02-10-2004, 10:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Conduits Technologies, Inc. Announces Pocket Player 2.5 for Pocket PC
Pocket Player from Conduits has just gotten even better! Version 2.5 adds some great new features and improvements upon previous features. You can download a free trial from Handango or buy the full version for $19.95. [Affiliate] Here's the press release describing the new features:
"Conduits Technologies, Inc., announced today the release of Pocket Player 2.5, an alternative music player for Pocket PC, supporting the latest media player standards and formats. Pocket Player aims to satisfy the Pocket PC customers who demand more from a media player. Pocket Player runs on all ARM-based Pocket PC devices, such as the Pocket PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002, and Windows Mobile 2003 Software for Pocket PC.
Pocket Player 2.5 improves upon earlier versions by increasing the product's overall strength and usability while including 16 new and updated feature implementations. All known bugs and defects in previous versions of Pocket Player have been resolved. This includes streaming and connection problems, input buffering issues, playback stuttering, memory leaks, volume adjustment problems, and screen dimming issues.
By popular request, Pocket Player 2.5 now sports a Today screen plugin, where the user can control playback, launch Pocket Player, or open content. The plugin uses the Today theme colors and background. Pocket Player now has Landscape skin support, as well as display mode switch detection. Through the use of an orientation mode switcher, Pocket Player will automatically switch skins based on the orientation of the screen, either Portrait or Landscape. Support for VGA-enabled Pocket PC screens is included, with a VGA-resolution skin available. Other skins will automatically be scaled to fit the VGA screen, instead of filling the top-left quarter of the screen.
Support for multiple media formats is one of the defining qualities of Pocket Player. Playback of common audio formats such as MP3 and WMA are supported, as are WAV files that the user has recorded with the built-in Pocket PC Voice Recorder. Playback of Ogg Vorbis files is also supported.
Now for Pocket Player 2.5, the equalizer for WMA and WAV playback has been rewritten to replace the existing equalizer found in previous versions of Pocket Player, greatly improving audio playback. Crossfading support is also enhanced with a variable crossfading engine. The fade is adjustable, and the playback output is much smoother between tracks.
Developers can now write decoder modules for other audio formats or input methods. Support for Digital Signal Processing (DSP) plugins is also included, and software development kits will be posted to the Pocket Player website for perusal.
Pocket Player 2.5 boasts myriad playback features: the user can play files that are stored locally on Windows Mobile software for Pocket PCs, in RAM or on a memory card. The wireless connectivity features of Windows Mobile software for Pocket PCs permit Pocket Player to stream audio files over HTTP connections, and Internet radio stations are supported. In addition, streaming audio files over the user's local network is supported. Advanced audio features such as gapless playback, or track crossfading are also part of Pocket Player's feature set. In 2.5, online stream support with Live365 and other providers is now fully supported. Network browsing is now supported on the Add Folder screen. By adding a network path to the folder tree, it is much easier to play networked content.
A ten-band audio equalizer and preamplifier control is supported for MP3 and Ogg Vorbis media formats. Support for bookmarked files, and track positions are supported in Pocket Player, which are generally used by listeners of audio books. In 2.5, the new Seek menu includes common jump forward and backward time amounts, plus an Auto-Resume feature, which can jump to the last location heard in the track. It's bookmarking made easy! Helpful for DJ's using Pocket PC devices - the Manual Playlist Advance option enables users to control how songs proceed from one track to the next.
New for Pocket Player 2.5, additional Winamp 2 skins are supported with enhanced WSZ skin support. Screen dimming support has been retooled for different devices, which have different screen power properties.
Support for screen shut-off in the background is now fully supported on Pocket PC 2003 devices. The Playlist picker now cascades multiple playlists to reduce scrolling."
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02-10-2004, 10:18 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 312
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Nice player but...
Nice Player but... gimme some AAC support. 
__________________
JohnJohn
PocketUp.com
- iPhone3G - Blackberry Curve
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02-10-2004, 10:28 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 198
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JohnJohn,
We're currently investigating AAC support for a future release. What would you primarily use AAC playback for? Note that AAC files bought through the Apple iTunes store have their own DRM layer (FairPlay, produced by Apple), which has not been licensed by Apple to any third parties at this time. AAC/MP4 playback would simply let you play those AAC files you have created yourself (through ripping CD's, etc).
Would you be open to a separate AAC package to Pocket Player, bought extra? AAC carries with it its own set of licensing fees.
P.S. Pocket Player 2.5 does support codec plugins, so do expect to see some plugins and an SDK available soon. First on the list is a MOD plugin.
Thanks!
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02-10-2004, 10:36 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 312
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Thanks for the info about Apple. Being in a one iPOD family makes the morning a rush to the den to see how gets it for the day. I sure wish I could play my iTunes purchases on my PPC.
I would be very interested in playing iTunes songs on my PPC and would pay extra for licensing that "add-on" if and when that's possible.
Thanks
__________________
JohnJohn
PocketUp.com
- iPhone3G - Blackberry Curve
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02-10-2004, 10:37 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 276
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Do 2.1 owners get his update for free ?
I don't see any mention of this on the Conduits web page...
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02-10-2004, 10:49 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 198
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JohnJohn,
Do you also have a lot of ripped content in AAC format? Until Apple changes their FairPlay licensing business model (allowing other players to use it), it's unlikely we'll see any iTMS playback on non-iPods.
Confusing the situation further is Real's store, which uses AAC too, but with a DRM system based off Helix, an open DRM system.
egads,
Indeed, 2.X users get free 2.X upgrades. Simply download and install it ontop of your existing installation.
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02-10-2004, 11:45 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 199
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It's a great player.
Might you consider including 24-bit WAV file playback at 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 KS/s? That's what our PDAudio-CF let you record with PDAs.
Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com
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02-10-2004, 11:48 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 332
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Can't you convert your iTunes purchases into MP3? Or do you lose quality when you do that?
just thinking outloud
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02-11-2004, 12:14 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 16
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Well, I've given it a go (I've purchased 2.1 already) - and it seems like it's all working as advertised. It'll be a little while before I can test whether my previous problem, that of causing TomTom Navigator to freeze when PP is running in the background, has been fixed... Hopefully the memory leaks mentioned in the list of bug fixes will solve it!
And one last thing... Why would anyone want a Today plugin for a music player?
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02-11-2004, 12:34 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 254
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Quote:
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Why would anyone want a Today plugin for a music player?
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Some people want Today plug-ins for everything. Me, I just delete the registry entry - all they do is cause problems with what I already use. Keep the Today plug-ins to a minimum and your PDA works a lot better.
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Linear Mode
