Monday, October 28, 2002
Powerful Mobile Presentations
Posted by Jason Dunn in "HARDWARE" @ 02:55 PM
One of the most common requests I see from mobile professionals is “How can I leave my laptop behind more often?”. Laptops, even modern “super compact” models, are still too big, too heavy, and require too much preparation time for many people who do presentations daily. The lure of using a Pocket PC for presentations is a very strong one, so it’s not surprising that several companies have come up with innovative solutions. The Presenter-to-Go package from MARGI is a solid solution for anyone looking to go mobile with presentations.
Un-published PocketPC.com article originally written May 5th, 2002.
MARGI’s Presenter-to-Go solution is a excellent tool for mobile workers who want to leave their laptops behind for PowerPoint presentations.
Device Requirements
The MARGI Presenter-to-Go VGA out card is a Type 1 CompactFlash card that will work in any Pocket PC with a CompactFlash slot. The software version I was given was 2.02.1074. The software installed on the Pocket PC itself takes up 1.31 megabytes.
What’s Hot
The MARGI Presenter-to-Go solution is a superb solution for taking your presentations with you, and whether you’re presenting to someone sitting next to you in an office, or two an auditorium full of people, it’s fast, stable, and quick to set up and tear down.
Languages Supported
English
Where to Buy
The Margi Presenter-to-Go Type 1 CompactFlash card package can be purchased directly from Margi for $199 US.
Evolution of excellence
In 2001, MARGI released a PowerPoint solution for Handspring devices, and I emailed them several times eagerly requesting that they release a Pocket PC version of their product. There must have been many people like me asking for the same thing, because that same year they released their PCMCIA card product for the Pocket PC. It was an adequate product, but not extremely compelling to me personally – the PCMCIA form-factor limited it to iPAQ and @migo Pocket PCs, it only had 8-bit colour, and was limited to a resolution of 640 x 480. All good products evolve, and MARGI released a much improved CompactFlash Type II version later that year – and now they’ve tweaked their design one more time by releasing the unit I’m reviewing here: a Type I CompactFlash card that supports resolutions up to 1024 x 768 in 8-bit colour.
Figure 1: The MARGI Presenter-to-Go card and remote control
The package contains the CompactFlash card (Figure 1), an infrared remote control, two cables, and a CD-ROM with drivers and the MARGI Presenter-to-Go desktop and Pocket PC software. Installation was painless, and I was able to install the MARGI software to the HP Safe Store (Flash ROM) and run it without any problems.
Figure 2: The main connection cable and an extension cable
The MARGI bundle includes two cables: one to connect the card to a Pocket PC and a VGA port on the other, typically a projector. The other cable is for connecting to other VGA sources like a monitor, and functions like an extension cable – I used it to connect to a Sony G400 monitor for my tests.
Easy to use software
I found the MARGI software to be a delight to use. On the Pocket PC, it’s simple and offers a good series of options. It’s easiest to show this with a series of images from the application.
Figure 3: The MARGI Presenter-to-Go card and remote control
Figure 3 shows the list view of the slides. It’s easy to re-order the slides – you can drag and drop slides into new positions, or choose whether or not a slide will be shown. Being able to change whether or not slides are shown is a boon to any presenter – if you’re doing the same presentation multiple times, you can tweak your presentation as you go by omitting unneeded slides.
Figure 4: Support for speaker notes is included
Speaker notes are also supported as Figure 4 shows. I don’t personally ever use speaker notes, but they’re important for some people.
Figure 5: Presentation mode
Presentation mode allows you to view your slides on the device (Figure 5). With the included sample presentation, the text was too small to read. If you’re planning on giving presentations to others directly from the Pocket PC screen, make sure the text is nice and large!
Figure 6: Slide Show Preferences
Although there aren’t many presentation settings you can control, the important ones are here. You can use the timings from the slide show you converted, or you can override them and use your own settings (Figure 6). You can choose whether or not to display animations, and you can set it to loop continuously for kiosks and trade shows. They even have a preview option for left-handed users!
Video output with MARGI Mirror
Figure 7: Video output with MARGI Mirror
Slide shows are great, but can you use this card for other things? You bet! The MARGI Mirror software allows you to output anything you’re doing on the Pocket PC screen. This makes it excellent for product demonstrations and training. It allows you to zoom the display, making the Pocket PC screen fill a monitor or screen. Unlike some competing products on the market, the MARGI Mirror doesn’t slow the Pocket PC down while it’s running. I found the Pocket PC just as snappy and responsive, which is critical when you’re doing demos. Remember you can output anything - Figure 8 below shows me playing a video on the Pocket PC that is hooked up to a monitor. The frame rates on the video output are surprisingly good – around 10 frames per second. It’s choppy, but I was pleased it worked at all.
Figure 8: Playing a video with MARGI Mirror active
Desktop conversions are simple
One of the best things about this bundle is how easy it is to export documents to the MARGI format. When you install the desktop software, it adds a “MARGI virtual printer” to your system – this means that any application that you can print from can create files for your Pocket PC. The possibilities are endless!
Beyond the obvious PowerPoint exports, you can create files from Word documents, photos from image editing applications, spreadsheets, etc. The powerful concept of video output can be leveraged in many creative ways. The desktop software worked flawlessly in every test I threw at it. Because it functions like a printer, you can output only specific “pages” from a presentation. This flexibility is impressive.
The only fault I could find in the software is that it wasn’t always the most thrifty when it came to file size. I converted a 77-slide presentation that was all photos – on the desktop it was 4.3 megs, while the MARGI file was 20.2 megabytes! PowerPoint XP uses file compression, so I can understand the small file size on the desktop, but a single JPEG image sized for a Pocket PC is around 25 KB. 77 images at 25 KB should be less than 2 megabytes – which makes me wonder what the other 18 megabytes are in the MARGI file.
A word on quality
Figure 9: HP Jornada 565 displaying the MARGI output
A question any mobile warrior will ask is “How does the presentation look?”. Trust me, no one will be able to tell you’re not using your laptop unless they happen to notice you don’t enter the room carrying one. The output quality of the MARGI card is superb – text is crisp and sharp, and images look great. One of the things I was initially concerned about was that Presenter-to-Go uses a per-image fixed palette - that means that it looks at each image and picks the best 256 colors to represent that image. On paper, 8-bit colour seems to be a significant disadvantage when compared to competing products with 16-bit colour, but I could find no flaws in the 8-bit colour on the MARGI Presenter-to-Go. My photos looked excellent, and while true 16-bit colour would be nice to have, you won’t remember your images are displaying in 8-bit colour when you look at them.
Want even more options?
If you want to do even more with your presentations, you can purchase other third-party presentation applications like Pocket Slides from Conduits and Pocket SlideShow from CNetX. Both applications support the MARGI Presenter-to-Go card and offer powerful features like animation.
Gotchas
The remote control is a nice touch, but having used it in a live presentation before, it’s a bit problematic. In my tests, it continued to work up to twelve feet away – but the further away I got, the more button-presses it would miss. The problem isn’t a matter of range – it’s the fact that the infrared sensor on the Pocket PC is so small. If you’re a few degrees off a direct line of sight, the remote control becomes far less effective. While I was presenting I found myself constantly having to take a step towards the Pocket PC and deliberately aim the remote, which broke the flow of my presentation. Take my word for it and don’t rely on the remote while presenting – stick close to your Pocket PC.
Conclusion
If you’re a mobile professional who gives even a few PowerPoint presentations a month, buy this product and leave your laptop behind. It’s easy to use, affordable, and very flexible. I don’t give that many PowerPoint presentations, but this is a tool I’ll always keep handy for the times when I do – it’s truly a best-of-breed solution that I strongly recommend.[size=1][/size]
Un-published PocketPC.com article originally written May 5th, 2002.
MARGI’s Presenter-to-Go solution is a excellent tool for mobile workers who want to leave their laptops behind for PowerPoint presentations.
Device Requirements
The MARGI Presenter-to-Go VGA out card is a Type 1 CompactFlash card that will work in any Pocket PC with a CompactFlash slot. The software version I was given was 2.02.1074. The software installed on the Pocket PC itself takes up 1.31 megabytes.
What’s Hot
The MARGI Presenter-to-Go solution is a superb solution for taking your presentations with you, and whether you’re presenting to someone sitting next to you in an office, or two an auditorium full of people, it’s fast, stable, and quick to set up and tear down.
Languages Supported
English
Where to Buy
The Margi Presenter-to-Go Type 1 CompactFlash card package can be purchased directly from Margi for $199 US.
Evolution of excellence
In 2001, MARGI released a PowerPoint solution for Handspring devices, and I emailed them several times eagerly requesting that they release a Pocket PC version of their product. There must have been many people like me asking for the same thing, because that same year they released their PCMCIA card product for the Pocket PC. It was an adequate product, but not extremely compelling to me personally – the PCMCIA form-factor limited it to iPAQ and @migo Pocket PCs, it only had 8-bit colour, and was limited to a resolution of 640 x 480. All good products evolve, and MARGI released a much improved CompactFlash Type II version later that year – and now they’ve tweaked their design one more time by releasing the unit I’m reviewing here: a Type I CompactFlash card that supports resolutions up to 1024 x 768 in 8-bit colour.
Figure 1: The MARGI Presenter-to-Go card and remote control
The package contains the CompactFlash card (Figure 1), an infrared remote control, two cables, and a CD-ROM with drivers and the MARGI Presenter-to-Go desktop and Pocket PC software. Installation was painless, and I was able to install the MARGI software to the HP Safe Store (Flash ROM) and run it without any problems.
Figure 2: The main connection cable and an extension cable
The MARGI bundle includes two cables: one to connect the card to a Pocket PC and a VGA port on the other, typically a projector. The other cable is for connecting to other VGA sources like a monitor, and functions like an extension cable – I used it to connect to a Sony G400 monitor for my tests.
Easy to use software
I found the MARGI software to be a delight to use. On the Pocket PC, it’s simple and offers a good series of options. It’s easiest to show this with a series of images from the application.
Figure 3: The MARGI Presenter-to-Go card and remote control
Figure 3 shows the list view of the slides. It’s easy to re-order the slides – you can drag and drop slides into new positions, or choose whether or not a slide will be shown. Being able to change whether or not slides are shown is a boon to any presenter – if you’re doing the same presentation multiple times, you can tweak your presentation as you go by omitting unneeded slides.
Figure 4: Support for speaker notes is included
Speaker notes are also supported as Figure 4 shows. I don’t personally ever use speaker notes, but they’re important for some people.
Figure 5: Presentation mode
Presentation mode allows you to view your slides on the device (Figure 5). With the included sample presentation, the text was too small to read. If you’re planning on giving presentations to others directly from the Pocket PC screen, make sure the text is nice and large!
Figure 6: Slide Show Preferences
Although there aren’t many presentation settings you can control, the important ones are here. You can use the timings from the slide show you converted, or you can override them and use your own settings (Figure 6). You can choose whether or not to display animations, and you can set it to loop continuously for kiosks and trade shows. They even have a preview option for left-handed users!
Video output with MARGI Mirror
Figure 7: Video output with MARGI Mirror
Slide shows are great, but can you use this card for other things? You bet! The MARGI Mirror software allows you to output anything you’re doing on the Pocket PC screen. This makes it excellent for product demonstrations and training. It allows you to zoom the display, making the Pocket PC screen fill a monitor or screen. Unlike some competing products on the market, the MARGI Mirror doesn’t slow the Pocket PC down while it’s running. I found the Pocket PC just as snappy and responsive, which is critical when you’re doing demos. Remember you can output anything - Figure 8 below shows me playing a video on the Pocket PC that is hooked up to a monitor. The frame rates on the video output are surprisingly good – around 10 frames per second. It’s choppy, but I was pleased it worked at all.
Figure 8: Playing a video with MARGI Mirror active
Desktop conversions are simple
One of the best things about this bundle is how easy it is to export documents to the MARGI format. When you install the desktop software, it adds a “MARGI virtual printer” to your system – this means that any application that you can print from can create files for your Pocket PC. The possibilities are endless!
Beyond the obvious PowerPoint exports, you can create files from Word documents, photos from image editing applications, spreadsheets, etc. The powerful concept of video output can be leveraged in many creative ways. The desktop software worked flawlessly in every test I threw at it. Because it functions like a printer, you can output only specific “pages” from a presentation. This flexibility is impressive.
The only fault I could find in the software is that it wasn’t always the most thrifty when it came to file size. I converted a 77-slide presentation that was all photos – on the desktop it was 4.3 megs, while the MARGI file was 20.2 megabytes! PowerPoint XP uses file compression, so I can understand the small file size on the desktop, but a single JPEG image sized for a Pocket PC is around 25 KB. 77 images at 25 KB should be less than 2 megabytes – which makes me wonder what the other 18 megabytes are in the MARGI file.
A word on quality
Figure 9: HP Jornada 565 displaying the MARGI output
A question any mobile warrior will ask is “How does the presentation look?”. Trust me, no one will be able to tell you’re not using your laptop unless they happen to notice you don’t enter the room carrying one. The output quality of the MARGI card is superb – text is crisp and sharp, and images look great. One of the things I was initially concerned about was that Presenter-to-Go uses a per-image fixed palette - that means that it looks at each image and picks the best 256 colors to represent that image. On paper, 8-bit colour seems to be a significant disadvantage when compared to competing products with 16-bit colour, but I could find no flaws in the 8-bit colour on the MARGI Presenter-to-Go. My photos looked excellent, and while true 16-bit colour would be nice to have, you won’t remember your images are displaying in 8-bit colour when you look at them.
Want even more options?
If you want to do even more with your presentations, you can purchase other third-party presentation applications like Pocket Slides from Conduits and Pocket SlideShow from CNetX. Both applications support the MARGI Presenter-to-Go card and offer powerful features like animation.
Gotchas
The remote control is a nice touch, but having used it in a live presentation before, it’s a bit problematic. In my tests, it continued to work up to twelve feet away – but the further away I got, the more button-presses it would miss. The problem isn’t a matter of range – it’s the fact that the infrared sensor on the Pocket PC is so small. If you’re a few degrees off a direct line of sight, the remote control becomes far less effective. While I was presenting I found myself constantly having to take a step towards the Pocket PC and deliberately aim the remote, which broke the flow of my presentation. Take my word for it and don’t rely on the remote while presenting – stick close to your Pocket PC.
Conclusion
If you’re a mobile professional who gives even a few PowerPoint presentations a month, buy this product and leave your laptop behind. It’s easy to use, affordable, and very flexible. I don’t give that many PowerPoint presentations, but this is a tool I’ll always keep handy for the times when I do – it’s truly a best-of-breed solution that I strongly recommend.[size=1][/size]
