Presenting On The Go: The Impatica Showmate Reviewed [Archive]

Jon Westfall

06-27-2007, 04:00 PM

<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall_showmate_review2_%20device.jpg" /> Product Category: Presentation Accessory Manufacturer: <a href="http://www.impatica.com/">Impatica</a> Where to Buy: <a href="http://www.impatica.com/showmate/">Manufacturer's Website</a> Price: $249.99 USD System Requirements: Windows Mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 or later and Microsoft Bluetooth. Projector or other display with VGA input. Specifications: 3.5" x 2.5" x 1"; Outputs SVGA (up to 800 x 600). Pros: <li>It's small!;<li>Software is snappy;<li>Runs off standard USB for power. Cons: <li>No built-in battery;<li>Problems with complex Powerpoints;<li>Requires converter software. Summary: Ah presentations - a must for all of us in the corporate or academic worlds. However, presentations usually mean Powerpoint and Powerpoint usually means "Bring the Laptop!". Some of us get lucky and present in places with computers already set up (well, lucky in the sense that we find that our USB key doesn't work with that computer or that the file won't open). Still others of us get the joys of dragging around a laptop, finding cables, messing around with remotes, etc... However, Impatica's Showmate promises to change that by allowing you to plug in a small dongle to your projector, fire up the presentation on your mobile device, and present away. But does it work in the hectic world of meeting schedules and impatient audiences? Let's Find Out!<!> <PAGEBREAK> Good Things Come In Small Packages Impatica promised in their promotional materials to deliver a product that would free you from the laptop and be "revolutionary". Quite a tall order to fill in such a small device. I received my Showmate in a small box that contained the following: <li>The Showmate device;<li>USB cable (male A to male mini-USB);<li>USB wall charger (with international plug set);<li>Software CD and Quickstart Card; The Quickstart Card implored me to download all of the software fresh from Impatica's site, a precaution I'm glad to see someone has started giving. With new technology, bugs are inevitable. Many times the drivers provided on a disc are the absolute oldest around, with many bugs cleared up if the users install software off of the website. So I skipped the disc and downloaded the 30 MB or so of software I needed, including the viewer file that runs on the Pocket PC, the Impatica For Powerpoint software that converts your Powerpoint files to the proprietary Impatica format used by the viewer, and a firmware update for the device. All installed fine except the firmware, which told me that the firmware on my device was actually newer than the firmware I downloaded! I decided to stick with the pre-loaded firmware unless I ran into troubles. After installing everything, I was ready to begin. Convert Me! I decided to choose a rather large Powerpoint presentation as my first test of the device - the Powerpoint I used when I defended my Master's thesis earlier this year. This file had graphics, step-by-step reveals, and around 40 slides. While I had a copy of the presentation in Powerpoint 2007's native format (.pptx), I was forced to use an earlier version in Powerpoint 97 - 2003 format (.ppt) - the software would not recognize the latest format. This isn't really suprising, and not a major issue unless you have your heart set on using some of the transitions inherent to the newest version of Powerpoint. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall_showmate_review_%20impaticaconverter.JPG" /> Figure 1: The Impatica Converter summary, the conversion process took around 20 seconds. As it turns out, having your heart set on cute transitions is not a good thing with the Showmate. In order to be efficient and to allow you to compress your file into a small enough size, the software strips out some of the fancier Powerpoint effects. For purely getting the message across, I've never found most of these effects to be useful, so they were not missed. It did decide to keep the step-by-step reveal animations, which was nice to see. I copied the output file to my device and fired up the viewer! <PAGEBREAK> A Projecting We Will Go <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall_showmate_review2_%20007.jpg" /> Figure 2: The Showmate next to my Treo 750. The viewer software loaded up without a hitch on my Treo 750, and I proceeded to click on the Project button at the bottom. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall_showmate_review_%20pcshot1.JPG" /> Figure 3: Simple and easy, no awards for eye candy in the viewer! Next came a rather unique problem. While the Showmate appeared in the list when I searched for it, I had a heck of a time pairing it to my Treo. The Quickstart Card told me that the Showmate would have a 10 digit serial number, with the last 6 digits being displayed when my device found the Showmate. The first 4 digits were supposed to be the pairing code. Everything went fine until I realized my serial number had 11 digits. I went through around 20 different pairing attempts trying the first 4 digits, the first 5 digits, the second - fifth digits, etc... until finally I got one to work - using the first four digits! I'm not sure if this was just my Treo acting strangely, my inability to peck out keys (which is possible) or something screwy with the software. What I do know is that I rebooted the Showmate a few times (by simply pulling out the USB power cord) and after a few more minutes work, I was paired up. Phew! What a relief that I don't have to do that everytime I want to give a presentation! Finally I was ready to project. I fired up my Optima projector, plugged in the Showmate's VGA port with the VGA cable included with my projector, and powered up the Showmate with the provided USB power plug. I like that Impatica used USB for their power plug for a few reasons. First, it's helpful for Blackberry users who need to tether their devices to the Showmate for projection. Second, I have plenty of mini-USB cables lying around here (retractable ones at that) that I can use to power the device. I also have a Proporta USB-accessible battery that I can power the Showmate from, further reducing my cord clutter. Finally, I suspect some of us may be presenting where USB power is already available (For instance, in Media-enabled classrooms at The University of Toledo, presenters are given a "Guest" VGA cable and a female USB cable to plug USB drives into the computers carefully stowed within the console) - so being able to plug in with just a retractable USB cable is a plus indeed. Although, to be truly mobile, I'd like to see the next version of the Showmate include a rechargeable battery! The Presentation Experience I must say I was REALLY skeptical about the actual presentation experience with the Showmate. I'd used Bluetooth remote software before to control a presentation on my laptop with very poor results. I'd click the softkey to advance, and my slide would sit dormant for 2 - 3 seconds and then finally lurch forward. I'd tell it to jump to another slide, and nothing would happen for an eternity in presentation time (i.e. 10 seconds). I figured with my device actually having to send the commands and the Powerpoint, how fast could this be? The answer? Pretty fast! I was pleasantly suprised when I hit "step" on the software and my Powerpoint moved in less than a second. I could wander around the room freely with virtually no problem communicating with the device. The transitions were snappy and I was pretty amazed. Most of this speed comes from the fact that upon connecting to the Showmate, your PPC uploads the presentation entirely to the device, so you're, in essence, just sending quick commands to a fairly fast onboard processor on the Showmate. All went well until I decided to jump around a bit with my presentation. I jumpped to the 30th slide on the presentation, and it popped up pretty quickly. However, when I hit "Step", it revealed the text on the slide as usual, only in reverse. That's right, the bottom portion of the slide text appeared, then the top, then the next slide (Slide 31) bottom, then top, etc.... This behavior persisted until I restarted the presentation. I was fairly annoyed! I'm not sure where the bug came in (through the converter, through the viewer software, through the firmware), but it made me decide to that if I was going to use the Showmate full-time, I'd better ditch step-by-step transitions. This is something I'm more than willing to live without. The moral of the story, however, is that you should always test out your show, and any contingencies (i.e. will I have to jump slides) before heading out with your Showmate to a presentation. (Unless you want the bottom line to make a strange impact!) <PAGEBREAK> Caveats Overall I'd rate the Showmate highly, despite the strange step-by-step backwards reveals. The software can't do all the fancy things Powerpoint can, but then again - how often are they really needed? And the joys of travelling without a laptop are more than worth it (or at least not having to unpack the laptop!). I do have a few miscellaneous notes to share regarding the Showmate, such as... <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall_showmate_review2_%20005.jpg" /> Figure 4: The one end of the Showmate, with the VGA input and USB power in. The flip side has a USB A female port embedded for Blackberry users. <li>The device does not come with any sort of carrying case, which would have been a nice addition. The VGA port on it juts out a bit, however, as it is a female port I doubt too much damage would come to it if it were twisted. Still, I feel better slipping it into a protective case while it travels in my bag. <li>The client software (installed on your computer) is written in Java. I've never been a big Java fan and the software seems to run a bit slow for my taste. It doesn't support Drag and Drop on the screen or as a command-line switch. <li>The device software (that runs on your Pocket PC) is very minimalist. While it allows you to jump around your slide deck and to view notes attached to each slide, it doesn't do much more than that. Larger on-screen buttons that I could tap to quickly take me to the next slide, go to the previous, blank the screen, etc.. would have been nice. The software is also advertised to only work with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. If you've got a Widcomm-stack device (such as the iPAQ 6915) you may want to check with Impatica prior to purchase. <li>It probably goes without saying but I will mention it anyway - the device software does not allow you to change your slides on the go like Powerpoint would (i.e. when using Powerpoint Presenter view). This isn't a problem unless you have whiney students who like to point out your typos and want them corrected immediately. Still, it is worth remembering that this tool can replace a laptop with Powerpoint in most cases, not all. So if you need fancy transitions or the ability to edit on the fly, you probably won't like using the Showmate Conclusions Overall I was very pleased with the Impatica Showmate. Despite the small bug I encountered, and the pairing issues, I was amazed at how fast it worked, how seamless my presentation could be (I wasn't fiddling with too-complicated software or waiting for my slides to move), and how easy my setup was. The fact that the device uses standard USB for power was a great plus, although a battery would have been nicer. If you've got the money and you give a lot of presentations, you won't be let down with the Showmate! Jon Westfall gives lectures to bored undergraduates and subsequently looks for anything that makes that process easier. He lives in Marblehead, Ohio, with his wife and cat. Check out all he has to offer at <a href="http://www.jonwestfall.com">JonWestfall.Com</a>