tkcGallery is a commercial application for the Sharp Zaurus, developed by theKompany.com. We've reviewed a number of their programs already, all of which have been to a high standard. Like their other applications, the thekompany ipk has to be installed into RAM, but fortunately there's no such requirement for the tkcGallery ipk. With the number of services that run in real RAM (Apache, samba etc), I need as many programs as possible to install cleanly to CompactFlash/Secure Digital. The name tkcGallery may give you the impression that the program can view lots of different graphic formats. This isn't the case. tkcGallery is designed to make it easy to work with pictures taken from Compact flash digital cameras. Translated into English, this means the program handles .jpeg files. If you want to view other graphic formats such as GIF, PNG you'll be out of luck. Hang on, doesn't the Zaurus come with an viewer of jpeg files? Indeed it does, the program Image Viewer is one of the many applications that come with the Zaurus. But Image Viewer is a seriously braindead application. It certainly can view small jpeg files without any problems, but give it a high resolution picture and it'll throw out memory errors. Note, even a 1.3 MegaPixel camera can generate a 1280x960 image resolution. The fact that many digital cameras are greater than 1.3 MegaPixel highlights the problems you'll face if you try to use the Image Viewer for digital pictures. Image Viewer is also extremely limited in the feature department and makes it very difficult to find your pictures. However, tkcGallery copes much better with large image files, including jpegs with a higher resolution than 1600x1200. Starting up the program reveals a directory structure very much like a file manager would display. A quick locate of the directory containing my jpegs and I was taken to Screenshot 1. At the top you can see the main toolbar. The icons lets you select the folder which has your digital images, a multi column view, a detailed view mode, the image full screen, a slideshow, and the mouse represents a popup menu for selecting a sort mode. The first screenshot shows the multi column view, and the second screenshot shows the detailed view. Like their other applications, theKompany.com have developed a first class interface, which makes using this program a doddle! The program coped admirably with high resolution pictures. tkcGallery lets you rename and delete files, as well as rotating the images. I especially liked the detailed view mode as it helps finding the picture you want, and there are numerous nice touches including keyboard support, selection of files to be included in the slideshow. The program comes with good documentation in the form of the Help Browser, as well as a PDF file. If you take lots of digital pictures, this program is for you. I'm a firm believer that commercial software has an important role to play, especially where there is a glaring deficiency with free software. This is certainly the case with images. Although the software is specifically designed for working with digital camera images, tkcGallery would be even better if other graphics formats were supported. Then tkcGallery would be a general purpose image viewer. Nevertheless, this is an excellent application for all digital camera lovers! Product Details: Name: tkcGallery 1.50-18 Company: theKompany.com Price: $9.95 Pros: Handles high resolution pictures, slideshow, quick and easy to use Cons: Even better if it handled other graphics formats Rating: 8/10 Back to Zaurus Software Reviews