbars are really worth $20, I prefer to think I'm supporting a good company supporting my favourite IT platform, long may they continue. It needs to be worth Phatware's time and trouble and when I think of the other ways I've probably wasted the equivalent of $20 in the last week for me it's a no brainer. Same reasoning convinced me to subscribe to PPC Thoughts too!

Cheers

Crash

[ekjl]

This is totally UNFAIR!! I purchased mine on August 26th and never once had a chance to upgrade. I demand that all customers get at least ONE upgrade!

[KH]

The software pricing discussion is similar to the eBook pricing discussion, and to both, I can only say that for me, acceptible pricing is directly proportional to perceived value. Calligrapher has been one of the top 3 or 4 applications installed on all of my PDAs dating back to my first Compaq Aero - although it really became useful on the IPAQ. The speed of the 2215 has made it more practical than ever for extended notetaking.

I received enough value from the minor release upgrades to not feel ripped of by paying a major-release upgrade fee. 7.0 does seem zippier and more accurate. I haven't used most of the new features, but do like the idea of customizing the correction keyboard (I always used the macro capability before to simplify entry of certain keys such as the tilde).

I agree with the comment about supporting the ongoing development of what I consider an essential Pocket PC capability.

Transcriber is a poor subset, in my opinion.

[Brad Adrian]

I'm still trying to track down the issue, but on my device there seems to be some strange interplay between Calligrapher and Voice Command. For some reason, with both installed, my Pocket PC's battery loses about 10% of its power per hour -- when turned off. So, I woke up in the morning with a completely dead device.

[cyclwestks]

I haven't used Calligrapher for several years. Is it really that much better than transcriber? I really like transcriber on my 1940.

[Brad Adrian]

I haven't used Calligrapher for several years. Is it really that much better than transcriber? I really like transcriber on my 1940.
It really is better than Transcriber -- if you need more than simple recognition. The recognition engines are exactly the same (developed by the same company), but Calligrapher offers things like macros and shortcuts. For instance, I have it configured so that when I type the letter "e" and a special gesture, my e-mail address is typed.

You can also create more elaborate macros, like using a gesture to open Pocket Word and automatically start a new document.

So, that's why this whole upgrade thing kinda bugs me; I like the product, but don't think it's a good idea to charge me $20 for an upgrade.

[dh]

I haven't used Calligrapher for several years. Is it really that much better than transcriber? I really like transcriber on my 1940.
It really is better than Transcriber -- if you need more than simple recognition. The recognition engines are exactly the same (developed by the same company), but Calligrapher offers things like macros and shortcuts. For instance, I have it configured so that when I type the letter "e" and a special gesture, my e-mail address is typed.

You can also create more elaborate macros, like using a gesture to open Pocket Word and automatically start a new document.

So, that's why this whole upgrade thing kinda bugs me; I like the product, but don't think it's a good idea to charge me $20 for an upgrade.
I'm pretty certain that the recognition is better in V 7.0 than it was before. Until now, I had never thought there was any advantage of Calligrapher over Transcriber. Sure Calligrapher had some goodies, but neither gave me the recognition accuracy I needed. I tried both many times and always went back to Fitaly.

Phatware claim to have made improvements in recognition and I would agree. I would suggest downloading the trial and see how it works out.

[robshobs]

I think we would all agree that we want good, quality software for the PPC platform. That good, quality software comes at a price and the developer needs to recover their investment. Dot release, which provide fixes and minor enhancements, are often offered free to the registered user.

While I would hope that updating software for Windows Mobile (PPC 2003) would be easy and just a dot upgrade, Windows Mobile had signficant changes to the core code. Several developers have had to perform major rewrites due to those changes. In order for them to stay in business, they need to charge for their services.

I've found myself on the wrong side of the line several times when it comes to upgrades. Sometimes I qualify for the free upgrade; other times I have to pay for it. Each of us has to ask ourselves, "Is this product worth the money?"

I myself have found Calligrapher to be a very solid program that greatly enhances the use of my PPC. As such, I would pay for it. I do so because I want PhatWare to remain in business and continue to develop great software that I can use.

[juni]

Thank you for saving me the trouble to install the trial version. I was a bit curious to test it on my 2210 but now I know there are several issues which need to be fixed first. :)

[Jereboam]

Having trialled 6.5, then having signed up for the beta testing of 7, I have to say I do find version 7 to be both quicker and the recognition better. I don't know if they have changed the underlying recognition engine at all, but it would seem to me that it has been tweaked.

Plus, several of the reasons I did not buy 6.5 have been addressed - namely, the toolbar was furnished with buttons I simply didn't use and having it take up screen space was therefore annoying, so customising it is a good new feature, and that the buttons themselves were pretty ugly, a minor issue perhaps but important to me. Likewise the anti-aliased ink is an improvement in the looks department.

I also took advantage of the beta tester discount, although seeing as I found no bugs (I had no resets, no incompatibilities) I feel a bit guilty...nevertheless also owning PhatPad was a big factor in paying the money for the final version. I use PhatPad for taking a lot of quick notes and having Calligrapher installed to be able to search through them and ultimately recognise my scrawlings was too much to refuse.

All in all, version 7 brought enough improvement to persuade me to buy it, after toying with it for quite some time.

And, as Crash Biker said, if I think of all the ways I have cumulatively wasted at least $20 over the past few weeks it seems a good investment.

It seems that here we have issues with people simultaneously upgrading to Windows Mobile as well - just like I have recently. It seems unfair to me to allow people to upgrade for free if significant changes have had to be made to a program to ensure it works with the new OS. That is additional work which is in no way related to the feature set of the program in question.

It appears to me that we have a problem here of what is reasonable and what is not. I have always thought (despite looking to take advantage of it) that offering lifetime free upgrades is an unsustainable business model, and has at least in several instances that I am aware of has been cleverly circumvented by the developer (no names mentioned). For me, that is an unreasonable condition for a customer (us) to insist upon that will ultimately either put the developer out of business or foster dirty tricks.

So, if we have a situation where a developer does not offer such an unrealistic upgrade path, under what conditions is it reasonable to charge for an upgrade? Certainly, I think that it is unfair to insist that someone who bought 6.5 a few weeks ago should now pay to get an extra .5 - so he should be able to upgrade completely free. But how far do we go back? A month? Six months? At some point they will have to start charging, otherwise as has been mentioned continued development of Pocket PC applications becomes economically unviable and we are the ones that ultimately lose out...there will be no 8.0 in a year and we'll be stuck with Transcriber.

When I bought Agenda Fusion 4, it was with the upfront advisory that if I bought now I would have a free upgrade to version 5. That's the way to do it.

So I say this -

1. If a major new version is about to be released, the current (ie "old") version should be offered at full price but with the proviso that upgrading to the new version will be free, within a certain time of the expected upgrade date. A month or so? Note to developers - this is not to be used as a sales device with no upgrade at the end of the rainbow.
2. The owner of ANY old version should be able to upgrade at a well-discounted cost, perhaps depending on which version they bought and when. There is nothing like remembering your old customers to foster brand/product loyalty.
3. Upgrades within a major version number (.1 to .5, for example) should ALWAYS be free, and developers should not play fast and loose with their version numbering...minor or cosmetic changes do not a new version make.
4. A changelog should always be offered, so that people can see what they are getting...I would be very interested in seeing one for Calligrapher, for example. I am sure a few others here would too.

J'bm

[Andy Roberts]

Okay fine, an update with new features sure thats worth the money but I still think they should of done a WM2003 update for free to be fair.

Come on Phatware give us a WM2003 fix for free, I can live without the new updates and features!!

Not doing the WM2003 update for free but placing it in a 'new enhanced' version is just trying to make money not giving good customer service!

Bah humbug to phatware!

[Doug Raeburn]

I also purchased Calligrapher mostly due to its functionality with PhatPad. When I first bought it, however, I had all the problems with the iPAQ 2215 that others had. When I complained about it to Phatware, they tried to help but basically were never able to correct the issue. So I stopped using it, but started again when they came up with a fix for the 2215 during the 7.0 beta. Since then it's been working well for me, and I'm finding myself using it more and more often.

And of course, I purchased it on August 23rd, just before the free upgrade cutoff. I contacted Phatware and explained to them that I hadn't been able to use the license of Calligrapher that I purchased because of the WM 2003 incompatibility, and that the 7.0 betas and RCs had fixed it. I also said that I felt it was a lot to ask to spend a total of $50 (not including beta rebate) over the span of 13 weeks to get a version of their product that worked for me.

They responded, asking me to send them the authorization info for Calligrapher and a copy of my receipt for my WM 2003 device, and they would send me the upgrade for free. I sent that on Wednesday, and hope to get it soon... I'm sure it'll take a bit longer than usual due to the holidays.

So it seems like there might be a bit of flex in their upgrade policies... if you feel you've been "ripped off", it can't hurt to contact them.

[Jereboam]

As I said, their release has crossed over the wider release of WM 2003 - and there are bound to be issues like this cropping up. The measure of Phatware, then, will be to see how they deal with people's complaints regarding compatibility.

According to Doug, above, they seem to have dealt with him admirably. Let's hope they follow through...

If anyone is in touch with Phatware themselves, perhaps you could invite them to post here? I am sure we can all be civil... ;)

J'bm

[Ed Hansberry]

I also purchased Calligrapher mostly due to its functionality with PhatPad. When I first bought it, however, I had all the problems with the iPAQ 2215 that others had. When I complained about it to Phatware, they tried to help but basically were never able to correct the issue. So I stopped using it, but started again when they came up with a fix for the 2215 during the 7.0 beta. Since then it's been working well for me, and I'm finding myself using it more and more often.
That is one thing I have against Phatware. Their bundling. So, if WM2004 comes out and Calligrapher breaks again, does that mean you can't effectively use phatpad? Of course. :roll: And for them to take 6 months to get WM2003 issues fixed is unacceptable when it breakes these dependant apps. No thanks. :evil:

[Jereboam]

That I don't get - two applications that integrate is a bad thing? On the contrary I think it is a good thing...Phatpad is an enhanced scratchpad that is quite usable by itself but really comes into its own when used in combination with Calligrapher, as mentioned. I don't think that Phatware should be punished for that.

And I don't quite follow where a dependant app has been broken...you mean Phatpad? It's always worked flawlessly for me, with Calligrapher 6.5 and all the 7 betas through to final...no problems at all. This is under WM 2003 also.

I think you're being a little harsh.

J'bm

[Ed Hansberry]

That I don't get - two applications that integrate is a bad thing? On the contrary I think it is a good thing...Phatpad is an enhanced scratchpad that is quite usable by itself but really comes into its own when used in combination with Calligrapher, as mentioned. I don't think that Phatware should be punished for that.

And I don't quite follow where a dependant app has been broken...you mean Phatpad? It's always worked flawlessly for me, with Calligrapher 6.5 and all the 7 betas through to final...no problems at all. This is under WM 2003 also.
You are the only one I've heard from using Calligrapher 6.x under WM2003 that it didn't cause lockups after going to sleep.

[Doug Raeburn]

For those of you who may be interested, Phatware did come through with the promised free upgrade. So as I said above, if you've had problems with WM 2003 and have a reasonable timing issue with the upgrade policy, give Phatware a shout. Again, no promise, but it can't hurt.

[Doug Raeburn]

... the main thing is that I've noticed a tendency for their tech support to want to pass the buck to someone else. When I reported the lockup issue with my 2215 to them back in September, while they did give me a few suggestions, they stated emphatically that they felt it may be a problem with the hardware. Then, during beta testing, I ran into an issue where occasionally with Pocket Word, when Calligrapher's toolbar was displayed and I tried to display the Pocket Word toolbar, it displayed behind the Calligrapher toolbar. I reported it, and they dismissed it as a Pocket Word problem.

It seems that the lockup problem was corrected by Phatware during the 7.0 betas, so I don't believe it ended up being a hardware problem. I don't know for sure about the Pocket Word issue.

I do understand that "apps that don't play together well" can be an issue, but I found it off-putting to have that immediately stated or suggested as the probable cause. Other Pocket PC software publishers don't take such an approach, and I'd suggest that Phatware consider the issue reported by the customer more seriously before pointing a finger at someone else.

[Doug Raeburn]

It was asked uptopic... what free upgrade period is long enough? 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? Regardless of what the period is, if it's arbitrarily established at upgrade time, the "qualified" will always think it's fair and the "non-qualified" will think it's unfair.

I think the most fair and best received upgrade policy is one that is established up front before purchase. For example, with their mNotes software (replicates Lotus Notes PIM data with the Pocket PC), CommonTime establishes that the purchase includes 1 year of free upgrades and free tech support. This way there are no surprises and no cries of "Not fair!" when a more arbitrary upgrade policy is announced along with a major new release.

The other factor is pricing. Again, CommonTime seems to have the right idea. mNotes is among the more pricey pieces of Pocket PC software ($79 retail, but well worth it to people like me with extremely full calendars at work), and their license renewal is 25% of the retail price. You can decide to keep the license current all the time or wait until an upgrade or tech support problem.

Now, I'm not suggesting that 25% of full retail is the right upgrade price point for all Pocket PC software. CommonTime's pricing and policies are patterned after corporate software licensing... understandable, since mNotes is really only useful in a corporate setting. However, it does seem to me that people begin to complain when the upgrade price is more than 50% of the retail price. Higher than that and people start to feel like they're almost purchasing a new license.

I realize that there are 2 sides to the coin. With a mature product like Calligrapher, upgrades become a major and necessary source of revenue... the old cash cow syndrome. And without enough revenue, upgrades stop completely. However, that factor has to be balanced with customer satisfaction. I'm not trying to deny the publisher's right to make a fair profit, but the upgrade policies have to be designed so that a reasonable customer will feel that he or she isn't being "ripped off".

With a short free upgrade period for new customers and an upgrade price on the high side, Phatware is probably going to meet with a fair amount of resistance to their upgrade policy for Calligrapher 7. And the uproar is compounded by their failure to issue a maintenance release for 6.x that addresses the WM 2003 issue. Never, never, never force a customer into a paid upgrade to fix an existing problem... you're sure to have lots of pissed off customers and a major PR nightmare.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm not trying to imply that the Phatware folks are "bad people", and I do appreciate the fact that they were willing to be reasonable when I expressed my issues with the upgrade. But they could have saved themselves some grief just by having someone step outside the box and think "OK, if I were a customer, how would I react to this upgrade policy?" If someone did so with an open mind, they would certainly have realized that the current policy would not be well accepted.

[Ed Hansberry]

It was asked uptopic... what free upgrade period is long enough? 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? Regardless of what the period is, if it's arbitrarily established at upgrade time, the "qualified" will always think it's fair and the "non-qualified" will think it's unfair.
The key, as you mentioned, is that Calligrapher 6.x doesn't work properly with WM2003, and the "fix" is to put out Calligrapher 7 and charge most for it. Simply put, that stinks.

[Jereboam]

I agree - presumably having fixed it in 7 they know what the problem is and should release a maintenance patch for 6.5 - unless, as I said, there is substantial work involved in recoding the app...in which case anyone who asks should be offered a special price to upgrade.

J'bm

[Jereboam]

Pocket Informant 4.6.x

Although most of our effort is being put into Pocket Informant 5.0 (look below), we are readying an update to Pocket Informant 4.6 to be released within the next two weeks. This update - version 4.6.1 - will have some of the tested bug fixes that we've made to our internal 5.0 builds already. Then when version 5.0 is released sometime in January, we will release a final version of Pocket Informant 4.6 with any bug fixes and some logic changes made in the final 5.0 release. In this way, we will be showing our commitment to you , our customer.

Pocket Informant 5.0

Not to be outdone is Pocket Informant. Pocket Informant 5 is in full swing development and is about 2 months away from release. As of today we've made major improvements in the areas of the preview windows, Hierarchical Tasks, Links, launch speed, dialog speed, and we have a tremendous amount more to do. We hope to pleasantly surprise you with what's in store. As we have done in the past 3 years, we will provide a 3 month timeframe for free upgrades to the major releases at the very least. Because we want to make it easier for all users to know what we're doing, we're going to pre-announce the start date for this free upgrade based on when we expect to have PI5 ready. The "On or After Purchase" date that we are going to use to determine free upgrades will be October 15th, 2003.



It's almost as if they have been reading this thread... ;)

This is the way it should be done.

J'bm

[Lex]

Phatware responded to my inquiry that the 'Transcriber' in iPAQ 38xx does not qualify for a reduced price upgrade of 'Calligrapher'.

Full Price: $29.95.

So, I'm feeling even more chummy with 'Letter Recognizer'.

[Ed Hansberry]

Phatware responded to my inquiry that the 'Transcriber' in iPAQ 38xx does not qualify for a reduced price upgrade of 'Calligrapher'.

Full Price: $29.95.

So, I'm feeling even more chummy with 'Letter Recognizer'.
You should look at Transcriber. Think of it as Calligrapher Lite.

[Lex]

Thanks Ed, I used it and gave it a good run but had to really slow down to get accurate recognition and still had to do a fair amount of correcting. Then there's remembering to switch to the numerical function when needed, then the symbol keyboard.

I can do most of that on the fast fly with Letter Recognizer and I'm a sucker for 'cheap' or 'free' options.

Now if Phatware runs a Christmas sale... ? ? ?

Then again, I came over here from 'tHe DaRk SiDe'... so I was accustomed to a similar proprietary letter recognition and data entry option. :D

[jt3]

Not trying to get into the whole, should they charge for an upgrade or not (especially, since I'm a lucky one, I guess, since 6.5.2 worked just fine on my 5555 with WM2003), but some of you have mentioned that $19.95 is a bit high, and that if Phatware offered a sale, they'd jump on it.

Well, it's not exactly a HUGE discount, but keep in mind that Phatware uses Handango for its online sales. Subscribers of Pocket PC Thoughts get a 15% Handango discount code that they can use. That brings the total price for the upgrade to $16.96.

I purchased the 6.x version of Calligrapher about a year ago. I purchased the upgrade (since the 3800 series Transcriber qualified you for the upgrade price... something that has apparently changed). Personally, I think that returning customers should be given a bigger price break than new Transcriber users, but that's me. I think it should be: Transcriber users: $19.95. Owners of any previous Calligrapher version: $9.95. Again, that's me.

At any rate, the $2.99 Handango discount really helped take some of the bite out of the upgrade. I love the customizable keyboard and toolbar. They'll really help, and the anti-aliased ink looks much better. I can't honestly say I've noticed a speed or recognition improvement, but then, I didn't really have any issues in that area before. In short, it's a great upgrade, if a little pricey.

[Bruno]

Dear Phatware!

Why oh why :roll: cant you realise that there are characters other than the basic 25 latin ones used in normal English!

I was excitet over Calligrapher so many years ago (I think it was like version 2 or something). But to my big dissapointment :cry: you dont support any more characters that the english language. Even worse there were no way to add to the list the characters that you need. :devilboy:

I live in Sweden and use the exotic letters å, ä and ö. Now if I can use these characters everyday with the vanilla Letter recogniser in Pocket PC then why cant you support it to? The machines have gone from 20-30 Mhz when you started to 400 Mhz today, Surely there is enough horsepower in todays machines to include ALL letters that Windows CE supports?

I have E-mailed this to Phatware every time a new version comes out and I get disappointed again and again. The latest version 7.1 isn´t any better.

So please fix it. The day you do I will start thinking about paying for the product.

Best Regards

Bruno Horvat