Windows Mobile Louisville

Today at CTIA Wireless, Spb Software announced the release of Spb TV - a practical mobile TV player with patent-pending on-screen controls and fast channel switching technology, use of intelligent stream correction, picture-in-picture mode, and an integrated TV guide with export of show reminders into Outlook.  Spb TV is a subscription-free and international live mobile TV solution that is geared up to utilize the new generation of faster wireless networks.

Spb TV is unique in its approach to the mobile TV experience, offering the unexpectedly natural simplicity of watching live TV on a phone. Spb TV goes a long way to support the genuine TV watching behavior on a handset: quick TV guide check-up and channel hopping, on-screen controls for volume and backlight, neat integration of TV functionality with other mobile features (such as messages, calls, and battery life monitoring).

“Mobile TV is an additional fun factor for phone users, who expect hassle-free access to a nice selection of international TV channels from their handsets,” - comments Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, Spb Software CEO. “This is why Spb TV is subscription-free, optimized for 3G and WiMax networks, but works great with WiFi connections too. We also look to cooperation with mobile operators, to provide more customized and branded mobile TV experiences to their subscribers,” Sebastian concludes.

Spb TV 1.0 Main Features

• Unique TV browser with quick channels preview and list of current & upcoming TV shows for fast channel selection
• Integrated full week’s TV guide
• Ability to set Outlook reminders for TV shows of interested
• Fast channels launch and switching technology
• Picture-in-picture mode (channel preview while in another channel)
• Finger-friendly onscreen “transparent” controls with instant access to regular TV features
• Full support of hardware buttons controls
• Network bandwidth fluctuations support
• Clever integration of mobile TV functionality with other mobile phone features

Spb TV 1.0 is compatible with Windows Phones running on Windows Mobile 5 and later Professional and Standard platforms, qVGA, VGA, Square QVGA, and WVGA screen resolutions are supported.  Spb TV 1.0 has a full and a freeware versions, with the freeware version limited in features and number of channels available.  Spb TV requires a reliable 3G, WiMax or WiFi network connection for proper streaming.

The full version of Spb TV is available for $14.95.

Last week, YouTube launched it’s own native Windows Mobile application.  Various HTC devices have a YouTube app already, but this one will work on any WM Phone.

You can get it by navigating to m.youtube.com on your device.

I already tried it, and while it works well, I will stick with the default YouTube app that came on my HTC Touch Pro.  I like the way it works a little better than this latest creation.

A note to folks who already have the YouTube app on your HTC device:  if you download and install this application from YouTube, it will overwrite the default app on your device!  I had to re-map shortcuts to the default application after I uninstalled this latest version (the default app is found in the Windows directory of your device).  Not a big deal, just wanted to pre-warn you!

I should have known!  As soon as I posted the news about Microsoft’s release of a Netflix Mobile Manager, I installed it, tested it out, and was quite impressed.  It just seemed to work so well, so - familiar…

And then we received the following press release, and it all made sense!

Spb Software Develops Windows Mobile Netflix Application in Cooperation with Microsoft and Netflix

Spb Software worked closely with Microsoft and Netflix to develop the first official Netflix application for Windows phones. The Mobile Manager for Netflix is an on-device application that seamlessly interfaces with the Netflix web service, allows searching the entire Netflix library, viewing the movie details, managing the DVD queue, and adding movies to Instant Queue directly from Windows phones. The unique exclusive feature of Mobile Manager for Netflix is the ability to play trailers of movies, directly on the handset screen.

The Mobile Manager for Netflix was developed in cooperation between Microsoft, Netflix, and Spb Software. The application interface is built on the Spb Mobile Shell UI engine (also used in such popular applications as Spb Wallet, Spb Online, Spb Weather, Spb Traveler), and allows optimizing the efficiency of the user interface and speed of service navigation. With this fast and finger-friendly UI, the Mobile Manager application streamlines the Netflix mobile user experience, allowing subscribers to preview movie trailers on the go, add selected items to the DVD queue, or the Instant Queue - to instantly watch movies on TV screens using Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

“Windows phones help people access the information they care about most, bringing together the Web, the PC and the phone - all in one device,” said Steve Hegenderfer, group product manager at Microsoft, Corp. “We are very excited to work with Spb Software to bring the popular Netflix service to our customers, giving them easy access to their account and favorite movies while on the go.”

To get more information, or download the Mobile Manager for Netflix, please visit

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/totalaccess/software/software/netflix.mspx

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been getting mighty sick of seeing entertainment-related applications galore for the iPhone, often without a Windows Mobile version.  Pyxis Mobile apparently agrees, so they’ve developed an application called Smart Flicks that allows you to manage your Netflix queue and browse the entire Netflix library from your Windows Mobile phone:

• Browse the entire Netflix library from your Windows Mobile device
• Add to, remove from, and change position in your regular and Instant Queues
• See the availability of DVDs in real time
• See available formats for each title (DVD, Blu-ray, Instant)
• Movie Synopsis: When looking at recommendations and search results, click to view full synopsis.
• Improved “Recommendations” Support with more targeted recommendations and “Star Ratings”
• Access movie and entertainment news and information, and soon, movie times, GPS directions to theaters and more.
• Send-to-a-Friend: Send SmartFlicks to a friend via quick-click interface
• Instant Feedback: Send the App Lab team your comments and suggestions from within the application

Looking at the main Pyxis Mobile web site, they’ve obviously got a lot of experience in wireless financial services applications.  It’s good to see them branching out and applying some of that expertise into a consumer-grade application.  We need more developers to do the same for Windows Mobile!

You can download the beta of Smart Flicks at Pyxis Mobile.   The app is free.

Source: PocketNow