The included Clie Viewer program, while good intentioned, suffers from lethargy. Take more than a handful of pictures with your Clie Camera, and you sit and wait, and wait, and wait for the Clie Viewer to generate thumbnail images. It doesn’t cache these thumbnail images, so the next time you want to view images, you have to wait, and wait, and…

An alternative is to purchase one of the several third-party Imager Viewer apps. One such app is AcidImage from RedMercury.com These third-party viewers add functionality and speed not available to the native Clie Viewer.

For example, AcidImage adds a “file manager” function that lets you choose to view pictures stored anywhere on yout Memory Stick. This is very handy because you can organize your pictures into folders either on-board using a program like ClieFiles or “externally” using MSImport and opening a Windows Explorer window to manage the files on the memory Stick. You can select one, selected, or all photos to view. You can view the thumbnails in various sizes or view a text list of the photos. Very flexible.

Another nice feature is the ability to view “other” image types imported to the Memory Stick using MSImport. The Clie’s camera takes pictures in .jpg format, but AcidImage can display .gif and .bmp, and several other graphic file types. This is especially useful if you want to carry graphical information with you. You are no longer limited to viewing just Photos taken with your Clie, but you can carry with you and view images from just about any source.

For example, say you are Web Surfing and go to MapQuest.com to find a map of a specific place. Once it displays on your PC, just right-click on the image, and (in Internet Explorer) select “Save Picture As…” and save the picture to your PC. Then, use MSImport to load the picture onto your Memory Stick. Viewing the image in AcidImage lets you Zoom, Pan, and Rotate the image quickly.

There’s also a slideshow function that cycles through your images.

Admittedly, one nice thing about the Clie Viewer is that you can use it as a “launching point” to view Photos, Movies, listen to Voice Recordings, etc. but these functions can be easily done by launching the associated apps separatly. This integration is something I would gladly give up to have an image viewer that is quick and simple to use.

A Third-Party image viewer can open the door to many other uses for your Clie!

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with Red Mercury other than being a happy customer.

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