There have been several YouTube players for Windows Mobile, two of them being, in my opinion, the best: the commercial, but highly recommended CorePlayer (which, with the recent, 1.3.0 upgrade, has fixed almost all the problems I’ve talked about in my dedicated all-in-one bible) and the free FlashVideoBundle. While some of the alternatives (for example, Kinoma Play with the built-in YouTube support and the recently released Flash Lite 3.1) offer more functionalities (for example, built-in account support in Kinoma) and/or better (more “natural”) browser integration, in my opinion, these two players still remain the best choices for YouTube playback, particularly if you have a VGA device.
Enter YouTube’s own player. First of all, before you run to download it: at the current state, I in no way recommend it. It’s in every way worse than CorePlayer: it’s less polished, uses much more CPU for playback and is simply not optimized for being played back on VGA devices, resulting in sometimes ridiculous frame rates. It doesn’t support videos with greater resolution than QVGA either, which is bad news for (W)VGA users having enjoyed the higher-resolution HVGA (480*320) H.264 movies. It seems not to able to work (connect) on some phones; for example, using exactly the same WLAN network, I was able to play back videos (hmmm… more like slideshows on this VGA unit) on my HP iPAQ 210 but couldn’t do the same on my HTC Wizard and HTC Universal phones and my Dell Axim x51v – they complained about connection errors. Again, all this under exactly the same (networking) circumstances.
All in all, it seems this title is worse as the official Symbian version (see 1.3 Using the official YouTube MIDlet, YouTube for Mobile (beta) (currently, Symbian)) of YouTube’s player.
Example screenshots
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Main menu of the player, allowing for accessing the search, top rated, most viewed and most recent categories. The menu (right softkey), as can be seen in the following screenshot, only allows for returning to this screen and bringing up the related list; that is, there’s absolutely no for example account support (unlike with Kinoma’s player or solutions based on the Web – Flash Lite 3.1, the native mobile Web version, http://m.youtube.com, of YouTube or FlashVideoBundle).
A search result. The screen can’t be scrolled down to, for example, see the comments. With more than one search result, the icons can be scrolled from left to right with fingers. Tapping them starts the playback in Landscape. An example screenshot of this:
Installation
Nevertheless, if you still want to give it a try (you’ve been warned…), head to http://m.youtube.com in the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile (unfortunately, it seems alternative browsers like Opera Mobile aren’t supported – I’ve tested the latter with the Omnia build of Opera Mobile 9.5) and click the “Download the YouTube application” link at the bottom, just above the YouTube application copyright message:
If, on the next screen, you’re told your particular model isn’t supported (this will be the case if you aren’t located in an English-speaking country; some people also state the same trick is also needed in English-speaking ones), just click the “Change Language” link at the bottom. The following screenshot shows this (selected) link in Finnish (“Muuta kieli”):
On the next dialog, select English (or English UK):
Now, the download will start; just answer Yes to the question:
After this, just click Youtube in Start / Programs.
Thanks Menneisyys!
As always very usefull info
I´ll try the options and see if finally I can see a video on my Uni
Cheers,
I can´t make it work... not any of the options...
Related
Some of you may have already played BS Hacker Replay Unlimited, a Cyberpunk / “hacker” game. It’s not a bad game (on the desktop Windows); I certainly recommend this review on it for more info. (Note that the linked review also reviews another desktop Windows "cyberpunk" game of the same developer.)
Now that Handango has cut the price of the Pocket PC port of the game in half, I’ve decided to give it a go, particularly when it comes to comparing it to the desktop version. There doesn’t seem a review of the Pocket PC version anywhere; PocketGamer.org hasn’t even mentioned it, let alone other Pocket PC gaming-related sites.
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Availability, price
(Current, tested version: 1.211)
The title is available for the original $9.99 on the homepage of the developer and, as has already been pointed out, at half the price, $4.99, on Handango.
Compatibility
All devices starting with Pocket PC 2002. This means, in addition to my Pocket PC 2002 iPAQ 3660, both my two other “problematic” devices have run the game without problems:
the WM5-upgraded HP iPAQ hx4700
the “slow” HTC Wizard (has for example no music or similar problems, unlike, say, SuperTux)
Differences between the desktop and the Windows Mobile version
First, you don’t need to enter any text on the Windows Mobile – everything is icon-based and, therefore, happens much faster (you don't need to enter commands on the keyboard, just click the given icon). The generic speedup also applies to functionality that was definitely slow in the desktop version: for example, cracking passwords, which is done much faster on Windows Mobile than in the desktop version.
However, a LOT of the desktop functionalities have been removed. For example, there are no files on hosts any more, you can only transfer money from them (and trash / BNC them if you deem it necessary – it’s only in this respect that it’s the same as the desktop version). Which is even worse, a LOT of functionality (still) present in the desktop version (ability to upgrade hacker apps; several missions or, for that matter, almost ANYTHING except just money transfer etc.) are severely missing from the PDA version.
The built-in, one-page (!) help (screenshot of it here) is in no way as good as the built-in, several-page tutorial of the desktop version. Apart from the differences between the desktop and the WM version (NO filelists, NO file transfer etc) for example it doesn’t even explain how the different BNC connections affect the trace speed – in this respect (too), it’s really poor.
Music
The music is exactly the same as in the desktop version (pretty repetitive, mono). Unfortunately, the Pocket PC version severely lacks the rather basic, but sometimes (for example, when you click a server to hack on the map) really cool sound effects.
Graphics
QVGA only (sorry, no high-resolution VGA support). However, the developers have managed to squeeze everything into this; that is, almost everything important is displayed, without the need for scrolling (which is, by the way, impossible in the PPC version, unlike on the desktop).
Verdict
If you loved the desktop version because of the great missions and the flexibility, you’ll be REALLY disappointed. In the conversion, all of this has been removed; this makes the game really shallow and uninteresting. I really disliked the PPC port because it’s just the best parts (the missions and the sophisticated file lists and options) that have been removed. You may want to give it a try to see whether you like it though.
Now that I’m working on a FULL roundup of EVERYTHING Windows Mobile instant messaging-related, I’ve also scrutinized the current state of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) applications. As I’ve already published several articles on Windows Mobile IRC clients, I’ve decided not to wait for the instant messaging article to be finished, but publish the news (as they are, as is the case with
First, PocketIRC .
PocketIRC has always been one of the best IRC applications for the Pocket PC (see these search results for more information on this question). The brand new version just released adds / fixes the following:
The much requested Favourite Channels list and auto join on connect capability (example screenshot here)
More detailed error messages, and improved disconnect detection
Verdict: a must for all existing PocketIRC users and recommended for anyone that wants to access IRC on his or her Pocket PC.
DXmobile releases Glam IRC, a “modern-style IRC app”
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DXmobile, a newcomer to Windows Mobile development, has recently released a brand new IRC application called Glam IRC. Note that DXmobile doesn’t have a homepage; therefore, you’ll need to download their app (if you bother, that is) from third-party servers like PocketGear and Handango.
Unfortunately, while, on paper, this application seems to be pretty capable, in reality, it is really-really weak.
First, it doesn’t run properly on WM5 and WM6 VGA devices: it has major rendering problems. It seems it’s sensing a QVGA screen as can be seen in for example this Dell Axim x51v screenshot (the same in Landscape). The same stands for WM6 (Crossbow), as can be seen in here. It’s, however, OK with WM5 QVGA (including landscape) and WM2003(SE), both QVGA and VGA, as can for example be seen in this WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720 screenshot.
Unfortunately, this title is one of the worst IRC apps for Windows Mobile I’ve ever tested. It’s very hard to find anything positive about it, except for the DCC and the offline messaging capabilities (which I couldn’t test because of the major trial restrictions, and I, generally, don’t request a review copy of apps I know I couldn’t write anything positive about.)
The problems:
Has a lot of typos - no serious app should contain typos
Major incompatibility problems with WM5 / WM6 VGA models
Absolutely no user control commands (kick etc) (1; in Menu / List channelname Users, there is no context menu and the main menu only offers DCC file sending to the user
No colors, bold, underline, italic etc
Trial mode entirely useless, you can’t even tell anything to anyone
Upon receiving a message in another tab, you don’t get any kind of a notification; not even the color of the tab name is changed
Not any kind of copy/paste support (including clicking URL’s), let alone logging and other advanced functionality that have long been supported by alternate clients
Verdict: forget it, this REALLY overpriced ($19) and REALLY bad application is just not worth bothering. There are a lot of even FREE IRC clients that are way better than this one.
Anyone having read my emulator reviews (particularly the NES (Famicom) and the TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) ones) knows SmartGear is one of the best 8/16-bit gaming console emulator for both the Pocket PC (Windows Mobile 6 Classic / Professional) and Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard).
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(the About screen)
Just after my publishing my reviews of the previous, 0.12 version, the developer, Larry Bank, released a brand new, 0.24 version of the emulator.
Let us see how it compares to the previous, well-known version! (Please DO read the two above-linked reviews to find out how the old version fared against the competition, what its major strengths and weaknesses are. In here, I do NOT provide you a FULL introduction / tutorial, “only” an up-to-the-point elaboration on the changes.)
Pros
Fortunately, the new version, as opposed to the old one, does save battery life automatically as can clearly be seen in this screenshot. (The previous version, as can be seen in here, didn’t offer any battery saving as it used the CPU close to 100%. This is great news!
When you pause the game, the menu bars will be displayed at once (on all platforms) as can be seen in here. This also means resuming a game after you’ve done some for example settings changes will work, unlike with 0.12.
There’s a new option, Rapid Fire, with freely definable target button (in here, for example, I’ve made it work together with Button B ). This is certainly welcome!
The menus are also easier to handle (here’s the new Settings screen and here’s the old)– for example, instead of the old “Throttle Framerate”, now, “Throttle to 60 fps” is used, which is easier to understand. As can also be seen, there’s a brand new checkbox, Quick & Dirty Rendering, which also results in some speedup, which can prove pretty useful on lowest-end handhelds.
Now, there is some way to change the video size with the newly added “Video Size” option, which allows for using 75, 100, 150%, Fit2Win and Fit2Win*.
With NES emulation, Landscape mode works OK, unlike previously.
Generic speedup / optimizations.
Cons
There is still no VGA support. You can, of course, play with the new “Video Size” settings, but none of them will help (and some, for example, Fit2Win*, will result in the program immediately exiting on some VGA models)
Screen buttons / tap areas are still not supported
The highly useful (as the emulator, unfortunately, still doesn't have any kind of manual state saving / loading) “Auto Load/Save” option can’t be enabled in the trial version, unlike with the previous one, where it worked (almost) flawlessly.
Compatibility-wise, there don’t seem to be changes. As far as the NES emulation is concerned, BattleToads still stops after displaying “1991”; Elite is still having problems and Famicom Wars (MMC4) still displays the “#10 missing” error. PC Engine emulation-wise, Street Fighter II Champion Edition (J) and Shinobi (if it starts at all – it was only on my HTC Wizard that it did) still have the same bitmap problems. The platform bug of Turrican still exists, making the game unplayable.
Several previously flawlessly running PC Engine games just refuse to start. For example, F1 Dream has refused to start on ALL my test devices. Operation Wolf and Afterburner 2 has only started on my QVGA HTC Wizard (but not on any of my VGA devices – not that it’d be any fun to play a game only occupying the upper left quarter of the VGA screen...)
Verdict
While this emulator still has its share of problems (particularly VGA- and generic game / ROM compatibility-wise), it’s clearly got better and his, as usual, highly recommended (particularly for MS Smartphone users). If it runs your particular favorite games, that is.
Unfortunately, lately, there was almost nothing to report on when it comes to gaming and running emulators on Windows Mobile – most game / emulator developers have switched to the iPhone. The latter sees several game releases a day (including really high-quality titles like UniWar, Wolf 3D and so on); in the meantime, WinMo is pretty much abandoned.
Therefore, I was really delighted to see famous n0p (still) developing for the platform. His excellent MS-DOS emulator port, DOSBox, has just (yesterday) been updated to the latest (0.72) core (please see THIS if you want to know what MS-DOS emulation is all about; why you may want to use it etc.). This has been a long-asked for update: the core has been out for quite long but, so far, n0p haven’t had the time to release it.
It’s available for download HERE (get the XScale build); note that you’ll need a 7z-compliant unpacker tool – for example, WinZip; if you want to go with a free solution, use the official 7-zip tool – to uncompress it. After that, just copy the uncompressed files to anywhere on your WinMo phone.
Using the new version is done in exactly the same way as the old, 0.63 one. (Nevertheless, the config file has changed a bit; for exaple, the MIDI / MT-32 / GUS emulation section has been completely taken out. (This is pretty much understandable: not even the much less demanding FM synthesis of the Adlib / Sound Blaster work at full speed in most games, let alone the much more CPU-demanding midi…) Therefore, you can just go on with the 0.63-specific sections in my definitive guide to running (MS-)DOS (80x86) programs under Windows Mobile on how the config file can be configured, what famous games the emulator is compatible with etc.
Speaking of compatibility (and speed), I’ve played quite a bit with the new version. I’ve tested Companions of Xanth, directly comparing it to how the old version (0.63) runs the title, to see whether there’s any speed increase. There is (the background music stuttered definitely less, particularly in the intro animation), but don’t expect miracles.
Also, there still are problems with the mouse emulation. While the latest version of the major alternative MS-DOS emulator, PocketDOS (as of the latest, 12.2 version), has absolutely no problems with titles like the above-mentioned Xanth and, among others, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego when it comes to stylus-based control, both titles can only be operated with dragging in DOSBox. (Too bad PocketDOS is commercial and doesn’t have any kind of Adlib / Sound Blaster emulation.) Unfortunately, it seems DOSBox will always suffer from this problem.
There’s no VGA support either – that is, high-res (EGA / VGA) games will still be rendered in QVGA even on VGA Pocket PC’s. In this regard, PocketDOS is much better too.
In addition to the new core and the somewhat improved speed, there are some (subtle) improvements. For example, now, by default, four virtual keyboard rows are displayed, with the topmost blended into background:
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Aww Yeah, I've been waiting for this for a long time! I'm so happy that n0p didn't forget about Windows Mobile. There's nothing quite like running MS Windows 3.1, and all sorts of cool, old games in front of my iPhone friends just to make them jealous.
Dave
Hi,
I just tried to check out n0p's dos-box site. Unfortunately it not available any more. Could someone post the latest dos-box release for ppc, please, or upload it to some file hoster?
Thanx!
LUPON
I’ve reviewed several phone recorder applications (please see the links in the last LivePVR article for more information).
A company pretty new to Windows Mobile development, MobileTimes, has just released a new call recorder application, “FoneWatch”. It’s available HERE for $10. (There’s a demo with restricted playback capabilities.)
I’ve pretty thoroughly tested it and found it to be seriously lacking. For example, it seems to use WinCE databases, instead of file system files, to store its call recordings. This means it’s impossible to play them back with another application or media player – you can only play your stuff back with FoneWatch. If you don’t want to archive (for for example [tens of] years) your phone calls or don’t want to listen to them on your, say, desktop, this won’t really be an issue; if you do, however, you won’t even want to bother installing this app – the alternatives are just far better in this respect (too).
Compatibility-wise, I’ve tested it on my HTC Wizard, Universal (two Pocket PC Phone Editions [a.k.a. Windows Mobile 6 Professional]) and a touchscreen-less HTC Vox / s710 (a MS Smartphone [a.k.a. Windows Mobile 6 Standard]). It worked on the former two but didn’t notice calls taking place on the third, the MS Smartphone. It might mean it’s incompatible with not only the HTC Vox, but also ALL the other MS Smartphones – I don’t know. (Not that it’d interested me much – this app is just not worth bothering about. There are much better and considerably superior alternatives out there.)
I could continue explaining the cons I’ve found; however, if you do read my past, audio/call recording-related articles, you’ll understand them all.
Two screenshots follow. The first shows the main dialog of the app with three recorded calls (for a given day). As can be seen, FoneWatch doesn’t have access to the Contacts database; this is why it only displays the caller’s / callee’s numbers (instead of their Contacts data):
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The second screenshot shows the decompression when you initiate playing back a clip:
Compared to Resco Audio Recorder, VITO AudioNotes and PMRecorder:
Pros:
Hmmm… can’t really think of any.
Cons:
- Not possible to directly convert / save recordings – they’re not even visible, let alone being in a standard format
- Low audio quality; can’t switch to a better recording format
- No goodies like auto-speakerphone to ease recording the other party on some phones
- No autostart at system bootup
- No access to names in Contacts
- Doesn’t seem to work on some? all? MS Smartphones
- It uses the built-in storage and can’t take advantage of the external one
- While it’s really simple and pretty much incapable, it costs money ($10) (unlike the free PMRecorder and the somewhat cheaper VITO AudioNotes)
Verdict
For the time being, I just don’t see any point in preferring this application to Resco Audio Recorder, VITO AudioNotes and PMRecorder, the, currently, most recommended call recorder applications for Windows Mobile.
Thanks Menneisyys!
As always great and valuable info!
Cheers,
recently i've become very interested in ICR and found myself spending money on programs (i currently use VITO). thanks for the review and saving me from spending money when i don't have to.
delawaresace said:
recently i've become very interested in ICR and found myself spending money on programs (i currently use VITO). thanks for the review and saving me from spending money when i don't have to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're welcome
Thanks So Much for An Informative Review...