[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by petvas

I know that Opera Mobile has to be considered as a serious alternative to Safari Mobile, so that is one problem less...What about the Media Player? The OS needs to be improved...

You might not need a third-party browser in a few months if IE Mobile gets IE 6 support. It may not be touch-friendly, but the biggest complaints I've seen are about rendering and display, not UI.

But if you're willing to consider third-party software for the browser, why not for the media player, too? And, if you believe the rumors, the media player may be replaced by something Zune-like in a future release (I'd guess maybe WM 6.5, most certainly by WM 7).

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by petvas

I know that Opera Mobile has to be considered as a serious alternative to Safari Mobile, so that is one problem less...What about the Media Player? The OS needs to be improved...

You might not need a third-party browser in a few months if IE Mobile gets IE 6 support. It may not be touch-friendly, but the biggest complaints I've seen are about rendering and display, not UI.

But if you're willing to consider third-party software for the browser, why not for the media player, too? And, if you believe the rumors, the media player may be replaced by something Zune-like in a future release (I'd guess maybe WM 6.5, most certainly by WM 7).

Steve

[petvas]

Originally Posted by Pony99CA

You might not need a third-party browser in a few months if IE Mobile gets IE 6 support. It may not be touch-friendly, but the biggest complaints I've seen are about rendering and display, not UI.

But if you're willing to consider third-party software for the browser, why not for the media player, too? And, if you believe the rumors, the media player may be replaced by something Zune-like in a future release (I'd guess maybe WM 6.5, most certainly by WM 7).

Steve

I have a big iTunes Library with DRM protected songs...I don't think that there is currently any other solution than the iPod/iPhone.

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by petvas

I have a big iTunes Library with DRM protected songs...I don't think that there is currently any other solution than the iPod/iPhone.

As far as I know, Apple doesn't let anybody else use their DRM system, so no Windows Mobile device (or any other non-Apple device other than a Windows PC running iTunes) will be able to play them. You can't blame that on Windows Media Player.

You could always remove the DRM, though. The official way is to burn the song to a CD and then rip it, but I've read about DRM strippers that don't require the intermediate step.

Steve

[petvas]

Originally Posted by Pony99CA

As far as I know, Apple doesn't let anybody else use their DRM system, so no Windows Mobile device (or any other non-Apple device other than a Windows PC running iTunes) will be able to play them. You can't blame that on Windows Media Player.

You could always remove the DRM, though. The official way is to burn the song to a CD and then rip it, but I've read about DRM strippers that don't require the intermediate step.

Steve

I don't blame Windows Media Player for that, I am just mentioning the fact that the only devices I can listen my music to, are iPods/iPhone...
I could live with having two devices, one for music/videos and one for the rest, but then I found out that the quality of apps for the iPhone is much better than the ones for WM (with exceptions of course like PIM software for example where WM is much better).
If I look at the games available, WM cannot even compare with the iPhone. Of course it's not about games (though it is nice to have them ).
I use software on my iPhone for which I couldn't find an equivalent for the WM:

• eBay app
• An app that lets me see all train connections for all stations in Germany. I use it almost every day, as I am travelling a lot by train (Deutsche Bahn).
• A Timesheet app with powerful export options
• a Skype Client (I know there is one for WM - the one for the iPhone doesn't cost anything though...)
• An app to calculate Brutto/Netto Salary
• a Telnet Client (I haven't checked if WM has one)
• a Taxi app. It locates me and calls a Taxi for me!
• Google Earth
• a Remote Control app for iTunes

The quality of these apps is really great. The interface is intuitive and very user friendly...Even if someone could find something similar on WM, the interface should be using Touch....

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by petvas

I don't blame Windows Media Player for that, I am just mentioning the fact that the only devices I can listen my music to, are iPods/iPhone...

Well, you actually said that one of the reasons you abandoned Windows Mobile was because the media player was a joke. But even if WM had the greatest media player in the world, it wouldn't matter because it wouldn't be able to play your music, so I don't think your original comment is fair.

Originally Posted by petvas

If I look at the games available, WM cannot even compare with the iPhone. Of course it's not about games (though it is nice to have them ).

Yes, they are nice to have. Are iPhone games really that much better than games from companies like PDAmill or games you can play using one of the many WM console emulators?

Originally Posted by petvas

I use software on my iPhone for which I couldn't find an equivalent for the WM:

• eBay app
• An app that lets me see all train connections for all stations in Germany. I use it almost every day, as I am travelling a lot by train (Deutsche Bahn).
• A Timesheet app with powerful export options
• a Skype Client (I know there is one for WM - the one for the iPhone doesn't cost anything though...)
• An app to calculate Brutto/Netto Salary
• a Telnet Client (I haven't checked if WM has one)
• a Taxi app. It locates me and calls a Taxi for me!
• Google Earth
• a Remote Control app for iTunes

There are various Telnet applications, including the freePocket PuTTY. I'm not sure why Google Earth is much better than Google Maps (which is available for Windows Mobile). I also recall reading about an iTunes remote control for WM, but I can't be sure.

Steve