Impatica SMBB-100 ShowMate PowerPoint Presentation Tool

• Move freely and interact with the audience while delivering a presentation and advancing the slides, all from a handheld.
• Project your smart phone screen. Works with BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Sony Ericsson. Deliver Project presentations using your mobile phone. Withfull support of graphics, animations, slide transitions, and charts.
• View the titles, text or presentation notes on the handheld while projecting.
• Jump to any slide in the presentation to answer a question or emphasize a certain point. Travel laptop-free!
• SVGA (up to 800 x 600) USB (BlackBerry only) or Bluetooth International power adapter included

I bought this product for a Windows Mobile 6.5 PDA. After installing all new versions of software onto desktop computers, the file conversion and transfer from desktop to the PDA is easy. The file was compressed about 20 times (35M to 1.7M). I tried to use this ShowMate to do Powerpoint presentation onto a projector. The recognition of ShowMate by the projector was very smooth and the screen of the projector showed ShowMate and indicated trying connection between the PDA and the ShowMate. Once opening the software Impatica Projector in the PDA, it searched bluetooth device and found the ShowMate easily; it then popped up for passcode. After inputting passcode, it always showed CANNOT CONNECT, but in many cases it connected and started file transfer. The resolution of the powerpoint slides were great, but I had problems with bluetooth connection (lost connection) when a individual silde size is too big. So I think this device would be great for files with small size for each slide (e.g. most text in the slide), but it is not working for slides of large size. I think the problem was, when it transfers a slide with large size, the memory of the ShowMate is not enough so it interferes with bluetooth connection. This device might be good for people who present mostly texts but not big-sized images. My slides contain many scientific images having pretty large size, it did not work well.

On the other hand, the Screen Projector software works very well in my hand. It may need to change your screen settings in your PDA in order to have a correct image direction of your PDA screen onto the projector screen. The transfer speed is not very fast but endurable. You can notice obvious delay from your PDA to the projector. But it is very good to have the screen projection function of this device. Anything showing on your PDA screen is showing on the projector screen. Original PowerPoint slides (without compression by the Impatica software) in your PDA can be projected to the projector screen by using Screen Projector software but the resolution is clearly reduced (no resolution reduction when using Impatica Projector).

Overall, it is a interesting device for handhelds computers and Windows phones, but it still needs improvement for its wider use.

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I really tried to get this to work with my AAXA M2 micro projector. http://www.amazon.com/AAXA-TECHNOLOGIES-M2-Micro-Projector/dp/B004BM2OS4 as I think it would be a perfect companion.

But I couldn't. After installing the drivers, I had problems "putting" the file on my Blackberry Curve (AT&T). I even tried downloading the newest version on the Impatica's website, but I still couldn't do it. I'm sure it's pretty cool if it works, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work...

Read Best Reviews of Impatica SMBB-100 ShowMate PowerPoint Presentation Tool Here

This works well with my Blackberry Storm2! When I read the other review on here, I was skeptical. But at $34 I had to try this since the Blackberry Presenter is so expensive ($165)! I was presenting from my Palm based unit successfully a long time ago and have been waiting for Blackberry to get up to speed on this! The first thing out of the box you have an insert telling you to update the software from the website. If you are not tech savvy, this may be a challenge for some, but there are good instructions. I did not even bother with the enclosed CD but went right to the web site and downloaded all the software so I don't know how well it would work with the enclosed CD. However, I did not have to follow instructions until I connected to my Blackberry by bluetooth. This unit has the ability to connect to the Blackberry through both a USB connection and a bluetooth connection, and both worked very well. I did not get the delays that the other review mentioned.

There were some Cons I came across though. You have to convert the slides from Powerpoint to the viewers format. This may be a pain for someone who never used previous presenters for the Palm or Pocket PC. Also,there were three slides out of a presentation of 102 slides with mostly pictures in it that did not convert over. One of them was an Excel graph object and I was able to save the graph as a picture from the powerpoint presentation (this feature is available in Powerpoint 2007 not sure of earlier versions) and reinsert it into the slide. Then I processed the presentation through the conversion software again and it converted OK. The software did warn me that there was an error with one of the objects in slide number 49 so I was able to know which slide was involved. However, it did not warn me of the other two slides. They were both pictures and I still do not know why they didn't convert. I was able to save both of these as pictures from powerpoint as well and reinsert them and the software was then able to convert them. If the software worked better, I would rate this as a 5 star because it did work very well with my blackberry. I was able to connect easily both by USB and by bluetooth. I was able to project my Blackberry screen from the blackberry connection software on my blackberry and I was able to show a powerpoint show from the blackberry presentation software on my blackberry.

Pros:

It works!

It only costs around $30 when the Blackberry Presenter costs $165 here on Amazon as of this writing.

Has both USB and Bluetooth connections for Blackberry

Cons:

You have to convert the powerpoint file.

The conversion software does not work seamlessly or flawlessly in converting all slides.

Software for the PC and the Blackberry is necessary and may intimidate some people.

Has SVGA resolution and NO XVGA but this does not matter that much to me.

Over all I am very pleased with this little unit!