And This Week's Freebie is... SplashPhoto!

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/HandangoHolidayPromo.jsp?siteId=1&platformId=2' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/HandangoHol...=1&platformId=2</a><br /><br /></div><i>"SplashPhoto turns your Pocket PC into a mobile digital picture frame. Simply edit and upload your favorite images with the included desktop software and you're ready to view images while on the go."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050111-SplashPhoto.jpg" /><br /><br />This week's "Handango Free App a Week" offering for the Pocket PC is SplashPhoto. Normally $29.95, it's now yours for free. No catch. Simply head over to <a href="http://www.handango.com/HandangoHolidayPromo.jsp?siteId=1&platformId=2">Handango</a> to grab the offer while it lasts.

[marcm]

I just downloaded it for free. I'll install it soon... You just can't beat FREE!!! :D :D :D

[dean_shan]

What makes this any different then the Photo.exe that comes with PPC2003?

[serpico]

Thanks for the article, I just downloaded it. Great app.

[MPSmith]

What makes this any different then the Photo.exe that comes with PPC2003?

:jawdrop: Are you kidding me?

https://www.handango.com/ExpertReview.jsp?siteId=1&amp;jid=7C672BDCA11887885A59X592D4A45D63&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;reviewId=45446

[WyattEarp]

What makes this any different then the Photo.exe that comes with PPC2003?

Check it out for yourself SplashPhoto (http://www.splashdata.com/ppc/splashphoto/index.htm). It's a good app. I used the whole SplashWallet Series on my Palm before I switched to a Pocket PC. Its a good deal considering photo apps (good ones anyway) are not cheap.

[ctmagnus]

What makes this any different then the Photo.exe that comes with PPC2003?

Phote.exe doesn't cost $30. ;)

[davea]

Great App. I really like how simple it is to use the Desktop portion to
organize, edit and then transfer to the PPC.

[bigkingfun]

How does this compare to Resco Picture Viewer? I've already got the whole Resco suite on my Axim so I'm wondering if there is any reason to switch to this one.

These Handango giveaways are great, but I'm more concerned about the cost in RAM than the cost in $. If only Handango could give away some extra memory every week as well...

[ctmagnus]

How does this compare to Resco Picture Viewer? I've already got the whole Resco suite on my Axim so I'm wondering if there is any reason to switch to this one.

These Handango giveaways are great, but I'm more concerned about the cost in RAM than the cost in $. If only Handango could give away some extra memory every week as well...

I look at it (somewhat) this way: I currently use Spb Imageer for the purpose this application fulfills. If Spb Should happen to suddenly stop development of Imageer but SplashPhoto is still being worked on, I have a still-current photo app for my iPaq. And you can't beat free when the app usually costs $30. :D

If you already have a GoPass/Handango account setup, go for it, even if you never actually install the app.

[amnon]

I use my Pocket PC as a paperless map tool when I drive or go somewhere and I'm not in the U.S. (where I have a handheld GPS).

I smply save a jpg or png of an area off of an internet mapping site (usually around 1000 x 1000 pixels) and put it on my PocketPC.

So far of all the picture viewers I have tried the one I finally use is (yes, laugh) the bundled Picture viewer.

Why? Because when I am driving I need 1 hand operation and in Picture I can drag the map with my finger and move it according to where I am at the moment.

So before I try yet another picture viewer, does it accomodate 1 handed operation for large pictures easily?
What I am looking for is:
1. Open picture in 100% size (not squeezed)
2. Easy navigation within the picture - I don't care if it's using the 5 way rocker or dragging on screen.

Does SplashPhoto answer these 2 requirements?

Thanks,
Amnon

[juni]

Spb Imageer fills your two conditions.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/imageer/?en

[Menneisyys]

What makes this any different then the Photo.exe that comes with PPC2003?

Pretty good app. An excerpt from my forthcoming image viewer/editor roundup:

"SplashPhoto may be a good alternative to, for example, Spb for people with 10+ Mpixel machines for quick image revision. It has, however, no editing capabilities.

Pros:
- was able to read (at appr. 3 sec/picture) and display all the 14 Mpixel thumbnails
- pretty fast at decoding 14 Mpixel images (6 secs for the 6.6 MBytes/14 MPixel image)
- no wait symbol in slideshow mode, quick delete, IrDA/E-mail
- VGA without explicitly forced/native VGA mode
- just like Spb, it also has a desktop-based image conversion tool to avoid using third-party solutions for converting/resizing the images before uploading to the PDA
- in-memory image chache – caches the last viewed images in memory (in VGA size), so that it can be seen again very fast. No other viewer is able to do the same.

Cons:
- no dithering, average shrinking quality, no zoom of any kind
- has wallpaper setting functionality – very bad, because it just copies the file in question to \Windows\tdycust.jpg, without resizing or anything. Exactly how e.g. MultiIE behaves.
- unable to read only a settable directory - reads all directories at once under \My Documents in the main memory and \DCIM on storage cards (it isn't able to selectively step into a given directory); it completely ignores other directories
- has not any kind of thumbnail caching mechanism in the default listing mode – it's really a pain in the neck to browse large digicam thumbnails because, after switching back from viewing a given image to the detailed list view, it also reads the thumbnails. Fortunately, this isn't the case with the simple thumbnail view (without details) – there, it's pretty fast.
- the slideshow mode doesn't have anything special: no voice/textual annotations, no transition effects
- doesn't read GIF images"

For free, it's a very good choice.

[Menneisyys]

1. Open picture in 100% size (not squeezed)
2. Easy navigation within the picture - I don't care if it's using the 5 way rocker or dragging on screen.

Does SplashPhoto answer these 2 requirements?

Nope, SplashPhoto can't do ANY kind of zooming.

[Menneisyys]

Spb Imageer fills your two conditions.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/imageer/?en

Yeah, for 1000*1000 images, it will still work. For (much) larger images (over about 2 Mpixel - that is, 1600*1200), however, it isn't able to view the image at 100% zoom level, not even on a PPC with tons of free RAM. To check out images over 2 Mpixel at 100% zoom level, you may want to use Pocket Phojo 2.48b (which is a very expensive alternative) or PQV 3.0.

(Of course, Spb Imageer is IMHO the best all-in-one generic image viewer/editor app to date, if you take everything into account. Resco Picture Viewer 5.1, the close second, lacks features in a lot of areas, compared to Spb Imageer. It's just that Spb Imageer has some shortcomings like the above.)

[Menneisyys]

How does this compare to Resco Picture Viewer? I've already got the whole Resco suite on my Axim so I'm wondering if there is any reason to switch to this one.

Resco can zoom / edit and has a lot of other functionalities. Slpash is more of a slideshow'er app, but is pretty good as a digicam user's companion too. Furthermore, Resco has much better image shrinking quality (this is of extreme importance for digital image wallet-type of usage), just like Spb Imageer, and unlike all the other PPC-based image viewers/editors.

The speed of the two programs are almost the same (meaning: one of the fastest programs available). For example, reading a 6.6M 14 Mpixel image on a PL720 takes 6 secs in both programs, while reading 52 thumbnails of 14 MPixel images (totalling 169288k) from SD card 1:40 in Resco and 2:36 in Splash. The latter is still much better than with most other photo viewing apps, however.

[sheik]

Does anybody know of an imaging app that can perform lossless rotations of JPEGs? SPB Imageer's website doesn't seem to mention this feature.

In case you haven't come across this term before, most graphics packages open the image as a JPEG, rotate it in memory and then re-encode it as a new JPEG, which results in a loss of quality. Lossless rotation modifies the data of the file directly, so no recompression is performed.

On my desktop I use the excellent Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) to do this.
It would be useful in some cases to rotate images from my Pocket PC though.

Thanks!

/\dam

[Menneisyys]

Does anybody know of an imaging app that can perform lossless rotations of JPEGs? SPB Imageer's website doesn't seem to mention this feature.

In case you haven't come across this term before, most graphics packages open the image as a JPEG, rotate it in memory and then re-encode it as a new JPEG, which results in a loss of quality. Lossless rotation modifies the data of the file directly, so no recompression is performed.

On my desktop I use the excellent Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) to do this.
It would be useful in some cases to rotate images from my Pocket PC though.

Thanks!

/\dam

Only XnView 1.20 ( http://www.xnview.com/ ) is capable of this on the PPC.

[SHC]

Does anybody else have a problem with Imageer? I got it free with ipaq choice, installed it to main memory (I've got 30mb free) on my 4700. It just locks the device solid, have to soft reset twice to get PPc working again.

[Menneisyys]

Does anybody else have a problem with Imageer? I got it free with ipaq choice, installed it to main memory (I've got 30mb free) on my 4700. It just locks the device solid, have to soft reset twice to get PPc working again.

Does it crash your PDA just after starting, or upon loadng specific files? I've tested Imageer on several PPC's in several memory configurations (running from card/main memory etc), without any problems. The only problems (resulting in a crash) I've encountered were at reading both the thumbnails and the full images of the Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. There may be other digicam brands that make Imageer crash - I have't found any other as yet.

[SHC]

The first time it starts you are asked what do you want to do? - select any and it crashes. restart PPC after 2 soft resets and start it from programmes - as soon as I try to open a file - it crashes. I've now given up and bought Resco photo viewer instead.

[jimvaughan]

&lt;EOM>

[WyattEarp]

I look at it (somewhat) this way: I currently use Spb Imageer for the purpose this application fulfills. If Spb Should happen to suddenly stop development of Imageer but SplashPhoto is still being worked on, I have a still-current photo app for my iPaq. And you can't beat free when the app usually costs $30. :D

If you already have a GoPass/Handango account setup, go for it, even if you never actually install the app.

Exactly. I have lots of software that I have collected over the years. Even from my Palm days and now my PPC days. You never know when you may need one of them. Handango's giveaway is the perfect opportunity for people to get some good apps for free even if you don't plan on using them.

[beq]

Menneisyys, do you have a site where you'll be posting your image viewer/editor roundup and thoughts? I'd love to hear of your vast experiences...

[Menneisyys]

Menneisyys, do you have a site where you'll be posting your image viewer/editor roundup and thoughts? I'd love to hear of your vast experiences...

The beta version of my image viewer roundup can be found at http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/PICVIEWERS . It'll have a better (non-free web) site too in the near future, though.

[beq]

Sorry I forgot to reply. Thanks again for offering it online, it looks like a very extensive super-review/roundup (haven't even finished reading it) :D