Aurorisoft dotPocket 2.1

Reviewed January 27, 2004
(Updated June 12, 2007)

dotPocket is a product that allows you to create a virtual display on your Pocket PC. It allows viewing your screen in portrait or landscape mode at many different resolutions. In addition, it includes remote control software allowing you to control your Pocket PC from your desktop PC using your mouse and keyboard. If this sounds interesting, read on to find out my experiences with dotPocket.

You can skip to any section of the review here.

• Summary
• Features
• Availability & Price
• Gotchas
• Conclusions

Summary

This review covers version 2.1 of dotPocket on both my iPAQ 5555 running Windows Mobile 2003 and my iPAQ 3870 running Pocket PC 2002. In addition, I also did some testing on my daughter's ViewSonic V36 running Windows Mobile 2003. Version 2.1, the latest release, added support for Windows Mobile 2003. I don't know if there were any other enhancements from prior releases.

Features

There are two main components to dotPocket — the Virtual Display and the Remote Control. The following sections will cover each component in detail.

Virtual Display

The Virtual Display is what allows your Pocket PC to change resolutions and orientations. If you're running at a resolution larger than 240x320 (or 320x240 in landscape mode), dotPocket allows you to see your screen in two different ways. Zoomed-Out mode shows the entire screen, but it's shrunk to fit the physical display, leading to some distortion. This is also referred to as Fit To Screen mode. Zoomed-In mode shows a 240x320 chunk of the entire display without distortion. The downside is that you have to pan to see the entire display.

When you start dotPocket on the Pocket PC, you'll see the Main tab of the Device Manager. This tab is the most important, allowing you to set the resolution and orientation you want to use. You can select portrait and landscape orientations (both clockwise and counterclockwise), all in several resolutions. You can also define a custom mode, if you like, and add it to the list.

Virtual Display Main Tab

One problem with this is how "left-handed" is defined. What dotPocket calls "Portrait Left-handed" is portrait mode with the buttons of the Pocket PC on top — basically, holding your Pocket PC upside-down. That's not what I would call left-handed. Also, "Landscape Left-handed" has the Pocket PC on its side with the buttons on the right. I'm right-handed, and want the buttons on the right when I'm using landscape mode. I don't know about how other people use landscape mode, but I would call that "Landscape Right-handed" and call other landscape orientation, with buttons on the left, "Landscape Left-handed".

The Security tab allows you to set passwords that are required when connecting to the Remote Control component. It also shows you the IP address to use in the Remote Control if you want to make a TCP/IP connection.

Virtual Display Security Tab

The Buttons tab allows you to set various buttons to dotPocket functions. You can also set the directional pad to pan the screen.

Virtual Display Buttons Tab

The first selection allows a button to toggle the Screen Navigator mode. The Screen Navigator allows you toggle zoomed-in and zoomed-out modes, and allows panning the screen in zoomed-in mode. It is the translucent box shown in the next two screens.

Screen Navigator In Zoomed-Out Mode

Screen Navigator In Zoomed-In Mode

In zoomed-out mode, tapping and holding the Screen Navigator square will toggle you to zoomed-in mode, and the Screen Navigator box will change.

In zoomed-in mode, you pan the screen using the top, bottom, left and right arrows of the Screen Navigator. The arrows at the corners of the Screen Navigator take you to the respective corners of your virtual screen. You can also tap-and-hold the square in the Screen Navigator to get the dotPocket context menu. This is shown in the next section.

In either zoom mode, you can drag the Screen Navigator on the screen to position it wherever you prefer.

If you have mapped a button to the Screen Navigator, there is also a third option when you press the button — zoomed-out mode with the Screen Navigator completely hidden. That mode is only accessible by using the button; there is no menu option to hide the Screen Navigator (because you couldn't get it back).

The second selection allows a button to display the dotPocket context menu. The context menu displayed depends on whether you're zoomed in or out, as the next two screen shots show.

Context Menu In Zoomed-Out Mode

Context Menu In Zoomed-In Mode

The third selection allows a button to display the Device Manager quickly.

One problem with the Security and Buttons pages is that you must press the Apply button to have changes take effect; pressing the OK button causes those changes to be discarded. This isn't how most programs work.

The About tab displays the typical copyright information, and also is where you enter your registration key. Finally, you can get help using dotPocket by pressing the Help button.

Virtual Display About Tab

So how well does it work? I tested the Virtual Display on the iPAQ 5555, iPAQ 3870 and the ViewSonic V36, and it worked reasonably well. I didn't get any lockups or crashes. Some programs had display issues running in landscape mode, but these issues could be attributable to the programs expecting to be run only in 240x320 resolutions, of course, and not to any bug in dotPocket. However, they are issues that people should be aware of, so I'll list the programs I tried and the results I got.

As I believe most people will use this software to run in landscape mode, I mostly restricted my testing to landscape mode. In fact, I've had a hard time thinking of a reason to run in any other mode than landscape mode. Most Pocket PC programs will provide scroll bars to move around in documents larger than the screen, so you wouldn't need to use a higher resolution in dotPocket and pan the screen. One use might be to get a global view of what an entire document looked like (a thumbnail) in programs that don't allow zooming.

The following sections list the Pocket PCs that I tested, and contain screen shots and comments about the programs I tested. You can skip to any of the Pocket PCs tested.

• iPAQ 5555
• iPAQ 3870
• Viewsonic V36

iPAQ 5555

I did most of my testing on my iPAQ 3870. However, I bought an iPAQ 5555 while in the process of writing this review, so I thought I'd test dotPocket on it, too. The 5555 was running Windows Mobile 2003.

On the iPAQ 5555, I tested several programs in landscape mode, mostly ones which I didn't test on the iPAQ 3870. These included:

Today Screen

The Today screen worked, although there were blank spots on the right. This isn't surprising, as Today themes are fixed-size bitmaps. Interestingly, the separator lines were drawn across the full screen, presumably because this is done dynamically.

Today Screen In Landscape Mode

Start Menu

The Start menu worked, but, with some themes, text wasn't visible in landscape mode unless you scrolled the cursor over the lines. This appears to be dependent on the theme; themes that use white text in the start menu may have this problem. As you'll see later, this didn't seem to be a problem in other resolutions.

Good Start Menu In Landscape Mode

Bad Start Menu In Landscape Mode

Reminders

Reminders popped up fine, but surprisinly didn't have any buttons! As you'll see later, the buttons were displayed in other resolutions.

Without buttons, it was very difficult to do anything else on the Pocket PC. I tried to invoke other applications with the buttons, but the reminder stayed in the foreground. The only thing I could do was to use the action button to snooze the reminder for five minutes. That allowed me to use the Pocket PC again, but obviously this is a large problem.

Reminder In Landscape Mode

Pocket Outlook

The main Personal Information Manager applications seemed to work fine, but the settings dialogs often were truncated.

Calendar

The following images show how the Calendar views look. Most views look fine, although the Year view was truncated at the bottom.

Calendar Agenda View In Landscape Mode

Calendar Day View In Landscape Mode

Calendar Week View In Landscape Mode

Calendar Month View In Landscape Mode

The Year view is almost perfect, with the months reflowing to fill the screen better. Unfortunately, the last two rows got truncated.

Calendar Year View In Portrait Mode

Calendar Year View In Landscape Mode

The entry dialog is usable, but the Attendees, Status and Sensitivity fields are truncated.

Calendar Entry Dialog In Portrait Mode

Calendar Entry Dialog In Landscape Mode

The options dialog is also usable, but the icon selection boxes and drop-down list to select how a meeting notice is sent are truncated.

Calendar Options Dialog In Portrait Mode

Calendar Options Dialog In Landscape Mode

Tasks

The following images show how the Tasks views look.

Tasks In Landscape Mode

The entry dialog is usable, but the Sensitivity field is truncated.

Tasks Entry Dialog In Portrait Mode

Tasks Entry Dialog In Landscape Mode

Contacts

The following images show how the Contacts views look.

Contacts In Landscape Mode

The options dialog is fine, and just missed being truncated.

Contacts Options Dialog In Portrait Mode

Contacts Options Dialog In Landscape Mode

The entry dialog is completely usable, thanks to the vertical scroll bar. As odd as it may sound, it works better in landscape mode than the other entry dialogs because it's bigger than the others, and thus required a scroll bar.

Contacts Entry Dialog In Landscape Mode

Notes

The following images show how the Notes views look. Notes also worked, although the Options dialog did get truncated.

Notes List In Landscape Mode

Notes Drawing Mode In Landscape Mode

The options dialog is usable, but the Record button action field is truncated.

Notes Options In Landscape Mode

Pocket Internet Explorer

Because Pocket Internet Explorer changed so much between Pocket PC 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003, I tested it on both platforms. Browsing worked fine in landscape mode, even with MultiIE 3.

Pocket Internet Explorer With MultiIE In Landscape Mode

Media Player

Not surprisingly, Windows Media Player was truncated in landscape. This could be due to the skin being a 240x320 skin, but I don't know whether a skin specifically for 320x240 would work or not.

Media Player In Landscape Mode

Pictures

The new Pictures application in Windows Mobile 2003 seemed to work well.

Pictures In Landscape Mode

ActiveSync

ActiveSync worked fine while browsing, although the background bitmap is truncated.

ActiveSync In Landscape Mode

Settings Applets

While the main settings view looked fine, several Settings applets have minor problems.

Settings In Landscape Mode

The password applet's first screen looked fine, even with the iPAQ's fingerprint scanner being used.

Password Applet In Landscape Mode

Trying to use the Screen applet to calibrate the touch screen in landscape isn't allowed by dotPocket, which seems reasonable. Instead, you get the following message.

Screen Applet In Landscape Mode

Unfortunately, this also prevents you from enabling ClearType. It's not that bad, though, because changing the ClearType setting requires a soft reset, which disables the Virtual Display anyway. However, perhaps the above message could only be given if somebody actually pressed the Align Screen button.

Thumbs Up iTask

This program is a task manager included on my iPAQ 5555. Unlike the version on the 3870, this version worked fine in landscape mode.

iTask In Landscape Mode

iPAQ Wireless Control

The iPAQ Wireless Control allows easy control of the Bluetooth and WiFi on the iPAQ 5555. Unfortunately, it did not look good in landscape mode.

iPAQ Wireless Control In Landscape Mode

eWallet

eWallet worked well in landscape, although the card details screen didn't take advantage of the additional width.

eWall Wallet Sections In Landscape Mode

eWallet Card In Landscape Mode

eWallet Card Details In Landscape Mode

Pocket Explorer

The freeware file explorer, Pocket Explorer, worked well in landscape.

Pocket Explorer In Landscape Mode

I also tested several programs in 320x320 landscape mode to see how some of the programs with problems behaved and to compare the Zoomed-Out mode to the Zoomed-In mode. These included:

Programs Folder

The Programs folder (and any subfolders) worked fine, with the icons reflowing to fill the wider screen.

Programs Folder In 320x320 Zoomed-Out Mode

Programs Folder In 320x320 Zoomed-In Mode

Pocket Internet Explorer

Pocket Internet Explorer worked fine, too.

Pocket Internet Explorer In 320x320 Zoomed-Out Mode

Pocket Internet Explorer In 320x320 Zoomed-In Mode

Start Menu

The Start Menu painted just fine in 320x320, unlike regular landscape mode.

Start Menu In 320x320 Zoomed-Out Mode

Reminders

The Reminders displayed normally in 320x320, with buttons all there, unlike regular landscape mode.

Reminders In 320x320 Zoomed-Out Mode

Memory Settings Applet

The Memory Settings applet wasn't truncated at the bottom. Presumably, that should be true of most settings applets at 320x320.

Memory Settings Applet Running Programs Tab In Landscape Mode

dotPocket

dotPocket wasn't truncated, like it was in landscape mode.

dotPocket In 320x320 Zoomed-Out Mode

My final tests on the iPAQ 5555 used 640x480 landscape mode. Because zooming in won't be much different between this mode and other resolutions, I'll only show zoomed-out screens here to give you an idea of how easy or hard things are to read.

Programs tested included:

Today Screen

The Today Screen exhibited the same glitch as it did in other resolutions. You can also see iTask and a notification bubble.

Today Screen In 640x480 Zoomed-Out Mode

Start Menu

The Start Menu painted just fine in 640x480, unlike regular landscape mode. You can also see that ActiveSync scaled reasonably well (except for the background bitmap).

Start Menu In 640x480 Zoomed-Out Mode

Reminders

The Reminders displayed more or less correctly in 640x480, with buttons all there, unlike regular landscape mode, but much too large.

Reminders In 640x480 Zoomed-Out Mode

Programs Folder

The Programs folder (and any subfolders) worked perfectly, with the icons reflowing as expected.

Programs Folder In 640x480 Zoomed-Out Mode

Pocket Internet Explorer

Pocket Internet Explorer worked fine, too. This (and all other Pocket Internet Explorer shots) had the Fit To Screen checked in PIE.

Pocket Internet Explorer In 640x480 Zoomed-Out Mode

iPAQ 3870

I did most of my testing on the iPAQ 3870, mainly because I had it before I got the iPAQ 5555. The 3870 was running Pocket PC 2002.

I tested a lot of programs on the 3870 in landscape mode, including:

Pocket Outlook

The main Personal Information Manager applications seemed to work just like they did in the iPAQ 5555. Here are a couple of images to show the similarity.

Calendar Year View In Landscape Mode

Contacts In Landscape Mode

Notes also worked, although the Options dialog did get truncated.

Notes In Landscape Mode

Notes Options In Landscape Mode

Pocket Internet Explorer

dotPocket worked fine while browsing, even with MultiIE 3.

Pocket Internet Explorer With MultiIE In Landscape Mode

However, the Favorites dialog got truncated at the bottom (the bottom of the scroll bar is missing — you can still scroll down, but you won't see the last few entries).

Pocket IE Favorites In Landscape Mode

Pocket Word

Word didn't seem to have any problem in landscape mode.

Word In Landscape Mode

Pocket Excel

Excel also looked very nice in landscape mode (this shot uses 75% zoom in Excel).

Excel In Landscape Mode

Programs Folder

The Programs folder (and any subfolders) worked fine, with the icons reflowing to fill the wider screen.

Programs Folder In Landscape Mode

Memory Settings Applet

The Memory Settings applet had some problems, getting truncated at the bottom. The worst effect was that the buttons on the Running Programs tab could not be accessed.

Memory Settings Applet Running Programs Tab In Landscape Mode

File Explorer

File Explorer worked, although it didn't seem to use the wider screen.

File Explorer In Landscape Mode

Reader

Reader didn't seem to have any problems, although you may prefer reading in portrait mode to keep your eyes from scanning more horizontally.

Reader In Landscape Mode

Pocket Informant

The main Pocket Informant views worked nicely.

Pocket Informant Day View In Landscape Mode

Pocket Informant Week View In Landscape Mode

Pocket Informant Month View In Landscape Mode

Pocket Informant Tasks View In Landscape Mode

Pocket Informant Contacts View In Landscape Mode

However, things like the date picker were truncated on the bottom.

Pocket Informant Date Picker In Landscape Mode

AOL Instant Messenger

AOL Instant Messenger seemed to work fine.

AOL Instant Messenger Main Screen In Landscape Mode

AOL Instant Messenger Buddy List In Landscape Mode

AOL Instant Messenger Message Screen In Landscape Mode

Calc98

The freeware Calc98 (from calculator.org) had problems. The top rows of keys were covered by the display or truncated by the top of the screen.

Calc98 In Landscape Mode

Microsoft Money

Money seemed to work just fine.

Money In Landscape Mode

Pocket Streets

Pocket Streets seemed to work flawlessly.

Pocket Streets In Landscape Mode

SnoopSoft Dashboard and Thumbs Up iTask

These programs shipped with my iPAQ 3870. When viewed in landscape mode, my Dashboard skin got changed. Also, the iTask graphics and menus got changed, which is markedly different behavior than on the iPAQ 5555.

I don't know if the newer versions of Dashboard or StarTap (the full version of iTask) would show these problems.

The following screen shots show both problems.

Dashboard & iTask In Portrait Mode

Dashboard & iTask In Landscape Mode

Solitaire

Solitaire had a couple of problems. First, although you could play the game fairly well, long stacks of cards got truncated at the bottom of the screen, preventing you from moving some. Also, notice the screen showing through on the right; the game is probably hard-coded for 240x320 resolution.

Solitaire In Landscape Mode

Worse, the options dialog was completely messed up.

Solitaire Options In Landscape Mode

Emerald Hunt

I was surprised, but Emerald Hunt worked in landscape mode, except one row was missing at the bottom of the screen. Interestingly, the grenade control moved from the bottom of the screen to the side, implying the programmer does some resolution checking (a Handheld PC version of the game was also available). Also, a few drawing artifacts were visible, but they didn't detract from the play.

Emerald Hunt In Portrait Mode

Emerald Hunt In Landscape Mode

CoPilot Live

CoPilot Live is a full-screen GPS program, and I didn't expect it to run in landscape mode. Not surprisingly, it crashed while starting up, but I don't consider this a real problem. I just ran this test to see what would happen, but I doubt many people would want to run this in landscape mode.

dotPocket

Finally, just for fun, I tried dotPocket itself in landscape mode. If one program should work perfectly, this was it. Oops — the dialog was truncated.

dotPocket In Landscape Mode

Viewsonic V36

On the V36, I didn't test dotPocket as much. As it was going to be a Christmas gift for my daughter, I didn't want to load it down with software (or have to uninstall it). I just tested a few things, including:

• The Memory settings applet had the bottom truncated in landscape mode, just like on the iPAQ 3870.

• The Options dialog in Solitaire was truncated at the left and bottom in landscape mode, just like on the iPAQ 3870.

• The camera software, which itself runs in landscape mode, ran, although the control buttons on the right side were not shown.

Remote Control

The screen below shows the dotPocket Desktop remote control.

Remote Control

The Remote Control portion worked well on the iPAQ 3870, the iPAQ 5555 and the ViewSonic V36. Response was a bit slow, of course, because the screen data has to be sent to my laptop, which gives a perceptible lag.

The above screen shot illustrates one problem with the Remote Control. The window is sized perfectly for the resolution of your Pocket PC, which I like. However, while you can shrink the window if you want, you can't make it larger than the default size. This means that some of the tool bar buttons aren't accessible in portrait mode (specifically, the buttons to rotate the display clockwise, show the help and print).

I believe that every application should allow the user to resize the window as small as desired or as large (at least, up to the size of the physical display). This means there may be some blank areas around the Pocket PC screen, but so what? Just paint them in with something (like a subtle bitmap of the dotPocket logo, perhaps; just allow the user to replace the background with their own solid color or bitmap).

The menus seem planned well, and are fairly easy to understand, as the next screen shots show.

The File menu contains several useful functions, including the ability to capture screen shots from your Pocket PC and even make a video of what you do on it.

Remote Control File Menu

Two interesting options are the File Transfer and Properties actions.

The File Transfer dialog lets you move files between your PC and Pocket PC without using ActiveSync's Explore or Windows Explorer.

Remote Control File Transfer

The Connection Properties dialog lets you set several options concerning the connection between your Pocket PC and the Remote Control.

Remote Control Connection Properties

Of particular interest is the Grab method field. It's a bit complicated, so I'll explain what the options do.

Choosing Driver Integrated will display the virtual screen at the correct orientation and size, regardless of whether the Pocket PC's screen is zoomed in or out. If your Pocket PC is in landscape mode, the remote control window will be properly oriented; if it's in 640x480 landscape mode, the window will be larger and oriented properly. However, some items drawn directly to video memory might not show up (like the Screen Navigator).

Remote Control Driver Integrated Screen Grab

In fact, if you want to see your Pocket PC at 640x480, using the Remote Control software makes this possible without the panning or zooming required by the Virtual Display. This is one of the few reasons I can think of for running your Pocket PC at an enhanced resolution.

Choosing Direct Video Memory Access will display a 240x320 view of your screen. The screen will reflect whether you're zoomed in or out, as the next two screen shots illustrate.

Remote Control Direct Video Memory Access Screen Grab Zoomed Out

Remote Control Direct Video Memory Access Screen Grab Zoomed In

One other item in the Connection Properties dialog bears discussing. The Choose connection method drop-down list allows you to connect using ActiveSync or TCP/IP. This allows you to control your Pocket PC using WiFi. Change the Choose connection method setting to TCP/IP, enter the IP address shown on the Security tab of the Device Manager into the IP address of your Pocket PC field then select Connect in the File menu to establish a remote connection. How cool is that?

Remote Control TCP/IP Connection Properties

The View menu allows you to change the orientation of the display (most useful if you're using Direct Video Memory Access as your screen grab setting) and adjust the color pallette to improve response time.

Remote Control View Menu

The Help menu has online help and allows you to visit the dotPocket Web site and send feedback.

Remote Control Help Menu

The only suggestion I might make is to create a separate Capture menu for the screen capture and AVI functions in the File menu.

There are a couple of problems that you can't see, too. First, there doesn't seem to be a way to simulate button presses; you have to actually press the buttons on the Pocket PC. Second, tap-and-hold works by holding the left mouse button down (which makes sense), but it would be nice if the right button also brought up the tap-and-hold menu.

Availability & Price

You can get dotPocket from Aurorisoft. dotPocket 2.1 costs $30. You can get it now for $20 during a holiday promotion (which may be permanent at some time). It will take about 378 KB of storage memory on a Pocket PC 2002 device and about 400 KB on a Windows Mobile 2003 device. Also, running at higher resolutions will require more program memory (presumably because the display buffer is kept full-size).

If you don't need the remote control capability, there is also a dotPocket Lite that includes only the virtual display portion of the product. That version costs $15. You can get it now for $10 during a holiday promotion (which may be permanent at some time).

There is a 30-day free trial available for all versions, as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee.

If you want to try the product, make sure you download the correct version; there are separate versions for devices running Pocket PC 2000/2002 and those running Windows Mobile 2003. There is also a short list of devices that are explicitly unsupported, including:

• The HP iPAQ 1900 series
• The Casio Cassiopea E-200
• The Packard Bell and NEC MobilePro 300E
• The Mitsubishi Trium Mondo

There is some competition for dotPocket. For example, Nyditot's Virtual Display obviously provides a virtual display, and Soft Object Technologies' Pocket Controller Professional allows controlling your Pocket PC from a PC. Unfortunately, I haven't used those products, so any comparisons made were based on their Web sites.

Gotchas

There are a few minor problems in dotPocket, and a few minor improvements I'd suggest. I'll start by listing the problems.

1. As mentioned above, in landscape mode, some screens were truncated. Perhaps the panning capability could be allowed in landscape mode to access any portions of the display that were cut off.

   NOTE: The staff at Aurorisoft said this wasn't technically possible, and suggested the work-around of using a 320x320 landscape display. Of course, that takes more memory to hold the display, and, as my screen shots above show, you'll either have to deal with a squished display (in fit-to-screen mode) or one where you have to pan (in full-screen mode) when you wouldn't have to in landscape mode.

   Also, the problems with the Start menu text and reminder buttons should be fixed, if possible.

2. In the Device Manager, don't require pressing the Apply button to save changes made on the Security and Buttons tabs; pressing the OK button should also make any changes. This is how Windows is supposed to work.

3. Show the entire Remote Control tool bar, even in portrait mode or using the Direct Memory Video Access screen grab method.

I'd also make a few suggestions for enhancements.

1. Add screen capture capability to the Virtual Display. The Remote Control can capture a screen, and I don't think it would be too difficult to add one to the Virtual Display. The Buttons tab in the Device Manager could allow mapping a screen capture button, too. This would make it easy to send any problem reports to Aurorisoft, too — just capture the bad screen, and save it to your My Documents folder to be synchronized at a later time.

2. Make the Virtual Display Device Manager a control panel applet, not a stand-alone program. This application is more appropriate as a settings applet (and that's also how Nyditot's Virtual Display works). Reinforcing this view is the fact that the Pocket PC part is just a tabbed dialog with no menu bar, more like a settings applet than an application.

   There are a couple of downsides to this, though. First, if you switch resolutions a lot, settings applets don't show up at the top of the Start menu. Similarly, creating shortcuts to a settings applet is much more difficult than creating a shortcut to a program, so it would be harder put a shortcut in a folder.

3. Rename the Device Manager's list of resolution settings. Portrait Left-handed should be Portrait Upside-down, Landscape Left-handed should probably be Landscape Right-handed and Landscape (without qualification) should probably be Landscape Left-handed. Alternatively, the Landscape Left-handed could be Landscape Counter-Clockwise and Landscape (without qualification) could be Landscape Clockwise. That removes any suggestion of which hand the user should use.

4. In the desktop Remote Control, provide some method for simulating button pushes.

5. Also in the Remote Control, map the right mouse button to a tap-and-hold action. Holding the left mouse button down to invoke tap-and-hold makes sense, too, but I don't think desktop users will make the jump right away. Allowing both actions for tap-and-hold should avoid any confusion.

6. In the Remote Control's File Menu, move the screen capture and AVI functions to a new Capture menu. The File menu is a bit long, and this would group things more logically.

Conclusions

This software isn't for everybody, of course. Many programs aren't set up to take advantage of the enhanced screen size, and some even work worse with it. I don't penalize dotPocket for that, though; they can't write everybody's software.

However, if you want to run in landscape mode, the Virtual Display will do it without too many problems. Running in 320x320 landscape mode zoomed out solves most of them if you don't mind the squished display.

Even without changing the resolution, the Remote Control gives you some great capabilities, especially if you're doing software reviews. Combining the two makes for one powerful product.

Rating the product on the typical five-star scale, I give it 4.5 stars. There were no major problems, but enough glitches to prevent it from getting a perfect rating.

Post any comments about this in our forums.

---