Presentation
Cards for Your
Pocket PC by Tong
Zhang, Senior Editor, posted
June 2003
LifeView
FlyPresenter CompactFlash Card (type I) for Pocket PC
LifeView, the folks who mke the FlyCam and
FlyJacket, have bundled their CF VGA/Video card with IA Style’s
IA Presenter software in a presentation solution called Fly
Presenter. Similar to IA Presenter and Margi
Presenter-to-Go, the FlyPresenter’s CF VGA output
supports resolutions up to 1024x768 at 64K colors. Not only
does FlyPresenter come with IA’s software suite, but
also it has a unique add-on feature. FlyPresenter-CF can project
full-motion video streaming from Pocket PC to a larger display
using a bundled version of Pocket TV player. The card can be
used in Pocket PCs with a type I or type II CF slot.
What’s in the package?
A FlyPresenter CompactFlash card, a VGA/Video
output cable with both Composite and S-Video connectors,
a pen-size remote control and laser pointer combo, an installation
and software CD, a Quick User’s Guide and an IA Style
FlyPresenter Suite manual.
Bundled software include IA Presenter, IA ScreenMirror,
IA Album and Pocket TV for playing MPEG 1 videos.
Installation
The installation of FlyPresenter is quite easy.
The installer lists all available software including the
CF driver, Pocket TV and IA software. You can click on each
application to install it on to your Pocket PC. The IA software
installs in a similar fashion to the IA Presenter installation.
You can choose to install one of six languages including
English, German, French, Japanese, Traditional and Simplified
Chinese.
There are two Quick User’s Guides,
one for the FlyPresenter-CF and one for FlyPresenter Suite
(which is the bundle of IA Presenter, IA Album and IA ScreenMirror).
There is a web link to LifeView’s web site for you
to check new software and driver updates.
FlyPresenter-CF and IA Software
After the installation
process, you will see the IA Presenter Converter software
on your desktop. The IA Presenter Converter software converts
PowerPoint presentations from desktop version to handheld
version. You can utilize the Converter in two ways. The
IA Presenter Converter can be used as the default converter
in ActiveSync for all PowerPoint presentations or as a
stand-alone app that you can use to convert the files before
moving them to the Pocket PC. Either way, you will have
options to determine the display size, output quality and
check to keep slide shapes information if your slides contain
animations. Once the files are converted to .iap format,
you can move them to your Pocket PC using the File Explore
function in ActiveSync and then view your PowerPoint files
on the Pocket PC. Unlike IA’s own Presenter software,
the FlyPresenter’s bundle does not put a shortcut
button in MS PowerPoint’s toolbar. IA
Presenter does a great job of representing a variety of
fonts, but make sure your presentation fonts are at least
20 point and 24 point or above for best results. Otherwise,
your text may not be readable.
On the Pocket PC, you
will find LifeView Shadow, IA Presenter and Pocket TV software.
After you have inserted the CF card into your Pocket PC
and connected your Pocket PC to a projector, monitor or
TV, you can tap on the LifeView Shadow icon to set up your
display. The application will allow you to set up the display
Position (Left, Middle, Right), Ratio (x1, x1.5, x2), Resolution
(640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) and Output method (VGA, NTSC,
PAL). IA Presenter’s interface on the Pocket PC is
very easy to understand and convenient to use. The main
screen displays the current slide as well as thumbnails
of other slides. On top of the main screen, there is a
slide selector that lists all the slides. You can jump
to any page by selecting it here. At the bottom of the
main screen, you will find a menu that includes Edit, View
and Tools. There are also two shortcut buttons for flipping
slides and changing the thumbnail view to VGA Slide Show,
Slide Show, Normal view, Slide Sorter, Notes Page and Quick
Notes without changing the current slide view. Long presentations,
such as our 79-page test PowerPoint presentation with animations
and transitions ran just fine on FlyPresenter.
Above: card, cable and remote/laser
pointer.
IA Presenter on the Pocket PC
isn’t meant for editing the content of your slides but rather
for manipulating the way you present them. In the Edit menu, you
can delete certain slide or select the slides you want in your
slide show. If you didn’t put transition effects in your
presentation on the desktop, you will find all the tools you need
to add any transition you want at three speeds and even sound effects
or notes. Very convenient! The View menu allows you to show your
slide in any supported format including Zoom. The Tools menu gives
you the ability to insert slides from another presentation, save
files, set up a slide show and set up Options. In Options, you
can set up maximum number of undo steps (from 1 to 30), specify
color optimization, and select VGA output and mode.
VGA Display and Remote Control
The VGA connector on the cable
has three output modes: VGA, Composite (RCA) and S-video and they
are marked so that you know which one is for what display device.
Make sure that you select the correct VGA output mode in both LifeView
Shadow and IA Presenter applications.
As soon as you select Slide Show
in the View menu, the presentation slides will display in full
screen mode on your Pocket PC and can be displayed in either portrait
or landscape mode. There is a shortcut button embedded in the slide
show that will trigger a pop-up menu. This menu allows you to control
how the slides will be presented and even has a “blackboard” feature
that projects a black screen on which you can draw digital ink
strokes. The Pen function gives you the ability to write on the
slides in various colors and pen widths, and clear the marks you
made with the pen after you are done. IA Presenter slide show also
offers one of the features most people will need during a presentation,
the ability to access notes and view thumbnails of the entire presentation
on the Pocket PC without showing it on the big screen.
The remote control that comes
with FlyPresenter is a pen-sized multi-function device. On one
end of the pen is the red laser, which you can use as a pointer
during the presentation. On the other end of the pen, you will
find an IR port. This works with the large IR port on the CF card
to give you the ability to flip the pages of your presentation.
The round large size IR port built-in to the CF is a very nice
touch. It allows you to use the IR remote without having to line
up your PDA’s IR with your remote pen.
IA ScreenMirror and Pocket TV
Bundled with FlyPresenter, IA
ScreenMirror allows you to mirror your handheld’s screen
using a projector, CRT or TV monitor. The options in IA ScreenMirror
are extensive, giving you rich features to use when presenting
demos from your PDA. There are several Layout options in IA ScreenMirror,
including View Arrangement, Stretch data to fit and rotate the
screen left. If you choose to split the screen, you can use the
Switch option to arrange and select the active view. There is also
a Refresh option tab as well as a VGA option tab to help you set
various refresh rates and VGA resolution settings.
While the IA ScreenMirror and
IA Album are more suited to show product demos using still images
or moving pictures/applications that don’t rely on high frame
rates, FlyPresenter offers a better app to show off high frame
rate videos, Pocket TV. This application can play MPEG movies as
well stream MPEG files. Make sure that you install LifeView’s
bundled version of the Pocket TV as this version adds an option
in Pocket TV to output the videos through FlyPresenter CF card.
We tested a 22 fps (frame per second) movie and could get 14 fps
through FlyPresenter on a Dell Axim X5 Advanced 400 MHz Xscale
Pocket PC.
Pros and Cons
Pro: The generous software bundle
makes this product a complete solution for all your presentation
needs. Three VGA/Video outputs will cover most of the projecting
devices you will use with your PDA. The large IR port built-in
on the CF card works with the remote control to free you from having
to position your PDA in line with the remote.
Con: The IA Presenter does a pretty good job of converting fonts as long as
you keep the size at 20 point or above. Even with Pocket TV playing full motion
video, we still can’t get close to claimed 30 fps.
Specs and Price
Supported PDA Devices and Desktop Machines: Pocket
PC 2000 or 2002 with ARM, Xscale, MIPS and SH3 and a Type I or Type
II CF slot. Desktop/laptop support includes Windows 98, 98SE, ME,
NT, 2000 and XP.
Supported Video Output: Composite Video (RCA jack),
S-Video (mini-Din 4pin) and Selectable NTSC, PAL.
Language Support: English, German, French, Japanese,
Traditional and Simplified Chinese.