The Pocket PC has just been released and we're already beginning to see some great software applications for it. I'm sure my favorite's list will grow beyond these five. But for now, here are the coolest of the first.
Windows Media Player
Microsoft's popular MP3 player
Microsoft's Windows Media Player is new to the Pocket PC and I
believe it will prove to be one of the most popular additions. Preloaded
on all Pocket PCs, this application provides digital music playback
capability, letting you play MP3 and WMA music formats.
Media Player can be customized with "skins," interface
templates that you can choose to change an application's look and feel.
This feature made the ever-popular Winamp (PC MP3 software) what it is
today.
Microsoft is smart to include "skins" and WMA format
support with Media Player. This will help them compete effectively with
other popular Windows CE MP3 players.
In the future I would like to see an MPEG playback feature included,
such as their PC version of Media Player offers. Expanding Media
Player's capability to support streaming audio would also be a welcome
addition.
Peacemaker
Makes infrared communication possible between PDAs
Peacemaker is a simple utility from Conduits Technologies (www.conduits.com)
that addresses a pent-up demand that has existed in the PDA marketplace
for a long time -- the inability of various PDAs to communicate with
each other. Peacemaker does one important thing well. It lets you send
and receive data via a device's infrared port to other non-Windows CE
PDAs, specifically PalmOS and Psion units.
Peacemaker is a great name selection and an effective description of
what the application actually does. Until now, Windows CE units have not
been able to communicate via infrared with Palm or Psion devices. In
addition, Palm and Psion are unable to communicate with each other.
Peacemaker gives Microsoft the compatibility advantage.
The best part is that your friend with his or her Palm or Psion
device doesn't need to do anything. Peacemaker automatically recognizes
the device it is attempting to communicate with and configures itself
appropriately.
I received only a demo version of this software which was limited to
sending contact data though the demo screen. However, the accompanying
documentation did mention that the "Pro" version would provide
additional options. Hopefully that would include support for sending and
receiving Calendar and Task items, and memos. If the actual release
doesn't, then that is the only shortcoming of the software at this time.
Pocket Artist
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