Resco Releases Photo Viewer v6.00 For Pocket PC

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productType=2&productId=11117' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/...productId=11117</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hishamh-20061207-photoviewer.jpg" /><br /><br />Resco has just released a major update to their ever-popular Photo Viewer application. The most obvious updated feature of v6.00 is the redesigned GUI that takes advantage of the two softkeys in WM5, but Resco have added quite a few enhancements to an already great product. You can download a trial or purchase Photo Viewer v6.00 through our <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productType=2&productId=11117">affiliate store</a> - registered owners of Photo Viewer v5.x should be eligible for a special upgrade price.

[Menneisyys]

After I’ve published the Roundup of All Pocket PC Image Viewers and Editors (http://www.winmobiletech.com/PICVIEWERS/), Resco has been silent for over 1.5 years and haven’t come up with a new version of their excellent image viewer (and a bit barebone editor), Resco Photo Viewer. Up until now, that is – they have just released the latest version of their flagship image viewer.

http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/PPCMagResco60BlogShot1.bmp.png

Availability, compatibility

The viewer is available here (http://resco.net/pocketpc/photoviewer/default.asp). It’s compatible with all Pocket PC’s starting with PPC 2002. (Note that the homepage only promises WM2003+ compatibility. This is not the case – it’s also compatible with earlier Pocket PC 2002 devices and runs just great on my 5-year-old Compaq iPAQ 3660).

It also has MS Smartphone / Symbian S60, UIQ and Palm OS versions. I’ve also checked out the latter on my Palm Tungsten T3. It also ran flawlessly and was able to zoom into 10 Mpixel images without getting pixelizated. Excellent results!

The price of the title is $24.95; you get the new version for free if you purchased the title in the last 12 months and with a 50% rebate if you’ve a customer of a previous version but purchased it before the last year. Also, if you purchase the title, you get a $5 rebate for Resco Explorer 2005, Resco Radio and Resco Audio Recorder – all top-level, highly recommended applications (see for example the Audio Recorder Bible (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/menneisyys/112005SoundRecorderApps.asp) on why I consider Resco Audio Recorder the best Pocket PC sound recorder application).

What’s new?

Regarding the Roundup (http://www.winmobiletech.com/PICVIEWERS/) (please see this article for Resco 5.31-specific info), they have fixed almost all the problems / shortcomings I’ve listed in there:


It has no longer problems in fully zooming into high-resolution photos. This means it can effectively make use of the RAM memory of devices that have plenty of them. For example, I had no problems with fully zooming into 10 Mpixel images (for example this one (http://img2.dpreview.com/gallery/canon_g7_samples/originals/img_0374_sj.jpg); this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/RescoPicview610MpixelZoomin.jpg) also shows this) on my 128M RAM-equipped WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720. While zooming into this image, the RAM usage was around 40 Mbytes, which does also show it did zoom into the image. Also note the new zoom icons – now, it’s far easier to change the zoom percentage.
It supports the video output capabilities (see this article (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&amp;p=1078&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1) for more info) 2700G MPU in the Dell Axim x50v / x51v. This is also a very welcome addition and great news for all x50v / x51v users.
It supports both manual (hardware button-based) zoom in/out and scrolling around in an image. This has been missing from all the other image viewers.
It has wallpaper setting capabilities – with transparency setting. The latter is painfully missing from most (simple) Today wallpaper setter applications.
It allows for directly exporting a given image to the system-level Contacts database.
It supports WM5 softkeys.
The program has undergone a generic facelift; all icons have been changed and made much prettier.


Also see THIS (http://resco.net/pocketpc/photoviewer/indepth.asp) for more info on the changes.

What hasn’t changed (much)?


The screen capture module (please see this full roundup (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&amp;p=1201&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1) of all Pocket PC-based solutions to see how Resco’s solution compares to the alternatives) hasn’t changed much as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/Resco6PhotoViewerScreenCapture1.bmp.png) – there is a new Settings button, which makes it easier to set the image target and type paramers (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/Resco6PhotoViewerScreenCapture2.bmp.png). (For comparison, the main dialog of version 5.32 can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/092006ScreenCapture/rESCOScreenCap.bmp.png)). This means, unfortunately, there’re no radically new additions to this module.
The editing functionality of the application isn’t at all extended; the same stands for the (still) non-existing batch editing / conversions. This is not a big problem though.


Verdict

The best Pocket PC-based image viewer just got better. While it’s still lacking some (advanced, “geeky”) functionality, you won’t find better / faster generic-use photo / image viewers for the Pocket PC. Don’t forget to check it out, particularly if you’re already an owner of a previous version and are, therefore, eligible for free / rebated upgrade.

[haesslich]

Just downloaded it. It loads quickly, and photos take less time to redraw, which is a bit of a blessing. I've been testing with 8MP pictures myself... so far, so good.

[Dyvim]

I'm pretty sure the upgrade is free if you purchased 5.x within the last 12 months. Otherwise it's 50% off. I was able to upgrade for free- and do it all from my PDA without use of the desktop (I love Resco's upgrade scheme).

[TOCA]

Well why make upgrades for the best there is?

Maybe that's why it took so long, for v.6.0 to arrive, no need to hurry when there is no competition :?

Still nice to see the best getting eaven better :D

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I'm pretty sure the upgrade is free if you purchased 5.x within the last 12 months. Otherwise it's 50% off. I was able to upgrade for free- and do it all from my PDA without use of the desktop (I love Resco's upgrade scheme).

At the time I posted this (like, two minutes after they uploaded the update to Handango :lol: ), the upgrade options weren't clear.

[Jason Lee]

I also was able to upgrade for free.. I renewed my license less than a year ago. I just requested my registration codes and it had the new code for 6.0.