Windows Mobile Louisville

Slacker is finally coming to Windows phones - sort of.  There is a CAB file available for download at XDA-Developers (scan the Microsoft Tag below to get the CAB file directly to your device), and yesterday, people were elated to have Slacker working on their Windows phones.  By evening, people were seeing an “Oops” error screen (including me), and the app won’t play at all.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon - heck, Slacker hasn’t even acknowledged that the app (which is supposed to be the real McCoy from Slacker) is available on their site! They might be waiting for next week to officially announce it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, particularly since it’s anticipated to be a HUGE event for Windows phone announcements!

Scan the Microsoft Tag to automatically download the CAB file.  Hopefully it will be working soon!

Perhaps you’ve heard of Grooveshark, and if not, you need to check it out on your PC!

A developer over at XDA-Developers has created an app called Groovefish which is built upon Grooveshark, and (right now, anyway), this is the only app that does this!

So, now is the time to install Groovefish and walk up to all your iPhone and Blackberry friends and say, “Hey, can you do this?  Pick a song, any song!!” and you can play it for them!

If you are wondering if this is a legit way to listen to tunes, read up on it over at Grooveshark.  They’ve got a business model built around all this.

Resco has been quite active with updates to several of their applications, and version 2.0 of Resco Radio is the most recent.

Speaking for myself, I find that I listen to streaming music a lot on my device, particularly when I am at work or in my car.  There are certainly many options for listening to streaming radio out there, and I use several of those options, depending on my needs.  How does Resco Radio 2.0 shape up? Read on and I’ll tell you!  I’ve even put together a quick-and-dirty video as well.  More after the break… (more…)

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.

Didiom has just released new software for Windows Mobile users that lets you stream your PC’s music collection over the internet to your phone. The software lets you stream MP3 tracks stored on your computer to over 200 phone models, for free.

In addition to streaming, Didiom offers a marketplace where you can shop for music from a selection of over 1 million songs, also available in MP3 format. What’s different about their service is that it lets you name your own price when purchasing the songs. After buying, tracks can be downloaded to both phone and PC. You can also share music previews with friends, either via email or from cell phone to cell phone.

There are no extra fees to use Didiom – the service is completely free (at least for now)…but make sure you have a data plan with your wireless carrier before using.

Source: Sarah in Tampa

Pocket Player 4.0 by Conduits is now available.  I personally use this app on a daily basis to listen to streaming music, so updates are always good news!

Version 4.0 adds support for AAC/M4A playback, the ability to subscribe to and directly download podcasts, and enhanced mp3 support.

Get it here.

Qik just cranked out support for some 20+ additional Windows Mobile devices so that you can Qik all your holiday moments.

Also included in this build:

• Ability to utilize external flash memory so that you can Qik longer in disconnected mode or under very poor network conditions.
• Better experience for touch devices through on-screen functions that come up when you tap the screen on the phone.

DEVICES:

Palm:

• Palm Treo 800w
• Palm Treo Pro (alpha support)

Samsung:

• Samsung SGH-i900/i908/ SCH-i910 (Omnia)
• Samsung SGH-i907 (Epix)
• Samsung SGH-i760
• Samsung SGH-i780 (Blackjack3)

HTC-based:

• HTC Touch Pro
• HTC Touch HD
• HTC XV6800
• HTC TyTN
• O2 XDA Trion
• T-Mobile MDA Vario II
• Vodafone 1605 VPA Compact III
• Orange SPV M3100
• Dopod CHT 9000
• Dopod 838 Pro
• DoCoMo HTC Z
• Qtek 9600
• iMate JasJam
• AT&T 8525
• Swisscom XPA v1605
• SoftBank X01HT
• Vodafone PDA 1605
• Vodafone PDA 9600

Amoi:

• AT&T SMT 5700
• Orange SPV E610

Motorola:

• Motorola Q Music 9m

I just want to add an observation that has become more apparent to me lately:  As compared to the iPhone, look at how many WM devices Qik has to develop the app for!  These 20 are only the tip of the WM device iceberg!   Certainly a headache for developers - how can your app reach mass appeal when there are so darned many devices with variants of the operating system and hardware specs?!!  End of rant…

Blockbuster wants to bring its streaming movie service to your phone via Microsoft’s Live Mesh platform.

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Blockbuster (which calls the Big D home) is planning on upping the ante in its battle with Netflix by streaming its online offerings via Microsoft’s broad cloud/data sync service Live Mesh—which means it could have an easier entree onto Windows Mobile, which is one of the Mesh’s supported platforms along with OS X. Blockbuster’s CIO also envisions using Live Mesh to sync your movie watching with multiple web-connected PCs and TVs.

Interestingly, Netflix’s online player uses Microsoft’s Silverlight platform—which also has an API tie-in to Live Mesh. 

Hmmmm - this could get interesting.  Rumor has it the Zune will be incorporated into the next version of WinMo, so taking full advantage of Live Mesh could prove to be quite powerful.  Question is, when will that happen?  When the iPhone IV is out?!

Source: [Dallas Morning News]

Kinoma has launched Kinoma Play to unify media browsing, search and playback, making it the first true mobile media browser. Featuring a user interface inspired by the simplicity and beauty of a digital television, Kinoma Play turns any Windows Mobile smartphone into a digital media powerhouse.

With Kinoma Play, smartphones now have digital media capabilities that meet, and sometimes even exceed, what users can do on their personal computers. Kinoma Play goes beyond organizing and playing a user’s video, audio and picture files, by bringing in media from around the Internet through the built-in Kinoma Guide, the most comprehensive catalog of the freshest, most diverse mobile media available.

Kinoma Play provides on-demand access from your phone to an unparalleled range of content:

• Media files – Play the music, video, pictures, panoramas and audio books on your phone
• Media services – Share your Audible.com, Flickr, iDisk, Live365, and YouTube accounts between your phone and computer
• Internet – Explore a terabyte of constantly updated, free streaming podcasts, music, radio stations, web-cams and audio books from thousands of providers including ClearChannel, CNN, NPR, Reuters, SHOUTcast, TUNED.mobi, and SomaFM
• Home PC – Access the gigabytes of music, video and pictures on your home PC from your phone – both on-demand streaming and download

Kinoma Play is $29.99. You can get it here.  The software is compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 and higher.

Kinoma is also introducing Kinoma FreePlay as a free download. Kinoma FreePlay shares the same gorgeous user interface and simplicity of use with Kinoma Play. It is a great MP3 player and photo viewer and provides access to much of the Kinoma Guide including Audible.com, Flickr, Live365, Reuters, SHOUTcast, YouTube, and thousands of streaming podcasts.

Applian Technologies and All Alex Inc announces the release of WM Recorder 12.1, the first streaming video recorder that can make exact digital copies of internet video and audio in all the popular formats, including Flash™, Windows Media™, Real Media™, MPEG™ and Quicktime™ streams.  WM Recorder 12.1 records all these streams automatically as they are played, and the included WM Converter lets customers convert videos to AVI, iPod/iPhone, WMV and other popular formats.
 
According to the program’s developer, Alex Urich, WM Recorder 12.1 is the easiest, most powerful way to record streaming video.   “We are really excited about WM Recorder 12.1.  Not only does WM Recorder support all the popular formats and protocols, it can do it extremely fast. Plus, it also converts.” 
 
In addition to recording capability, WM Recorder 12.1 comes with WM Converter built-in. Customers can convert to and from all the popular formats including Flash, WMV, MP3, MP4 and more.   WM Converter comes as a free 15 day trial with the purchase of WM Recorder; the full version of WM Converter is available with the purchase of the WM Recorder Bonus Bundle.
 
WM Recorder will work on all Windows PCs.  To learn more visit here.