Perhaps some of you remember the good old days when every PDA came with a cradle in the box as a standard accessory. In case you never knew the virtues of a cradle, it was a device that acted as an easel for your handheld, charged it, synced with your desktop, and allowed you to view the screen at a suitable angle. Now, you are lucky indeed to find a cradle as a costly peripheral. I miss the good old days and yearn for a cradle.
I have tried various solutions such as going to Staples and finding a business card holder that will hold my pocket pal. But, that can be goofy when the connector is at the bottom, in which case I try setting the device on its side and putting the screen in landscape view.
Then I realized that I already had a perfect solution—a program I’ve been using for years—Soti’s Pocket Controller. I have always been fond of this program and have followed it through its evolution over time, but I had never thought of it as a virtual cradle.
A virtual cradle will allow you to view your handheld’s screen and access it with your mouse and keyboard so that it becomes like another computer screen right on your desktop.
Pocket Controller has many more virtues, however. You can download skins that represent your pocket pal so it looks as if the actual machine is embedded in your monitor. Or, you can simply display the small screen as is. The nice thing is that you can interact with it using the mouse for navigation and your keyboard for inputting.
Pocket Controller (PC) allows you to explore all the files and folders on your handheld and to transfer files back and for the by copy/paste or drag/drop with desktop. You can also explore and tweak the registry. PC has a task manager for viewing all the running processes, not just the programs on your device. You can view detailed system information. PC even offers a DOS prompt box, which is something I’ve never really thought about for a handheld. PC allows you to perform a soft or hard reset of the remote device.
Besides the skins view, PC accommodates changing the background, hiding windows, switching from portrait to landscape, drawing on screens, bringing up Websites, and zooming up to 300%.
In the capture mode, PC lets you print a screen, save it to a file or sync clipboards for pasting into other applications on your handheld or desktop. You can record macros with PC in the capture mode. It also allows you to record video animations. With PC, you can set rules for file and folder synchronization between remote and desktop.
The reason I started using PC in the first place long ago was its ability to capture and record screens, which is great for presentations and publishing.
Frankly, I don’t know what I would have done without PC over the years. But I would usually just invoke it long enough for a screen capture. Now that I realize I can use it for a virtual cradle, I often leave it running all day long. It’s nice to see my little pocket pal’s screen on my desktop and be able to access it as if it were just another computer screen, which of course is what it is actually. So, to heck with the manufacturers that forget to put a cradle in the box. I’ve learned to live without them, and I’m actually better of because of it.
To get your Pocket Controller virtual cradle, go to www.soti.net. Pocket Controller Professional version 6.0 will cost you $35.95. A cradle, should you be fortunate enough to find one, would probably cost just as much, but won’t do as much for you. Accordingly, which would you rather have? I think I’ll pick Pocket Controller and phooey on the good old days. I’ve moved on.
No comments:
Post a Comment