Overview

This is a sweet little program.  Pocket Controller Professional from SOTI gives you complete control of your Pocket PC from your desktop computer. You can take direct control of your Windows Mobile device just as if you were holding it in the palm of your hand.  You can do everything you’d normally do with your Pocket PC, plus take screen shots, record videos and macros, and more. It would be especially useful to people reviewing, demonstrating, testing, or developing applications for the Pocket PC, but could be very handy for the casual user as well.  It’s nice to be able to manipulate your handheld with a standard mouse and keyboard.  It’s sure a lot quicker and easier than using the stylus, especially if your handheld is docked.  It doesn’t have to be docked though; you can take control of your Pocket PC over TCP/IP as well.  Read on for more details.

Features

Pocket Controller Professional allows you to take view and control your Pocket PC with your desktop or laptop computer. You have full control of the handheld as if you were actually holding it in your hand. Even the hardware buttons are accessible. In addition to the control function there are several useful tools including a file explorer, task manager, system info panel, and even a remote DOS box. You can also synchronize files and folders on your device, install software, or perform a soft reset. You can take screen shots, record videos, and even record and play back macros. You can even set to automatically synchronize your mobile clipboard with your desktop. You can also set a background for the rest of the screen, and increase the size of the virtual PDA for better viewing in presentations. There’s even an overlay drawing feature so you can circle things and point things out while giving a presentation.

Benefits

General Utility

It’s really handy just to be able to control your Pocket PC from your desktop just for normal everyday use, whether your device is docked, plugged in, or just sitting nearby with wifi turned on. It’s like having a little utility/media panel on your desktop. It’s also very handy to be able to type information directly into the PDA. As good as the transcriber is at interpreting my handwriting, it is still much faster and more accurate to type using a normal keyboard. You can even copy and paste information between your desktop and your Pocket PC. The other utilities such as file explorer and synchronization can also come in handy.

Software Reviews

Pocket Controller Professional would be very valuable to anyone doing reviews on Pocket PC software. You have easy access to your Pocket PC from your desktop computer, and can easy take screen shots and record demos. You can save screen shots to files or capture them to the clipboard. A screen capture program is really a must, and being able to control everything from your desktop PC just makes things a lot quicker and easier.

Presentations

This program would be great for use in presentations or giving demonstrations on Pocket PC software. You can enlarge the view of your Pocket PC and set a background for the rest of the screen so your Pocket PC gets full focus. There is even a function that allows you to do overlay drawings on the Pocket PC screen. When this is enabled you can hold down your control key and draw freely on the screen in your desired color. Great for pointing out different things to your audience.

Development

This would also be very valuable to anyone developing, testing, and/or writing documentation for Pocket PC applications. In addition basic control and the image and video capturing functions, you can also record macros and play them back. Very handy for automating repetitive tasks when testing software. You can save your macros in .cmd files so you can record as many as you need.

System Requirements

Pocket Controller Professional is compatible with all Windows CE based devices. This includes Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile Smartphone. There are skins available for all major brands including Acer, Asus MyPal, Audiovox, BenQ, Casio, Cingular, Datalogic, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP iPaq, HTC, I-Mate, Intermec, Magellan Navigation, Mitac, Motorola, O2, Orange, Palm Treo, Panasonic, PsionTeklogix, Qtek, Samsung, Siemens, Sprint, Symbol, T-Mobile, TDS, Toshiba, Trimble, Unitech, Verizon, ViewSonic, and more.

Pocket Controller Professional is officially compatible with Windows 2000 and XP. I tried it on my Vista machine and I was not able to get the connection to work through ActiveSync, but it works perfectly through TCP/IP.

Suggestions For Improvement

Sadly they didn’t have a skin for my Asus A639, so I’ve had to settle for the Asus A636 skin so far. They do say in the help file you can request a skin for your device by emailing support. So I’m going to do just that. :) I’m really glad to know that they are open to customer requests. It would be nice to be able to create our own skins as well.  (Update:  Since writing this SOTI has released a Asus A639 skin for Pocket Controller Professional.  It’s good to know SOTI is keeping stuff up to date and giving their customers what they ask for.)

I do wish the overlay drawing wouldn’t immediately disappear after letting go of the ctrl key. This makes overlays only useful for presentations, since you won’t be able to do a screen shot while still holding down the ctrl key. It would be nice to be able to just tap a key once to toggle overlay mode on or off. Then you could leave the overlay on the screen while walking around and talking to your audience, and you would be able to take screen shots with the overlays in them.

Overall Rating

I love this program. It really does allow you to control every aspect of your Pocket PC from your desktop or laptop computer. Installation is dead simple. The application is very well polished and is very intuitive and easy to use. There’s even a very nice help file included with it. It’s simple enough that any Pocket PC owner can pick it up and use it, but also powerful enough to satisfy the hardcore nerds. It’s really a must have for me. It has everything I need in a controller application, and it’s a solid product. It just plain works.  With all the crap out there these days it’s refreshing to see that at least one company can create a quality product.

Get It

You can download the a the 4 day demo or purchase the software at Handango. The normal price is $34.95. The discount price for members of Club Handango is $31.45.