Blog entries about Software Review

Listening to or watching podcasts is great fun. If you think they are boring, meaningless or can’t entertain you during, say, a long fight, you’re wrong. For example, watching all the clips of X-Play, played back on my VGA HP iPAQ 214 (thanks to Smartphone & PPCMag / iPhone Life’s Hal Goldstein for the gift!) could entertain me for long-long hours.

Compared to the capabilities of desktop multimedia players (see for example the excellent WMP vs Winamp vs iTunes vs MediaMonkey for more info on their capabilities), the mobile ones certainly lack when it comes to fetching, searching for, editing, storing and, in several cases, even accessing / displaying different kinds (album art and/or other images; textual genre / composer / title etc. info; lyrics etc.) of information in audio files.

Nicky Boom is a port of a famous Amiga platform game. It's one of those games that makes me wish I had an Amiga back in the day. (I still remember that trip I made to Warren Radio in Peoria, IL back in the 80s and they just happened to have an Amiga on display. It almost seemed like a magical experience. Where have all the good times gone?) 

I've reviewed a number of new software input methods this year for Windows Mobile touchscreen devices. They have all generally used the standard qwerty layout that would be found on a hardware keyboard. Fitaly throws you for a loop because it uses a non-querty layout, and incidently the name is derived from the arrangement of letters on the keyboard (just like querty).  The fitaly layout was designed in the nineties for pencomputers, when Jean Ichbiah thought that writing with a stylus required a different type of keyboard.

The built-in Windows Media Player has always suffered from a major flaw: it didn’t support resuming the song from the last position after restarting the player. XDA-Devs forum member Wolfman-XP (the same guy that has also developed AVRCP support for GSPlayer) has fixed this: he has released a plug-in that remembers the last position where you press(ed) the Pause button.

Following is an update to my previous article on the CPU usage of the audio player applications. Please consult the old article on how the data should be interpreted.

GSPlayer is a well-known, excellent, free (!!!!), constantly updated audio player application I’ve very frequently elaborated on (search my blog for my related articles).

In my last Bible of Windows Mobile, Symbian and Blackberry webcamera applications directly usable in desktop messengers like Live Messenger, I haven’t elaborated on the apps that are a bit different: they let for using your camera-equipped handset as a camera for your messaging application running on your desktop PC (connected to your handset).

As has been explained in the Remote Desktop Control Bible, in the pre-WM6.1 days, Windows Mobile was clearly worse than WindowsCE .NET running on clamshell devices in that the Remote Desktop Mobile client couldn’t make any file transfer in the former, while it could do in the latter (for years).

Many of you may already have heard of Another World (also known as Out of this World in the US and Outer World in Japan; Wiki page HERE; Abandonia page HERE), which was one of the best vector-graphic action-adventure games back in 1991-1992.

Compatibility

Not all notebooks or desktop computers have a built-in web camera. With desktop PC’s, this isn’t that big an issue: as you don’t carry them around, you can just buy an inexpensive, clip-on USB camera and you’re set. Not so with notebooks, UMPC’s or Tablet PC’s – with them, purchasing (and carrying!) a cabled solution might be overly suboptimal. Then, just using your camera-equipped smartphone may turn out to be the best solution; preferably over a wireless connection like Bluetooth.

Nicky Boom was a nice platformer game released for the Commodore Amiga and MS DOS back in 1992 (Wiki page HERE).

Through Enemy Eyes has a strange setup for a game. On the one hand, it's a treasure-hunting arcade based on exploring ancient ruins. You know the routine: wandering through ancient crypts, finding treasure, taking out bad guys (mummies and such), and the usual mischief. But don't expect a fast-paced arcade shooter (Lode Runner) or a tricky puzzle game (Pitfall). Through Enemy Eyes (TEE) is entirely turn-based.  

Hello, my name is Dale and I am an Opera Mobile addict. Okay, now that I have THAT out of the way, let me tell you, I LOVE OPERA. Nope, not the kind with the heavy weight, horn-helmeted singer, but the Opera that makes my mobile web viewing so nice. I have been using Opera Mobile for a couple of years now and I have to say that it is, by far, the best mobile web browser I have ever encountered. In my article on replacing a laptop with a mobile device, I talked about the fact that Opera Mobile was indispensable in my effort to use only my mobile device.

In my latest Misc News collection, I’ve already recommended Towers Trap, a brand new game on two mobile (Windows Mobile and Symbian S60) and desktop Windows platforms. GameZoneProject’s official page is HERE. No matter what platform you have, I really-REALLY recommend giving the trial a try and play through the (initial) tutorial. (Again, you’ll have text rendering problems on VGA Windows Mobile devices).

So far, the biggest problem with running Opera Mini (or any MIDlet that uses characters to display anything; for example, the Gmail MIDlet) on high-resolution (W)VGA Windows Mobile devices was the far too small character size all contemporary, recommended (most importantly, Jbed) MIDlet managers used.

Now that I’ve become a proud owner of a super-mobile HP TC1100 Tablet PC, using mobile devices (smart phones) as external modems have became essential for me. Up until now, I’ve done most of my Web browsing, YouTube watching outdoors with some of my mobile devices.

This one may be a freebie, but it has a good foundation to become a decent game. The good: It's a space shooter with very decent graphics, large, fairly complex levels, a multitude of enemies, power-ups to make your ship stronger, decent animation and video effects, and a decent flow. It also has mappable controls to ensure playability across a wide range of devices. 

Hardware

There’s a really interesting article comparing the built-in camera of the four most widely discussed new Windows Mobile phones: HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. There is also a dedicated PPCT thread HERE, with some of my comments.

Games