PocketTV Classic 1.1.0 (freeware) released

[The PocketTV Team]

PocketTV Classic (freeware) is an MPEG Movie Player for Pocket PC and Smartphone, available from www.pockettv.com .

From the Release Notes at http://pockettv.com/release-notes.html :

- Added new "Size > Fill Screen" option. This causes the image to be scaled so that the entire display rectangle is filled by the image (i.e. no margins). Generally, this means that some parts of the image will be cropped-off. This option is useful in particular for the new square-display devices.

- Added new "Fit Screen + 10%", "Fit Screen + 20%" and "Fit Screen + 30%" Size options. These options are sometimes useful to reduce the black margins coded in the video stream (that sometimes happen with letter-box or wide-screen aspect-ratio video).

- Note that the "Fit Width" and "Fit Height" options available in other applications are achieved identically by "Fill Screen" and "Fit Screen".

- The obsolete "Size > Auto" option has been removed.

- By default the "Action" or "OK" hardware button (in the middle of the D-pad) can be used to change the size between "Fit Screen", "Fill Screen" and "Nominal". To change the default mapping for this "Change Size" command, use "Option > Buttons".

- Reduced the occurences of "freezing" problems on the Dell Axim X50v and other devices using the Intel 2700G video accelerator chip.

- On devices that use the ATI chip, PocketTV now completely releases the ATI hardware as soon as it de-activates. This should resolve the issues caused by conflicts with the camera, i.e. camera capture not working when PocketTV was running in the background. This also allows other applications using the ATI hardware to run more efficiently without having to explicitely "Exit" PocketTV.

- Fixed the following problem: When PocketTV was in the background (i.e. de-activated) while the screen orientation was changed between Portrait and Landscape (or vice versa), activating PocketTV would cause the video to be displayed incorrectly.

- A significant part of the display-related code in PocketTV had to be re-architectured to provide support for those new features. The new code should be more robust and flexible, with no negative side effect in terms of performance and stability regardless of the video mode used, i.e. GDI, GAPI ("Fast Video"), ATI or 2700G.

[Sven Johannsen]

Does your freeware registration process still include the provision that you can freely share our information with anyone you choose?

[The PocketTV Team]

It never contained such a provision (i.e. "we can freely share our information with anyone we choose").

We have not changed the terms of our privacy policy. We only share some information with our partners which are two reputable companies distributing Pocket PC and Smartphone software (Handango and Motricity, which owns PocketGear and Smartphone.Net). The information we share with them is subject to strict rules, e.g. they cannot use the information that we provide them for any purpose except what we agree with (contractually), and they should honor all customers request to not use the information.

Those partners use our information to send users promotional mailings offering discounts and special offers for selected Pocket PC and Smartphone software.

Apparently, from what we observe, a large number of our users are happy to get those promotions and discounts (which they use to purchase software for cheaper). People who don't want those can un-subscribe and they won't receive any of those promotions from our partners.

Does this answer your question?

[Sven Johannsen]

I'm sorry, the text actually says "But like most companies, we reserve the right to share the list of registered users with all our strategic partners." I would have though you chose those.

It is not like most companies. Most offer an opt out initially, not expect the customer to request removal after the information is shared, and used. I only pointed it out to make people aware of your privacy policy, which is a bit difficult to locate on the PocketTV pages. http://www.mpegtv.com/pockettv/privacy.html I became aware of it due to the adult oriented software offered to me by one of your strategic partners, referencing my friends at PocketTV. It has been some time ago, but it was two years after I downloaded a copy of PocketTV to check it out.

Yes, you answered the question. You are sharing your list of registered users.

[The PocketTV Team]

> I'm sorry, the text actually says "But like most companies, we reserve the right to share the list of registered users with all our strategic partners." I would have though you chose those.

We choose those, and our partners are only reputable companies (Handango and Motricity) involved in the distribution of Pocket PC and Smartphone software.

> Most offer an opt out initially, not expect the customer to request removal after the information is shared, and used.

Our paying customer have this option. But california law does not require an initial opt-out.

> I only pointed it out to make people aware of your privacy policy, which is a bit difficult to locate on the PocketTV pages.

A bit difficult to locate? No, our privacy policy is not difficult to locate at all! We provide a direct link to our Privacy Policy page on our registration page, www.pockettv.com/register .

> I became aware of it due to the adult oriented software offered to me by one of your strategic partners, referencing my friends at PocketTV.

This was a long time ago. This partner of ours, Mazingo, is now out of business, and yes, we had problem with them: They sent non-approved adult-oriented mailing to our users. We were really pissed about that, and this issue was, at the time, extensively discussed on the www.brighthand.com forums.

We now require that any Partner mailing sent to our users is first approved by us.

And as I said, a rather large number of the people who receive those promotional mailing do take advantage of them to purchase discounted software from our Partners.

[Sven Johannsen]

OK. I really don't care if it is legal or not in California. For one I'm not there. I still think it would be more professional to provide the opt out yourselves. You probably do too, or you wouldn't justify it by noteing it is legal. I think most would opt not to have more assorted third party adverstisements hit their inbox. We can generate a poll if you like.

I will grant that Handango and PocketGear are not particularly unwelcome e-mails, but your privacy policy does not indicate that these are the strategic partners referenced, which means you can add anyone anytime.

When I complained about it when it happenned, your response was not that you were upset about it, but that it was within your right in accordance with your policy. Possibly you became more upset with Mazingo after the lengthy discussions. In any case, you did prompt me to pay closer attention to privacy policies since. I just suggest others do as well.

[The PocketTV Team]

> I still think it would be more professional to provide the opt out yourselves. You probably do too, or you wouldn't justify it by noteing it is legal. I think most would opt not to have more assorted third party adverstisements hit their inbox. We can generate a poll if you like.

The question is not whether it is "professional" or not, the question is purely a business issue.

We provide a free software, but we are trying to get advertising-type indirect revenues from it. We believe that we get more revenues in the current model compared to the model that you suggest.

> I will grant that Handango and PocketGear are not particularly unwelcome e-mails, but your privacy policy does not indicate that these are the strategic partners referenced, which means you can add anyone anytime.

Yes, that's correct, but we are now very careful in our choice of partners, and if we get into partnership with other companies, it will be only reputable companies and the partnership that we will develop will be beneficial to our users.

> When I complained about it when it happenned, your response was not that you were upset about it, but that it was within your right in accordance with your policy. Possibly you became more upset with Mazingo after the lengthy discussions. In any case, you did prompt me to pay closer attention to privacy policies since. I just suggest others do as well.

Correct. It is always a good idea to read the fine prints and the privacy policies. Especially when you decide to use free software.

But there is one thing that you should not worry about: we will not sell your email to spammers. That's out of the question, regarless of whether it's legal or not.

[Sven Johannsen]

the question is purely a business issue. We provide a free software, but we are trying to get advertising-type indirect revenues from it. Understood

We believe that we get more revenues in the current model compared to the model that you suggest. I would suppose so.

...we are now very careful in our choice of partners, and if we get into partnership with other companies, it will be only reputable companies and the partnership that we will develop will be beneficial to our users.
But there is one thing that you should not worry about: we will not sell your email to spammers. That's out of the question, regarless of whether it's legal or not.

That's good to hear. I have one short question. Since you tie your delivery of users' info to compensation for providing free software, and your policy indicates you don't provide the info for paying customers, I wonder if there is some period that you hold the info of an individual that has downloaded an eval, before sending it off. If I evaluate the 'free' software for a week, and then decide to buy the enterprise version, is my info already off to Handango, and Pocketgear, or is their some provision to remove purchasers from the list. It is noted that if I eval under my hotmail address, and purchase under my earthlink one, the hotmail is fair game. How long do I have to buy, to prevent e-mail distribution?

[The PocketTV Team]

I have one short question. Since you tie your delivery of users' info to compensation for providing free software, and your policy indicates you don't provide the info for paying customers, I wonder if there is some period that you hold the info of an individual that has downloaded an eval, before sending it off. If I evaluate the 'free' software for a week, and then decide to buy the enterprise version, is my info already off to Handango, and Pocketgear, or is their some provision to remove purchasers from the list. It is noted that if I eval under my hotmail address, and purchase under my earthlink one, the hotmail is fair game. How long do I have to buy, to prevent e-mail distribution?

We provide an updated list to our partners about every two weeks, and the email from all paying customers are removed at the time the list is built. So if you use the same email for evaluation and purchase, you may in some cases receive a mailing during this short period, i.e. before the the email lists are updated. As soon as the lists are updated, you will not receive anymore mailing, and you won't have to un-subscribe.

If you used different email to register the trial version and to purchase, then you will never receive mailing (from us) to the email that you used to purchase, because those emails are not provided to our partners.

[Sven Johannsen]

Thanks, I do appreciate your being forthright with your policy here.