WHAT'S HOT
If you are familiar with Apple's iPod you will
feel right at home with Visual IT's Simple Tunes. Its features
and ease of use are quite similar.
SETUP
Simple Tunes installed without a hitch.
Just launch the setup application, accept the license agreement, and
wait for Simple Tunes to install on your Pocket PC. Pretty simple!
PROGRAM FEATURES
Simple Tunes was developed to make the MP3
listening experience on a Pocket PC simple. Some of Simple
Tunes features, taken directly from their website, include:
This is how the program looks when it is first launched.
In "Settings" you will find that there is a "Skins" option.
You can choose between plastic or classic. I prefer the polished look of the classic skin on the right.
Now back to the main screen. From here you can do many things. Selecting "Explore" will provide you with a simple file browser so you can search for music on your Pocket PC from within the Simple Tunes application.
The next time you launch Simple Tunes, provided that you have selected a music folder, you can choose "Last Played." By selecting "Last Played" you will open the folder where the music you were last playing is stored.
Now once the music has been taken care of you can then use the main screen to access some of the other great features in this program. If you would like to conserve your Pocket PC's battery while listening to MP3's with Simple Tunes you can select "Display Off" and your screen will shut off. This is good if you are solely using your Pocket PC to play music.
On the other hand if you prefer to be productive while listening to your MP3's you can select "Hide." Selecting "Hide" will take you to your Pocket PC's today screen where you can launch a program like you normally would when starting your Pocket PC.
The "Explore" feature is nice because you can navigate to the folder where your music is stored. There is even support for storage cards.
The play screen looks great and provides the user with a lot of information. It displays the necessary MP3 information like song , artist, and album name. The bar in the middle of the screen is a time bar that represents the song. The black part signifies how much of the song has been played. The unfilled part of the bar shows how much of the song is remaining. If you like to be more exact, take a look below the time bar. If you look at the bottom left of the display will notice that the track's time position is displayed. On the bottom right of the display you will notice that the time remaining in the track is displayed. If you move your attention to the bottom center of the play screen you will see a track display. The "7/21" means that the seventh song of twenty-one songs is playing.
You can access the seek feature by pressing the button in the middle of the scroll wheel while a song is playing. You will notice that where the track display was is now a multidirectional arrow, and the black inside the time bar changes to blue. Now to navigate to a certain position within the song all you have to do is use the scroll wheel.
The volume can be accessed just as easily by tapping on the scroll wheel. The time bar will change from black to blue and the universal volume symbol will appear below. Volume adjustment is as easy as using the scroll wheel.
HELP SUPPORT
Unfortunately, I was unable to find any
help support for Simple Tunes. Fortunately, the interface is pretty
intuitive and after a few minutes of getting to know Simple Tunes I
am sure you will have mastered it.
OPTIONS
Simple
Tunes also has the ability to shuffle your tracks around and repeat
songs.
The shuffle and repeat options are available by choosing "Settings" from the main screen.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Simple Tunes can be installed on any Pocket PC device running on an ARM
or Xscale processor. It only uses 400 k of memory.
BUGS AND WISHES
The Pocket PC is a very powerful device
and it would be beneficial to take advantage of all its strengths.
Therefore, in future releases of Simple Tunes the user should have the
ability to use their stylus to select items from the display screen.
I also think that the process of searching for MP3's should be automated,
and for the sake of simplicity, future releases should automatically
search the Pocket PC for MP3's so one is not limited to putting all
their music into one folder.
It would also be nice to see future releases have the ability to stream music from a desktop to Simple Tunes. This would help those that don't want to dedicate a majority of their storage card to music.
Lastly, more skin options would be greatly appreciated or maybe a way for the user to select different colors for buttons, backgrounds, and the scroll wheel.
PURCHASING
Simple Tunes can be purchased directly from
Visual
IT or from Handango
for $19.00. If your not sure if Simple Tunes is for you give it
a try before you buy. You can download a three day trial
from the Visual
IT website.
PROS
Nice graphical user interface
Access of the last music folder played with the Last Played feature
You can play music in the background while working with other programs
Display off feature saves battery power
CONS
Can't use a stylus to select items from the display screen
No help/support
Does not automatically search Pocket PC for MP3s
OVERALL IMPRESSION
Simple Tunes is a nice application. Personally,
I think the price is a bit expensive, but if the few suggestions I mentioned
were added to the program, I think Simple Tunes would be well worth
the $19.00 price tag. I look forward to seeing future releases
of Simple Tunes.
