PPCMAG 2006 Award Nominations

**Rishad** · 07-26-06, 06:52 PM

"699 Products have been nominated in Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Sixth Annual Best Software Awards for Windows Mobile software. In August a team of 90 Windows Mobile experts from around the world will evaluate the software nominees in 88 Pocket PC categories and 27 Smartphone categories."

List of nominees

Please post here if you have any comments (good/bad) about any of the products listed here. As a member of the 2006 Board of Experts, I'll definitely take your opinions into consideration.

nashi · 07-27-06, 04:19 AM

I am very surprised that Sprint DB Pro was not nominated in the Database category. This is a great product with a new WM5 compatible version just released whereas as far as I can tell abcDB is not supported/active. HanDBase has very limited DB functionality, Visual CE is good but complex and expensive and XSDesigner has promise but is still a work in progress IMO. Finally MoviGanizer is just for cataloging movies and not building your own DB which should be what this category is about?
So Sprint DB Pro is a fully featured DB app builder, it is still supported, reasonably priced and not too hard to use.
Definately worth at least a recommendation in my ebook.

AKAJohnDoe · 07-27-06, 01:08 PM

Also a bit surprised that SplashID is not even listed under the Secure Information Managers category.

stimpy_gr · 07-28-06, 03:01 AM

Where's the GPS navigation category.

The GPS -Moving Map category is a Joke.

The PPC Mag nominations are approx. 80% the same as last year, with many of the versions the same as last year.

Its an indication of the paucity of development and innovation of the PPC software market.

Which is why the lack of GPS voice navigation catogory is so strange, since it is one of the areas where PPC development is strongest and is a major "Killer app" driving sales

07-30-06, 12:57 PM

Sweet! I'm very happy to see that Pocket Secure v3.0 was nominated under the Utilities/Security category!

Thanks to all the users and supporters that got PS to this point! :approve:

axim_wannabe · 08-01-06, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by AKAJohnDoe

Also a bit surprised that SplashID is not even listed under the Secure Information Managers category.

AFAIK, SplashID (up until the latest update) had many incompatibilities with WM5... that could be the reason.

as for me, inspite of trying out FlexWallet, and eWallet; SplashID is still tops!!

08-01-06, 01:10 PM

I am a little surprised that WeatherPanel is listed since the developer has been missing for well over a year now. I do think it is easily the best weather plugin available (see some of my WP layouts in my sig) but it currently appears to be completely unsupported.

08-01-06, 09:27 PM

I never really know how to respond to the annual Award groups that PPC Mag puts out. Granted, I'm fairly new to the whol PDA WinMobile stuff. I've only been into it for the past 3 years. Starting with my iPAQ2215, then 2415, then x51v only this few months. I get PPC Mag nearly every month that gets published. When I look at the lists of software, I really don't see alot of innovation. I mean, how many times can Age of Empires appear without an new product or version. My use of the PDA is fairly limited. I keep appointments, play a few games (AoE), keep medical reference prorams available for quick reference of drugs and such and I use AvantGo for free time and such. I just haven't really seen alot of software ouyt there that makes me say:"I HAVE TO GET THAT NOW!!!!"

08-01-06, 10:16 PM

I'm not sure if I can all that many helpful comments but thanks for the link to the list, akheron! Without that I would have missed a very good read with some nice program ideas. :approve:

Hal Goldstein · 08-03-06, 08:25 AM

Hi All,

As the one in charge of the Awards, I'll try to answer your questions, but generally rather than specificially.

Bottom line: we do our best, inevitably some good programs are missed, and some nominated products shouldn't be there. I am always open for how to do a better job doing these awards with resource constraints. Having said that, I think it is the best list of nominees that we have come up with yet.

- To understand how awards work, do read www.pocketpcmag.com/awards . We try to make the process as transparent as possible.

- For a matter of logisics, to track everything properly and create our list of nominees, products must be in our database (Encyclopedia of Software and Accessories (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/_enc/encyclopedia.asp) . This is a FREE listing for developers. A few of the products mentioned in this thread were not nominated, because despite repeated attempts to alert the vendor, the database entry was not made by the vendor. (In the past when we have entered info for vendor, occassionally the vendor wasn't pleased to put it mildly, so vendors need to enter info).

- The awards are the best products in a category, even if the product is old and hasn't been updated. (It still should be supported).

- Our staff nominates products. Then for a month we ask the 90 judges to nominnate products. Then we open the nominations to the public for two weeks for their input. It is a collective effort since no one person or a group of people could possible know all the products.

Hope that helps. (Hal at hal@thaddeus.com)

08-03-06, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by Hal Goldstein

Hi All,

As the one in charge of the Awards, I'll try to answer your questions, but generally rather than specificially.

Bottom line: we do our best, inevitably some good programs are missed, and some nominated products shouldn't be there. I am always open for how to do a better job doing these awards with resource constraints. Having said that, I think it is the best list of nominees that we have come up with yet.

- To understand how awards work, do read www.pocketpcmag.com/awards . We try to make the process as transparent as possible.

- For a matter of logisics, to track everything properly and create our list of nominees, products must be in our database (Encyclopedia of Software and Accessories (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/_enc/encyclopedia.asp) . This is a FREE listing for developers. A few of the products mentioned in this thread were not nominated, because despite repeated attempts to alert the vendor, the database entry was not made by the vendor. (In the past when we have entered info for vendor, occassionally the vendor wasn't pleased to put it mildly, so vendors need to enter info).

- The awards are the best products in a category, even if the product is old and hasn't been updated. (It still should be supported).

- Our staff nominates products. Then for a month we ask the 90 judges to nominnate products. Then we open the nominations to the public for two weeks for their input. It is a collective effort since no one person or a group of people could possible know all the products.

Hope that helps. (Hal at hal@thaddeus.com)

I think you guys do superb job of keeping someone like me abreast of what's out there and how it all compares, and the Award part is helpful as well in gathering opinion around what most users feel is "best". Thanx-----and congratulations on hooking up with one of the Best Sites around----this one.

dgoldring · 08-03-06, 01:50 PM

I'm very surprised to see that TCPMP did not make the list.

I am glad, however, to see that Wisbar Advanced 2 (was Wisbar Desktop on there? I missed it) was nominated. The folks over at Lakeridge do a great job with this one.

Also, glad to see our friends over at SBSH were well represented.

Doug

Hal Goldstein · 08-03-06, 01:59 PM

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The Core Pocket Media Player (Gabor Kovacs, betaplayer.corecodec.org) won last year and is certainly nominated this year. (Just not the acronym

solara · 08-03-06, 06:57 PM

-I'm surprised Calc98 isn't on the list of Calculators - freeware or shareware version.

-And I'm surprised AE Button Plus isn't on the list. It works great on WM5 - works better than Vito on my machine.

-Resco Registry Editor should be a separate entry under the Registry category.

-And you need a category for GPS software like iGuidance, TomTom, Route66, Navigon, Mapopolis, i-Go, Destinator, etc.

Menneisyys · 08-04-06, 03:55 AM

Originally Posted by solara

-Resco Registry Editor should be a separate entry under the Registry category.

It's part of Resco File Explorer; this is why it couldn't be nominated. Otherwise, it would be there.

(Personally, also taking its price into account, I consider Resco Registry Editor the best registry editor - also see my roundup if interested.)