Rosie's Reviews

By Sandra Rosenzweig
     
      Where Are They Now?
      A second look at products that stood the test of time
      Lately, I've been pondering weak and weary over why I'm so much more critical of desktop PC hardware and software than I am of Windows Mobile hardware and software. I thought that a look at some of 2006's survivors might give me an answer.
      Last February I took on ABBYY FineReader 8 and Nuance's OmniPage 15, both top-of-the-line optical character recognition (OCR) programs for scanning print documents (www.abbyy.com and www.nuance. com). Loved them both, although
      I preferred FineReader a tad more because it didn't optically recognize line numbers. Where are they now? Both are back on the shelves. I haven't had much need for OCR this year.
      In March I praised the breadbox-size Shuttle XPC G5 8300h computer (www.shuttle.com). What is it doing now? Taking down the words in this column. It still hums along nicely in third gear and adjusts calmly to every new hardware or software product, although they don't always return the favor. In May I advised traveling with a Cirque Easy Cat Touchpad instead of a mouse (www.cirque.com). I really, really don't like laptop touchpads, even though many of them are made by Cirque. The Easy Cat has the advantage of any stand-alone hardware: It goes where I put it, which is definitely not right under my laptop's space bar. Where is it now? On my wish list, because my old one got stepped on by a flight attendant.
      In May I heaped praise on Bose's QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones (www.bose.com). These headphones run on one AAA battery and generate sounds that cancel, not block out, ambient noise. And they cost $299. However, my husband recently gave me a set of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones, which, in addition to reproducing excellent sound quality, also block (not cancel) noise (www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/icm_eng.nsf). In fact, to our ears, they block more noise than the Bose headphones. And they cost only about $100.
      In May I was also intrigued by 3M's Ergonomic Optical Mouse, which looks more like a joystick (that's a game-playing mouse substitute) than like your standard mouse. It did give my wrists a rest, but I missed all the bells and whistles?the auto scrolling and ambidexterity?of more commercial mice, such as Microsoft's corded Comfort Optical Mouse 3000, which I reviewed in the same month and am still using. However, if I had very serious RSI, I might have been motivated to stick with the 3M stick.
      Boy, I was chatty in the May issue. That's when I discussed my favorite tweaker programs and registry editors: good old reliable WinGuides Network's Registry Guide for Windows, $29.95, and Tweak Manager, $39.95 (www. winguides.com), both of which walk you through a large choice of registry changes and tweaks. These programs have been on my PCs for about a decade, and I'm still crazy about them after all these years. I also keep on hand Microsoft's free TweakUI PowerToy (www.microsoft.com/window sxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx), which provides fewer tweaks but in a much less techie format. In the same article, I briefly reviewed Microsoft's comfy Natural Ergonomic corded Keyboard 4000. It's under my fingertips as I write this.
      Most of the programs on my Windows Mobile 5 Dell Axim X51v were there well before January 1, 2006. Yes, some of them have been upgraded a few times since I installed them, but they are, essentially, the same programs.
      Though I'll happily test just about anything that comes along, here are the devices and programs I long ago standardized on. Hardware: the above-mentioned Axim; the HTC Wizard, rebranded for Cingular as the model 8125 Windows Mobile phone edition cell-PDA combo pocket PCs (PPCs). In a year, I expect, these two devices will have ceded their places to newer models?the Axim because Dell isn't going to make it anymore; the Cingular because we need a year, more likely two years, before a phone edition Palm or PPC device has the memory and the convenience of the two gadgets separately.
      Microsoft's default calendar and phone book apps for the PPC are weak and shortsighted. Most users lay a much more powerful shell over these base data so they can file and find, say, their appointments more easily. For my calendar and phone book program, I use (on different PDAs) Developer One's Agenda Fusion (www.developerone.com; $29.95) and WebIS's Pocket Informant (www.pocketinformant.com; $24.95). But?horrors?you actually have to open these programs to see your appointments or your contacts' phone numbers. Wouldn't it be better if all of your current data would show up right on the home screen (called the Today page) every time you turn on your gadget? Enter SBSH. com's PocketBreeze, a program that presents today's appointments, tasks, contacts, and notes compactly on your Today screen. PocketBreeze (PB) also provides tabs for other Today so-called plug-ins, such as SBSH's own PocketWeather and Resco's File Explorer, so they all run compactly inside PB's umbrella.
     

---