For years TCPMP was the reigning champ of Windows Mobile video players. The program is light weight, customizable, and can handle practically any video codec you can throw at it. But the developers of TCPMP have moved onto the commercial CorePlayer. So when we saw that there was a new version of the DivX Mobile Player, we figured we'd take it for a spin and see how it stacks up.
The application is pretty. Like really pretty. When you load it up, DivX Mobile Player will automatically detect any videos on your device which it can play. It will then create thumbnail images form the files to make your video list easier to navigate. Unfortunately this can take a while and the program doesn't respond to taps very quickly while your phone or PDA is busy grabbing thumbnails.
The video playback screen is sparse, which is a good thing if all you want to look at is the video. You get a black background, a scrollbar, two menu buttons, and your movie. You can watch your videos in fullscreen mode and get rid of the toolbar buttons. And you can adjust your colors and a few other settings. But there are some important features that are missing, like the ability to adjust your aspect ratio. Seeking also takes an excrutiatingly long time.
We're not quite ready to throw away TCPMP yet, but the DivX Mobile Player is worth keeping an eye on. The latest version features improved power management features, which should help improve battery life while watching videos. The DivX Mobile Player is also available or Symbian devices, but the latest version is 0.89. An update shoul be coming soon. You'll need to register for a free DivX account to download the mobile player.
The developers of mobile media software CorePlayer have been hard at work. The team is showing off CorePlayer 1.2 with support for YouTube videos at CES. And as you can see from the video above, CorePlayer is also coming soon to an iPod near you. Right now the iPhone version is pretty rough around the edges. There's not even any video support. But that will all change in time.
If you're not familiar with CorePlayer, here's a little history lesson. Once upon a time there was an awesome media player for Windows Mobile called BetaPlayer. It could handle all sorts of audio and video codecs that the mobile version of Windows Media Player could not. Eventually BetaPlayer grew up and became the freeware TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player).
For a while all was well in the land of TCPMP, but one day the team decided they should drop support for files downloaded from iTunes for legal reasons, and TCPMP became a little less useful and the commercial CorePlayer was born, allowing the developers to collect some revenue and pay licensing fees for proprietary codec support.
Back when I was a full time commuter (spending almost as much time on the train every day as I did in the office), I spent a lot of time and energy converting my Windows Mobile PDA from a simple productivity tool into a one-stop entertainment shop. While you could buy a fancy phone that will be obsolete in a year and sign up for an expensive data plan so that you can watch the occasional YouTube clip, my weapon of choice was the off-line media viewer.
My commute is now much shorter, but every time I go away for the weekend or take a vacation I'm glad I spent so much time tracking down these tools.
News/eBook readers
During the early years of Windows CE, AvantGo was the undisputed champion of mobile web browsing software. The service allowed you to save mobile versions of selected web pages to your device's memory and catch up on news from The New York Times, CNet, and hundreds of other sources on the go. Every time you sync your device, your subscriptions are updated.
But the software hasn't been updated in years, and for many users it has become obsolete. While offering up hundreds of websites was sufficient a few years ago, today AvantGo's offerings seem terribly limited.
Congratulations. You've spent the weekend managing not to buy an iPhone, which is more than we can say for at least two Download Squad writers.
Sure, the new phone is the coolest thing since sliced bread was replaced by low-carb bagels. But aside from an innovative new interface and one of the best web browsers ever to grace a mobile device, does it really do anything new?
Today we'll take a look at some of the features that make the iPhone special -- and show you how your 2 year old Windows Mobile phone or PDA can accomplish most of the same tasks.
In today's mobile Minute, we'll take a look at some of the latest news and software related to Windows Mobile devices.
Spb Mobile Shell 1.5 released
While you're waiting to find out if you qualify for a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade, you might want to breathe some new life into your Windows Mobile 5.0 PDA or Smartphone.
Spb Mobile Shell is a complete replacement for the built in Windows Mobile Today Screen and program launcher. Sure you could use free software to design your shell, but Spb's taken the hard work out of your hands.
Version 1.5 includes the following improvements:
Windows Mobile 6 support
Menu customization
Easy item pinning on today
Ability to change the order of pinned items
Support for third party plug-ins
Device locking improvements
Assign Spb Menu actions to hardware keys
Performance, stability, and battery life optimizations
Integration with CorePlayer 1.1
Spb Mobile Shell costs $30, or about $$470 - $570 less than an iPhone. Prices of Windows Mobile phones vary.
A few weeks ago we brought you a roundup of 5 free music players for Windows Mobile devices. Now it looks like The Gadgeteer has gone and posted a pretty decent review of three music players for PalmOS, but they've taken a look at the top-of-the-line premium software packages.
Aeroplayer is great for a cheap option. For $15, you can get a version that handles just MP3 or just AAC files. For a bit more, you can get both, and it's skinnable.
Busker lacks skins, but has a prettier default interface. It can also connect to the internet to download album info and art.
Pocket Tunes is the most powerful (and expensive of the bunch, with the Deluxe version running $38), offering advanced features such as a sleep timer, album art, AAC and WMA support, bookmarks and crossfading.
There doesn't appear to be nearly as many freeware alternatives for Palm as there are for Windows Mobile, but if you're looking for a no-cost replacement for the built in MP3 player on your Palm, you might want to check out DioPlayer or TCPMP for PalmOS.
CoreCodec's The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) has long been regarded as one of the best multimedia players for Palm and Windows Mobile devices. But what started off as a free and open source program called BetaPlayer eventually ran into some problems. For example, TCPMP had a reputation for being able to handle pretty much any video you could throw at it, no matter what codecs it used. Of course, some of those codecs were proprietary, and if you really want to include support for them in your program, you have to pay a licensing fee.
So the makers of TCPMP split the project in two. A new commercial program called CorePlayer was released with support for licensed third party plugins, and work began on an open-source stripped down version called BetaPlayer.
But here's the thing, CorePlayer 1.0 had all sorts of pretty new menu buttons. But it couldn't handle all the same files that TCPMP could. And many users reported stability issues on their Palm and Windows Mobile devices.
Apparently many of those problems have been addressed with the recently released 1.04 update to CorePlayer. The update adds features that had been missing since the last TCPMP release, hot key management and playlist functions. And there've been a number of bug fixes. But it seems like if you want a stable multimedia player than can handle most any type of audio or video file, TCPMP is still the better option. Hopefully by the time CorePlayer gets to version 1.5 it will be worth updating. But if CoreCodec really wants users to pay $20 for the program, they may have to stop offering TCPMP.
News/eBook readers
Congratulations. You've spent the weekend managing not to buy an iPhone, which is more than we can say for at least two Download Squad writers. 
In today's mobile Minute, we'll take a look at some of the latest news and software related to Windows Mobile devices.
