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MyWorkbench 4.6 By: Toysoft,
Inc.
I review a lot of software. Since the first
of the year I’ve evaluated well over 50 pieces of software and
written reviews on most of them already. It’s not very often that I
see a product, however, that impresses me so much that I bump it to the top
of my list in an effort to share it with everyone. MyWorkbench
was just such a product.
Version 4.6, which has just been released,
is fully compatible with OS 5.0 devices and supports Sony’s
high-resolution screens. The beauty of this product, however, is in what is
"under the hood," not the paint job.
MyWorkbench is an enhanced
file manager for your PDA that, among others, included the following
features:
Full SD/MCC support
An automated backup system
Ability to zip / unzip files
The ability to launch files anywhere on
your MS (OS 5)
Maintains a list of orphaned databases
A split-screen view
A media manager to hot-sync files to
different locations based on file type.
A recycle bin feature for un-deleting files
Wow! Can you put all that into one package?
Not only can you, but Danny Wong, the developer, has done an excellent job
of keeping the file size of the main program down to 200k – and it
runs very fast on my NX70V.
Let’s
take a look at the program in detail. The desktop for MyWorkbench
contains, if you have the theme turned on, a background image of a sandy
beach. Positioned on top of the background are 4 icons: a Sony Clie (for RAM), a memory stick, a trash bin, and a
Backup icon.
Across
the bottom of the screen is the date and time. If you have the theme turned
on than you also get the Owner Information displayed.
(Look
at the time in the screen shot and you'll see how late I was up writing
this review…)
By
choosing either the RAM or MS icon you can display the file management
screen. From it you can use the icon bar across the top to move up a level
on the directory tree, Delete, Move, Copy, get Information, Open a folder,
Create a new folder, Beam, Play a wave file (only on Tungsten T), Launch,
or Sort the files. This can be done by name, size, file type, creator, or
date. You can also choose to display icons or not. The blue arrow on the
right end lets you choose to move back and forth from the RAM to the MS.
The best option, however, (in my opinion) is the ability to open the split
screen view and choose on either side which directory to use when
manipulating the files in the other. This is done by tapping the icon that
looks like overlapping windows on the status bar at top.
 
One of
the features that I was most impressed with was the ability, using Zlib, to zip files to save space. For example, I had
taken 26 screenshots for use in reviews. These were 450K BMP images and
used 11.4 Mb of my ram. After compressing them (they are compressed
individually), they took a total of 1.4 Mb. While not all file types will
compress at the same ratio, I use a lot of screen captures on mine so this
is a major feature for me. I moved them all off my MS to insert them into
my reviews and was able to quickly use WinRAR to
unzip them all where I needed them. Nice!
From
the main screen you can also choose to access the support programs that
come with MyWorkbench. These are the Backup
program, the Media File Manager, and the Orphaned Database program.
 
The
backup program is nice in that you can choose to compress the backup or not
can schedule an automated backup for midnight of any night of the week.
Unfortunately you cannot choose more that one day at a time but we have to
leave something for the next release, huh.
The media manager is a real nice touch.
Whenever you hot sync your PDA you are generally limited to putting your files
in your RAM or in the Palm\Launcher directory. My registering the file
extensions within the program, you can use the normal Palm Install program ti install files and the Media Type program will manage
the databases on the MC into which they are installed. The program supports
the following file extensions: .jpg, .gif, .bmp, .png,
.txt, html, .doc, .xls, .pdf,
.pqa, .zip, .exe, .com, .dll,
.wav, mpeg and mp3.
The
orphaned Database feature as also a nice one. It looks for databases in the
RAM that are affiliated with programs that aren't. If you're like me and
keep virtually all programs installed in ROM or on your MS, than you may
end up with a lot of files that are being displayed as
"orphaned." You can use this periodically, however, to weed out
any files that are needlessly taking up valuable RAM.
Finally,
the recycle bin, of Magic Bin as it is called. This is another independent
program which you can choose to install if you wish. It gives you full
Windows Recycle Bin type features on your Clie.
If you delete a file out of ram, it is stored in the TrashCan
folder in your root directory. You can then un-delete it later if needed.
The
cost of this program is $19.95, which is a little steep for a Palm
application, but not much at all when compared to the numerous features
included with the one application. If I had to choose only one utility to
have on my Clie, this would be it.
Score:
Quality:100
Stability:95
Originality:95
Looks:100
Value:100
TOTAL:
98
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