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April 12, 2004
Pocket Tunes by NormSoft
I've started listening to the radio on my phone. How? All through the magic of Pocket Tunes from NormSoft.
Pocket Tunes is first an MP3 and Ogg Vorbis player application for your Palm OS device. It's fully skinnable with decent playlist handling and has lots of other nifty features that make it very capable stand-alone music player.
However, the real magic starts when you realize that Pocket Tunes Deluxe supports streaming MP3 over wireless connections. You can now listen to that favorite streaming radio station or your own Shoutcast source wherever your wireless Palm OS handheld or smartphone has Internet access.
For example, my phone is the Treo 600 from palmOne (nee Handspring). Using GPRS, I can stream in 97X at 24 Kbps without a hiccup (higher quality streams surpass GPRS's sustained throughput, so you end up buffering every so often, which gets annoying). Or, I could listen to my own stream if I were to switch it over to 24 Kbps (its default is 64 Kbps). Some other Treo-friendly streams can be found at Treobits.
Now, if my endorsement isn't enough to convince you, Pocket Tunes also won PalmSource's "Best Multimedia Solution" at the 2004 Developer's Conference. Nice job, NormSoft!
Posted by Craig in Mobile & PDAs
and Music & Audio
and Wireless
Comments
Craig,
I also live in Cincinnati and love to use my Treo 600 to stream 97X.
Occasionally, people will ask me questions about my Treo when they see me using it. They usually ask, "what's that thing you're using?" They're never impressed that my PDA & mobile phone are combined into one device (I even get this from friends who can't program their DVR's ;), but when I stream 97X for them-- their eyes immediately widen, a large grin covers their faces and they always comment that they want one of these NOW!
I've had my Treo since October and would be happy to recommend some other apps/tips that I think are essential for the device. If you're already familiar w/ my suggestions, maybe you'll be able to introduce something to me that has not yet made my radar screen?
Cheers!
Jack
Posted by: JNL at April 27, 2004 2:11 PM