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REVIEW: new phone call recorder LivePVR

REVIEW: a brand new phone / meeting call recorder with great, unique rolling recording capabilities: LivePVR by Softtrends LLC
This sound / voice recorder application is both a phone call autorecorder and a meeting recorder with a, on the Pocket PC, really unique (yes, I know what I’m speaking about – I’ve thoroughly tested all the alternate voice/sound recorder applications – please see the “Recommended links” section for links) feature: “rolling recording”.
In this article, I thoroughly compare the just-released, latest (2.4) version to the already existing alternates, particularly PMRecorder (please read the review of the latter here – I will NOT explain why you can’t record the other party on most Pocket PC Phone Edition in this article!)
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Compatibility, availability
It’s available here and costs $9.95. The trial version is pretty usable and only time (30 days) constrained if you want to take it for a test ride.
It’s only compatible with WM5. I’ve tested it on two WM5 PPC Phone Edition devices (HTC Universal and HTC Wizard) – both worked OK (except for the VGA incompatibility problems on the former).
The unique feature: “rolling recording”
It may happen to you many times that you would like to record things that have just been said. In these cases, “rolling recording” can be of help. It makes it possible to record things that have already been said – before you pressed the “Record” button.
Please note that you will need to read the online documentation on the “rolling recording” in order to be able to properly utilize the unique rolling recording facility of the app. (Note that the homepage has a dead link to the Virtual Demo). In my extensive tests, rolling recording worked flawlessly and really delivered what it's supposed to.
Compared to...
Yes, as applications (fortunately) don't exist in isolation, it's the best to compare this app to the numerous alternates to get a clerar picture whether it's worth getting (or even trying).
As opposed to other “standard” voice recorders...
Pros
Buffering functionality – no other voice recorder is capable of the same. Note that the “Rewind Length” slider in Vianix Pocket Talk Enterprise Pro only sets the amount of seconds the Rewind icon steps back on each press (the same stands for forwarding).
It puts the entire date/time (incl. seconds) in the filename. Except for iPlay (which puts hours and minutes in the filenames – not the seconds) and Personal Memory Systems’ Audio Memory System (which is quite revolutionary in that it puts both the date, the time (incl. seconds) and a user-supplied remark in the filename), no other recorder does the same: they “only” autonumber the files. This approach can be easier for many people, particularly if you see the filelist from an application (for example, the FileList control itself in Windows Mobile itself when listing files created more than a day ago) without timestamps or, when the timestamps are lost (because, for example, you FTP the files or ActiveSync synchronizes them to the desktop).
Isn’t overpriced, unlike many of the alternates
No excess CPU usage: in both “conference” mode and while actively recording, around 1% only (measured on the HTC Wizard, recording to a storage card), which certainly shows it’s well-written and bugfree (in this respect)
Can record as a background task (unlike Notes)
Moderate memory usage: with 45 sec pre/postbuffers (as can also be seen in this Settings screenshot), it’s 2 Mbytes only
Cons
On the Pocket PC, no touchscreen support: must be operated by the D-pad + Action button + WM5 softkeys or the built-in keyboard (if present)
Sometimes, on the HTC Wizard, D-Pad only started to work after a forced screen orientation change while the app is active (this isn’t a problem on the HTC Universal though). This was also the case when traversing the focus to another application and then, switching back to LivePVR: you must change the screen orientation in order to be regain control on the GUI. After resetting the Pocket PC, these problems generally went away. It’s still be good to be aware of the solution if you want to avoid resetting your PPC.
Recording quality can in no way be set - everything is recorded as lengthy (about one Megabyte for every 45 seconds) PCM files, no matter what the system-level quality setting is. (Needless to say, it sports no codecs either, unlike many of the alternates.)
There are no niceties like Voice Activation System (VAS)
No VGA support – it only occupies the upper left quarter of the screen on VGA devices like the HTC Universal even in standard (SE) VGA mode
WM5 only (tested on other, previous platforms – a no-go)
As far as phone recording is concerned, as opposed to PMRecorder:
Pros
Resulting file doesn’t have an additional header and, therefore, need to be converted in order to be played in any media players. (Note that PMRecorder, thanks to my documenting the header and a Russian coder coding the converter, already has a third-party decoder.)
Cons
Doesn’t store the number of the caller/called
Auto-phonecall-recording must be reactivated by hand after every single reboot
PMRecorder has two recording quality settings (one of them using the space-saving GSM vocoder); this only one
Costs $10 (as opposed to the free PMRecorder)
Verdict
For a phone call recorder, stick with PMRecorder. The latter is definitely better in every respect. The same stands for recording individual voice notes where rollbacking isn’t needed (because you know beforehand what you want to record and what not).
However, as far as conference/meeting recording is concerned where rollback capabilities are a must, you won’t find anything better for the Pocket PC. It’s only in this case that I heartily recommend this application.
A TIP: how can you make it record all your phone calls without explicitly starting LivePVR?
It must be done exactly the same way as with PMRecorder: you just put a link to the executable of the program, \Program Files\LivePVR\sftLivePVR.exe, into \Windows\StartUp (with PMRecorder, the executable can be found by default at \Program Files\PMRecorder\PMRecorder.exe).
Unfortunately, while with PMRecorder it’s sufficient to just minimize the task when it’s (auto)started (and it will record everything), with LivePVR, you MUST explicitly go to the Phone Call PVR menu (one Action button press) and explicitly reactivate phone recording (two Action button presses). After this, you can safely minimize it, just as with PMRecorder, and it will record all your calls.
Note that while, seemingly, auto recording is activated upon reboot, in practice, it doesn’t work. This is why you will need to reactivate it after every reboot. In this respect, PMRecorder is certainly easier to operate, particularly if you often reboot your device.
Recommended links
In addition to the most important PMRecorder article, I also recommend the following articles:
Everything you may need to know about sound recording on the Pocket PC
and, to a lesser degree, my following reviews:
Personal Memory Systems’ Audio Memory System
MotionApps’ mVoice 5

does LivePVR record phone call with ear and without loudspeaker ?
Does LivePVR record phone conversation with in-ear and without loudspeaker ?
is there another software that does this?
I know the law!!
thank

goodmanbrt said:
Does LivePVR record phone conversation with in-ear and without loudspeaker ?
is there another software that does this?
I know the law!!
thank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to XDA-Dev
Nope - it's suffering from the same, hardware-based problem as all other call recording apps, as has also been pointed out in the article.

REVIEW: Bluetooth chatter / Bluejacking app Sniper

Ever wanted to use the Bluetooth capabilities of your Pocket PC for local (text) messaging and file transfer, including local broadcasting? Take a look at Sniper, which is a comparatively new, constantly updated native Bluetooth messenger utility.
Unfortunately, there are very few local Bluetooth-based applications on the Pocket PC platform. As has pointed out in my article on Microsoft (MS) Portrait, the only really usable, Bluetooth-capable, internet-less text messaging / file transfer application, Portrait isn’t able to work over the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, only over real TCP/IP networks (including BT PAN and Wi-Fi P2P), which the Microsoft Bluetooth stack doesn't support because it lacks support for the Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN).
The same stands for the very similar but already abandoned Gphone . Finally, the other two, similar applications, ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat, are no longer supported and have never really worked. (Note that I elaborate on the latter two apps and, particularly, the current, similar project of the developer of the former in the Appendix at the end of this article.)
At last: native Microsoft Bluetooth stack messaging solution; on the other hand, some compatibility problems
The new application is definitely good in that it supports the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, as opposed to Microsoft Portrait. If you have a device with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, you’ll certainly welcome the new application – at last, a local native Bluetooth messaging solution that doesn’t require Wi-Fi peer-to-peer networks or an active Internet connection.
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Unfortunately, it has some severe problems. First, while the homepage of the application advertises the app as PPC2k2+-compliant, it doesn’t seem to work with pre-WM5 Windows Mobile operating systems. I’ve tested all the available versions with both Pocket PC 2002, WM2003 and WM2003SE. I've made some example screenshots (see this and this) to show you it doesn't work: as can be seen, the installer can’t even install the WM5-only CAB files.
Furthermore, it’s incompatible with Widcomm/Broadcom Bluetooth stack-based devices like all HP iPAQ Pocket PC's (an example screenshot of it refusing running on the hx4700 is here), the Fujitsu-Siemens T800 series, the Acer n series and, of course, the Widcomm-hacked, WM5-based Dell Axim x50(v)/x51(v)'s. This is a very bad problem: developers of Bluetooth applications should at last notice that, as has already been pointed out in my articles (example here), Broadcom has in the meantime made its WinCE SDK freely available.
Available versions and differences between them; Bluejacking support in the trial version
There are two versions worth mentioning; first, of course, the latest one, 1.2.368, available here.
Bluejacking (see this article for a complete description), one of the most important and innovative (no other Pocket PC application is capable of this) feature of the application, is completely disabled in the latest, above-linked version. Older versions (for example, version 1.1.237 available here at ClickApps), however, still support this functionality in the demo, except mass-sending more than one file at a time. That is, if you want to give this functionality a try in the demo version (I certainly recommend it), get the older version.
Some examples of it in action
A Pocket PC device discovering two other Pocket PC’s.
Compared to MS Portrait or any other TCP/IP-based chatter application (including IRC clients), its chat feature is a bit more complicated to use. This is how it happens in practice: Sending a message: step 1, step 2. On the receiving end, you get it (note that if you see it this way, it means you’ve forgotten to disable the auto-receive of incoming beam) and save it. If you answer Yes, you’ll be taken to the messages; it's only then that you'll be able to read it. There, you can, for example, reply to the sender.
Examples of file transfer (sending files) 1, 2 3 (sending multiple files like this doesn’t work in the demo). At the receiving end, they’re saved in the pre-set save directory.
An example of bluejacking.
Verdict
If you want local chatting with other Microsoft BT stack-based Pocket PC's or non-Windows Mobile Bluetooth phones, give it a try. If you can’t use a Wi-Fi peer-to-peer connection (or full Internet connectivity) between your WM5 Microsoft BT stack-based devices, give it a try. If you want to do some bluejacking, give it a try. Otherwise, particularly if you have a pre-WM5 or Widcomm/Broadcom-based device, stick with the free MS Portrait.
Appendix: What about ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat?
Unfortunately, the other two native (non TCP/IP-based, unlike MS Portrait and Gphone) Bluetooth messaging applications, ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat (latest, tested, still available versions 1.44 and 0.5b, respectively) are both useless and no longer developed.
The former, ProximityMail, will never be updated; the developer, Inventop Corp, has removed all references to the product, including even the old download link (also see this). Its successor, BUZZeeBee (see the homepage for more info), still only has a desktop PC version. (They have been promising the Pocket PC version for months; there is still no sign of it).
The latter, Bluetooth Chat by Andrey Demidov, hasn’t been updated for three years and also seems to be completely abandoned. Needless to say, it has never really worked either.

personal i find it odd whne somebody who have that many posts
deside to make something i can only describe as a commercial

Rudegar said:
personal i find it odd whne somebody who have that many posts
deside to make something i can only describe as a commercial
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there were a REAL alternative to this app, it wouldn't sound a commercial (check out my other, comparative reviews - I "trash" many apps I test). Unfortunately, when there is only one program for a given purpose, it's hard to write an article that doesn't sound like "musch as it has its share of problems, go get it".
As soon as there will be another, directly comparable alternate to this app, I promise to write a decent comparison

not working on omnia T_T

is there anything similar for android?

Audacity releases FREE (!) Audacity Personal DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) for the PPC

There are several sound recorder applications for the Pocket PC (please see the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible for more info.) Now, the previously Palm OS-only Audacity Personal DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) has also been ported to the Pocket PC.
The title is available for all WM2003+ operating systems and is accessible here.
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In this review, I “only” provide a list of pros and cons and compare the title to other PPC sound recorders.
Pros
Filename may contain full date / time (screenshot 1 2 3. Very few other PPC recorders are capable of the same (see the “Additional recording features: Auto recording numbering?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible and my Audio Memory System by Personal Memory Systems review). Currently, as far as non-MP3-recording (but either Speex or Ogg) is concerned, the best Resco is able to include both the date and time in filenames but it’s not so configurable as Audacity Personal DVR.
It can pause/resume (not possible with all recorders; see the “Recording pause/resume?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible) and even append to recordings (even rarer; see the “Append new recording to file?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible)
Alarms can be defined and added with your own recordings (as opposed to the built-in notification / alarm mechanism in Windows Mobile)
Buttons are freely redefinable for all the four types of dialogs / recording states. See here and here (button shortcuts on the Home dialog), here (Idle state), here (Record state) and here (Playback state). Note, however, that the hardware button support is certainly lacking; also see the Cons section on this.
You can start recording with a looooong-press of any (and the same) hardware button (after assigning Audacity to a button first in Settings / Buttons and assigning the same button to the Record functionality in the Home and the Idle dialogs / states and to either Stop or Pause/Resume for the Record and Playback states. (Remember, however, to disable the tutorial at startup by checking in the related checkbox!) Most alternative Pocket PC sound recorders require, in general, TWO button presses to achieve the same (see the “Buttons: One-button recording? Does it need to show the app window?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible.
Free (currently)
Desktop-side file synchronization support
Cons
Exceptionally high CPU usage – much higher than with Notes or anything else only using built-in OS-level codecs (check out the related remarks in the Audio Recording Bible – you WILL see other apps, which are only based on the built-in codecs, consume far less power)! (Some figures: Dell Axim x51v: 25% at 624 MHz; Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720: 60% at 416 MHz.). This, unfortunately, not only means vastly reduced battery life when you make a lot of recording (and even playback! – unfortunately, the CPU usage is very high even when you play back stuff), but also skips in the recording on some devices as is the case for example on the HTC Wizard, even when overclocked to 240 MHz. These problems render the application useless on some models.
Only built-in codecs may be used, unlike with the Palm version (see the codec chart at the bottom of the page). A decent sound reorder should support something better than PCM WAV / GSM; for example, MP3 or Speex.
Doesn’t see CF cards in devices sporting them – an example x51v screenshot is here (the situation is exactly the same on all other devices with a CF slot; for example, the PL720). This also means it won’t be able to make recordings into file stores on pre-WM5 devices (and unlocked Extended ROM’s on PPC PE devices) either – only (mini / micro) SD cards.
It doesn’t handle the two side buttons on the Dell Axim x51v and Pocket Loox 720; there is no support for the HP iPAQ hx4700 side button either (tested on a WM5-upgraded device). On the HTC Wizard, it only handles the Camera, Mail, Wireless and Notes buttons (that is, there is no support for the Explorer button and the two WM5 softbuttons); this means at least you’ll be able to use it in the one-keypress mode if you redefine any of the supported (preferably side) buttons. The button referred to as the “Side button” (the only one to have a record functionality assigned to by default) is not supported on any of these devices; this means you MUST redefine one of the accessible buttons (which will be one of the front buttons on non-PPC PE models and can also be the side buttons on PPC PE models) in order to be able to use it to start / stop recording. The developers, as with many others not having read it, should read on my past tutorials / articles on enumerating the available buttons on a given Pocket PC ( Where does the PPC Registry store button mapping info - a tutorial (alternatives: PPC Magazine, BrightHand; make sure you also follow the link to More Programmers'/Hackers' Stuff, along with some cool Pocket Loox 7xx Hold Button Tips: More on Pocket PC Hardware Buttons for more info.). I’ve discussed this problem with the developers; they have assured me support for all accessible buttons will be implemented really soon.
No built-in screenoff support; all the utility offers is backlight dimming (but NOT locking – now, compare this to how Resco allows for full even button protection!) the screen after 30 seconds (independent of the system setting; that is, you don’t even need to enable screen dimming on the system level at all); see for example the button reassignment list above. Of course, you can still use independent screenoff utilities even assigned to hardware buttons, as long as you don’t re-map these buttons inside Personal DVR to inner functions. The fact that only screen dimming takes place also means the graphics-related excess CPU usage will always be a problem.
On the 624 MHz x51v, it takes seven seconds for the application to start recording when started anew – in no way so fast as Notes (not to talk about its CPU usage) or even most other alternative recorders. In this respect, preferring a two-buttonpress-required, but much faster-to-be-invoked recorder may pay out.

Verdict
As with many other direct Palm (and Symbian – see for example Lonely Cat Games’ products like ProfiMail and LGC Jukebox) ports (see for example my review of mVoice 5 by MotionApps, which suffers from exactly the same problem – that is, a title that has been one of the best on the Palm can’t really be compared to the commercial alternatives on the Pocket PC), this application isn’t really a match for current top-of-the-line, commercial (!) Pocket PC sound recorders like Resco – the Pocket PC platform is just far stronger, software-wise, than Palm.
However, given that it’s free (and I’m comparing it to commercial titles like Resco Audio Recorder), I still recommend it, particularly if you’re looking for a one (as opposed to most alternative Pocket PC recorders which almost all require two (consequent) presses) button-press application if you can live with the (current) limitations and problems (no CF, no support for side buttons of non-Phone devices, very high CPU usage, lack of screenoff, long activation time when it needs to be loaded etc.). Hope the problems will soon be ironed out in subsequent versions.
UPDATE (02/03/2007): PPCT frontpage

Updated review posted.

New (final) beta of Resco Audio Recorder out with BRAND NEW,high q. MP3 & AAC support

New (final) beta of Resco Audio Recorder out with BRAND NEW,high q. MP3 & AAC support
Anyone into serious (!) audio and/or automatic phone call recording on Windows Mobile (Pocket PC only – Smartphones are NOT supported, unfortunately) knows Resco Audio Recorder, probably the best recorder application, only - in MP3 recording - matched by VITO AudioNotes (see review HERE).
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The developer of this excellent application has been continuously releasing beta versions of his forthcoming version 4. I’ve published several articles on these versions; the last is HERE. The reader is strongly asked to check out these reviews to see how for example the brand new call recording functionality works. In the current review, I only elaborate the changes.
The official “what’s new” is as follows:
New codec pack with high quality MP3 and AAC recording for higher ARM processors
Optimized version for Intel XScale devices
Automatic display off
Bookmarks visible on track bar
Bookmarks with optional text note
Automatic phone call recording works after soft reset
Gain control fixed
Bugs fixed
Yes, as can be seen, the MP3 encoder quality (which has always been the most problematic aspect of Resco Audio Recorder) has been dramatically enhanced and a brand new AAC encoder plug-in has been added, allowing for using even lower encoding bit speeds with approximately the same quality (and, for that matter, somewhat lower CPU usage, meaning better battery life).
This means using this recorder is, from now on, recommended when you want to record into MP3 - unlike with previous versions.
Installing, configuring
As opposed to the previous betas (and, of course, the old, 3.x series), you will need to download and install two files: Audio Recorder itself, and an additional codec pack. It’s the latter that has the two brand new, high-quality codecs. Both are availbale on the beta page of the 4.x series.
Note that you should ONLY install the new codec pack on XScale or TI OMAP CPU’s. It CANNOT be installed on (old; in general, pre-2003) StrongARM devices. Furthermore, it’s fully incompatible with the Samsung CPU. This means Samsung-based Pocket PC’s (for example, the HTC Trinity / P3600, the HTC TyTN / Hermes etc) won’t work at all and it’s absolutely useless to try to install the codec pack on them. They CAN be installed: the installer only stops the install process when it notices the current Pocket PC only having a StrongARM CPU. However, there are no install-time (or, for that matter, runtime) warnings upon trying to install codecpack on Samsung CPU’s. You will only see something has gone absolutely wrong when you try to switch to using the two new codecs (the old ones work without problems): then, the application will quit at once. This also means you won’t be able to restart it at all. You will need to completely uninstall the entire suite (not just the codec pack: uninstalling it will also result in the other codecs becoming totally inaccessible).
Note that you can install the two files in any order.
After the installation, select either the new AACv4I or MP3v4I encoders in the encoder drop-down list:
Note that, as far as MP3’s are concerned, it’s MP3v4I that is the new; “MP3” is still the old (and in no way recommended – not even on incompatible – StrongARM / Samsung-based – models) encoder.
Problems
Upon AAC playback, depending on the CPU speed, it starts to stutter after a while (almost instantaneously on 195 MHz TI OMAP's, in about 1.5 minutes on 520 MHz XScale and after about 4.5 minutes on 624 MHz XScale devices). This needs to be fixed as the CPU usage is linearly increasing during this time - must be a simple program bug. The developer has promised to look into the problem.
Recording stops after five minutes, unlike with previous beta versions, which allowed for unlimited recordings (and, it seems, don’t have timebombs either).
Benchmarks
As usual, I’ve made SEVERAL benchmarks and tests to see the CPU usage with the two new codecs to see their battery friendlyness, incompatibilities, usability on non-overclocked TI OMAP Pocket PC’s etc.
As can be seen, the new MP3 encoder is only a tad – about 4% - more CPU intensive than the old one. In addition, the AAC encoder takes about 14% less CPU time than the MP3 encoder and is, therefore, probably the best choice for long-time, quality recording where battery life is of extreme importance.
All in all, excellent results - kudos to Resco!
The future – Smartphone
The developer also promises an MS Smartphone version. Until then, your best choice is VITO AudioNotes (see review HERE) for quality MP3 / call recording.
Verdict
The most problematic part of Resco Audio Recorder is now fixed, making the application THE most recommended generic recorder application for the Pocket PC (unless you need the special call recording features – for example, the auto speakerphone mode – of VITO AudioNotes). Kudos to Resco!

(Multiplatform) REVIEW: TiVi - a multiplatform video (!) phone application

Because of the huge prices of traditional (non-Internet-based) video phoning services, several Symbian users have been praising TiVi, a VoIP app / service with video phoning and, at least on Symbian, front camera support capabilities. As it also has a Windows Mobile version, I gave it a very thorough, three-platform (desktop Windows, Symbian and Windows Mobile) ride to find out what it's really capable of.
1.1 Registration, Web page
Fortunately, using the service for TiVi - TiVi connections is absolutely free (as opposed to what some people state in some Symbian forums) and works over fully (on both sides) firewalled connections. To being able to reach your buddies, you'll need to register a nickname on the central server. This is pretty easy and can be done HERE.
You'll also need to download the client software; it's available for the desktop HERE and for mobile platforms HERE. Install it; after starting it, press the left softkeys on both mobile platforms and go to Config. There, fill in your login name / password. After this, you'll become available for the others; using your nick instead of a "traditional" number will work when calling you. Note that it also has a built-in Contacts list and also has access to the system-level contacts, offering (of course, non-free - as opposed to in-network calls) dial-out capabilities for them.
Note that the page and the service themselves are pretty far away from being professional. Latvian is used on some both the Web pages (even when using English) and, which is even worse, in the answering machine. This, of course, isn't that problematic, particularly if you speak some Slavonic language because, then, you'll understand at least the last two words of the answering machine message and can deduce what takes place. And, it's only in the first occasion that this can cause any kind of confusion.
1.2 Screenshots
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(a Symbian shot showing the output of the HTC Universal - that is, the Nokia itself, me trying very hard to make a screenshot on it. In the upper left corner, you can also see Nokia's own camera image (of the Universal, with 180 degrees rotated screen, in front of it). Note that the Symbian version, in addition to stopping / restarting video, also supports switching between the front/back cameras if you press 0. By default, the front camera is used, of course.)
(a Windows Mobile HTC Universal screenshot showing the image received from the Nokia N95 and its own picture in the upper left corner. As you can see, the client doesn't even display a button shortcut to switch between the front and the back cameras)
1.3 Operating system compliance; issues
Under desktop Windows operating systems, the client is not really polished but, at least, works. Its usage is pretty tricky and not really intuitive (requires a lot of getting used to): for example, you need to click a given button twice to initiate an audio-only / video call. Nevertheless, it has no problems using my Creative Live! Cam Vista IM webcamera.
Let me know if you just can't find out how the client needs to be operated and I publish a mini-tutorial on it. Again, it's not really intuitive; it took me at least an hour to find out how the three clients work, how they differ and how calls should be initiated.
On Symbian (thoroughly tested this on the Nokia N95 with both Wi-Fi and GPRS / 3G connections (the latter being firewalled and NAT'ed), it worked pretty well: it's able to use both cameras and any kind of connection type. The only problem is the lack of the speakerphone support (despite the title of the left softkey). This means you must use some kind of a headset when using the app.
On Windows Mobile, the situation is a bit worse (tested this with the latest version with CAB internal filedates of 03/2008): as I've guessed, it doesn't support front cameras at all - as is, unfortunately, the case with MS Portrait 3.1 (see review and report HERE). Second, very few models (currently, from HTC, only the HTC Tornado and s620 MS Smartphones and HTC Universal / Wizard Pocket PC's; from HP, the hw6515, and, from Asus, the A716) are supported. Note that at least the two Pocket PC versions (that of the Wizard and the Universal) are exactly the same. Also note that the names are pretty much messed up; for example, under HTC, the Qtek names are listed.
Incidentally, upon installing it on a pretty much crowded HTC Universal on a card, it only seemed to support cellular connections; it just coulnd't make use of Wi-Fi connections. Furthermore, after the first (or second?) restart, it wouldn't connect to the server any more (not even thorugh, of course, a cellular connection) - it just displayed the "Cannot register. Reason: Connection timed out" message. Needless to say that under exactly the same circumstances the Symbian and the desktop Windows versions worked just OK. After a hard reset and reinstalling the client on a clean machine, everything started to work just fine.
The lack of the front camera support can only be fixed in some special cases; for example, the rotatable Universal where you can use the back camera while still seeing the screen; in no other cases. But, then, it's somewhat better to go straight for the way better and reliable MS Portrait instead because it's just more thoroughly optimized and bugfixed. Unless, of course, you need to talk to other TiVi users.
1.4 Speed, data usage
Video phoning is astonishingly good even over slow-speed GPRS. In these cases, you'll want to avoid using uplink video so that uplink audio get all the uplink bandwidth (which, in most cases, will only be sufficient for a stream with moderate pauses) - as has already been explained in my past VoIP articles. Otherwise, should you have at least an EDGE connection, you won't encounter any problems.
As it doesn't really require 3G speeds (unlike the audio-only Skype), if you do have EDGE (and not just GPRS), you can safely switch to 2G mode to avoid excess data usage - and, of course, power consumption, particularly if you always let the client run in the background, waiting for incoming calls. I've explained how this needs to be done on both Windows Mobile and Symbian in THIS article.
2. Verdict
On Windows Mobile, the only usage area I recommend it (if you run it on a rotatable model like the Universal) is connecting to a Symbian phone. Symbian having no other video phoning-capable software (Palringo - see the multiplatform review HERE - is only capable of sending static shots), Symbian users will need to use this client. For talking to other Windows Mobile phones (preferably, HTC Universals with their 180% rotatable screens), you may want to prefer MS Portrait instead - and, again, for talking to desktop Windows clients too.
On Symbian, this is a highly recommended solution, should you want to talk to other Symbian folks with a front camera and/or desktop folks and/or Windows Mobile folks with HTC Universals.