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I’m very often asked about what emulator should be used under Windows Mobile to run Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) (a.k.a. Super Famicom / Super Comboy), a hugely successful home game console of the early nineties.
One of the reasons for this is the abundance of the current emulators. See for example the SNES section on Michu’s famous EmuPage - it lists seven titles and, with some (for example, the n0p port) of them, even additional ones. Another reason for this was the shortage of dependable, comparative information available:
there are no real up-to-date articles with REAL-WORLD compatibility information and really dependable and reliable comparison; for example, the only SNES-emulations-specific roundup of available emulators I could find, PDAGameGuide's Top SNES Emulator Downloads Guide For Your Pocket PC, is heavily outdated, only discusses two (very old and, today, in no way recommended) emulators and doesn't at all dive into subtleties like emulating sound or on-screen controls.
there are a lot of plain bad information floating around (for example, some people’s praising the absolutely useless Snes9xPPC (by pdafan) or Snes9xJ4u)
and even the above-linked WikiPedia article linking in the oldest and least capable SNES emulator version (the original port made by Scott Ramsby)
Finally, the Nominations Manager for Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Best Software Awards 2007, the guy responsible for nominations and (initially) deciding what should be nominated and what not, should show the entire Windows Mobile community he really knows what he does, doesn’t he? ;-)
Why should you bother?
It’s simple: if you’re into Japanese RPG’s like the early Final Fantasy series, Zelda, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid and similar titles (there are a LOT of them), your best (and, in most of the cases, only) bet is SNES emulation to be able to play these titles.
Of course, there are some very good arcade / platformer games for the platform; for example, Firepower 2000, Donkey Kong Country or the Mega Man and R-Type series. In addition, you will want to check out for example the SNES implementation of the Super Mario series (there are several fan-created, free, public domain additions and fan versions like THESE)– after all, it’s free (if you own the original SNES cartridge), and high-quality – in general, much better (because of the higher quality) than the GameBoy Color / Advance versions. However, let's not forget NeoGeo emulation may offer even better arcade-quality platformer games (for example, Metal Slug) - that is, for REALLY nice action / platformer games, you may want to check out even stronger, but still properly emulated consoles / arcade machines like the NeoGeo.
What about the speed?
While many (see for example THIS PG thread) say low-resolution QVGA devices will ALWAYS be faster to emulate SNES than VGA, this is not necessarily the case. For example, the HTC Wizard runs ALL emulators REALLY slow even when overclocked to 273 MHz (and not using the touch screen – that is, it’s not the well-known 2.8” HTC bug that is slowing down the emulation). For example, some HP iPAQ hx2490 users (another QVGA model) have also reported the same. It should also be stressed that there aren’t that big differences between VGA devices than some people state.
For example, I have four VGA devices:
HTC Universal
WM5 (ROM version 2.01) HP iPAQ hx4700
WM2003SE Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720 (without Picard’s GAPI hack)
WM5 (ROM version A12) Dell Axim x51v
All of them runs the test games (for example, Mario Kart) definitely faster (with n0p’s latest emulator version) than my HTC Wizard overclocked to 273 MHz (and not touching the touch screen), and, at least with the Pocket Loox 720 and the x51v, even faster than my 400 MHz HP iPAQ 2210 running WM2003. Yes, even the HTC Universal, which, in general, is pretty useless for action games / emulators.
This all means don’t believe people that state VGA (high-resolution) devices are bound to be useless and QVGA models bound to be great. That’s an oversimplification and, in most cases, not at all true.
Sound issues
Unfortunately, sound emulation is, in general, much worse with SNES than with CPS-1/2, Sega Genesis or even the, hardware-wise, much more advanced NeoGeo. When emulating the latter, if your device doesn’t have the necessary “juice”, all you will get is choppy sound (with only some games; for example, the Metal Slug series on NeoGeo. The vast majority of games will run with excellent sound – even NeoGeo ones).
With SNES emulation, the situation is much worse. While some games (for example, Super Ghouls and Ghosts) are reported not to have this issue, other games (for example, Final Fantasy II) will always exhibit absolutely messed-up music (see for example mrfalcon’s post in this PG thread).
If you still want sound emulation, make absolutely sure you disable automatic frame skipping and set frame skips to a wired-in value of 1 instead of the default 5. Then, after enabling sound (and sound synching as can be seen in here (note that you may also want to enable stereo mode if you uses headphones / external stereo speakers; just switch it off if you find it further decreasing the emulation speed. I didn’t; therefore, I’ve left it as stereo. You may also want to play with the other parameters)), the sound / music will become far more consistent and enjoyable.
The frame drop option “1” tells the emulator to drop (not render) every other frame. That is, the, by default, frame rate of 60 will be forced to become 30. This will help a lot in almost every respect, even at an expense of some (almost invisible) jerkiness increase.
The available emulators
OK, let’s see what we have and what you should use.
First, let me point out that there are two main groups of (current) SNES emulators.
One of the groups has numerous emulators. They’re all common in that they all are based on Scott Ramsby’s initial, old PocketSNES, either adding some additional functionality (for example, on-screen buttons) to it, bugfixing it (for example, making it VGA-compliant) or recompiling / updating it, using a newer version of the underlying Snes9x engine. As far as usage is concerned, these emulators are very similar. I’ll explain the differences in the GUI (particularly with Tala’s OpenGL ES version).
The second "group" only contains one (up-to-date) emulator: MorphGear.
Let's see the first group first.
n0p’s PocketSNES ports
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n0p is pretty famous for his emulator ports. I've already reviewed his Genesis Plus in my Sega Genesis / Mega Drive article. With SNES emulation, he has also come up with something really top quality.
This (these) are the emulator(s) you MUST check out unless you have a Dell Axim x50v / x51v (then, Tala's emulator is the one to get first).
There are three emulators on n0p's homepage: a WM5 / VGA, a generic and an ARM one. There isn't much difference between these emulators: for example, if you have a non-VGA, XScale-based Windows Mobile device (even a WM5+ one), you can use any of the three versions. If you have a VGA device, you MUST download the latest, WM5 + VGA version. Note that it'll also run on previous-generation (WM2003SE) VGA models too, as is also explained for example in my AximSite-frontpaged review HERE.
This emulator excels in full-screen stretching capabilities and on-screen tap areas. Mostly because of these that it should be preferred over the other titles.
Tala’s OpenGL ES PocketSNES version
The above-introduced and, in general, most recommended n0p emulator doesn't use OpenGL ES in Dell Axim x50v / x51v's to make the graphics less pixelizated. For the latter, you must get the specific OpenGL ES version by Tala (also see the dedicated thread HERE and HERE).
It, being not pixelizated at all, is much easier on eyes and also supports on-screen buttons. As opposed to n0p's version, there can be only two of them at one time; they, however, can be freely assigned to any of the eight original buttons of the SNES controller (while the four on-screen buttons / tap areas of n0p's version is hardwired to A, B, X and Y). In addition, you can also configure Tala's version to treat one key as an autofire one. This is pretty unlike "traditional" autofire solutions because it'll keep autofiring even without your having to hold down the given (screen) button. This can prove really useful on devices like the HTC-manufactured Pocket PC Phone Edition models with a 2.8" screen because they all exhibit touchscreen CPU overburdening problems and, therefore, hopefully n0p will also implement this functionality on his ports.
Masterall’s PocketSNES port
Masterall is the author of the BEST NeoGeo / CPS-1/2 emulator, FinalBurn Alpha and the BEST Sega Mega Drive / Genesis emulator, PicroDrive.
Unfortunately, his PocketSNES update has nothing to write home about, except for being based on the latest, 1.43 version of the Snes9x engine, which means compatibility with some titles 1.39, on which both Tala's and n0p's above-introduced emulators are based on, was still incompatible with (see the compatibility information for individual titles below). It has no goodies like on-screen keys. You may only want to check it out if you have a Microsoft Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition) and the other Microsoft Smartphone solutions (see the Additional Links section for more info) are insufficient for your needs.
PocketSNES/03 Preview 4
This title is also based on the latest, 1.43 version of the Snes9x engine. Unfortunately, it has no other goodies - it's, otherwise, almost the exact recompilation (with fixed VGA support) of the original Scott Ramsby PocketSNES.
The second group, as has been pointed out, contains one title,
MorphGear
with the SNES9x plug-in (the CAB can be downloaded from HERE, in addition to that of MorphGear. Install the latter first and, then, the former).
It's way better than some other MorphGear modules and is highly recommended. It's certainly a bit slower than the above-introduced PocketSNES modules, but exhibits a definitely higher compatibility ratio. Therefore, I really recommend installing it on your Windows Mobile device, even if as a second emulators, the main still being either n0p's or (depending on whether you have a Dell Axim x50v / x51v or not) Tala's enhanced PocketSNES versions.
Note that all the reviewed emulators are free (including the SNES module of MorphGear).
Finally, let's talk about the non-recommended titles too.
Scott Ramsby's PocketSNES 1.12.200
As has already been pointed out, this is the base of all current enhanced ports. It's not really worth checking it out – n0p’s version (or that of Tala is you have OpenGL ES support) is much more up to date & featureful (on-screen buttons, VGA support).
Snes9xJ4u (its old URL isn’t accessible any more)
The GUI of this app is entirely in Japanese and is WindowsCE-friendly, meaning a non-native Windows Mobile GUI. It was last modified on 2004/08/05. It, basically, works the same way as PocketSNES but the menus are pretty different. You can, however, easily guess what the menu items are for; except for Options / B (the bottom-most menu item). There, the bottom-most checkbox enables, while disabling bringing up the menu with on-screen controls, is related to D-pad. I couldn't find out the way it's controlled - it's absolutely irregular. The topmost checkbox seems to be doing nothing; the middle one enables the above-explained screen "control" but doesn't disable pausing the game & bringing up the menu by clicking anywhere else than the lower left part of the screen. I couldn't find out how landscape should be used instead of the default Portrait - it's possible it's not supported at all.
pdafan’s Snes9xPPC ver0.41
While this emulator is based on the Snes9x 1.43 core and is pretty new (last modified: 2006.2.24), it's definitely slow (MUCH slower than any other tested emulators!) on all the devices, both QVGA and VGA, I’ve tested it on. Avoid it.
Getting games and storing them on the mobile device in an efficient way
In here, I don't give you URL's to ROM files as it'd be illegal (without being sure you DO own the original cartridges of all games you do want to play). However, the Internet, particularly Google, has a lot of related information on how these ROM's can be acquired. That is, Google will be your friend. Note that you'll need to read THIS article for more info on ROM file naming conventions (what for example the exclamation marks, numbers and letters mean after the ROM file names).
After you've acquired your ROM images (as .ZIP or .7z files - the latter is very common with archives having more than one image - for example, different release versions, languages of the same game are often packed with 7z to GREATLY, in cases, with orders of magnitude (!) decrease the archive's size), decompress them if your emulator doesn't support ZIP archives - for example, of the three most recommended emulators, MorphGear doesn't support ZIP files as can also be seen in the "Compression support" row of the Comparison and game compatibility chart. Then, transfer them to your mobile device. Please consult the "Files" section in the first part of the Comparison and game compatibility chart for more information on whether a given emulator has its own file open dialog. If it doesn't (as is the case with Tala's app), you will need to either install Mad Programmer's File Dialog Changer (FDC), as is explained in my Sierra interpreter review & tutorial. Or, alternatively, store your (if the emulator allows for compression, ZIP'ed) ROM files in a direct subdirectory of your storage card. Otherwise, you can store them anywhere.
Also note that, if you do plan to very often load new ROM's in your emulator, you will want to thoroughly check out the "Remembers last position (with Mad programmer's FDC - that is, when NOT using the standard file dialog)" row in the same section. You will want a solution that always takes you back to the last-used directory so that you don't need to manually switch directories, which can be pretty tedious.
Unfortunately, as can be seen in the chart, n0p's (internally Mad Programmer's FDC-based) solution always starts from the home directory of the app and doesn't remember the last directory you've loaded your files from. Therefore, to make things as fast as possible, consider storing your ZIP archives right in the home directory or n0p's port (that is, in the same directory where you've decompressed n0p's emulator to).
Tala's port (the preferable emulator for Dell Axim x50v / x51v users) always starts from \My Documents, in the built-in storage, if you do install Mad Programmer's FDC. Therefore, if you don't want to move your ROM files in the main storage (because it's already full and/or you'd like to keep your ROM files on a card) but still need quick image switching capabilities, consider disabling FDC or adding Tala's emulator to the exception list of FDC and just stick with the standard file selector dialog of the operating system and just put yuour ROM's in a direct subdirectory of the root of your memory card so that they are displayed at once without your having to manually change directories.
Installation, configuration, running games
All the reviewed emulators can co-exist without problems - this means you can keep any of them on your Windows Mobile (as long as they're compatible - for example, it's pretty useless to keep the OpenGLES (Tala) version of PocketSNES on your mobile if it's not a 2700G-based Dell Axim). Actually, except for MorphGear, they don't even need to be installed: you only transfer the EXE file you dowload off the Web to your mobile device and start it in there. (With the addition that Masterall also requires Tillansoft's tGetFile and n0p's distribution has some other files in the ZIP file you'll also need to transfer to the same directory on your mobile.)
After starting the emulators, starting a game is pretty straightforward: you go to Tools / Load ROM (in all PocketSNES-derivatives) and click a ROM after finding it. After this, the game is started and can be controlled with the D-pad and hardware buttons of your device.
Buttons
The standard button assignment can be changed in Options / Buttons…; this is particularly important on WM devices with few buttons (like the HP iPAQ 2210) because the, by default, eight non-directional buttons (one of them, Start, being assigned to Action - that is, the center of the D-pad or, if present, the jog dial) needs to be assigned to 4, 5 or 6 buttons, depending on the particular WM model. Therefore, you may want to change your button assignment configuration regularly on devices having too few buttons.
To configure your button assignment, just go to the above-mentioned Options / Buttons…, click a SNES controller button (A, B, X, Y, L, R etc) on the screen and press the hardware button you'd like to assign to it.
Note that on devices with double button functionality (HTC Wizard, Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720), in general, you can assign a functionality to the long-pressed state as well (of most buttons). This isn't the case with the WM5-upgraded and, therefore, double button functionality-enabled HP iPAQ hx4700.
You can also make use of the WM5 hardware soft keys (when available).
Finally, if you have a Windows Mobile phone, you can also utilize its red and green phone buttons.
Display
The emulators use the Portrait orientation by default, which may not be the best solution because it leaves a lot of screen estate unused (and, what is more, on-screen buttons / tap areas are far more awkward to use in this state, if not downright impossible, as is the case with the Tala OpenGL ES-enabled version). Therefore, you will want to switch the game display to Landscape mode. You can do this in Options / Display…, by clicking in either Landscape Left (Stretched) if you're right-handed or Landscape Right (Stretched) if you're left-handed. Stretched means the app (if it's capable of doing so - many, for example, PocketSNES/03, don't) will try to fill in the entire screen.
Note that if you run Tala's version, you will need to use the system-level orientation change support instead of this menu. That is, with the Tala version, leave the default "Portrait" mode in Options / Display… always intact - as opposed to all the other emulators.
Note that, as far as on-screen buttons are concerned, with n0p's ports, they are correctly relocated in the lot less widely used left-handed Landscape mode; Tala's version doesn't support this. This is certainly bad news for left-handed Dell Axim x50v/ x51v users.
It's also in Options / Display… that you will want to disable Auto Frame Skip and use a value of 1 (or, if your PDA or the emulation is particularly slow, 2 or even higher) to drop frames in order to provide a consistent, jerkiness-free emulation and, what is even more important, sound (if you enable it at all).
SNES emulation on other platforms
Desktop operating systems
Here are three, excellent emulators for desktop OS'es:
Snes9x
ZSNES
bsnes
Please check out the above links for more information.
Symbian
I've also tested the Symbian SNES emulator, vSun Plus 1.0 (and its ancestor, the still sound-enabled vSun 1.1) on my Nokia N-Gage. Note that the N-Gage is a very old (2003) phone and only has a 104MHz ARM9 CPU and some 3 Mbyte of free RAM. This is why most games run pretty slow (but some of them are still playable) and sound emulation (with vSun 1.1) results in unbelievably bad results. If they start at all, that is - it's only with ROM images smaller than 3 Mbytes that they are loaded at all.
Note that, with newer, faster Symbian devices with much more RAM, these games (can) become very nice (and 3+ Mbyte cartridges also loadable). Therefore, if you, say, have a Nokia N93 or N95, make sure you download vSun Plus 1.0 (or even the earlier, less compatible but sound-enabled vSun 1.1 to check out whether the sound emulation is OK on your model).
What I've provided here is more of compliance information to see how vSun Plus compares to the Windows Mobile emulators because many state vSun Plus is superior to WM titles (see for example THIS). As can be seen, Windows mobile has nothing to be ashamed of - in general, WM-based emulators are more compatible with the tested titles than vSun.
Also see this for more info on generic Symbian emulators.
Comparison and game compatibility chart
It's available HERE. The first section discusses generic questions like on-screen buttons, operating system / device compatibility, support for ZIP archives etc and, based on this article (and my past, emulation-related ones), is pretty easy to understand; the second has a LONG list of the best, most popular SNES titles and their compatibility with the three most recommended PPC emulators (Tala, n0p, MorphGear) and, as far as the Symbian S60 operating system is concerned, vSun Plus; in addition, I've now and then tested the other emulators with these games too. In order to help authors/developers to fix problems (or, for people that really want to see a given title indeed doesn't run) with a particular non-working title, I've also provided links to the non-working games (but only them! I haven't linked in working games. Sorry, I won't breach the (C) laws.)
Recommended links
My other game emulator reviews in the Games section of the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog. I plan to cover / discuss ALL emulators available for Windows Mobile and have already published some of these articles. Do make sure you follow / read this articles - nowhere else will you find a better source of emulation-related information, I'm pretty sure.
Additional links
Note that these threads / articles may have outdated or plain bad info. You should NOT believe anything in them that is in strong contrast with the information in the above article. You, however, may want to give them a read.
PDAGameGuide's Top SNES Emulator Downloads Guide For Your Pocket PC
n0p's PocketSnes vs Tals's OpenGL-ES PocketSnes vs...
How to do SNES games
SNES Emulation on Pocket PC
How is game playing?
hx2750 with morphgear
MorphGear 2.0 Review
Good news, MorphGear now can run on Smartphone 2003!
working smartphone snes emulator(s)! and avalon5's new smartsnes
(Somewhat) Related comment on the Snes9xJ4u
Menneisyys said:
Snes9xJ4u (its old URL isn’t accessible any more)
The GUI of this app is entirely in Japanese and is WindowsCE-friendly, meaning a non-native Windows Mobile GUI. It was last modified on 2004/08/05. It, basically, works the same way as PocketSNES but the menus are pretty different. You can, however, easily guess what the menu items are for; except for Options / B (the bottom-most menu item). There, the bottom-most checkbox enables, while disabling bringing up the menu with on-screen controls, is related to D-pad. I couldn't find out the way it's controlled - it's absolutely irregular. The topmost checkbox seems to be doing nothing; the middle one enables the above-explained screen "control" but doesn't disable pausing the game & bringing up the menu by clicking anywhere else than the lower left part of the screen. I couldn't find out how landscape should be used instead of the default Portrait - it's possible it's not supported at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this emulator and use it occasionally. I actually got it from the Wizard section of this site about a year ago. I cannot find the thread now but if permitted I could re-post the app. It can easily be configured to English - the instructions were on the original thread, but they go:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\CEe4U\Snes9xJ4u\Language\ Change value from 0 (zero) to 1 (one) [OK]
The .exe runs as is, and requires no cab or pc installation. Create a short-cut and launch it, that's it! (oh, and then exit and perform the reg change above to get the english language - you can also configure the buttons).
I use a Wizard and some games run fine, but others are tricky to control and are slow. R-Type runs ok as does Mario. Overclock though.
There's no landscape support either. But you can use on screen controls if desired and this doesn't infringe upon the pittifully small screen (oh-did I not mention that). I did not find them as intuitive as using the d-pad.
I will attempt to find that link.
-edit- I have had no luck finding the original post. Maybe it has been deleted or maybe it was warez (although I think not).
decknologist said:
I have this emulator and use it occasionally. I actually got it from the Wizard section of this site about a year ago. I cannot find the thread now but if permitted I could re-post the app. It can easily be configured to English - the instructions were on the original thread, but they go:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\CEe4U\Snes9xJ4u\Language\ Change value from 0 (zero) to 1 (one) [OK]
The .exe runs as is, and requires no cab or pc installation. Create a short-cut and launch it, that's it! (oh, and then exit and perform the reg change above to get the english language - you can also configure the buttons).
I use a Wizard and some games run fine, but others are tricky to control and are slow. R-Type runs ok as does Mario. Overclock though.
There's no landscape support either. But you can use on screen controls if desired and this doesn't infringe upon the pittifully small screen (oh-did I not mention that). I did not find them as intuitive as using the d-pad.
I will attempt to find that link.
-edit- I have had no luck finding the original post. Maybe it has been deleted or maybe it was warez (although I think not).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip; I'll link it in the update.
UPDATE (05/11/2007):
I haven’t listed YameCE, the very old, no longer supported GameBoy, PC Engine, NES and SNES emulator in the “Disqualified” section. Its SNES emulation useless: if it runs at all (for example, with Axelay or SF2 Ultra, as opposed to, for example, Super Mario World / Kart, Lufia and FirePower 2000), it's definitely slower than PocketSNES / MG. Its NES capabilities are pretty bad too, particularly under WM5+, where it crashes after a few minutes. In no way recommended.
You can make Snes9xJ4u English by changing HKLM\ SOFTWARE\ CEe4U\ Snes9xJ4u\ Language from 0 (zero) to 1 (one). (Thanks to XDA-Dev forum member decknologist for the tip)
This HowardForums thread may be of interest.
It should be stressed that the reviewed Windows Mobile (but not the Symbian ones) emulators (particularly MorphGear) require a LOT of dynamic (RAM, program) memory, particularly with larger ROM images. That is, make sure you have at least 20 Mbytes of free RAM if you encounter RAM shortage problems.
Super Metroid isn’t an RPG but an action/adventure.
If you guys need a game to test out your spanking new emulator, I recommend The Mysterious Dungeon 2 - Shiren The Wanderer (aka Fushigi no Dungeon 2 - Fuurai no Shiren). This Japanese rogue-like, with maps that are randomized each scene, will provide you hours of fun on the go, and its semi-turnbased format makes the game somewhat tolerable to play.
A translation patch for Shiren is avaliable at http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=shiren . Be sure to check out their other projects as well! The patched version works on n0p's SNES recompile.
UPDATE (11/28/2007): Masterall has recently released an updated (1.53) version of his emulator.
How do I save and load saved games on PocketSNES on WM6?
Hi,
Your thread has completely rocked my world on my Wing!!! I had no idea about emulators and I followed your advice to put on your most recommended version of pocketSNES and I am able to play street fighter 2 championship edition with sound. It took some time to correctly configure controls to use keypad since the up, down, left, right on pocketsnes were actually not really those directions when in landscape mode. But I did it!!!
My issue now is saving games. I can get it to save, but cannot figure out how to load a saved game. Can you provide a very clear, step by step guide to loading a saved game. I have pocketsnes as a zip file on my storage card and madden 07 and SF2 both unzipped on my storage card as well.
Thanks for your help!!!
Menneisyys said:
The available emulators
OK, let’s see what we have and what you should use.
First, let me point out that there are two main groups of (current) SNES emulators.
One of the groups has numerous emulators. They’re all common in that they all are based on Scott Ramsby’s initial, old PocketSNES, either adding some additional functionality (for example, on-screen buttons) to it, bugfixing it (for example, making it VGA-compliant) or recompiling / updating it, using a newer version of the underlying Snes9x engine. As far as usage is concerned, these emulators are very similar. I’ll explain the differences in the GUI (particularly with Tala’s OpenGL ES version).
The second "group" only contains one (up-to-date) emulator: MorphGear.
Let's see the first group first.
n0p’s PocketSNES ports
n0p is pretty famous for his emulator ports. I've already reviewed his Genesis Plus in my Sega Genesis / Mega Drive article. With SNES emulation, he has also come up with something really top quality.
This (these) are the emulator(s) you MUST check out unless you have a Dell Axim x50v / x51v (then, Tala's emulator is the one to get first).
There are three emulators on n0p's homepage: a WM5 / VGA, a generic and an ARM one. There isn't much difference between these emulators: for example, if you have a non-VGA, XScale-based Windows Mobile device (even a WM5+ one), you can use any of the three versions. If you have a VGA device, you MUST download the latest, WM5 + VGA version. Note that it'll also run on previous-generation (WM2003SE) VGA models too, as is also explained for example in my AximSite-frontpaged review HERE.
This emulator excels in full-screen stretching capabilities and on-screen tap areas. Mostly because of these that it should be preferred over the other titles.
Tala’s OpenGL ES PocketSNES version
The above-introduced and, in general, most recommended n0p emulator doesn't use OpenGL ES in Dell Axim x50v / x51v's to make the graphics less pixelizated. For the latter, you must get the specific OpenGL ES version by Tala (also see the dedicated thread HERE and HERE).
It, being not pixelizated at all, is much easier on eyes and also supports on-screen buttons. As opposed to n0p's version, there can be only two of them at one time; they, however, can be freely assigned to any of the eight original buttons of the SNES controller (while the four on-screen buttons / tap areas of n0p's version is hardwired to A, B, X and Y). In addition, you can also configure Tala's version to treat one key as an autofire one. This is pretty unlike "traditional" autofire solutions because it'll keep autofiring even without your having to hold down the given (screen) button. This can prove really useful on devices like the HTC-manufactured Pocket PC Phone Edition models with a 2.8" screen because they all exhibit touchscreen CPU overburdening problems and, therefore, hopefully n0p will also implement this functionality on his ports.
Masterall’s PocketSNES port
Masterall is the author of the BEST NeoGeo / CPS-1/2 emulator, FinalBurn Alpha and the BEST Sega Mega Drive / Genesis emulator, PicroDrive.
Unfortunately, his PocketSNES update has nothing to write home about, except for being based on the latest, 1.43 version of the Snes9x engine, which means compatibility with some titles 1.39, on which both Tala's and n0p's above-introduced emulators are based on, was still incompatible with (see the compatibility information for individual titles below). It has no goodies like on-screen keys. You may only want to check it out if you have a Microsoft Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition) and the other Microsoft Smartphone solutions (see the Additional Links section for more info) are insufficient for your needs.
PocketSNES/03 Preview 4
This title is also based on the latest, 1.43 version of the Snes9x engine. Unfortunately, it has no other goodies - it's, otherwise, almost the exact recompilation (with fixed VGA support) of the original Scott Ramsby PocketSNES.
The second group, as has been pointed out, contains one title,
MorphGear
with the SNES9x plug-in (the CAB can be downloaded from HERE, in addition to that of MorphGear. Install the latter first and, then, the former).
It's way better than some other MorphGear modules and is highly recommended. It's certainly a bit slower than the above-introduced PocketSNES modules, but exhibits a definitely higher compatibility ratio. Therefore, I really recommend installing it on your Windows Mobile device, even if as a second emulators, the main still being either n0p's or (depending on whether you have a Dell Axim x50v / x51v or not) Tala's enhanced PocketSNES versions.
Note that all the reviewed emulators are free (including the SNES module of MorphGear).
Finally, let's talk about the non-recommended titles too.
Scott Ramsby's PocketSNES 1.12.200
As has already been pointed out, this is the base of all current enhanced ports. It's not really worth checking it out – n0p’s version (or that of Tala is you have OpenGL ES support) is much more up to date & featureful (on-screen buttons, VGA support).
Snes9xJ4u (its old URL isn’t accessible any more)
The GUI of this app is entirely in Japanese and is WindowsCE-friendly, meaning a non-native Windows Mobile GUI. It was last modified on 2004/08/05. It, basically, works the same way as PocketSNES but the menus are pretty different. You can, however, easily guess what the menu items are for; except for Options / B (the bottom-most menu item). There, the bottom-most checkbox enables, while disabling bringing up the menu with on-screen controls, is related to D-pad. I couldn't find out the way it's controlled - it's absolutely irregular. The topmost checkbox seems to be doing nothing; the middle one enables the above-explained screen "control" but doesn't disable pausing the game & bringing up the menu by clicking anywhere else than the lower left part of the screen. I couldn't find out how landscape should be used instead of the default Portrait - it's possible it's not supported at all.
pdafan’s Snes9xPPC ver0.41
While this emulator is based on the Snes9x 1.43 core and is pretty new (last modified: 2006.2.24), it's definitely slow (MUCH slower than any other tested emulators!) on all the devices, both QVGA and VGA, I’ve tested it on. Avoid it.
Getting games and storing them on the mobile device in an efficient way
In here, I don't give you URL's to ROM files as it'd be illegal (without being sure you DO own the original cartridges of all games you do want to play). However, the Internet, particularly Google, has a lot of related information on how these ROM's can be acquired. That is, Google will be your friend. Note that you'll need to read THIS article for more info on ROM file naming conventions (what for example the exclamation marks, numbers and letters mean after the ROM file names).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know any mirror for Masterall PocketSNES?
Sina™ said:
Do you know any mirror for Masterall PocketSNES?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. However, all you need to do is registering at MoDaCo to acces the downloads. It's free...
ah, thank emu sucks @ anything.
doesn't support Touch Pro keyboard.
Does anyone happen to have Tala's PocketSNES, the one that ran on x51v?
Thanks!
thermodynamic said:
Does anyone happen to have Tala's PocketSNES, the one that ran on x51v?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.winmobiletech.com/052007SNESEmus/PocketSNES.zip
Menneisyys said:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/052007SNESEmus/PocketSNES.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
All the two links for the Snes9xJ4u are broken.
I already searched the internet and emule and can't find the Snes9xJ4u b1k or older versions.
Does anybody know I link to download it or could post it in any download site like rapidshare or megaupload?
There is a lot of hardware news. As they’re pretty much interdependent, I devote a single article to all of them.
a. First, let’s start with the, in my opinion, most important news item: as you may have heard (see related PPCT thread HERE), Sony may only release the XPERIA X1, without doubt the most revolutionary Windows Mobile phone to be released this year, only next year in February. This, in the meantime, has been refined: the device is officially stated to be released H2 this year. The reason for the 2009 release date given in the official product page is as follows: “The only reason for the mysterious “10th of February release” is the fact that Sony Ericsson (or should I say Microsoft) has yet to decide on when to publicly announce the operating system and technical specifications of the X1, and thereby also a precise release date”
Indeed it’d be pretty much suicidal for Sony-Ericsson to wait almost a year with the release. It’s NOW that there aren’t any decent high-resolution (W)VGA devices on the market, not a year later, when
there would be at least E-TEN (now: Acer) to offer the V900 and Gigabyte the MS808, which both have a digital TV tuner compatible with both handheld and standard terrestrial broadcasts and also have really decent specs. Also, BlackBerry and the Symbian / feature phone folks should not be underestimated either: S60 Touch is promised for this year (the just-announced Nokia N96 may pale in comparison to it if it's true what Nokia predicts - that is, at least something like that of Nvidia's really-really excellent GUI) and there are rumors of a touchscreen BlackBerry too. Other manufacturers may also come up with Android and LiMo-based, “killer” devices and, speaking of Linux, there’re rumors of a new Nokia Internet Tablet, this time incorporating WiMax support (one of the biggest and most frequently uttered buzzwords of this year’s MWC).
the current hardware (particularly the Qualcomm MSM7200A chipset), assuming it isn’t changed / updated, becomes outdated in a year. Not only because of the Samsung S3C6410, which MAY be shipping then or the also way better and more powerful TI OMAP 3, which is available even now, but also because of Qualcomm’s own, new announcements (most importantly, the QST1105), which may also become available (and even shipped with some new models!) this year for industry-wide deployment.
b. Let’s go on with the HP iPAQ 210. I have some good news for you.
While it’s still not certain when CorePlayer really receives support the heavily advanced multimedia decoding features of the new PXA3x0 processors (including the PXA310 in the 210), it’s pretty much certain it will some time – see THIS brand new thread for new info. This is certainly good news - at the time of writing my last iPAQ 210 article, it was still unknown whether it would be supported or not (remember the fate of Nvidia GoForce 5500? It'll pretty much unlikely it'll ever receive any support in CorePlayer and, without it, VGA models based on the GF5500 are pretty much useless at playing back high-resolution videos.)
Also, I have some other good news to report on screen quality-wise. As was mentioned in my previous article, I’ve started a thread at BrightHand asking for help in comparing the screen to that of the iPAQ hx4700, the predecessor of the 210. With my standardized set of screen quality tester shots, fellow Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine blogger Al Harrington has made some comparative shots of the 210 and the hx4700. They’re as follows (as usual, click the thumbnails for full-size shots):
As can be seen, the screen is on par with the old hx4700 screen, contrast-wise (and, as I've been told, also minimal backlight-level wise, which is VERY good news, considering that, so far, the hx4700 has been the most eye-friendly night-time Pocket PC because of the really-really low minimal backlight level). Note that the hx4700 ran at a definitely lower brightness level; hence it seems to be much darker in the photo. (Unfortunately, it’s notoriously hard to make decent shots of PDA screens, particularly without decent tripods – that is, tripods that are able to make vertical shots like the 128RC fluid head from Manfrotto I use for shots like this. It was very expensive but MUCH better than low-end tripods like those of hama – the latter must be known to fellow Europeans.) Make sure you buy such a semi-professional tripod + video / photo head if you plan to make comparative PDA screenshots in the dark.)
This piece of news certainly makes the iPAQ 210 probably the most appealing standalone VGA PDA of today, particularly if you need a big (4”) VGA screen. Remember: ALL the announced Windows Mobile phones have a 2.8”...3” (W)VGA screen; the only exception is the heavy and, in my opinion, because of the PXA270, outdated (even with the new, x7510 version) and pretty much awkward Advantage / Athena, the x75x0 and the painfully buggy O2 XDA Flame, which almost surely won’t be upgraded to WM6.
Remember: the iPAQ 210 does NOT have a phone built-in. Should you need a (W)VGA device with a phone, you need to remember two things:
as has already been stated, they announced/soon-to-be-released devices (including the XPERIA X1, the MS808 and the V900 – that is, the “Holy Trinity” of the forthcoming, very appealing models – not counting in the T-Mobile Compact IV, which will only be available for T-Mobile customers) all (!) have far (!) smaller screens (2.8" (with the X1, 3", but it's WVGA) as opposed to 4"). I’ve already touched upon this subject in my previous i-mate article, but it’s still worth mentioning again: particularly if your eyesight isn’t the best (any more) and/or you plan to run your handheld in a (tweaked) native VGA mode (as opposed to the standard SE VGA) and/or you want to use Opera Mini (the best browser IMHO) or any app that may use small characters on it, a 4” VGA screen is far better than a 2.8… 3” one.
Currently, there aren’t any decent(!) VGA phones out there – as long as you don’t want to stick to the HTC Universal (or, even worse, the buggy O2 XDA Flame or Toshiba G900.) Also, all these phones have (with the Toshi, substantially) smaller screens.
If all these are a big problem with you (much bigger a problem than keeping a separate PDA and phone with you), you might definitely want to go for the non-converged, “traditional” way – that is, the HP iPAQ 210, which, currently (and for at least half a year – and even more, if 2.8”…3” (W)VGA screens are just too small for you), seems to be the best VGA model you can have.
What phone should you use in addition to the iPAQ 210 to access the Net, you may ask. Basically, you can use any with Bluetooth and, preferably, a quick Internet connection (the 2.75G EDGE at least, but 3G and, even better, HS(D)PA is definitely better).
Speaking of the fast HSDPA, you need to be aware of the fact that the iPAQ 210 supports Bluetooth EDR, which allows for far faster data transfer between the phone and the iPAQ. However, to make use of this feature, the phone itself must support EDR. Fortunately, most (if not all) HSDPA-enabled phones come with an already EDR-compatible BT. Note that, with lower Internet access speeds (UMTS at most), the restricted speed of a non-EDR phone won’t be the bottleneck.
Note that as the iPAQ 210 (fortunately - albeit it sometimes still exhibits the driver memory problem so common with WM2003SE and the Widcomm BT stack) still has the Widcomm / Broadcom Bluetooth stack, it's compatible with both traditional DUN and non-traditional PAN phones. That is, if you want to access the Internet via GPRS (EDGE, UMTS, HSPA etc.), you can use both DUN (which is, incidentally, far easier to use) and PAN. This means that, should you want to use a recent (at least WM5 AKU3) Windows Mobile phone as a modem for the 210, you can do this even without deploying the well-known DUN hack co-developed by me to avoid having to rely on PAN. (Having support for PAN also means you can also use Bluetooth access points like the just-released Bluegiga Access Server 229x. And, of course, you can also use Wi-Fi.)
Also, when shopping for an additional phone and you have enough money, you might want to go for a phone that is diametrically opposed (!) to the feature set of the 210 – and in no way similar to it. That is, it’s strong at what the iPAQ is weak at and vice versa. Just some examples of what I mean by this:
The 210 has a very bad speaker – therefore, try to get a phone with (a) decent speaker(s), particularly if you often listen to, say, music or (GPS) navigation directions via the speakers. For example, the Nokia N95 has freaking good speakers.
The 210 can’t really be used to access MS Exchange or RIM BlackBerry push mail for more than, say, 10-12 hours (because it’d require it constantly be switched on and, via BT, connected to an external phone or, even worse, via Wi-Fi to an access point, which would mean you would end up having to recharge it, say, every day – even if you keep the screen shut down). Therefore, should you need push mail, go for a phone that supports these itself. Most smartphones (not to be mistaken for “dumb” feature phones!) out there support these technologies, let them be either based on Windows Mobile, Symbian or BlackBerry* – but, again, NOT only Java MIDlet-only feature phones. (*: note that BlackBerry phones don’t support MS Exchange natively or via third-party programs.)
The 210 doesn’t have GPS built-in; therefore, go for a phone that does so that you don’t end up having to purchase a third device (a sole GPS receiver) to keep with you (and/or leave at home / lose).
The lack of the built-in keyboard (thumbboard) isn’t that big a problem, in my opinion, with a 4” device, particularly if you use a full-screen keyboard like that of Spb (Spb Full Screen Keyboard). Should you still REALLY need a phone with a thumbboard, make sure you shop for one that has it. (But, again, you may find a full-screen keyboard far faster to operate than a tiny thumbboard – it’s just bigger, albeit, generally, lacks the tactile feedback. And, you can use an SMS / mailer client on your iPAQ, should you want to quickly enter SMS messages on your iPAQ, as opposed to your thumbboard-less phone. See THIS for a complete elaboration on these external SMS handler apps.)
The 210 doesn’t have a 3D hardware graphics accelerator. If you would like to play 3D games / Java MIDlets, go for a phone that has it.
There’s no FM radio in the 210: therefore, you might want to go for a device that has one.
In my opinion, if you have the necessary money, go for the Nokia N95 (or, if you’re in the U.S., the N95-3 so that you can have 3G in there) as a separate phone. It’s an almost exact opposite (complementer) of the 210:
it has great, loud and stereo sound – actually, I don’t know of a better phone with better, louder speakers. Particularly phenomenal is the stereo widening effect, which you’ll love if you often listen to music through the speakers while, say, doing another thing in another task (for example, browsing the Net with Opera Mini)
has both MS Exchange or RIM BlackBerry access (both with third-party apps, of course) – no need to continuously run a client on the 210 and, consequently, have a very bad battery life
has a GPS - albeit it can’t be used from the iPAQ; nevertheless, the (if you don’t need vehicle / pedestrian navigation, free) Nokia Maps and the (commercial) Garmin XT, which both support the GPS in the N95, aren’t bad at all – on the contrary, sometimes they turned out to be even better and more up-to-date than Nav’N’Go’s iGo.
it has an FM radio
it’s 3.5G (HSDPA); that is, if you REALLY need speed (on the expense of much lower battery life – as is the case with all 3G phones), you can have it – unlike, say, any of the newer (post-8700) BlackBerry phones.
has a GREAT camera – much better than in any other smartphone (but NOT necessarily feature/dumbphones like Sony-Ericsson’s CyberShot camera phone series or LG’s new Viewty. But, again, these are dumb feature phones without any advanced features or not-just-Java third party apps.)
if you’re a gamer, you’ll particularly like the 3D hardware acceleration, which, currently, isn’t supported by any Windows Mobile, let alone BlackBerry (and most feature – except for some Sony-Ericsson models - phones). Also, Symbian has some games not available at Windows Mobile and its MIDlet support is, in general, way better than that of either Windows Mobile or BlackBerry. The N95 is also part of a dedicated gaming platform, Next-Gen N-Gage, which has (or, at the time of writing, will have) several high-quality titles. This means you’ll have access to both worlds: games on both Windows Mobile and Symbian (including Next-Gen N-Gage and 3D hardware accelerated Java MIDlet games).
Still speaking of gaming, you can ask whether you’d better going for a QVGA Pocket PC phone for games because several games run faster / better on QVGA devices than on VGA ones. In my opinion, better (!!), well-optimized titles don’t exhibit (much) difference (if at all) in speed between QVGA and VGA devices. Of course, lower-quality, badly optimized games like, for example, those of Beijing Huike Technology (see THIS) will always be worse. But, in general, these games are simply not worth playing at all – not even at QVGA devices. In general, there’re much better and much more VGA-friendly alternatives to all titles that run slowly on VGA Windows Mobile Pocket PC’s.
Finally, I haven’t even mentioned the
touchscreen CPU usage bug plaguing all (!) non-Xscale-based HTC Windows Mobile phones
sub-par graphics / gaming performance of all Qualcomm-based, HTC-manufactured phones, making playing quick-paced action games almost impossible.
Of course, you can’t go wrong with any other phone either, but, frankly, I just don’t see the point in purchasing (!) a phone that has almost the same feature set as the iPAQ 210. Why purchase a QVGA Windows Mobile phone in addition to the iPAQ, when you will use the iPAQ most of the time for, say, browsing, e-book reading etc., and the phone will almost surely be inferior to the N95 in many respects (camera, gaming and multimedia capabilities etc.) – again, because it doesn’t have the complementer feature set of the iPAQ 210? And, again, most of the stuff that you can do on a QVGA WinMo phone, you can also do on the iPAQ, while functionality that requires a constant network connection (MS Exchange / BlackBerry) can also be accessed on the N95. (And I haven’t even mentioned call recording and local answering machine support, which, in general, are in favor of Nokia's phones – see THIS for more info & links.) This is why I’ve been recommending getting a phone that has an entirely different (complementer) feature set (and even operating system!) than the iPAQ 210. You get the best of both worlds: currently the best Symbian phone with the best camera, excellent gaming capabilities, speaker, phone, connectivity, Push Mail support and the best standalone Windows Mobile Pocket PC with a huge and excellent VGA screen and up-to-date (PXA310) CPU.
You can also consider getting a BlackBerry as a phone, but you need to be aware of the following facts:
no 3G support at all, let alone 3.5G (HSPA)
no support for MS Exchange at all
no high-quality games; only Java MIDlet games exist and they’re far worse than even on Windows Mobile (see THIS for more info on this issue), let alone on the Bluetooth, 3D HW acceleration-enabled N95
no (or, in the consumer models, pretty bad) camera
being dependent solely on Java, pretty poor 3rd party software support (even worse than that of Symbian)
As a plus, you do have a thumbboard (and, on the Pearl, SureType) – but, again, the 4” screen of the iPAQ is large enough to make it unnecessary, unless you don’t want to fire up the iPAQ to, say, answer to / enter an SMS as conveniently as possible.
Finally, I don’t see the point in purchasing a feature (dumb) phone either unless, say, you’re absolutely sure you’ll never need Exchange / BlackBerry push mail access (which is, to my knowledge, is impossible with current “dumb” feature phones.) Also, if you’re a gamer, you will want to go for a hardware accelerated and Next-gen N-Gage compliant N95 instead of a phone without hardware acceleration and only capable of running Java MIDlet games (as opposed to the native and, therefore, much faster N-Gage titles).
BTW, THIS thread is also worth checking out on the various new models, their shortcomings, how the N95 compares to them.
c. as far as the Samsung i780 is concerned (particularly the optical mouse), HoFo forum member doni’s comments HERE are worth checking out.
d. the Asus P750, which I’ve already mentioned in my i-mate article, may also be worth checking out. While it does not really have up-to-date hardware (for example, it’s still based on the outdated PXA270 architecture), it’s still pretty decent. In addition to the MoDaCo thread I’ve recommended, THIS HoFO thread may also be of interest. Note that as it’s not a HTC product, it won’t have “cooked ROM” support by XDA-Developers. Fortunately, there are some Russian ROM cookers that will? may? make sure it’ll receive the latest “unofficial” operating system upgrades. (BTW, the case is the same with Samsung’s phones. With the exception that I don’t know of a hacker / ROM cooker community to actively developing / “cooking” new ROM’s for them.) Also note that, currently, it has major multimedia problems – for example, full incompatibility with SlingPlayer (see THIS post in THIS thread.)
e. Bad news of i-mate – according to Engadget, poor retail performance saw i-mate's US division enter mass layoff mode on Friday. Giving up on the American market may be even fewer (future) devices. (Also see THIS PPCT thread.)
1. Hardware
a. HTC is going to introduce some new devices in early May – at last! While I certainly consider HTC’s models boring, unimaginative and far from multimedia- and gaming-friendly, I really hope they will, at last, come up with something more appealing for the generic users. I recommend THIS thread for more info; particularly my post posted at 04/10 15:36 CET, where I explain why I don’t consider HTC’s current lineup imaginative or even interesting and what functionalities I find the most lacking.
HowardForum's related thread is also worth checking out for other rumors / guesses. Hopefully, one of the forum members who has contacts at HTC and has always provided us with some rumors will fill us in with some insider info again
b. at CTIA Wireless 2008, there have been several new devices at Microsoft’s booth, all with the new, just (at CTIA) announced 6.1 version of Windows Mobile:
Amoi 6711: a simple Smartphone with GPS:
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A newcomer to Windows Mobile, Velocity, has announced two new models:
Velocity 103: a VGA Pocket PC model
Velocity 111: a QVGA Landscape Pocket PC model
Both Velocity models come with 128M RAM / 256M ROM, GPS and HSDPA. They have no goodies like 3D hardware acceleration, FM radio or TV receiver. HowardForums has a VERY long and interesting thread on these devices.
There also was a working (at MWC, it still didn’t work) prototype of the E-Ten (now: Samsung) V900, one of the most interesting VGA handsets because of its digital TV receiving capabilities. (I only wish it had a slightly bigger screen – it’s suffering from the same problem as i-mate’s new phones.)
(See for example THIS for more info & shots.)
c. AximSite has allowed discussing the (cooked) WM6 upgrade for the Axim x50/x51 series. This is certainly very good news and may also mean I also seriously rethink my not discussing these questions at all to be on the safe side. After all, it’s time to install (and, probably, report on) the latest WM6 upgrade on my HP iPAQ hx4700, which is still probably the best bed-time e-book reader.
For example, the cooked version of Windows Mobile 6.1 has just been released for the Dell Axim x51v, sporting a lot of niceties. See the related thread HERE and HERE for the WinMo Professional / Classic versions, respectively. (Yes, the former is a PPC Phone Edition version so that you can run by default PPC PE-only software like Esmertec Jbed without additional hacking - that is, copying the "placeholder" SMS.dll and phone.dll files to \Windows, as is explained in the MIDlet Bible.) I'll soon test and report on it.
You can only hope that the current (!) HP iPAQ lineup also receives cooked 6.1 (and, in the future, later) OS ROM versions - HP has just announced they won't release any WM6.1 updates for their current devices. I don't want to comment on HP's decision because I don't want them to make angry with me - you surely know what I think . Currently, there're no HP 6.1 ROM cooking-related threads at the, say, iPAQ 210 forums of BrightHand or AximSite. THIS and THIS threads may be of interest.
d. There is a brand new article on the S-E Xperia X1 HERE.
e. i-mate's new models, the 8502 and the 9502 (see my review & remarks HERE) have started shipping and are available in Europe as well (through Clove). The related HoFo thread, packed with shots of the new models (on, for example, page 15), is worth checking out, along with a brand new review of the 8502 HERE. The reviewer, generally, likes it very much, except for the lack of microSDHC support. The latter is quite a letdown if it can't be fixed...
2. Software
a. CorePlayer 1.2.2 has been released for Windows Mobile; see THIS for more info (and also my multimedia-related articles / Bibles). (For Symbian, after the already-released 1.2.0, 1.2.1 is promised in the near future)
b. Adisasta WinMobile Download Accelerator updated has been updated to version 2.0. It seems to be FAR better than the version reviewed in The definitive guide to downloading files, images and saving Web pages with Pocket PC-based Web Browsers. I’ll review it some time, along with a comparison to the best downloader tool until now, HandyGet.
c. there has been a real plethora of new MIDlet Manager & Opera Mini-related releases I haven’t posted a separate article on. I’ve reported them at the bottom of my Opera Mini 4.1 review and the system-level invocation article. Note that the devs of the two new scripts are constantly releasing new patches in THIS thread. Note that these new posts are in no way Opera Mini 4.1-related; for example, I've elaborated on the latest 3.1 Jbed versions in the MIDlet Bible. The last post explains where to get the latest Jbed 3.1, which sports all the necessary goodies in ONE app: it can be installed on a storage card (with REALLY minimal manual hacking), supports sound and M3G (truly 3D games) and is VERY fast.
d. SmartGear, one of the best handheld / desktop console emulators for WinMo, has been constantly evolving. Currently, it’s at version 1.0.4. It’ll soon (in some weeks) receive SNES support, written in assembly (!!!). I really hope Larry comes out with a SNES emulator that will be WAY better than anything else on the platform.
e. You may already know WMWifiRouter (of, for example, you've read the article Another long-awaited breakthrough: dial-up Internet Sharing over Wi-Fi!), an excellent tool making it possible to share the dial-up (cellular) connection of a Windows Mobile handset via Wi-Fi. Now, there's an even more advanced, even cooler (and, currently, free; WMWifiRouter has gone commercial in the meantime) application with far more wide-reaching capabilities, ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) Control.
It's available in THIS thread and, in addition to sharing traditional dial-up connections, it's able to share even Wi-Fi or BT connections via any kind of a client connection. This means you can use your Windows Mobile handheld as, say, a Wi-Fi card for your non-Wi-Fi-capable notebook (via USB or BT PAN). I've always been receiving questions about using a Wi-Fi enabled WinMo device as a Wi-Fi card for notebooks; now, this has become a reality.
(Note that, for Symbian, a somewhat similar, albeit more restricted app, WalkingHotSpot, has just been announced / demoed at CTIA Wireless 2008; it's, currently, only available for mobile network operators. The developers stated they may release it for the public as well.)
f. Version 6.1 of I'm InTouch, a decent remote desktop controller (see related Bible HERE) app, has just been released. The major new feature for version 6.1 is audio support, allowing users to stream audio from their computer with I'm InTouch installed to another desktop or laptop computer. Currently this feature is not supported for Pocket PC's but the plan is to include it in a future release. The other main upgrade for this version does apply to Pocket PC's, multi-monitor support. You can now attach as many monitors as you want to your host computer and view them all from another computer or Pocket PC. The user has the choice of viewing all their desktops simultaneously or choosing to view them one at a time.
g.VITO Technology has just released EyePhoto (current version: 1.0). I'll compare it to the other "big names" in the category (Pocket Artist, Resco Image Viewer, Spb Imageer, XnView and PQV) when I have the time (for review links of the latter, see THIS).
h. While Microsoft hasn't delivered the rumoured, brand new and, as opposed to the earlier (and current) Internet Explorer Mobile (aka Pocket Internet Explorer, PIE) versions, fully-fledged Web browser (including built-in H.264, Flash and Silverlight support), they have added zooming capabilities to the one in Windows Mobile 6.1. See for example THIS for more info & links.
i. In THIS article, I've reviewed RDM+, which, currently, I consider the cheapest remote desktop controller application if you only have one handheld and definitely need file transfer capabilities. (The otherwise most recommended and free LogMeIn Free doesn't have the latter and other commercial apps all have a $50+ yearly (!) subscription fee, while, technically [for example, data usage-wise], they may be much worse than RDM+.) RDM+, in the meantime (at the time of writing the article, I wasn't aware of this), has turned out to have a desktop PC client (just like LogMeIn and all the other clients) readily accessible HERE (for free!), which makes it even more appealing and cost-effective. Now, I only wish it had remote Outlook database access features like I'm InTouch or sound / copy/paste / clipboard synchronization capabilties like Microsoft's own RDP client.
j. Particularly if you've ever used a WM5/WM6-upgraded Dell Axim x50 or HP iPAQ hx-series device, you already know how useful ramdisks can be (see my old article HERE). There is a brand new version by Russian hacker AMV007, which is signed and has an option to load with drivers before any application. It also has improved memory management using the VirtualAlloc memory function to avoid using scarce driver/kernel memory. Additionally, it has an option to periodically and automatically save the ramdisk contents to a file, which will then be read from after a soft reset, thereby restoring the contents of the ramdisk. All in all, it's really great! The thread of the new version is HERE.
k. There have been several new Windows Mobile game releases; in my opinion, however, none of them is worth devoting a self-standing review to. See the frontpage of PocketGamer.org or, if you speak German, PocketPlayers Reloaded for more info.
Note that the latter features an article on making Toy Golf (an EXCELLENT minigolf simulation; see review HERE) run on any Pocket PC, which, by default, is only compatible with the Intel 2700G-based, 3D hardware accelerated Dell Axim x50v / x51v. The article states all you need to do is copying libGLES_CM.dll (available for download HERE; it's originally from 3D Benchmark (GLBenchmarkCM.rar) available HERE) \Windows and voila - it runs. (Note that it's in \Windows that you must copy the DLL file to, NOT the home directory of Toy Golf; otherwise, you'll get an "Unable to load texture" error message during loading.) I've tested it on my WM6 VGA HTC Universal and WM6 QVGA HTC Wizard and found it pretty much useless. On the latter, it was completely unplayable because it only shows the upper left quarter of the landscape screen (the game has originally been designed for the VGA x51v); on the former, it worked, albeit a bit slow. Unfortunately, it had orientation problems on both Pocket PC's: it displayed the, by default, Landscape game in Portrait, effectively hiding the leftmost / rightmost part of the screen. In the above-linked article, Damien has presented some QVGA Landscape screenshots running the (hacked) game on his (QVGA) Blue Angel (XDA III, MDA III, Qtek 9090, PDA2K). He didn't explicitly mention whether he started toygolf_qvga.exe or toygolf.exe - more on this later.
If you (also) find the hack not working on your particular model / Toy Golf version, what I recommend is the following. Installing the game (with either the desktop-based installer or executing the CAB file directly on your handset) will install two files onto your handset, no matter whether you have a QVGA or a VGA device:
07/14/2005 08:02 PM 10,848,290 minigolf_dell.cfl
07/15/2005 09:25 PM 1,036,288 toygolf.exe
You will need to extract and rename two additional files from the CAB install file, MINIGO~1.001 and TOYGOL~1.002. Rename them to minigolf_dell_qvga.cfl and toygolf_qvga.exe respectively:
07/14/2005 10:50 PM 9,561,409 minigolf_dell_qvga.cfl
07/15/2005 09:19 PM 1,339,904 toygolf_qvga.exe
Copy these two files to the same directory on your handset where the two other files (minigolf_dell.cfl and toygolf.exe) already reside and start toygolf_qvga.exe regardless of whether you have a QVGA or a VGA device (toygolf.exe is strictly meant for 2700G-enabled devices, it seems). It will NOT need libGLES_CM.dll to run and will be very fast. The only problem will be the logos' and some of the dialogs being too big and (partly) invisible; however, all the in-game controls will be visible.
Also see THIS Russian language thread for more info (Google "translation" HERE).
(This all applies to version 1.10 coming on the x51v CD; the CAB inner filedates are 07/15/2005.)
l. Windows Live for Windows Mobile has officially been released and is available HERE. Unfortunately, it painfully lacks Live Messenger - currently, if you need to install it (and don't want to go for an alternative like IM+, imov Messenger, fring or Agile Messenger), you'll need to look around on, say, XDA-Devs for the installable CAB file. I better not provide you with a URL, just to be on the safe side (hope you understand.) See for example THIS thread for more info on the new release.
(Note that there have been some other releases / apps; I just haven’t had the time to test / review them all.)
3. The Competition
a. Nokia’s latest announcement of the Nokia Tube is REALLY interesting. If you can put up with the typically Finnish pronunciation of English, the keynote speech and Q&A session are well worth checking out. A full video is HERE, a shorter excerpt showing the touchscreen in action is HERE. While there aren’t much to report on as yet (no fancy 3D demos like those of NVIDIA at MWC - see the YouTube links at the end of the NVIDIA section HERE), the advancement in the last two months, for example, the sheer existence of a reference hardware design is certainly promising and surely shows Nokia is taking adding touchscreen support seriously. (At MWC, in mid-February, the Nokia folks didn’t have any of them – their S60 Touch demo was run on touchscreen-enabled notebooks.) I really hope they will come out with something REALLY cool – after all, their N95 (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the N82) is already one of the best phones out there – and simply unbeatable when it comes to multimedia, gaming and built-in camera.
Software-wise, the Next-Gen N-Gage platform has, finally, been opened for the more traditional, high-end models like the N95 and N82. Several titles have been announced; head over to All About N-Gage for more info.
b. RIM (BlackBerry)’s generic CTIA booth sneak peak is HERE - not much of interest in this video. However, unlike with MWC, there are a lot of developments to report on.
First, version 4.5 of the OS, with its brand new looks and goodies like HTML mail and A2DP support, is getting closer. See THIS for more info.
Second, pictures and videos of the long-awaited BB 9000 have also surfaced; unfortunately, it won’t have a touchscreen, unlike what has been generally thought.
There are some other announcements as well; for example, a Slingplayer client in late 2008 (up to now, only available for Windows Mobile and Symbian) and an XM Radio client (natively supported, with third-party clients and a Web interface, by Windows Mobile and, via transcoding, on Symbian – see THIS for more info): 1 2).
4. What can you expect from me? Plans for the future
Yes, I know I've been pretty quiet lately. There are several reasons for this:
I've been working in real life too (I need to do some work to make both ends meet because, as you may already know, I only write for fun and, except for some gifts like free hardware, mostly from Hal Goldstein, I don't get any money for it)
I've been getting ready for my 45-minute W3C speech on multiplatform (WinMo, Symbian, BlackBerry) Web browsers. I'll soon release the English-language PowerPoint slides.
As you may already know, I've been working very hard on my Digital TV Bible explaining what WikiPedia or even commercial books targeted at non-Electric Engineers fail to explain. This involved reading several books and many recommendations / white papers. This also means I'll post some self-standing book review articles reviewing, for example, Amitabh Kumar’s Mobile TV: DVB-H, DMB, 3G Systems and Rich Media Applications, K. F. Ibrahim’s Newnes Guide to Television and Video Technology, Fourth Edition: The Guide for the Digital Age - from HDTV, DVD and flat-screen technologies to Multimedia Broadcasting, Mobile TV and Blu Ray and several other books on wireless technologies. Not only on digital TV broadcasting / unicasting, but also on CDMA (most University textbooks out there painfully fail at explaining how CDMA really works - I know this because, back in the university time, the textbooks we've used failed at this too) and WiMAX. I'm absolutely sure you'll find it VERY useful and enlightening!
I can’t say I’ve been lazy in the last few days. Thanks to the excellent feedback the XDA-Develeloper folks provided, I realized I need to check out XDA-Develeloper coder A_C’s latest, pretty nice and, if you’re a big fan of iPhone-alike interfaces, pretty much recommended, free (!) utilities.
Non-iPhone platforms (including both the operating system – see HTC’s latest Diamond* have been trying to copy the way iPhone works and is used. For example, Symbian also has a similar tool HERE.
*: As far as the, well, built-in storage- and GUI responsiveness-wise, to put it mildly, not really convincing HTC Touch Diamond (which is all the rage today in the Windows Mobile world) is concerned, before I publish a full story on it, read the comments, including mine, HERE. They’re really worth checking out to see what the tech geeks think of the Diamond’s inherent problems – as opposed to what many sites state in their HTC Diamond announcement reports. You’ll see why the “4GB of built-in memory is more than enough for everything you can think of and you certainly don’t need storage cards to extend it” approach of HTC is pretty much flawed. The Diamond should either come with 16GB flash memory at least (as is the case with later iPhone models and the Nokia N96) and/or with an additional microSD slot – even if under the battery.
Slide2Play
Let’s start with S2P (Slide2Play), a stylus-free MP3/WMA player application. It simply lets you browse and play your music files. It supports album art but, as of the current version, not much else - for example, not even playlists are supported. The interface is, as with the other apps of the same author, very easy to use with fingers. Of course, because of the lower sensitivity of traditional touchscreens versus the capacitive, glass screen of the iPhone, don’t except anything as easily controllable as on the iPhone, particularly not on devices with screens known for their being overly insensitive; most importantly, the HP iPAQ 210.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I’ve made some very CPU usage tests with acbTaskMan. BTW, speaking of the latter, a new, 1.4.2 version was released of it in late April, making it possible to chart the power usage on some devices it was previously impossible to do so. Version 1.4 turned out not to support any of the cooked ROM's I've reported on HERE. The new version does - to a certain degree - on the x51v. (Interestingly, the same isn't true with the HTC Universal, which doesn't seem to work under 6.1 any more - not even with 1.4.2.).
As far as background (!) execution is concerned, the figures are pretty OK on a Marvel Xscale-based PXA310 (iPAQ 210): WMA: 12% (as opposed to ~13% with CP 1.2.4), MP3: 16% (as opposed to ~9% with CP 1.2.4). The latter is 32% on a 195 MHz TI OMAP-based HTC Wizard. These figures are in no way different from that of the built-in WMP, the codecs of which SP2 is using. As far as CorePlayer (and other, much better optimized players like iPlay or Resco Audio Recorder) is concerned, it delivers considerably better performance and battery life when playing back MP3’s, though.
As of the current (v0.40) S2P version is concerned, the CPU usage is very large when the GUI is visible. On the iPAQ 210, when it’s in the foreground, it’s around ~45% in all dialog screens. On the Wizard, it’s ~48% (as opposed to the 32% default). That is, try not keeping it in foreground. Note that the same problem exists with the other A_C apps; this can be particularly a problem with the image viewer.
When you use S2P integrated into S2U2 (more on it later):
on the iPAQ 210, I measured about +20% CPU usage with non-(auto)dimmed screen (pretty bad), even with the S2P controls inactive; no excess CPU usage otherwise (with the screen dimmed).
It supports AVRCP, but only for users of the Microsoft BT stack (works OK with my test Pulsar 590). Widcomm users (for example, those of HP iPAQ’s) are left out in cold.
All in all, a decent player if you absolutely need finger-based usage / nice, accelerated scrolling and/or prefer free stuff and don’t mind the player’s being pretty simple (no playlists, streaming, equalizer etc.) Just remember to hide the user interface (by, say, clicking the battery icon in the top right) whenever possible – or just make it dim the screen after the default 17 seconds (just like with S2U2 introduced below).
Slide2Unlock2
S2U2 (Slide2Unlock2) is a simple lock/unlock application which has the iPhone style slide unlocking. It can be used as a screensaver while you don't use your device. Also, it has a CallerID function so that you can see who’s calling, some other phone integration functionality (for example, displaying the number of SMS messages) and a S2P (see above) control plugin.
The following screenshot shows it’s not only able to display the current album art, but also the output of several weather plug-ins / programs:
As with S2P, it’s not compatible with the HTC Universal (running Ranju’s WM6.1 v7.6), not even after the recommended DirectDraw vs. Raw Framebuffer registry hack and independent of the screen mode it’s started in. It, however, is compatible with the other VGA devices (tested on the Dell Axim x51v with WM6.1 from makuu A06 privß06p and the iPAQ 210 with its original firmware). Of course, it has no problems with QVGA ones either.
Note that, after the first resets (S2U2 puts itself in \Windows\Startup), it’ll display an error message. Upon subsequent resets, this problem will go away and S2U2 correctly initialized.
I really recommend this title if you want to have an iPhone-like screensaver with a lot of configuration options, caller ID display and even a plug-in for the S2P player introduced above.
Slide2View
S2V (Slide2View) (current version is 0.35) is a picture viewer with
1) switching between images by “swiping” the screen from left to right (or vice versa)
2) in zoomed mode, cool, accelerated screen scrolling
These are not offered by any other, current, mainstream picture viewer (I’ve, in this respect, tested XnView 1.40, Spb Imageer 1.6, Resco Photo Viewer 2007 v6.33, PQV 4.0.31 and Pocket Artist 3.3 – that is, the most important viewers), including Microsoft’s own Pictures and videos application coming with the operating system, built into ROM. Currently, the only mainstream image viewer with accelerated, iPhone-alike zoomed scrolling is HP’s Photosmart Mobile – at least as of version 2.11.012 coming with the HP iPAQ 210. As far as switching between images is concerned, PocketCM ImageViewer should be mentioned.
(VGA – iPAQ 214 – screenshot showing some (original-sized, 12 Mpixel) shots I’ve taken at MWC in Barcelona)
Taking into account it’s a free app, it’s pretty nice and recommended, again, particularly for iPhone fans. Despite it being free, it's very fast at both displaying thumbnails and reading the entire image for subsequent zooming.
Some of the problems or stumbling blocks you should be aware of:
- as with the other two apps, the additional “busy waiting” CPU usage can be pretty high (~28% on an iPAQ 210), even when just displaying the file list. While this really an issue with the two other apps (which run with the screen dimmed for most of the time – or minimized when run in the background), with a picture viewer, which always displays something in the foreground, the situation is entirely different. If you’re afraid of this, get another image viewer.
- when you try to open a storage card with tons (hundreds) of subdirectories in the root, it doesn’t display anything
- or, even worse, just a black screen. In this case, make sure you open the card with the "ARROW" button next to the folder and not by tapping the folder name. There’s an excellent post showing this HERE. As you can see, there’re two ways of opening a directory.
It also allows for setting the Today screen wallpaper (separate for landscape and portrait orientation) and assigning an image to a contact:
Zoom-in
The app also supports (pretty fast, unlike with, say, the otherwise excellent and free XnView) zooming functionality. It, unlike with PocketCM ImageViewer (more on it later), uses D-pad based zooming-in, only keeping the touchscreen for switching between consecutive images and, when zoomed in, accelerated, iPhone-like scrolling.
With the default settings, it can’t zoom in into large – tested with 12 Mpixel ones – images, not even on large-RAM models (for example, the 128M RAM iPAQ 210), unlike the five most recommended, other titles. The others are all capable of zooming into to at least 50% and, Conduits Pocket Artist 3.3 to 100% if you use an external cache. (Then, it’ll use about 36Mbyte RAM and an additional 6M cache to load a 12Mpixel image.). Then, it just prints a blank - or corrupted - screen - instead of showing an "out of memory" error. The developer stated setting the Registry value MaxZoomLevel to a higher value (from the default) may help. I haven’t tested the effect of this.
Finally, let’s compare it to the already-mentioned PocketCM ImageViewer (current, tested version: 0.4), which also offers “change picture upon swiping” functionality.
1. I’ve found the latter (PocketCM) less compatible (it didn’t even try to list my 12 Mpixel images). I don’t know where the threshold is (2 Mpixels? 4? 8? I haven’t tested this. VGA-resolution JPG’s are found, correctly displayed and zoomed-in).
2. The zoom-in functionality of S2V is far better thought-out (as it’s D-pad based, there’re no accidental zooming in if you don’t press the touchscreen upon swiping firmly enough) with any zoom level (as opposed to the two of PocketCM) with fast zoom-in loading
3. I’ve found PocketCM ImageViewer’s image changing animation much more spectacular (which may be important for an iPhone fan wanting great visuals) than that of S2V
4. PocketCM has the definite advantage in that it has no CPU usage at all, as opposed to the considerable CPU usage (and the consequential power consumption on most CPU architectures) of S2V (even when it’s just idling, displaying an image).
NOTE: This article has been cross-posted to several boards. In order to make all comments, questions and answers reach as many readers as possible, please consider posting your comment both here and on my home Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine blog page at the URL http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2639&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 . It’s pretty easy: just use the clipboard to quickly copy your post. No registration is necessary to be able to post – just fill in a(ny) (nick)name, paste the body of the text and fill in the anti-spam code field. If you don't have the time, I can replicate your post on my blog so there is one repository for all discussion. Also, feel free to check out the comments from other boards there – also in the Comments section.
Great reviews of the software, however I would disagree with the CPU usage figures. On my Prophet (196MHz TI OMAP 850), the CPU usage rarely goes above 25% (normally sits between 15-20%) playing WMA or MP3 files in S2P. I also think you haven't mentioned one of the biggest features of S2P, the "CoverFlow" functionality. For me, this makes S2P the nicest and most used piece of software on my phone. Whilst other players may play more music, it's a pain to go through the files/albums and S2P is much faster and more intuitive.
Anyway, thanks for the in depth analysis.
I am very glad to see A_C getting some well-deserved attention for this great collection of apps. However, I feel that this "in-depth" review was anything but as you overlooked several major features of the apps, most notably the AlbumView functionality, and seemed to spend more time discussing other apps than those in the S2 family. Maybe it was just me, but the overall tone seemed quite negative while it should be anything but.
Another item that was not mentioned, but should have been, is the fact that A_C has been VERY responsive to feature requests and has been able to regularly make significant improvements in not just one, but all three, applications while responding to forum posts about feature requests, usage questions, etc. I've received much better support from A_C than I have from many developers that charge big $$$ for their software. Meanwhile, A_C provides his apps for free, though many of us have happily donated to help support his work. Thanks again A_C!!!
l3v5y said:
Great reviews of the software, however I would disagree with the CPU usage figures. On my Prophet (196MHz TI OMAP 850), the CPU usage rarely goes above 25% (normally sits between 15-20%) playing WMA or MP3 files in S2P. I also think you haven't mentioned one of the biggest features of S2P, the "CoverFlow" functionality. For me, this makes S2P the nicest and most used piece of software on my phone. Whilst other players may play more music, it's a pain to go through the files/albums and S2P is much faster and more intuitive.
Anyway, thanks for the in depth analysis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange you only have 15...25% CPU usage - on my Wizard (the same 195 MHz TI OMAP), it's ~48% (as opposed to the 32% default).
del4 said:
seemed to spend more time discussing other apps than those in the S2 family.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup - I generally write comparative reviews. No apps exist without alternatives - this is why I always write comparative reviews so that the reader knows which app suits his/her needs the best. This is why I've spend so much time on, say, the PocketCM ImageViewer (and, to a lesser degree, XnView - these are two free image viewers) comparison.
Maybe it was just me, but the overall tone seemed quite negative while it should be anything but.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I certainly listed the cons of each app, I still recommended all of them - even the thread title contains "excellent"
BTW, please guys DO consider cross-posting your comments, answers to my blog. It isn't that complicated and only takes about additional 20-30 seconds. It's of great help to, say, the HowardForums, BrightHand, MoDaCo etc. forum members. As will be their posts, which you will also see when I replicate them (there are already two posts at HowardForums in my thread).
I kinda got the feeling the reviews were looking for the negative in these apps. The thing to remember is that all three are currently/constantly in development, and A_C is always adding/improving on things, so I don't think it is quite fair to make the down-sides quite as glaring as they seem to come across here.
I don't think the author meant for it to come across like it did, I think it was meant to be complimentary, it just didn't sound it at times.
I also see what del4 was talking about with the feeling that other apps were concentrated on more than they should have.
This is a nice attempt, but I really feel the first two posts of each apps threads gives more detailed descriptions than these reviews do.
P.S. It did make for an interesting read though, thanks for posting!
I've got to be honest - I never understand the point of all of this.. well fluff, it just seems to gooble CPU cycles and memory for little benefit - (well no benefit I can really think of).
Not a knock - just a statement of ... bemusement (is that the word I'm looking for)?
Joezhang said:
I've got to be honest - I never understand the point of all of this.. well fluff, it just seems to gooble CPU cycles and memory for little benefit - (well no benefit I can really think of).
Not a knock - just a statement of ... bemusement (is that the word I'm looking for)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw your post in ifonz as well, and something like that, I see it as well, and agree with you, too much for me, but I know people like the freedom of being able to do something like that, and don't blame them. These apps though I really don't consifer 'fluff' (although they do look cool)!! I consider these viable alternatives to existing apps. I always disliked the stock lock on my device, and never used it, resulting in many calls I didn't mean to make LOL!!! This lock screen is a lot easier to use for me, and I KNOW when it is locked or not. The caller ID is great as well, because it maked the answer buttons large enough for even my meaty finger to press easily!! The media player is a gem, I never liked the layout of Windows media player for music, and love being able to play music WHILE the phone is locked with control!!!!
Did that make sense, or did I type myself in circles here LOL??
Hey, if it works for you great - I'm not knocking choice - just saying that I don't particular see much benefit for me.
I did look at slide2unlock but all the threads I saw made it seem very complex to install ("then you hack this bit of the reg", "now you need to install"). Just too much hard work for someone like me!
del4 said:
I feel that this "in-depth" review was anything but as you overlooked several major features of the apps, most notably the AlbumView functionality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I admit it isn't an in-depth review - at least not in the sense (non-comparative) several-page-long reviews, full with screenshots (albeit I've also provided some, taken by me, showing as many features and icons as possible) are written by other Windows Mobile pundits.
What I tried was putting these apps in the generic application Universe and show in what areas they're better and where they're worse than the comparable titles.
Joezhang said:
Hey, if it works for you great - I'm not knocking choice - just saying that I don't particular see much benefit for me.
I did look at slide2unlock but all the threads I saw made it seem very complex to install ("then you hack this bit of the reg", "now you need to install"). Just too much hard work for someone like me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the (several - 5 or 6) PPC's I've installed it on - so that I can provide as much compatibility info as possible -, absolutely no reg tweaking was necessary. It, not taking into account the "no components found" message after the first reset, worked out-of-the-box.
syrguy1969 said:
I kinda got the feeling the reviews were looking for the negative in these apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sincere / fair comparative reviews should always look on the negative sides of apps too. I always list the negative in the apps I review - along with the positive aspects. Look at, for example, my Touch Browser review
It's mostly listingthe negatives of an app that helps a user the most to decide whether a particular software title is worth installling or the alternatives should be preferred.
Again, note that my reviews are in no way similar to what you can see on most Windows Mobile sites, who don't write / publish comparative reviews. I think my reviews are much more useful to end users than non-comparative ones that don't bother mentioning the negatives of an app.
Strange you only have 15...25% CPU usage - on my Wizard (the same 195 MHz TI OMAP), it's ~48% (as opposed to the 32% default).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's using my own cooked ROM with some memory optimisations (large cache settings etc.) but I can't think how it could have such a large effect...
Possibly a relatively small number of albums?
l3v5y said:
That's using my own cooked ROM with some memory optimisations (large cache settings etc.) but I can't think how it could have such a large effect...
Possibly a relatively small number of albums?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tested with very few songs too. That is, I don't think this causes the difference in CPU usage. Prolly the different hardware?
I've tested with very few songs too. That is, I don't think this causes the difference in CPU usage. Prolly the different hardware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wizards and Prophets are pretty similar inside, you can flash a Prophet with a Wizard ROM and vice-versa with very minor changes.
Maybe it's just the magic of my Prophet!
Menneisyys said:
On the (several - 5 or 6) PPC's I've installed it on - so that I can provide as much compatibility info as possible -, absolutely no reg tweaking was necessary. It, not taking into account the "no components found" message after the first reset, worked out-of-the-box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
<installs>, <plays>, <plays some more>, <likes...>
ok, I was wrong and I like this bit of "fluff" very much....
Joezhang said:
<installs>, <plays>, <plays some more>, <likes...>
ok, I was wrong and I like this bit of "fluff" very much....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad it works with you
Some know if I can run these programs on my ipaq rx4540 ?
thanks
Yes, it was quite a long ago that I've published my last Misc news. The reason for this is my having been really busy:
1. I've acquired a Tablet PC, a HP TC1100, and have read through all the Tablet PC forums. I've had some severe problems with the XP SP3 upgrade - see THIS if interested -, which was cured by a BIOS upgrade and/or forcing it to download the SP3 from Windows Update, as opposed to downloading it manually and doing the "Checked" Registry hack explained HERE. I've also tried setting up Vista Ultimate checked/debug with SP1 on it, but, unlike what others have reported, I was just unable to make the Wi-Fi card (in my device, the 2100) work. (And, of course, it's pretty slow compared to XP, even with the 1.5 GB of RAM and 5400 rpm 160 GB Samsung HDD. Dunno if it'd be faster with a 7200 rpm one - I don't want to have additional heat, noise and power consumption from switching to 5400 to 7200 for sure.)
BTW, speaking of the Wi-Fi card, I've also made some thorough tests to find out whether it's indeed as good as some TC1100, comparing its sensitivity and range to that of the new HP iPAQ 210 Pocket PC (running the default 1.00.06 stock ROM) and the Nokia N95 (with firmware version v21). I must state the reports on the TC1100's having great range are overly exaggerated. The iPAQ 210 has definitely better range. The TC1100 has about the same range as the Nokia N95.
The TC1100, otherwise is absolutely gorgeous. It does have some minor problems (for example, it's very slow at scrolling PDF files and, in portrait, the screen I have in my device isn't very well polarized; fortunately, the latter is less of an issue if you increase the backlight and don't use it at its lowest level), but, for a year 2003 model, it's just great, especially at the (current, second-hand) price, you will hardly find a better tablet. The alternatives would have been either much more (at least two times) expensive or considerably heavier - or both. The weight of the device (3.1 lbs, 1.350 kg without the detachable keyboard) is pretty much acceptable with a feather-weight (350g without the shoulder strap; 520 with it) bag like the 12" Tucano designed for the Mac Powerbook (and is, therefore, slightly oversized for the TC1100, but there simply wasn't a smaller bag in the shop) I've bought. Just a comparison: the 15" notebook bag I've received as the MS MVP gift in 2006 weighs 1300 grams - and, of course, is laughably oversized for a 10.5" tablet. A tablet, with the bag, weighing 1870 grams, is already very easy to carry everywhere. Just a comparison: my old 15" IBM Thinkpad a31p weighs, with the above-mentioned 15" MVP bag, almost 5 kg and is very hard to lug around. My favorite pastime, in addition to using it as a computer in the bed, is taking it out for excursions and walks. Two shots of my using it outdoors; in the second case, for video phoning, tethered it to the N95 via (feel free to zoom into the image - with the second shot, I've left it at 12 Mpixel, "only" decreasing the quality to reduce the storage need) Mobiola WebCamera:
The battery life of the TC1100 is also very cool. With the lowest backlight level, when just reading a book or a static, unanimated Web page (that is, no CPU-hungry tasks like Flash animations on Web pages are running), the power consumption is around 7 Watts. (Just for comparison, the one-generation older, Pentium 4M-based a31p consumes about 24 Watts the least. The more than three times more power usage is both caused by the older architecture of the CPU and the huge, power-hungry IPS screens. Unfortunately, IPS screens, while they have orders of magnitude better quality than plain TN + film TFT's, have always been pretty power-hungry.)
BTW, now that I also have a tablet, except tablet-related news & tips & reviews too in the future.
2. And yes, another (Microsoft) mobile platform I officially start to publish on: I've received a Microsoft Zune (second generation 8GB model), thanks to the Microsoft Company Store, which does ship them to abroad. Were I situated in the States, I would have access to its major selling point: the flat rate Zune Pass (costing US$14.99 a month), "take it (almost) all" store. Too bad while the hardware is already accessible outside the US and Canada, you still can't sign up into Zune Pass (you need to enter a valid US / Canadian address). I might ask some folks there to help to sign up? ;-)
Hardware-wise, I like the (second-generation) Zune pretty much, particularly now that there already is some kind of third party XNA app / game development for the device (see THIS and THIS for more info). I will definitely post on the latest news, hacks and, of course, development (games etc.) news on it too - but, for the time being, no Zune Pass / Zune Marketplace-related info as I'm in Europe and, as has already been stated, can't sign up for Zune Pass.
The stock earbud headphones coming with the device are really-really excellent (for an earbud, that is; of course, they can't beat supra-aural headphones or tightly fit canalphones [in-ear monitors]); they are of definitely better quality than the stock headphones (which aren't bad either) of the Nokia N95. My biggest grief is "just" the complete lack of A2DP (this is pretty much a showstopper on the long run) and the lack of a miniUSB or comparable socket for universal and easy synchronization / recharge access (no need to carry around the proprietary sync cable). I really hope Microsoft fixes these issues in the third generation Zunes due out next year.
3. Having read the written version of my recent W3C presentation, I've been invited by no one else than Dominique Hazael-Massieux, the Activity Lead and the co-Chair of the Test Suites Working Group, to contribute to the W3C Mobile Web Initiative. (BTW, he also has frontpaged my presentation and called it impressive, which is a BIG honor for me!) This means I needed (and will need) to get up to speed with the projects in there and will post even more Web browsing related, even more in-depth and developer-friendly articles on all the mobile platforms I support (Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, BlackBerry, MS Zune and, hopefully in the not distant future, the iPhone).
4. Of course, I've been working on my generic Bible on Digital TV, radio and all the like. The task turned out to be of epic proportions because I'll also elaborate on a lot of related subject, even on maths and digital signal processing. That is, I plan to give you an overall picture on what books there are on DSP, telecommunications techniques, which you should use for actually understanding how these technologies work etc. Be patient.
5. A quick blog-related note: you may have noticed that, on my blog, migrating has removed the HTML chart and/or paragraph markup from several dozens (hundreds?) of my articles from b2evo to Drupal. I'll try to address the problem as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you do run into an unreadable (old) article, please use THIS LINK instead (notice old_blogs instead of blogs - that is, you can access the articles in the old engine if you just add old_ in front of blogs in all the (old) URL's). There, everything works as in the past. Please do NOT post comments in there, only under the new interface (that is, under http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/).
Rebates
mobile2day.de goes English - at last! So far, it being German-only caused a lot of headache to non-German speakers. What is more, they offer a generic 25% and a select 50% rebate until 6/22/2008; see THIS for more info. Just to name one of the developers sold at 50% rebate (yes, ALL their stuff is offered for half the price!) certainly worth purchasing from: SHAPE services, SBSH, Herocraft, Iambic and In-fusio. Quite a bargain if you ask me. (News source: email from Damien of PocketPlayers Reloaded).
BTW, still speaking of SHAPE services, the BlackBerry version of their RDM+ (see THIS for a complete review) has, finally, received file transfer support - time to update if you haven't already done so.
New software and reviews
(note that I haven't listed the titles I've devoted a separate review to; for example, Pocket Commodore 64 3.0, mDesktop / Jeyo 2.1, Orions: Deckmasters etc.)
1. Spb have updated Spb Backup to version 2.0, introducing a lot of goodies; for example, ROM upgrade support. The upgrade only costs $9.95 for previous users.
2. Resco have also released a backup application; it also supports ROM upgrade support and a lot of other goodies. I'll try to update my well-known Backup Bible with both this, Spb's new app and all the related, newly released, similar tools like PIM Backup
3. Still speaking of Resco, they have released Resco Explorer 2008; now, with a lot of goodies like iPhone-like touch support, speed enhancements, a brand new FTP module. (The latter is indeed good news as the old FTP module was pretty slow in cases; see my benchmarks HERE.)
4. PPCT have published an extensive review of the since-updated TouchBrowser (that of Nate Adcock HERE; also see my initial, now-outdated review HERE)
5. There's an excellent PDF reader roundup at MobilitySite - certainly worth a read, including the comments
6. MyTodayScreen has published a decent article on mobile browsing
7. There's a new version of the free(!) Desktop SMS Manager V2.02 + Smartphone 1.11 HERE
8. Now, there's a free version of Inlux Messenger (see my review HERE), Inlux Messenger Lite, HERE (thanks for XDA-Devs forum member RPG0 for the tip!)
9. As far as connection utilities are concerned (tethering Windows Mobile phones to, say, notebooks or other, not necessarily x86-based mobile devices over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and/or USB), WMWifiRouter has been updated to 1.20beta and ICS Control to v.21. As far as the third application in this category, WalkingHotspot, is concerned, I still haven't received any answer from the developers, despite my numerous mails (I used to exchange several mails with them before this). Hope they do answer soon on whether the new Windows Mobile betas have already been released. As I've already created a new Best Software Awards 2008 category for these kinds of (very important) apps and have already nominated WMWifiRouter and ICS Control, I urgently need feedback from the WalkingHotspot folks to see whether the current version is worth nominating or not. Also, as soon as I get the current version of WalkingHotspot, I publish a generic comparison of the three titles.
10. CorePlayer 1.2.5 has been released and 1.3 will be soon released. The latter promises, for example, 'Channels' (for not only YouTube video playback support, but also on a lot of other video repositories) and progressive downloading. I REALLY hope it also gets the promised HE-AACv2 support at last (it still doesn't have it; in my e-mail discussions with their CEO, I've been told about a month ago most of the coding have already been done). They also stated they'd release a BlackBerry and an Android version before long - along with, of course, the iPhone one.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem in 1.2.5, YouTube playback-wise (see my YouTube Bible for more info on this), haven't been fixed: hit lists still only contain 13 records and you just can't see the rest.
11. Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine has run a nice survey on the best games for Windows Mobile. See all the posts HERE (fortunately, they have a separate category and, therefore, I don't need to link to all the individual articles separately - this is also a big advantage of the common category system used in the new blog engine). The May blog subject was Spring Cleaning as is accessible HERE; the April one was Features I would add and the March one Hack or Tweak I Can't Live Without.
12. The VITO Technology folks haven't been lazy either: they've released several touch-friendly apps; some of which have been also announced in the PPCMag blogs; see for example THIS. I've also tested their EyePhoto but decided not to publish a comparative review of it because it, in my opinion, still needs some speed and memory optimizations. As soon as they're done, I post a review comparing it to other "sliding" image viewers like s2v and PocketCM reviewed and compared HERE. And, I will surely review their launcher, along with all the comparable titles and TouchFlo (3D)-alikes (including the free ones available from XDA-Developers coders and hackers) in a forthcoming Bible.
13. Speaking of iPhone-like launchers, you may also want to check out TekSoft's SkyBox, which is also stated to be pretty cool - see Nate Adcock's review HERE. I'll review it too.
14. (According to many,) probably the best and most tweakable (commercial) lanuncher Spb Mobile Shell has also been updated (to 2.1). There's a nice comparison between the traditional, well-known Pocket Plus and Mobile Shell (both from Spb) HERE, should you want to know which way to go.
15. Tim Hillebrand's reviews Text Message Clients and SMS Enhancements and How to turn your Windows Mobile touch screen into an iPhone are also worth reading.
16. I post this info here too because you may have missed my review: if you liked the multiplayer games on the Commodore 64, did you know the just-released Pocket Commodore 64 3.0 offers IP-based multiplayer capabilities? It's certainly worth checking out - for example, Wizard of Wor works just great in Wi-Fi p2p mode. Also, if you use it in multiplayer, you will only need one license (on the server); the client can be unlicensed. In this regard, it's pretty much similar to Starcraft's (by Blizzard) spawned multiplayer mode. My only grief is the fire button not working in Archon (not even in single player mode).
BTW, speaking of Archon, I've recently acquired the original Commodore 64 version of Archon II (Adept) for my computing history collection (I have hundreds of other old, original games). As the abandonware sites (and Wiki) have very bad shots of the box, I've made some for you:
(front of the "box")
(back of the "box")
Some other shots:
the inner contents of the (foldable) box
the platform-independent manual: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
the C64-specific manual: 1, 2
the CGW leaflet: 1, 2.
Also, still on the subject of retro games and emulation, I highly recommend the desktop Windows title Hurrican (German-only homepage of the developer HERE), a free(!!) remake of the Turrican on home platforms around 1990. And, of course, the also-free Xenon 2000: Project PCF, on which I've already elaborated HERE.
17. While still far from being released, there is a lot of heated discussion on the (unlike with the unofficial and long ago discontinued Minimo) official Firefox mobile port. The related, most important (pretty technical) Wiki page is HERE; there's Symbian-freak's mostly Symbian-specific but for other operating system users, also cool remarks HERE. There's also a concept video HERE. As of now, no downloadable, publicly available implementation is available.
Hardware
iPhone 3G
Yes, the subject everybody has been speaking of, iPhone 3G. I recommend the following threads:
MSMobiles - here, I elaborate on why I consider the lack of a front-page camera a VERY bad mistake. At All About Symbian, particularly if you (also) have a Symbian (most importantly, an N95 [8GB]) phone, I also recommend
THIS, THIS and THIS.
If you own a BlackBerry (or known them), you'll want to read THIS, THIS, THIS and THIS. The "review" the first article links to also spends some time explaining why the author thinks A2DP (stereo Bluetooth audio) should better be left out: "Sure, you can't (yet, see below) listen to hideously compressed BT audio via A2DP on an iPhone (though any audiophile worth their lossless codec probably thanks Jobs for that Apple has a long history of not releasing as-yet-unperfected technologies unto their devices. If the tech is good, they're the first to dump the old and embrace it (floppies for CDs on the iMac, CDs for WiFI on the Air). If the tech isn't so good yet, they just wait until it is. They have standards." This is (sorry for the language) complete BS: A2DP is of great quality as of today. Except for, of course, the legendarily bad Microsoft BT stack before Windows Mobile 6. All, and I really mean ALL other Smartphone platforms and implementations (Symbian S60, BlackBerry, Widcomm and Windows Mobile 6+ Microsoft for Windows Mobile for sure) have excellent sound quality and few people will tell the difference between a pair of good-quality A2DP headphones (like, for example, the Plantronics Pulsar 590) and a wired one. Even I, who used to be a big Hi-Fi fan and audiophile some 20-25 years ago, find the (better) A2DP headphones adequate for my needs.
Otherwise, I consider the lack of A2DP the biggest letdown with the new model - and, of course, if it'll be impossible to tether it to an external, say, notebook, which is the case with, at least, AT&T.
BTW, there are a lot of new iPhone-related blogs and even papermags out there. The All About Symbian folks have started All About iPhone; the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine will publish an iPhone edition etc.
Windows Mobile
As far as Windows Mobile is concerned, you have surely heard of the HTC Diamond and the MDA Vario IV (aka HTC Raphael). There are numerous threads and reviews on / of both models.
Diamond:
Review: mobile-review.com's: generally, they're pretty happy with the device. For example, the video playback performance, with VGA-resolution videos, seems to be pretty good. Of course, they also mention the TouchFLO 3D's sluggishness (hope this will be fixed later - albeit, frankly, knowing HTC's fix record, I don't have high hopes.).
PocketNow
ZDNet (it also has links to other reviews at the bottom of the article)
Note that the brand new TouchFLO 3D is reported to be a bit sluggish and you may want to get rid of (switch off) it entirely. See for example the forum comments HERE for more info on this issue. (Note that THIS XDA-Devs thread contains some hacks to - somewhat - speed it up.) I, in addition, certainly dislike its storage being only 4 GByte and the device's not having a memory card slot, even if under the battery as was in the HTC s310. This really makes it pretty much useless for real multimedia usage - 4 GB of storage is plain insufficient. No wonder the basic(!) model of the iPhone 3G comes with 8GB and the Nokia N96 will sport no less than 16 GB of built-in memory AND a microSD card slot.
Raphael:
Disucssion: MoDaCo
There are also some reviews of the HTC X7510 for example HERE. You'll also want to read my generic comments, particularly on the, in my opinion, lousy thumbboard, at MoDaCo.
Symbian
Symbian-wise, unfortunately, there isn't much to report on - that is, there still isn't a Nokia N95 killer anywhere. (Currently, I consider the Nokia N95 by far the best non-dumbphone.) There are two new E-series devices: the E71 (see THIS and THIS) and the E66. The N78 has hit the shelves, at least in Finland. There's an N78 review HERE (the first part only as of now).
BlackBerry: final version of OS 4.5 is finally out!
BlackBerry-wise, you may already have heard of the Bold. You can also find pictures of the other, flip model, the KickStart, for example HERE and HERE. Finally, the, it seems, Verizon Wireless exclusive and, unlike ALL the other BB models (including the Bold / KickStart), touchscreen-based Thunder is worth mentioning. Note that AT&T will offer Javelin and Niagra (see THIS for more info), a 3G-less and a CDMA version of the BB 9000 (Bold).
Also note that Vodafone Germany has released the final (!) 4.5 ROM for the 8100/8300/8800 (no 8700, sorry). Note that these ROM upgrades can safely be installed on even locked devices of other carriers. I had absolutely no problems with installing it on my T-Mobile-locked BB 8800 running 4.5.0.9 beta ROM; I didn't even need to remove Vendor.xml. Restoring my 4.5.0.9-based backup resulted in some problems like being unable to access the Net; therefore, I've wiped the entire device and reinstalled / set up again everything. The situation seems to be similar to the 4.2 -> 4.5.0.9 upgrade, where I've found out (after having severe problems with not being able to send mails and deleting them from the online mailbox) you should NOT restore a 4.2 backup to at least 4.5.0.9. That is, set up it from scratch.
Finally, with this ROM version, I no longer had problems installing the current version of Opera Mini 4.1 over-the-air - that is, by going directly to mini.opera.com from the built-in Web browser. (With the previous, 4.5.0.9 version, I did have problems - it just wouldn't install - always displayed a “COD error” error message upon downloading.) Fortunately, it supports the file system too - that is, you can back up and restore on the BlackBerry too.
Incidentally, still speaking of Opera, my fellow blogger at the Opera Mini Fan blog, Serola, has just published an article Opera 9.5 and Opera Link. I have only superficially read it; I'll try to read it more thoroughly. (I've long having been huge problems of synchronizing my Opera Mini favorites with my desktop Opera 9.5 betas: synchronization only seemed to work between Opera Mini clients.)
Finally, another Opera-related item of news: Opera 9.5 has finally been released for the desktop Windows; it even has a USB version not requiring any kind of setup. So far, few browsers (for example, XeroBank's xB_Browser) have done the same.
Other news
Some people have reported Vito AudioNotes v1.3 autorecording with data connections active, at least on the HTC TyTn II / Kaiser. Resco's Audio Recorder doesn't exhibit this problem. I'll try to look into the problem some time; in the meantime, keep this in mind if you use (in autorecord mode) Vito AudioNotes on a WinMo phone that you also access the Internet from. (See my Audio Recording Bible for more info on these apps.)
The HP iPAQ 210 has received a patch for the power problems. Some people reported on it having helped; others weren't so successful. See THIS for more info and comments.
My attention was brought to Nokia's using pretty strong JPEG compression with their high-end, N-series phones like the N95 (all models are affected, with the latest firmware versions) and the N82. I hope Nokia comes up with an additional quality level setting - or a third-party camera app is released, with an alternative JPEG encoder. (Which was, BTW, the case with Windows Mobile and CECam - see THIS if interested for more info on the very similar problems plaguing some past WinMo models and external camera cards.)
(Making this sticky until the next Misc news article - this article [as usual] contains a LOT of useful info.)