Larry Garfield looks at the latest Pocket Tunes, now beefed up with cross-fading, bookmarks, and streaming Shoutcast support.
Palm OS audio player Pocket Tunes has upped the ante in the audio playback realm with its latest version. No longer content to simply offer support for static audio files, Pocket Tunes now boasts support for streaming MP3 audio over Shoutcast servers in addition to a solid feature set.
 | Pocket Tunes 2.1 has a new, flexible skinning system
|
Weighing in at 368 KB for the core program, Pocket Tunes 2.1 supports four different audio input methods; MP3 files, Ogg Vorbis files, uncompressed WAV files, and MP3 streamed over Shoutcast. The latter, of course, requires an Internet connection. Unfortunately it does not support streaming Ogg Vorbis, as the Ogg format was designed with streaming in mind.
Pocket Tunes uses a file dialog to let the user select audio files from anywhere on an expansion card, although /Audio and subdirectories thereof are the recommended location as that is where the HotSync installer places MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files by default. The same dialog also lets the user configure and select Shoutcast audio streams. A separate function lets the user configure and select mixed-format playlists.
The program is fully skinnable, and comes with both a "skinless" default skin and a Brushed Metal skin. The skin architecture has been redesigned since earlier versions, and skins are now considerably smaller than they were before. They can still be stored on an expansion card, however. The new skin architecture includes support for both 320 x 320 screens and 160 x 160 screens, such as on the new Treo 600, as well as the extended resolution and rotation on the Palm Tungsten T3. Support for the different screens varies with the skin, however. A large collection of skins is available on the Pocket Tunes web site.
All of the functionality one would expect from an audio player is present, including a graphic equalizer. There is also a Pocket Tunes Console, which the user can activate with a pen stroke while audio is playing to bring up a simple but effective dialog box with limited playback functions such as Pause, Volume, and so on. It also supports 5-way D-Pads. Audio quality is loud and clear, assuming a good audio file. Audio quality of streaming Shoutcast servers depends on the bandwidth supported from the server, which will vary.
The program is quite configurable, however, preferences are spread out over no less than seven different screens. While we like the flexibility, spreading them out over so many different screens makes it more difficult to configure the program than it should be. A single, tabbed preferences system works much better here.
Pocket Tunes comes in two versions, Basic and Deluxe. Shoutcast support is only available in the Deluxe version, which also includes a clean cross-fading option and bookmarks for longer audio book files. They are actually the same file, but with different registrations.
Availability
A demo version of Pocket Tunes supporting Deluxe functionality is available. Deluxe registration costs $24.95 USD, while Basic registration costs $12.95 USD. Pocket Tunes runs on any Palm OS 5 handheld supporting the PalmSource Audio API, which includes nearly all OS 5 palmOne handhelds and several newer Sony CLIEs.
Conclusion
With the addition of streaming audio and support for a wider array of devices, Pocket Tunes is rock solid as a Palm OS audio player. Supporting both free and proprietary audio formats, a very clean interface, and online music streams it should cover nearly all audio users. We'd like a cleaner preferences system, and support for streaming Ogg Vorbis, but even without those Pocket Tunes is a solid and robust audio solution for Palm users.
What’s positive: Shoutcast streaming, Ogg Vorbis support, improved skins
What’s negative: No streaming Ogg, preferences scattered
Overall: 
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Archive