Our 38 expert judges for the 2002 Pocket PC Awards had plenty to say about the 438 products they judged. In this issue we are publishing their comments on travel-related programs. The purpose of publishing experts' comments is to give insights about a variety of products, not to show how the judges voted. (The winners and finalists in the 2002 Pocket PC Awards can be found on our Web site (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/). For the sake of brevity, we've included only one judge's comment per product, and we've edited each down to its essence.
GUIDES
Jeff McKean www.tesseractseattle.com
Vindigo (www.vindigo.com) gives details about restaurants, theaters, bars, clubs, stores, and other places of interest in major cities. I have completely navigated New York City using Vindigo and would not even think of leaving it off my device. Content is high quality, constantly updated, and useful. Downloading this content is relatively painless. Vindigo was originally released for the Palm OS and helped drive sales of that device. The fact that a Pocket PC version is available will help make switching from Palm to Pocket PC easier.
Pocket Hot Spots (www.pocketmap.com) provides more detailed coverage than Vindigo, but is currently only available for Las Vegas, NV. The developer promises more hot spots will be added.
KnowPlaces (www.brightangle.com/knowplaces/default.asp) is very similar to Pocket Hot Spots, but focuses on single venues and is more detailed because of that. If you're planning on going to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, or any venue on their list, KnowPlaces would be very useful. However, the venue list is limited.
Scott Hibbs www.grindergear.com
PocketMap City Guide (www.pocketmap.com) is the best travel guide around. The program is reasonably priced and the well-written software covers 2000 cities and 130 metro areas.
INFORMATION MANAGERS
Matthew Miller www.geek.com
TripTracker (formerly Traveller: www.twopeaks.com) lets you track flight and frequent flier information, hotel stays, car rentals, custom events, and expenses (meals, fees, mileage, etc.). The program also includes a handy currency converter and the ability to export the expense report as a CSV file for quick importing into Excel or other programs. You can sync TripTracker data between the Pocket PC and desktop PC versions of the program. You can also have the data synced to Calendar. Finally, I take many trips to the same places and the ability to create a duplicate of a previous trip, and then enter new data, is a great time saver.
Personal Vehicle Manager (www.twopeaks.com) is great for keeping data about your own vehicle or a fleet of vehicles. The program offers a ton of options, but data entry is quick and easy. One great feature is the quick stats screen, which summarizes your fuel economy, cost of ownership, upcoming maintenance, and more. Personal Vehicle Manager lets you set reminders for oil changes, etc., which can even be synced with Calendar.
Robert Bogue
Printer-friendly version