Just Another Mobile Monday

JAMM ReLaunch Contest II

Posted by: dgoldring on Jun 30 2008

Well, I decided to take a break from picking winners today and instead shift gears a bit. It looks like most of you have commented on the new theme, and we got a lot of great feedback. But really, there is a lot more we want to know. So, I figured we would change the rules a bit. We’ll still pick three (or more) winners per day from this post, so keep checking back here. What we want to know, though, is what would you like to see us review here at JAMM. Take a look back through our review archives and tell us what programs, devices, or accessories you have a burning desire to know more about. Again, each comment will count as one entry, and you may feel free to enter as often as you like. Ready…set…COMMENT!

By entering this contest, you authorize Just Another Mobile Monday , and its representatives, to provide your personal information (such as, but not limited to your name and email address) to the sponsors of this contest should you be selected as a winner. Your personal information will not be sold by Just Another Mobile Monday, or otherwise retained for any purpose except that described herein.

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Tags: contest, JAMM, just another mobile monday, reviews
Posted under Contests, Freebies |

10585CommentsJAMM+ReLaunch+Contest+II2008-07-01+02%3A05%3A37dgoldring left comments on this post

Jun 30, 2008 - 11:06:58

foxpaw said:

Hello!

What is most useful to me are comparisons of various software programs in a particular category. With the market flooded with so many different, say, GPS programs…..it would be great to turn to JAMM to offer a rundown of what’s available for my operating system (WM5); feature comparisons; reliability; developer reputation; compatibility issues; pricing, etc.

I know this is not an easy request and is a time-consuming and challenging task. But few sites are willing to take the time or effort to offer a “buyer’s guide” as such to their readers.

Recent categories of software which have presented “research challenges” for myself….and are offered as some suggested categories worthy of this effort:

1- GPS
2- Weather
3- Travel guides (city specific)
4- Language translators
5- PIMs/organizers
6- Travel Utility (ie WorldMate, Traveler, etc.)
7- Bible
8- Reference programs

Might I suggest a “Category of the Month”….with the month starting off with a comparison article….followed by a week of reader comments/experiences, agreement/disagreement….followed towards the end of each month with a wrap-up post on the whole experience with that category. Maybe this could even end the month as a contest where a winner is chosen from among readers’ comments to receive a copy of the program deemed “Best” in a particular category.

Thanks for all you do for those of us who love and enjoy mobile computing! JAMM is, of course, an “essential tool” for me!
Jul 1, 2008 - 12:07:06

rekluz said:

I love the reviews that are offered here.
You could introduce something new here by reviewing open source software like those found at xda developers. There are so many being introduced each day that it’s hard to keep up with new programs and updates. This would be a great weekly feature that I would love to see.
Keep up the great work guys!
Jul 1, 2008 - 12:07:27

GreatDay said:

I should probably just bow to Foxpaw—-literally took the words right out of my mouth. But I would add….something clicked when i was researching something on Amazon the other night—trying to get my daughter the “right” bluetooth headset in time for our new mandated law. I was reading all the buyers opinions and it was sad. Fifty percent said thumbs up and Fifty said thumbs down, and I thought: “Why can’t we have a RELIABLE site that allows users to help rank an app or software?” Well, why can’t we have Foxpaw’s idea with a little readers poll results after a review. I know—-opinions are like ______; everyone’s got one, but, you get the idea……
Jul 1, 2008 - 03:07:41

knaak said:

I would really like to see a review of softmaker. This is a office suite which for some reason is not often reviewed, while, on the other hand, it has all the ingredients for a good review: it is rather expensive so a good review is needed to give readers an idea whether to purchase it or not. Personally, I have bought softmaker 2006 a while back and am not sure whether I should upgrade, so I really could use a good review!
Jul 1, 2008 - 03:07:15

spmwinkel said:

I like the fact that there are accesoiry reviews here. I don’t read all of them because I’m not using too much accesoires, but I’m glad that they are here. There are many people that ARE in the market for bluetooth headsets etc.

As for comparison reviews - yeah, they are the best. A review of a single program is great but if there is an alternative program that can do the same, reviews that are a few weeks apart can already be outdated. However, I like the shootouts on My Today Screen and I think they should stay there. So unless you can find people especially on JAMM who want to do them, think twice before introducing them.
Jul 1, 2008 - 03:07:54

spmwinkel said:

Oh - and I know reviewing free software can be less interesting because it’s free anyway, people can just try it and keep it if they like it. However, there is also extra reason to review free programs sometimes: because the rock!!
One example of such a free program is Battery Status. Actually the Enhanced version is most interesting and it seems to be supposed to go commercial in the future, but at the moment it’s a free beta which brings new futures often and can already replace your Today screen completely - IF you’re prepared to do some .xml editing or download existing skins by users.

As for the rest - just keep us updated about new releases from Astraware, PDAMill, SBSH, Ilium, Spb, etc - and if there’s something cool and new, show it to us in more detail. The’re a lot of interest in newly released stuff.
Jul 1, 2008 - 04:07:54

jd_denver said:

I’d like to see reviews of programs for the Palm OS, since that’s what my wife uses.
Jul 1, 2008 - 05:07:44

dgoldring said:

Thanks for the comments so far. Great stuff. I did start a series over at my other site, My Today Screen, called Shootouts, which pits two or three similar programs against one another. It is a lot of work to get one of them done, but a lot of fun as well. That being said, I like the idea of a Buyer’s Guide type approach. I will have to give that some more thought.

@jd_denver, Lauren is steadily increasing our coverageof Palm, but we are actively seeking more writers tohelp. Also, still actively seeking Blackberry and Symbian users. Hopefully, we can find a few writers in those three areas and really expand the coverage you see here on JAMM.

As for free apps. I think most of you know I love free apps. This is something which has been seeing a lot of coverage on both of my sites, and will hopefully continue to expand. I agree, we should spend more time on freeware and hopefully we will get there.

Doug
Jul 1, 2008 - 05:07:15

iphitus said:

Oh…. I was going to say comparisons too - I was halfway through writing this when I read the same thing in all the other comments!

Some ideas for reviews
- Keep the software reviews going. It’s always good to see what software is new and what changes there are in updates. Like I said, you’ve got a fairly good formula going here.

- Getting GPS Navigation going on pocket pc. I’d like to setup navigation sometime in the future, but I don’t know who sells the software and what bluetooth receivers are good.

- Software keyboard comparison. There’s a million out there.

- Weather software comparison. I hear some are inaccurate, eventually I bought SBSH’ offering, but it took a while to try a few.

- Not strictly a review, but I’d like to see some sort of guide for touch friendly software
Jul 1, 2008 - 06:07:48

iphitus said:

Hrm, just had this idea…

Seeing as it’s difficult to review everything in a comparison, maybe append a list of other similar software at the end, that way creating a small index of software in that category. Maybe add a sentence description for each too.

Recently I needed a software keyboard for my HTC Touch. I found TouchPal by pure chance. If there’d been a comparison or list, I wouldn’t have missed it.

Also, I’m curious - do you take contributed reviews (assuming they’re good/suitable)?
Jul 1, 2008 - 07:07:41

Heatwave316 said:

Lots of people have made some pretty good points already, but I have a few more.

I’m glad to see the Palm OS is still going to be covered. I know its not exciting anymore, but I am getting a new Centro, and would love to here about apps for it. As someone above mentioned, looking at freeware would be a plus. Also on the Palm OS, I would be interested in seeing a comparison between using your phone/PDA as a GPS device vs. a stand alone unit. I’ve been going back and forth between the 2. With the stand alone units being so much cheaper, the costs are equaling out.

I would also be interested in reviews for Zune accessories. We see so much about the iPod, it would be nice to give the MS device some love.

I am also interested in the mini-laptops/mini PCs, and how useful they would be in replacing a desktop. Computing power vs. need

Honestly, I just like to see news about the latest and greatest, even if its off the wall stuff. I like to see what’s coming next.
Jul 1, 2008 - 09:07:33

uzziah0 said:

I think a good thing to look at would be freeware.
There are sometimes tons of apps that fill the need for what I look for, and I can’t determine which to use. Reading the little blurb on a freeware site usually doesn’t offer an unbiased comment on it either.
I usually end up not installing these, or installing a few different ones to see which works best for me.
Like I tried two free e-mail readers to compare against the WM built in e-mail utility (the others were basically in development, and difficult to configure, so I’m not using them). This information would be great to have before going through all the work of setting them up and trying to us them.
Most apps are not so difficult to set up, but a good review of available free app in different categories would be great; even some sort of library of these reviews so they are easy to browse would be great too.

Thanks.
Jul 1, 2008 - 09:07:25

breley said:

It would be kind of cool if you were able to implement a weekly or perhaps monthly podcast roundup or even maybe an occasional roundtable with the crew on some topic, kind of like the McLaughlin Group. As a bonus, Doug could moderate with frequent “Wrong!” utterances.
I guess that would be akin to Foxpaw’s excellent suggestion above.

Something else I enjoy reading about is how a given user chooses to use a mobile device over the course of a day or so, a real world scenario if you will, discussing the aspects and usage of the particular group of software used. It’s one thing to talk about iLauncher or PocketPlus for example as an application, but I think readers might be interested in how someone uses it as part of their “mobile ecosystem” if you will. It might give newbies or folks undecided about getting a mobile device or particular software package a better understanding of how such software working together can improve their productivity, leisure or communication.
Jul 1, 2008 - 10:07:48

spmwinkel said:

Oooooh I like podcasts!

(and no, please don’t count this comment as an extra entry :p)
Jul 3, 2008 - 06:07:01

iphitus said:

Just been looking for a good (not short/old) review of Textr or comparison of it against SMS-Chat/Extreme Text. No luck.

The demo instantly expires (and freezes), there’s no contact details for the developers. Might well just have to try Birdsoft’s Extreme Text (which also needs a good review…) or Vito’s offering instead.

So that’s another review or two

(though don’t count this, I’ve had my fair two comments)
Jul 3, 2008 - 08:07:57

PointOfLight said:

How about reviews of GP2X software? I don’t think there is a whole lot available right now, but it looks like a really nifty device and it would be nice to see it get more exposure. Also, maybe you could do interviews with some of the smaller developers who don’t necessarily get a lot of press. There are a lot of developers out there who aren’t well known but have some good products available, yet the ones you always here about are folks like Astraware and PDAMill.
Jul 3, 2008 - 09:07:20

breley said:

Heh, drawing on the commentary about a rating system, maybe you could adopt a signal strength bar rating scheme versus the typical stars rating…a really great app gets 4 bars, a lousy app 1 bar, thereby tying in the fact that the items are mobile-centric. The “A” in JAMM has the signal logo, so why not?

I do like backup program reviews, and especially seeing what the experts recommend as backup routines for their units. I think that latter aspect would fall more under the tips and tricks routines.

I’d also like to see a comparison of desktop layout tools, like Wisbar Advance/Wisbar Desktop or SK Today commander and so forth as the standard WM 5/6 desktop/today screen can use tremendous improvements to enhance the user experience.
Jul 3, 2008 - 11:07:33

i-bystander said:

I’d like to see more BT Car Kit reviews, and perhaps a couple of portable speakers as well. I don’t know if it’s outside the realm of JAMM, but NAS and portable HD reviews would be nioe too.
Jul 3, 2008 - 03:07:40

fireman54 said:

Everyone’s comments are excellent. I definitely would like to see some reviews for accessories, BT headsets, cases, screen protectors. Reviewing and rating of popular freeware applications would greatly educate new users. As Breley said, a rating system would work nicely. But, along with that, perhaps there could be a way for us users to rate the reviewed apps or accessories. For instance, screen protectors. Many reviews state that the screen protector would last 4-5 months. Since I am an intense user of my touchscreen, I barely last a month with some screen protectors. If I could comment about my personal experiences with the reviewed item, I think it would help others.
Jul 3, 2008 - 04:07:37

mrstella said:

I don’t mind the banner ad at the top of each page. I know there must be a lot of expenses and I would rather keep the site free and have a few ads.

The new site design is really clean. Good job. Not always an easy task when you have so much content.

One suggestion I would have is that there should be a link back to the home page at the top of each interior page or article. I know there is one at the bottom but if you are just looking at the top of an article, it is hard to know what site you are on and how to get to the home page.

Now that I look more closely, I am wondering if there needs to be a closing table column tag at the bottom of the article. On my browser (IE 7), the Home, Contact Us, etc and JAMM logo are at the bottom under the article comments.
Jul 3, 2008 - 07:07:56

Brandon Steili said:

@Mrstella - Thank You. You were pretty close on the closing table column tag… the IE7 thing has been bugging me for days. Turns out I had an extra closing div in the comments file… which FF and Safari were just fine with. IE7 however freaked out on it.

The single post view should be fine now in all three major browsers (IE, FF and Safari) and you should happily find the link back to the main page back at the top of the sidebar.

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