December 2, 2009
Check Music Collections For Missing Cover Art With CovArt Ops
Many modern media players like Winamp, Windows Media Player or iTunes display cover art and other information about the music that is currently playing in their interfaces. The same is true for cell phones and hardware mp3 players that usually also come with that option. There are however a few problems related to cover art compatibility. [...]
December 1, 2009
Android Developer Challenge 2 Winners
Google’s Android platform which was once backed only by HTC has come a long way since then. Many cell phone manufacturers are releasing Android based cell phones at the moment including Samsung, Motorola and Acer with its Acer Liquid A1. Google created an Android Developer Challenge last year to give an incentive to software developers [...]
In Depth: 10 Windows Mobile apps worth paying for
Windows Marketplace for Mobile has generated the expected rash of cheap apps from the useful (TubeRun shows live departure boards for the London Underground, Calendar To Map opens a map of the next appointment in your calendar) to the pointless (do you need your phone to test your stress?) to the questionable (there are two fart apps already). With so many great free apps for Windows Mobile, are there really apps worth spending your money on? Actually, yes.1. Co-Pilot, 27You can get it for iPhone and Android but Co-Pilot for Windows Mobile is the original and best. Detailed maps (in multiple styles, including night mode so the screen doesn’t glare at you) with full route planning and turn-by-turn directions in your choice of voices with street names.It also provides all the other features of a dedicated navigation device such as lane assist and real sign display. The walking directions know about footpaths as well as roads while you can save favourite places and navigate to addresses from the Windows Mobile address book. Plus, as well as searching for thousands of points of interest (near you, along your route or in a specific place) you can Bing for local businesses and attractions, get petrol prices for nearby garages, look up the weather or turn on traffic alerts, get warnings about speed limits and speed cameras and send your location to friends as you travel. If you’ve got a geotagged photo, Co-Pilot can navigate you to it. The only drawback for this excellent app (which is fantastic value at 27) is that the on-screen keyboard in this version is alphabetic rather than QWERTY (and Co-Pilot says its working on that).2. Voice Command, 31Some Windows Mobile phones include this full voice control software; if not, buy a copy to launch programs, play music, change the ringer volume, open your calendar or a specific contact and yes, make calls, including redialling and returning the last call. You can ask Voice Command to tell you your next appointment or what you’re doing tomorrow (or just the time); it can read out new text messages and the subject and sender of incoming email. And it does it all without any training and with remarkable accuracy. You have to assign a button to it, so it won’t try to recognise random conversations and it works with Bluetooth headphones so you don’t even need to get your phone out. 3. Callligrapher, 18 ($30)Apart from the HD2, every touch Windows Mobile phone works with a stylus; make it useful by adding real handwriting recognition with Calligrapher. You can write anywhere on the screen, rather than just in a tiny box, and you can teach it which letter shapes you use most to improve recognition. You can’t teach it new letter shapes, though, and it takes some time teaching it shapes and making your handwriting tidier to get good recognition, but you can get there with patience.4. PhatPad, 24 ($40)PhatPad on its own is an excellent note application that lets you sketch, handwrite, create voice notes, add reminders to notes and sync it all to and from the almost-identical PhatPad application on your PC, so you can have one to-do list and take it with you. But if you use it with Calligrapher (above), you can write notes in ink like jotting things down on paper in a hurry and turn them into text when you have time, giving you the best of both worlds.5. WMWifiRouter, 18 (22)You can use your Windows Mobile phone as a modem with your notebook by turning on connection sharing, but if you want to share that connection with multiple PCs, or with something that’s not a PC, WMWifiRouter does that and more. It can share out your mobile data connection over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB; that gives you much wider range than Bluetooth and it means you can connect any device so you could upload photos directly to Flickr from a digital camera with an Eye-Fi card via your phone. Obviously it takes a lot out of the battery (so plug your phone in) and if you share the connection with multiple devices they only get a share of the bandwidth, but it’s both easy to use and has plenty of advanced configuration options. 6. Kinoma Play, 18 ($30)When you’re listening to music or watching video on your phone, you’re more likely to be interrupted; Kinoma Play remembers where you were, in everything you’ve watched or listened to. That’s especially handy because Kinoma gives you the same friendly interface for content on your phone and content online; you can browse camera phone pictures and your DSLR shots on Flickr with the same interface, and restart podcasts and YouTube videos where you left off. Kinoma has a lot of extra features, from streaming Internet radio, playing Last.fm, reading RSS and playing media from Box.net or your desktop computer via Orb to reading Facebook, sending tweets and checking flight times (it even has its own App Store). At heart, it’s a good media player and a great way to explore media on your phone and online.7. Evernote Premium, 3 ($5) a monthThe free version of Evernote is excellent; pay $5 a month and you get 500MB of storage. You’ll need it because you can upload audio, video, PDFs and Office documents so instead of copying files to your phone you can put them online and access them from anywhere, including your phone. You can search PDFs and you can share notes with a friend, so you can both work on the same note. If you use Evernote extensively, the Premium option is excellent value.8. RDM+, 24 ($40)You can get some great apps for Windows Mobile, but how about using the ones on your PC or Mac from your phone? The official Remote Desktop client is one of the optional programs you don’t always get on Windows Mobile devices, it only works with Windows and it assumes you know how to set it up and get connected. RDM+ works with Macs as well as PCs and it makes connecting very simple, even through a NAT firewall, by typing in the number it assigns your computer. You do have to run the RDM+ client on your computer and navigating Windows on your phone screen can be slow and finicky, but you can run your apps, zoom in so you can read them, browse files in a simple file manager or send shortcuts like Start and Paste directly instead of tapping buttons and menus. 9. SPB Mobile Shell, 18 ($30)Microsoft keeps changing its mind about the Today screen and most phone manufacturers have their own interface on top; if you prefer Android’s three desktops side by side, check out the extremely popular Mobile Shell which replaces the Today screen with a short-cut packed layout (swipe left for a desktop and search bar, swipe right for the calendar) plus a custom contact picker, a Start menu with recently-used icons at the top and a 3D carousel interface for switching between all the different screens. It’s a little complicated but if you want to put everything in Windows Mobile at your fingertips, Mobile Shell will do it. 10. Shazam Encore, 4.69Like Evernote, the free version of Shazam works fine but the pay-for version gives you more; instead of five songs a month you can tag and identify as many songs as you like and get suggestions for similar songs you’ll like. It’s virtually the same app you get on iPhone and BlackBerry so Windows Mobile users aren’t left behind. Want to find new music? Shazam makes it easier.