WHAT’S HOT

    The iGo Pitch hardware
represents a total re-thinking of how to do
presentations from a handheld.  Instead of making
the handheld do all the calculations to fill the frame
buffer, the Pitch software downloads the entire
presentation to the Pitch hardware.  The Pitch
hardware has it’s own (Pentium-class) processor and an
imbedded version of the presentation software.  The Pitch software allows you to control the imbedded
presentation software which handles the display of your presentation
images.

Old School: Processing in the Pocket PC

New School: Processing in the Pitch hardware

    Because the
Pitch hardware is actually doing the work to display
the images, you can use a relatively slow connection
to download the presentation and to control it once its
downloaded.  Even with a slow connection, the
transition from slide to slide is nearly
instantaneous.  Furthermore, once you’ve downloaded the
presentation, you can use the Pitch hardware, without
a Pocket PC connected, to run the downloaded
presentation.
    There are other versions of the Pitch hardware for various
uses, but for this review, we’ll be looking at the Pitch Duo. 
It’s called the Duo because there are two ways to
connect it to your handheld:  First, it has a USB
port to which you can connect your USB sync cradle or
cable.  As far as I know, the Pitch Duo is the
only hardware that uses a USB sync
connector this way.  Second, it has a Bluetooth
module that supports the Serial Port Protocol that’s
supported by every Pocket PC Bluetooth implementation
I’m aware of.
    The Bluetooth connection offers another plus:  You can
actually roam around while giving the presentation
from your Pocket PC, unencumbered by a physical
connection to the presentation hardware.  The
Pitch Duo allows you to present without the tether.

SETUP

   
The installation program on the Pitch Duo CD-ROM
installs Quickpoint for Pocket PC on your Pocket PC
and Quickpoint Desktop (for Pocket PC) on your
desktop.  The Pocket PC program provides display
mirroring and presentation downloading and control.  The desktop
program provides conversion from PowerPoint to Quickpoint format.
    You can install Quickpoint on the Pocket PC into main memory,
a storage card, or a File Store without any issues.
    After installing the software, you’ll have to set up the
Bluetooth connection. Connect the power supply to the
Pitch Duo and plug in the Bluetooth module.  It
should begin flashing its blue LED about once a
second.
    Next turn on your Pocket PC’s Bluetooth radio and search for
the Pitch Duo’s Bluetooth module.  Your Pocket PC
Bluetooth software may look different.  Here’s
how it looks on an HP iPAQ:

Once you find the Pitch
Duo module, set up a connection with the Generic Serial Port protocol.  (This should be your only option).

You should also find out
which COM port your Bluetooth radio uses for outgoing serial information.  You’ll need this information for setting up Quickpoint to use Bluetooth.

    If
you see a "Default device" option like the one above,
make sure you select the option to display the device
selection screen.  That way, you’ll be able to
select your Pitch Duo connection instead of the
default device.  If you leave the default device
connection intact, Bluetooth will try to connect to
that device instead of the Pitch Duo Bluetooth module.
   
Depending on your Bluetooth implementation, you may
have to manually make the connection before starting Quickpoint.  Some implementations will make the
connection, without your help, once you’ve set it up.
    Now, start Quickpoint and select "Bluetooth…" from the
File menu.  You’ll get the dialog below:

   
Select the COM port that your Bluetooth implementation
uses for outgoing serial data and check the "[x]
Connect with Bluetooth" option.  Press [OK] and
you’re ready to begin using the program.

PRODUCT FEATURES

     The Pitch Duo
package comes with everything you see below:

In addition, iGo has included
a handy carrying case that holds the Pitch Duo, the AC adapter, the
Bluetooth Module and could also carry cables or other small pieces you
might need:

The Hardware

   
The Pitch Duo hardware front panel contains a large
dark red plastic inset.  That’s actually the
cover for the infra-red transceiver built into the
Pitch Duo.  The IR transceiver doesn’t allow you
to download presentations, but it will allow you to
control them in an environment where Bluetooth and USB
aren’t preferable.

The back of the Pitch
Duo contains a VGA connector and two "PS2" connectors:

   
The PS2 connectors allow you to attach a mouse and
keyboard to the Pitch Duo.  These will allow you
to move a cursor around on the presentation and to
type notes onto the presentation as well.
    The VGA connector is what you use to connect to an external
display or projector.  The Pitch Duo doesn’t have
either S-Video or Composite output.  That’s
unfortunate for those presentation you might have to
do where a TV is more readily available than a monitor
or projector.
    You’ll also see the cooling vents.  The processor on the
Pitch Duo runs hot.  The unit is designed to
stand upright when connected to allow maximum air
flow.

The left side of the Pitch
Duo contains the power adapter socket and one USB connector:

The right side of the
unit contains another USB connector:

   
The USB connectors can be used to connect the included
Bluetooth adapter or a sync cable or cradle.  Oddly enough, you can’t fit the Bluetooth adapter into
the left side USB connector with the power cord in
place.

All connected, the Pitch
Duo looks like this:

The Desktop Software

   
The Quickpoint software that comes with the Pitch Duo
has two components.  There’s a desktop component
that allows you to convert PowerPoint presentation
into Quickpoint format and to transfer that format to
the Pocket PC.

   
The desktop program will either let you browse for a
PowerPoint presentation or drag-and-drop it onto the
window.  You have options for three resolutions
(VGA, SVGA, and XVGA) and three options for
compressing the images.  PNG and jpg offer better
text quality at the expense of storage space and
smaller storage space at the expense of text quality
respectively.  Intelligent sensing tries to
choose the best compression for the presentation’s
contents.
    Once you’ve selected a file, the program attempts to start
ActiveSync so you’ll need to have your Pocket PC
connected when you run the program.  You’ll see
the status and progress indicators change as the
conversion process proceeds.  When it’s complete,
you’ll get a file save dialog:

   
The save dialog initially indicate the contents of My
Documents on your Pocket PC.  You can use the up
button ()
and clicking on folders to navigate to another
location.  You can also use the PC button ()
to store the converted file on your desktop. 
That second option is useful if you have a storage
card reader attached to your desktop system.  You
can store the presentations, at higher speed than
ActiveSync, directly to a card.  This option
would be even more useful if the program didn’t insist
on starting ActiveSync before the conversion process
is done.  Because it does, even if you’re storing
the converted presentation directly to a storage card,
you still have to have your Pocket PC synchronizing to
get to the point where you can do that.
    After you tell the conversion program where you want to save
the converted presentation, the program will save the
file.  This process takes quite some time to save
over ActiveSync for some reason.

The Pocket PC Software — Quickpoint

   
The other half of the Quickpoint software resides on
your Pocket PC.  As I noted before, this software
doesn’t drive the display or even calculate the
displayed images.  It downloads the presentation
to the Pitch Duo hardware and it controls the Pitch
Duo’s embedded presentation software.
    When you start Quickpoint on your Pocket PC, you’ll get a
screen like the one below:

    At
the top of the screen is a windows that lists the
available presentations.  Just above the list is
a drop-down folder navigator that will allow you to
select any location on your Pocket PC, including
storage cards.
    At the bottom of the screen is the menu bar which includes
the File Menu and some icons.  The Open icon ()
opens the currently selected presentation file.  The Delete icon ()
removes the currently selected presentation from your
Pocket PC.  The Remote Display icon ()
starts and stops the Remote Display function. 
We’ll look at that in a moment.  The Exit icon ()
leaves the program.  This is a true exit. 
It shuts down the program while leaving.  If you
tap the (X) in the top right corner, Quickpoint simply
drops into background, still running.
    The File Menu contains the following options:

   
The "Bluetooth…" option we saw in the Setup section. 
The "Remote Background…" option allows you to select
a graphic backdrop for the Remote Display function. 
The next two options allow you to start and stop the
Remote Display.  We’ll look at that in a moment.
    The "Delete" option will remove the currently selected
presentation from your Pocket PC.  The "Browse"
option will open the standard Open File dialog to
allow you to open a presentation.  This differs
from the drop-down navigation in that the standard
Open File dialog will only look in My Documents
folders in main memory or on storage cards or File
Stores (and then only one sub-folder level deep). 
The drop-down navigation will let you find a
presentation anywhere in the file system.  If
you’re used to keeping your files in the My Documents
folders, you may find them faster using the Browse
option.  The "Open" option simply opens the
selected presentation.  You can also do this by
double-clicking on the presentation in the list.  Once you do this, the screen changes to the
presentation mode:

    At
the top of the screen you’ll see a list of the slides
in the presentation.  You can quickly move to any
slide in the presentation by scrolling and tapping on
the slide title.  Below the slide list, the Menu
bar has changed to presentation controls and the
Options menu.
    The Up and Down icons ()
move one slide forward or one slide backward in the
presentation.  The Present icon ()
downloads the presentation to the Pitch Duo and starts
it.  Tapping the icon again will shut down the
presentation.  The Slide Mode icon ()
allows you to toggle between four views of the slides. 
We’ll see these views in a moment.  Finally, the
Exit icon ()
will shut down the presentation (if it’s running) and
exit the presentation mode back to the presentation
selection screen.
    The Options menu has four options.  The first displays
the View menu:

The View menu lets you
select from the four slide views I mentioned earlier.  In the order
they appear on the menu, they are…

…the Notes view…

…the Text view…

…the Slide view…

…and the Slide List
view

The next option in the
Options menu calls up the Slide menu:

The Slide menu allows
you to reorder slides using the dialog below:

    Simply change the number to where you want the slide
to occur and the slide that occupies that space will
appear after the one you just moved.
    The Slide menu also has options to Hide or Unhide the
currently selected slide and to go to the Next or
Previous slide in the presentation.

The next option calls
up the Pres(entation) menu:

   
The Pres menu allows you to restore the original slide
order.  You can also start and stop "IR Mode,"
which allows you to control the presentation using the
IR port on your Pocket PC.  Because IR is not
always reliable, If the last IR command didn’t go
through, you can resend it.
    The "Auto Run" option calls up the dialog below:

   
This dialog lets you choose the time delay between
switching slides and whether the presentation loops
continuously and/or operates in "Standalone" mode. 
Standalone mode allows you to disconnect your Pocket
PC while the presentation remains running.  Ordinarily, that will shut down the presentation
process.

    The final two options in the Pres menu let you start
and stop the presentation in the same way the Present
icon works.

    The final option in the Options menu Exits the
presentation mode, returning you to the presentation
selection screen.

So, how does a presentation
actually look when running on the Pitch Duo?  Here’s a photograph
of a presentation in progress:

   
The actual image is on par with or better than other
Pocket PC-based presentation hardware.  The speed
of the presentation is much better, especially if you
don’t have the latest and fastest of Pocket PCs.

The Pocket PC Software
— Remote Display

I’ve mentioned the Remote
Display option a few times now.  This is what it looks like:

   
Remote Display is currently programmed for QVGA-resolution
screens only.  That doesn’t mean it won’t render
a HiDPI (VGA-resolution) screen, but it renders it
only in QVGA.  Sadly, the HiDPI text is all but
unreadable.

   
The Remote display function would still be useful for
demonstrations and such, but it is quite slow in
responding to screen changes.  It takes between
10 and 15 seconds to fully redraw the screen.  Certainly that’s due to the mass of information that
has to pass over the relatively slow Bluetooth
connection but it is a bit dissapointing.

HELP SUPPORT

    There is no built-in
help for the Pitch Duo hardware or the QuickPoint
software, either on the desktop or on the Pocket PC.  There is, however, a complete User’s Guide
available for download from the iGo web site and
on the companion CD.  There is also
a support page on the iGo web site that includes a
phone number and e-mail address to allow users to
contact iGo with issues and feature requests.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    The Pitch Duo will work
with Pocket PC 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket
PCs.  It may also work with Windows Mobile 2003,
Second Edition but does not support landscape
orientation or HiDPI displays in the Remote Display. 
Of course, in order to use the Bluetooth connection,
you’ll have to have Bluetooth either built in or as an
add-on.  The Pitch Duo Bluetooth module uses the
Generic Serial Port profile which is supported by
every Pocket PC Bluetooth implementation I’m aware of.

BUGS AND WISHES

compatibility with just about any presentation program, but
would eliminate the speed advantage of downloading the
presentation and having the embedded
processor in the Pitch Duo do the work.  Presentation
speed would undoubtedly suffer.

PURCHASING

    The iGo Pitch Duo can be purchased
from the pocketnow Store for $259.95.

PROS

• Bluetooth
  connection allows
  roaming while presenting
• Bluetooth
  connection leaves slots free for other uses
• Hardware
  can connect with either Bluetooth or USB sync-cable
• Hardware
  doesn’t require an additional driver
• PS2 Ports
  allow pointer and text input
• User can "download" a slide show for unconnected
  presentation
• Hardware
  provides very good presentation speeds
• Software
  allows re-ordering, annotating, and hiding slides
• Software
  allows editing slide notes

CONS

• Remote
  Display changes are very processor speed-dependant
• 
  Presentation converter only works over ActiveSync
• 
  Presentation converter takes a long time to process
• IR Mode
  lacks configuration to set the IR COM port
• Hardware
  doesn’t include S-Video and Composite output
• Embedded
  presentation software doesn’t do slide transitions
  or animations
• Pocket PC
  software can’t edit slide content (other than notes)

OVERALL
IMPRESSION

    The concept of the Pitch
Duo is awesome.  In fact, I think it’s the future
of presentation hardware.  It think it makes
sense to have smart peripherals that do their own
task-specific processing.
    The implementation, on the other hand, could use a little maturing. 
Since you’ve got an imbedded processor, you can pull
out all the limitations from the presentation
software.  The Remote Display software should
also be imbedded so that the PPC could send only the
drawing commands and not full screen data over the
connection.
    The Pitch Duo does both better and worse than other Pocket PC
presentation solutions.  It’s presentation speed
is better.  The functionality isn’t as good as
some of the better Pocket PC programs. 

Conduits Pocket Slides, for instance, can do
transitions, slide animations, and allows you fairly
full editing features as well.
    The hardware too is both better and worse than other
presentation solutions.  The Pitch can run in
stand alone mode and allows mouse pointing and
keyboard annotations.  Its images look as good or
better.  However, it doesn’t support S-Video or
Composite output as many of the others do.
    I find myself ambivalent:  I won’t recommend the Pitch
Duo without some reservations yet I won’t recommend
against buying it.  My best advice is to give the
Pitch Duo a restrained consideration.  Take a
look at all of its functionality, but be aware of its
weaknesses as well.  Also, keep an eye on this
kind of embedded processor and software technology.  It’ll only get better.