Last year, over 90 experts judged over 850 nominations for the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine Best Software Awards 2007. Our judges had plenty to say about their favorite products. In this issue we are publishing their comments about the programs nominated for the Utilities software category.

The purpose of publishing the comments is to give insights into a variety of products—not to show how the judges voted. For the sake of brevity, we've included only 1-3 comments per product and edited them for clarity and conciseness. A listing of the 2007 winners and finalists can be found on our Web site (smartphonemag.com/awards/main.asp).

The comments in this section were about the touch screen version of the application. We indicate if a non-touch screen version is available.

Backup Tools

PIM Backup

dotfred.net

Touch screen only

It has a streamlined user interface and runs fast. But to compete with the other applications in this category, the developer needs to make the application more comprehensive and feature-rich. (Julie De Jong)

Spb Backup

spbsoftwarehouse.com

Touch screen only

The most sophisticated solution available. It allows you to back up to a self-extracting archive and restore your PDA without PC connectivity. You can select what you want to back up, password protect it, and more. (Andreas Erle) It has an excellent onboard Help feature and supports network backups, credent encrypted folders, and ROM upgrade backups. (Nate Adcock)

Sunnysoft Backup Manager

sunnysoft.com

Touch screen only

This one has an attractive UI and its features are at parity with other backup solutions. However, they could lower the price. (Mike Riley) Scheduled backups include low-battery backup. It has an intuitive interface and shows all backup data in simple and advanced modes (path, filename, space, etc). (Nate Adcock)

Battery / Memory Meters

PocketSysWatch

birdsoft.net

Touch screen only

I like the small plug-in that displays battery life and memory stats via icons in the "system tray" at the bottom of the screen. For easier viewing, it can be expanded to full-screen view. (Douglas Goldring)

Button Enhancers

HotButton Plus

burroak.on.ca

Touch screen only

This add-on makes one-handed use of your device easier. Press a hardware button to launch HotButton Plus. Then, cycle through and launch apps or activate other functions using the D-pad. It is nice looking, easy to use, and works great. (Douglas Goldring)

Calculator

CoolCalc

applianmobile.com

Touch screen only

CoolCalc comes with 12 built-in calculators (standard, scientific, computer math, conversion, etc.) and allows you to combine functions to create your own custom calculator. (David Shier) It is a little complicated for a beginner. (Mohammed Babaee)