LibertyControl Review

The Product- According To The Website
"Imagine having the liberty to remotely control your laptop or desktop with your Palm PDA or SmartPhone. This is exactly the power that LibertyControl gives you, allowing you total control of your desktop using bluetooth technology. While LibertyControl gives you a world of opportunity to control anything such as your media player or web browser, the current version focuses on controlling PowerPoint presentations. With LibertyControl, you can now give outstanding presentations with confidence by turning your mobile device into your presentation remote control."

-> Control PowerPoint Presentations
-> View slide notes on the PDA
-> Receive slide warnings to keep you on target
-> Use your PDA/Smartphone as a full mouse control
-> Use your PDA/Smartphone as a virtual keyboard
-> Take control of your browser
-> Control Windows Media Player playlists
-> Control anything!

Requirements
LibertyControl, Version 1.0 requires you to have the following hardware:
-A Palm OS 5.x+ mobile device, 5-way navigation button, minimum 320x320
display and at least 1.5MB of main memory available.
-A BlueTooth enabled Windows based computer (or BlueTooth USB adapter
connected to your computer) running Windows 2000 and above.
-The BlueTooth driver on the Desktop computer must have an associated COM
Port defined and the mobile device paired with the computer.

My Impressions
When the software is downloaded and installed there are a couple of manuals: quickstart and complete. They are well written and easy to follow. Therefore, I will not insult anyone's intelligence by going into details about how to install and get it running. I will concentrate on my experiences and impressions.

For the computer and Palm to communicate LibertyControl must be running on both and the bluetooth connection made. At home I had to do some tweaking to get it to work properly. This is because my bluetooth adapter is a piece of garbage and my computer, for some reason, does weird things with my bluetooth. At work I had no problems. I bought a new bluetooth adapter (Targus) that was much better than the one at home. It only took a few minutes to get my Palm to communicate with the computer.

I was attracted to this product because I am a history teacher who uses PowerPoint Presentations for my class notes. Also, I love to move around the room. It was annoying having to go back and forth to the computer. This way, I thought, I could have the freedom to roam the room and control my presentations. I thought correctly.

I placed my PowerPoint Presentation on the American Civil War in the Liberty Control Presentations folder on my desktop. I fired up the desktop program, the Palm program, and made the bluetooth connection. This took about two minutes. I really like the ease of doing this!

This past week I tested LibertyControl in my classroom. It was most enjoyable. I could move around the classroom and do better proximity control while doing the presentation. The reaction from the students was amazing! At first students would give me a puzzled look as the text moved without me near the computer. After the first slide I started hearing students whispering to each other wondering how I was doing it. Once someone had the courage to ask how I was doing it I said I took a Harry Potter class and laughed, of course. They were impressed when I explained how I was doing it and the technology used.

The program allows the user to go back and forth, customize buttons, and even has a timer. Another great aspect of the PowerPoint Presentation control is being able to add presenter notes. These are added using the Liberty Slide Control Manager on the computer. I added some presenter notes, like "point out advantages", and when doing the presentation the notes appear on my Palm. The timing of slides can be customized. This is something you do not get with a USB remote control for presentations.

One would think that being able to control presentations remotely with a Palm is enough, but not the developers at Wagware. The user can access Internet Explorer, Windows Media, Desktop, and create custom program launches. I did not experiment extensively with those areas, but did try the Internet Explorer to show it off to other teachers. Of course they asked me how they could do this also.

Final Thoughts
If you are a person who uses PowerPoint Presentations and have a bluetooth-enabled Palm, this is the program for you. As the title suggests, the user is "liberated" from the confines of having to be near the computer to do presentations, as well as other functions. This program will allow you the freedom to interact with your audience on a more personal level. I would highly recommend this to teachers and professionals. And to think that I only scratched the surface of the usefulness of LibertyControl. You can purchase this program from the Wagware website for $19.95.

As usual I will do a follow-up on this review in a couple of weeks or so (after I get to play with it some more!) Thanks to Wagware for providing LibertyControl and the images for the review!