Pocket PC Installer
We drag ourselves to the office each day, write our beautiful looking .Net CF applications, and finally, when that big day arrives - the code is finished, the QA department has stopped hassling us about the number of outstanding bugs, and we're ready to turn it into an easy-to-deploy installation package.. errr... oh heck. How little work can we put into this without having to talk every user through installing a set of .cab files onto their device, in a particular order ? Shall we just write a quick Word doc and leave it to our Support guys...? It seems amazing that PocketPC development has been going on for this many years, yet there still isn't a de-facto way of bundling up our PocketPC .cab files into some kind of easy-to-deploy installer.

Help Files for Pocket PC
Pete Vickers writes about his experience with Fast-Help, "Several years ago, I purchased a product called dotHLP to help me create a help file for a commercial app. I had tried several help authoring tools in the past, but rejected them either on price or functionality – they were either too expensive, or too complex for my needs. I tried dotHLP, and bought it at once."

Buried in Paper, Springfield, IL Fire Department Turns to Handheld PCs
Can’t find the right inspection program? Consider building your own. The handheld PC is not just for computer geeks — it’s also a valuable tool that fire departments and other public safety agencies can use for collecting and managing information. The ability to carry thousands of inspection records — the equivalent of dozens of file cabinets — in a gadget that fits in the palm of your hand is not only convenient, it allows new possibilities for analyzing data that are virtually impossible with paper records.

Handheld Computers Help Physicians Eliminate Billing Delays
Physicians are always looking for ways to reduce paperwork. One area that has long been considered a burden is the billing process, where timeliness and legibility are major issues for many physicians. Dr. Scott Sher, an anesthesiologist practicing in Phoenix, Arizona, has developed a technique for creating billing records using handheld PCs that provides physicians with significant time savings compared to paper forms. The new approach also provides physicians with their own electronic log of billing records as protection against discrepancies or errors.

Handheld Computers Improve Service Delivery in Hospital
Hospitals vary in size and focus, but they are all staffed by a variety of professionals who walk around performing activities where data has to be captured, accessed, and analyzed. It’s the type of environment that lends itself to handheld computers. By eliminating the need to record data on paper forms, handhelds increase efficiency both for the user as well as the medical facility as a whole. Time saving techniques such as drop-down lists allow data to be captured electronically in a fraction of the time required using paper forms. Information can be entered into the hospital’s central medical records system the same day it is collected, improving the quality of care and eliminating gaps between the time data is recorded and when it becomes available.

Using Visual CE to make the Pocket PC a Competitive Weapon
I wish I had a penny for every time someone has emailed me saying; "I need a Pocket PC application to maintain my inventory, I don't want to spend a lot of money and I only have a few days to do this. Please help!"; I would indeed be running this site from the Caribbean. Well I don't and I'm not, but what I do have for you is a solution in the form of SYWARE's Visual CE. If you're facing programming talent or time constraints you owe it to yourself to investigate Visual CE.

DeveloperOne's OutALine - A text outliner for the Pocket PC
DeveloperOne's OutALine is quite simply a text outliner for the Pocket PC, enabling users to arrange text, or items, into a hierarchal structure. With a relatively simple and intuitive interface, OutALine's has equally simple but fitting preferences, with selectors for checkboxes, drag and drop editing and options for displaying the note-display bar and font size. Most useful of the preferences is the ability to set a different font color for up to eight outline levels, further reinforcing the structure of the hierarchal "tree" and the organization of one item relative to another.

Review of Lupin's Diary by Upton Au
CeCraft’s first software release relating to Personal Information Management, Lupin’s Diary is a skinnable interface that allows access to Calendar, Tasks, and Contacts functions from within the application. Lupin’s Diary, with a 3-tabbed display area and controls above and below, occupies the entire Pocket PC screen. The three views provided are labeled Appointment, Task, and Contact. Common to all screens is the Options button featuring a question mark, and below, the New and Find buttons.

Pocket Informant Review by Upton Au
Pocket Informant by Web Information Solutions is designed to serve as a full replacement for Pocket PC's built-in PIM applications (Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks) in one integrated solution. The self-executable, 2-Week Demo version gives potential buyers a taste before taking the plunge. Registration codes are used to disable the time-limit. To realize the tremendous amount of functionality that can cater to the Pocket PC novice to the Power User and anyone in between, there is an extensive use of contextual tap-and-hold options and view-specific options in the clean and uncluttered interface.

Paqqin' Heat: The Eccentric Essentials - Part 3
Over the course of the two previous columns of this series, we've gone over maximizing the usefulness of one's Pocket PC through changes that diverge from the factory default settings and original Start Menu. In this, the third installment of Paqqin' Heat, I intend to cover some of the software that enhances the functionality of my PDA on a daily basis.

CodeWallet Pro Mobile Sync Pack
Upton Au reviews DeveloperOne's CodeWallet. CodeWallet, as the name suggests, is the electronic equivalent of a wallet developed for use on PDA's running the Windows CE operating system and is suitable for storing a variety of information, including banking and credit card numbers, insurance and traveling details, passwords, calling cards, and the like. The most notable features include the secure, password-protected 128-bit encryption scheme, the ability to create custom forms, and over 40 pre-made templates.

Paqqin' Heat: Of Tidbits and Menus - Part 2
deVBuzz’s Upton Au shares how he has made using his iPAQ easier and more enjoyable. In the last column, I went over my preferential arrangement of buttons and functions, both in the OS itself, and in Windows Media Player. Today, I'd like to concentrate on several more items having to do with Start/ Settings, and then move right along to the Start Menu....

Paqqin' Heat: Start/Settings - Part 1
deVBuzz’s Upton Au shares how he has made using his iPAQ easier and more enjoyable. Reminiscing back to the day I first received my Compaq iPAQ H3650 – July 13 of 2000 to be exact- nothing comes to mind as readily as my refusal to settle for the cardboard cut-out of a silver slab that was my Pocket PC, and my zealous desire to truly make it my own. In this first installment of Paqqin’ Heat...

Paragon Software - Multi-Language Dictionaries
After being informed as to Paragon Software's imminent release of a collection of Foreign Language dictionaries several months ago, I found myself eager to try them on my iPAQ. Foreign languages are very much a part of my life: I'm fluent in French as a result of living in Montreal for several years, and I am currently studying Spanish. I did keep my anticipation to a minimum however, as there were several criteria that I felt PDA dictionaries...

Chopper Alley
Chopper Alley, the first release from Amazing Games, is an extremely impressive war helicopter simulation that boasts spectacular 3-d graphics and smooth game play, thanks to a skillful implementation of a voxel engine that smoothly renders each of the five landscapes and makes the most of the 4 MB of storage memory that the game consumes.

SatAlert (Pocket PC version)
John Cody's Satalert alerts users when one is able to view either the International Space Station, or Mir, which due to its deliberate de-orbiting will quickly cease to exist, by means of generating appointments within the Calendar programs of one's PDA.

Silver Slider
Hand crafted modification of Compaq's Compact Flash expansion sleeve for the iPAQ 36xx Pocket PC.

J-Five
Jimmy Software's latest addition to their selection of arcade-style games

DeveloperOne - Agenda Plus Pack
Review of DeveloperOne's Agenda Plus Pack software.

DeveloperOne - Screen Snap
Screen Snap from DeveloperOne is a screen-capture utility that allows for the straightforward capture and organization of screen-shots.

StellarMetrics - Today’s the Day
A Today Screen banner replacement, capable of cycling through user-definable images daily, hourly, and every five minutes.