More > Featured Review

HTC HD2

More > Featured News

Opera Mobile 10 Gets Introduced; Video...

More > Featured Rumor

Dell to Introduce Android Streak Tablet...

More > Recent Tweak

How to Restore Owner Information Icon in...

More > Marketplace Pick

LangLearner Helps Bridge The Gap Between...

You are in a Review

Browse by Category:

A New Windows Media Player Alternative (1/2)

NormSoft Pocket Tunes for Windows Mobile v4.1

By: Neal Stublen | Date: 2-Jun-08 | Comments

INTRODUCTION

Since late 2002, NormSoft has been providing Pocket Tunes as a media player for Palm devices. With version 4.1, released the day that we publish this review, they've expanded into the Windows Mobile market. We'll take a look at this new offering and see how it stands up as an alternative to Windows Media Player.

WHAT'S HOT

Here are the key features of Pocket Tunes for Windows Mobile:

Support for MP3, WMA, AAC, and aacPlus audio formats
Internet radio playback
iTunes synchronization
Windows Media DRM support

SETUP

Pocket Tunes can be installed to any desktop PC. The installer will use ActiveSync to install the application to your device and Pocket Tunes Sync for iTunes will be installed on your desktop computer.

PRODUCT FEATURES

If you're going to replace Windows Media Player, obviously, its successor should be able to quickly and easily handle your media files. Pocket Tunes automatically scans your device and categorizes the audio files it finds.

Files are grouped by artist, album and genre. Custom playlists are available for a mixed selection of files.

After selecting your audio files, Pocket Tunes displays a custom interface for playback and navigation of the current playlist. Buttons to the lower left of the playlist allow repeat and random playback. The volume control allows you to adjust the volume independent of the Windows Mobile volume setting.

Tapping the radio tower icon presents a list of internet radio stations that are available for playback. Stations are grouped into a variety of categories and you can add your own stations by entering the URL for the broadcast.

Once you select a station, Pocket Tunes will list the other stations from the same category so you can easily switch between them. If you create your own category, you can simply add all your favorite stations to have them quickly available in the playlist.

Pocket Tunes offers a variety of preference settings for customizing your playback experience. Notable among the preference settings are volume boost, bookmarking, and crossfade. Volume boost will attempt to squeeze out a bit more volume from your files even when the volume setting on the device is at its maximum. If you're listening to a podcast where the volume of the speakers tends to drift up and down, you may find that volume boost is able to level things out a bit. Bookmarking enables Pocket Tunes to remember the playback location of an audio file. You can manually create a bookmark, but if you decide to auto-bookmark, Pocket Tunes will automatically remember where you left off in an audio file when it is paused. Finally, the crossfade feature allows you to adjust the gap between tracks from 0 to 10 seconds.

A five-band equalizer allows you to adjust the frequency levels of your audio. The eight presets provide plenty of room to customize the equalizer for different types of audio.

For those who like to personalize their music player, Pocket Tunes can be skinned to suit a variety of tastes. Though the Windows Mobile version of Pocket Tunes only has two skins currently available, the large library of skins for the Palm version should be made available in due time.

What's new on Twitter

Our latest video coverage