Review of Conduits Pocket Player 2.52 on Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!

Conduits Pocket Player 2.52

One of the great movements in the history of Pocket PCs has been the progression of multimedia content being available on the devices. Gone are the days of a Personal Information Manager (PIM) only device. They have been replaced with full featured, rich applications that allow for the playing of video and music in high fidelity.

Conduits Technologies has been involved in this aspect of Pocket PC life for several years and has taken a leading role with their application Pocket Player. Pocket Player, now in version 2.52, is full-featured audio applications that allows users to play a variety of audio formats. The application also includes a built-in equalizer, hardware button mapping, bookmarking and play list management. Pocket Player is one of the more established audio applications available for Pocket PC users and the maturity of the product shows straight away with its ease-of-use and flexibility. Any audiophile Pocket PC owner will love Pocket Player.

The installation of Pocket Player is done via ActiveSync and occupies approximately 1.4MB of storage space on the Pocket PC. The application can be installed either in the devices main memory or can be installed onto a Storage Card. Once installation is complete, Pocket Player can be started via the Start>Programs menu or by tapping the Today plug-in (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Pocket Player's Today Plug-in makes it easy to start listening to music

What sets Pocket Player apart from similar applications is its ability to play a wide range of audio file types and sources natively. Pocket Player 2.52 supports the following Formats:

Continual and Variable Bit Rate MP3 (up to 320kbps)
Windows Media Audio(WMA)
Waveform Audio (WAV)
Supports Compress WAV, excellent for voice notes management
ID3 v1/v1.1/v2 with background scanning of playlists
Ogg Vorbis
Network Share and Folder Browsing
HTTP Streaming
Standard and Icecast/Shoutcast Streams

With such a large selection of supported file types and sources, Pocket Play quickly becomes a “one-stop shop” for all of a users listening needs.

With Pocket Player started, users will find the layout of the application intuitive and atheistically pleasing (Figure 2). The control buttons are well marked along with a repeat and shuffle buttons. Also, there is a time counter and file information display giving information such as the bit rate of a file and if it is stereo or mono. Above the control buttons are the graphic equalizer and the equalizer slider settings. The equalizer itself can be turned off as well as manually adjusted.

As all users have different tastes, Pocket Player allows for different skins to be applied to the display (Figure 3). There are several skins included with the default installation and others can be downloaded from the Conduits site at http://www.conduits.com/products/player/skins.asp. Conduits also offers a skin creation utility in the SDK package for Pocket Player. The SDK package for Pocket Player can be downloaded at http://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp. Finally, Pocket Player supports the use of Nullsoft's Winamp skins. This makes this small but nice customization virtually limitless.

Pocket Player, by default, will search a users Windows Mobile device for files that it can play. Users can override thisautomated process by selecting a specific folder from the Open menu. The Open menu button is on the right side of the play list (Figure 4).


Figure 2: Default Skin	Figure 3: Brushed Metal Skin

Figure 4: Select a Folder for Pocket Player to read for audio files

The skin selections, and all of the other application operation features of Pocket Player, are found through of the main menu which is accessed by tapping the musical note button (Figure 5). The menu offers users the ability to bookmark websites with streaming content as well as providing a Seek/Resume feature. This facility is especially helpful when using Pocket Player for audio books or listening to voice notes. By selecting the Options menu, all of the settings for Pocket Player can be accessed.

Figure 5: Pocket Player’s single menu makes configuration easy

Like most other audio players, Pocket Player also has a playlist editor. To access the playlists, tap the playlist button on the left side of the playlist windows. All of the songs in the current playlist (or all files if no lists exist) will be presented (Figure 6). To add or edit a playlist, tap the Now Playing>Organize Playlist menu (Figure 7). From here, users will be able to select what tracks they want for any given playlist as well as create their own playlists.


Figure 6: The Current Playlist Menu	Figure 7: The Playlist Editor and Organizer

A key feature to Pocket Player that is not available on many other Windows Mobile based audio applications is an equalizer. The equalizer is completely customizable via the sliders on the Pocket Player display and can load pre-defined .EQF files (Figure 8). Further, Conduits have added a selection of Pocket Player can auto-load preset equalizer settings including the ability for users to select a particular file as a the default equalizer setting. Creating custom .EQF files is as simple as using the sliders to create the sound that is desired, then tapping the equalizer button and then Save EQF… from the equalizer menu. As most Windows Mobile devices offer stereo quality by default, the ability to equalize and create an individualized listening experience makes Pocket Player a must have application.

Figure 8: The Equalizer Menu allows users to enhance their listening experience

Beyond the features already mentioned, Pocket Player also allows users to customize the application to fit their specific needs or preferences. There are multiple aspects that can be changed including how long the screen is disabled during playback while the Windows Mobile device is on battery power. Options to enable crossfading between songs, the size of the playing buffer and the decoder’s process priority to name just a few (Figures 9 & 10). For most users, the default settings will be all that is needed. Having the ability to customize however, sets Pocket Player apart from other players.


Figure 9: The General Options Menu	Figure 10: The Advanced Menu gives users complete control of Pocket Player

Conduits Technologies is one of the leading developers in the Windows Mobile community and has a long, successful line of applications in various application areas. Conduits back all of their by excellent and detailed FAQs along with a responsive customer support Team. Test emails sent to Conduits support were all answered within 24 hours and the support provided was accurate and detailed.

Conduits Pocket Player 2.52 is available to purchase online directly from the Conduits website. It is priced at $19.95 (US). A 30-day demonstration version of the application is available as well, providing a try-before-you-by opportunity. For more information on Pocket Player, visit the Conduits Technologies website at http://www.conduits.com. You can try the latest version of Pocket Player from the Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! Store by clicking here.

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