Breaking news! While you probably thought that you'd never see a new version again, we've been working hard (true) to bring you the next build of Ben's Pocket Bargains (not true). Please check out our new piece of software - Dealexec Shopping Assistant. This app stretches beyond Ben's Bargains, delivering deals and coupons from Techbargains, Slickdeals and Fatwallet alike.
In case you're a deal hunter, Ben's Bargains is a great place to visit. Unfortunately Smartphones and Pocket PCs have very limited screen space and sometimes mobile users are unable to establish an internet connection to fully enjoy Ben's Bargains. Basically, you have an opportunity to download an offline deal browser for Ben's Bargains website that has ability to update a list of deals from Ben's site directly when the internet connection is available (mode, Bluetooth, WiFi or ActiveSync). No RSS feeds are used.
That's the only reason I've created Ben's Pocket Bargains. It is getting more and more complex every day and I still use it myself.
Pocket Bargains doesn't use RSS feeds, and because of that provides much more info on each and every deal.
Here's a bunch of screenshots I've created so it would be easier for you to understand what Ben's Pocket Bargains is.
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PocketPC version
Hit "Deals" menu item, and select "Daily Deals" to download the deals displayed on a Ben's Bargains home page. In case you've missed a lot of deals lately, or haven't updated your personal archive for a while, select "Fetch Archive" and Pocket Bargains will download the deals from Ben's deal archive (five topmost pages only).
There are three buttons on a program toolbar next to the main menu. The very first one deletes selected deals (whether it is a group of deals, or a single deal or a favorite). Second one navigates the browser to a selected (highlighted) deal page. Third one adds the selected deal to a "Favorites" group.
Three different views are available to display a list of deals. Tap "Tools" menu, and select "View by Date", "View By Store", or "View by Category". These are pretty much self explanatory.
Tap Tools->Filter and specify the filtering criteria. It could be a single word, or a while phrase. To revert back to an entire list of deals, tap Tools->Filter again and specify a blank criteria.
Select a deal you'd like to know more about, tap the stylus and hold. Then click "Go to deal" and it will do the same thing as the second button on a toolbar - browser window will appear.
Certain things still need significant improvement, but other than that Pocket Bargains is all right.
Smartphone version
Somehow Smartphone version menus are different - mostly due to the limitations of the platform. The concept is still the same, but I wanted to save some space thus few thins got moved around. You no longer have the ability to navigate to a deal. Also due to the data speeds limitation a SmartDownload technology has been used (and it is going to hit the PocketPC version in a few weeks) - from now on there's no need to download the whole chunk of bensbargains.com data, we will stop when an existing deal is found. Other than that it is very intuitive. Almost forgot, the ability to filter deals was taken out from the Smartphone version. Perhaps, I'll get it back in.
This software is provided free of charge and may be freely copied, modified, and distributed.
POCKET BARGAINS IS DISTRIBUTED "AS IS". NO WARRANTY OF
ANY KIND IS EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED. YOU USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR
DATA LOSS, DAMAGES, LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY OTHER KIND OF LOSS WHILE
USING OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE.
If you're using GPRS or any other pay-per-KB internet connection, please be aware, that the amount of data transferred may be significant. We're not responsible for any charges that may occur caused by the Software use.
Download the latest version archive below, unzip, and run setup.exe. This will install the software on your Pocket PC/Smartphone.
This piece of software originally targeted Windows Mobile 2003 platform, but will work with PPC2002, PPC2003SE, SP2002, SP2003, SP2003SE units as well, as long as .Net Compact Framework is installed (it could be acquired from Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/downloads/updates/default.aspx).
Keep in mind, that PPC2003 and SP2003SE already have .Net Compact Framework preinstalled. You may want to acquire an updated version anyways (at the present time a SP2 of 1.0 framework is available from Microsoft).
PocketBargains remains free. Please donate to support our development efforts.
Download Pocket Bargains v 1.21 for the Microsoft Smartphone (released 2/19/2005)
Download Pocket Bargains v 1.0a (released 11/14/2004) Now supports Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 2003 SE.
Copyright © RCPlex Software, 2003-2004.