Action Engine - Brand-n-Go

By David Ciccone, posted Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005
Reader Comments: 21

The above screenshots show you the power of finding a restaurant of choice. As you can see you have a selection of cuisines ranging from Italian, Mexican, Fast Foods and many others. Once you make your selection it will show results along with addresses and phone numbers. I love this feature since I am using a PocketPC Phone I can just click on the telephone number and it will automatically dial the location. Also you see the map of the location in which I can click and drag the entire map to see what other streets are local to the area. The interface also allows the end user to actually make an appt with the restaurant information within the notes portion of your contact. Great integration of the PocketPC PIM.

Here I selected weather which gives me three options: get a forecast, weather deliveries and saved results. I selected get a forecast. Once you select get a forecast you are prompted to either select a contact from Pocket Outlook (great integration again with the PIM), Select a City or enter location. I decided to enter the location manually and immediately my weather report was displayed. Once I viewed the weather report, I now have a mail icon in which I can immediately email off to whomever I would like to. By the way, the weather reports are provided by Accuweather.

Probably one of the best features of this software is the directions tab. Once you select get directions you again have numerous options such as Contact from Pocket Outlook, Select City, Enter an Address, Select Airport or Enter a Place. Once I entered in my location I was extremely pleased with the mapping capabilities. Not only do you receive a map but a TRUE interactive map! I was able to zoom in on the location but actually fly through the entire directions. The interactive map really is something I have never seen on the PocketPC other than the traditional GPS software. All directions are provided by MapPoint and maps are provided by Navteq. What a great job!

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I have tried to load this on my hp2215.. install won't complete on SD card.. but completes on CF.
I have can get to the login screen, but try to use the product by clicking GREEN send button but I get unabled to login, try again later.
I have tried this while plugged into pc with activesync running, and via GPRS linked to phone, and also via wifi.. i get this same msg no matter what? I can't find any support anywhere on the actionengine website... help?
cj

Posted by cejay, Thursday, Apr. 7th, 2005

You can view results offline if you save them. There's a little disk icon at the bottom when you are viewing a result. I get driving directions and save the result so I can view the result later while I'm on the road.

Posted by Jaredk, Wednesday, Mar. 23rd, 2005

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to me that the AEBAG application can ONLY display information that has just been downloaded - that is, you can't re-access that information a little later when you are offline. That seems to me to be a big defect. you can't walk away from your wireless access point, then fire up AEBAG again to read the AP news stories you just downloaded a few minutes before?

- Jeff

Posted by jschall, Tuesday, Mar. 8th, 2005

It works on my 4150 Storage Card. The installer was great - it checked to see that I only had 2.5 MB left in Main Memory, and told me it needed 4 MB, so I should send it to the Storage Card when prompted by ActiveSync. What a courteous installer!

BUT - and here comes the usual Canadian complaint - it doesn't seem to know Canada has movie theaters and weather, too! When I asked for weather for Montréal, Québec - it gave me a forecast for Rouse's Point, NY - close, but it's in Fahrenheit!

I think Avantgo does a better job on universal coverage for news (and I USED to be able to get Environment Canada forecasts as an Avantgo channel, but no more...)

Still, it's a fine application.

- Jeff

Well, at LEAST it knows about the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) - it displays TSX stocks in Canadian dollars!

Posted by jschall, Sunday, Mar. 6th, 2005

Go here:

http://www.actionengine.com/demo/index.html

Posted by jschall, Sunday, Mar. 6th, 2005

I can't find the download. Can someone post a link?

Posted by sdevine, Saturday, Feb. 26th, 2005

Mine says its valid for a year; Jack and I spoke with the CEO yesterday and it should be good for 1 yr!!!!

Posted by David Ciccone, Friday, Feb. 25th, 2005

Awesome product. Thanks to DI for bringing Action Engine to our attention.

Loaded it to Storage Card on the 6315 -- works great! [been waiting a long time for something like this to come about]

Anyone have an idea of how much it is after the free 90 days? [maybe I missed reading that somewhere?]

Posted by kiingarthur, Friday, Feb. 25th, 2005

Sounds like what I have been longing for since giving up my Palm VIIx several years ago. Want to check movies, select a theater and there were the movie listings. Want turn by turn directions (no maps or graphics back then), enter a from and to address and there they were. Just a couple taps and you were there.

Downloading now and I have my fingers crossed.

Posted by jimski, Friday, Feb. 25th, 2005

I have been running this aplication for several hours...it is wonderful.

I had some initial problems with my 4700 but as soon as I took it off the Today screen, it ran perfectly. I am sure I am running to much on the Today screen.

On my 2755, perfect operation and it is on the Today screen.

Posted by Jack Cook, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

No - I'd just forgotten to stop the programs. And , ipaqnewbie, - there's nothing weird about my 4700 - it's wonderful :-))

Posted by Laura, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

Ughhh lol Laura.. You really know how to work your 4700 hard ...

Posted by David Ciccone, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

Well, that was the other problem - I had about 6 other applications running at the time of the crash. It gave me a warning, but then immediately crashed.

Posted by Laura, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

Laura I have had no issues on my 4700 at all. It might be something wierd on your unit. Also Dave I love this software! Why wouldnt Microsoft just integrate this into the OS? This is the way it should be with such ease of use!

Posted by ipaqnewbie, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

I use the Audiovox 6600 PocketPC Phone and I checked the memory left and I have 42Mb for program and 38 for storage. My unit allows for a total of 128Mb storage. I would be interested to hear how many apps you had running while running Brand-N-Go.

Posted by David Ciccone, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

I tried it - but every program that I then ran, slowed down to snail's pace - I have about 12MB free in main memory - maybe this isn't enough for this application ?

Posted by Laura, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

Laura weird I loaded mine on the Storage card.... Hmmmm

Posted by David Ciccone, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

I downloaded this to my 4700 - I, too, was impressed by it until it crashed my 4700 and caused a hard reset. Now, I was short of memory,(this has to be installed in main memory) and it will save certain past functions which is fine if you have the space available. Not so fine when it crashes. But the functionality was truly amazing - it will give directions both in America and Northern Europe. After the crash, I then downloaded it to my PC, so that I could test drive it without fear - the only problem there was that it would only pick up contacts from OUTLOOK that had email addresses. I also never managed to get the video part to work - it kept telling me that I had a missing file - I thought , maybe, that this was because I had the trial version, but I don't know.

Posted by Laura, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

Yes Jack it is! I have never been so excited about a product since this. The growth potential for Brand-n-go is huge!

Posted by David Ciccone, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

WoW...this has incredible possibilities!

Posted by Jack Cook, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

Dave I downloaded this last week when you first let us know and I agree this software is a hidden gem! I cant believe not alot of the other enthusiast sites did a review yet. Buy I know I can count on Daves iPAQ for reviews every other day!

Posted by stimey, Thursday, Feb. 24th, 2005

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