This month's discoveries include an easy to use DVD video converter that works for all Windows Mobile devices and a home screen Theme maker program that lets you make your own custom screens for Smartphones. I also review a program that lets you browse music on your desktop PC and play the music on your Pocket PC, and a new Bluetooth stereo headphone/headset combo that folds up and fits in your pocket! Rounding out this column are some tips for getting more out of your Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone and a list of the winners of the Handango Champion Awards.
Pocket DVD Studio 3.5
This is one of the best desktop PC programs available for converting your videos to WMV format, which can then be played on Pocket PCs, Smartphones, and Portable Media Center devices. All the important controls are located on the main panel, making it very easy to use. You can convert your favorite movies and TV shows you've recorded in digital format, and watch them anywhere, anytime using Windows Media Player. Pocket DVD Studio will accept video files in any of the following formats: WMV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, RM, RMVB, Tivo2go; it will convert them to Windows Media Video or AVI formats. Pocket DVD Studios one-pass recording provides better quality and runs three times faster than other video conversion programs. (I converted a DVD movie in less than an houra process that took five hours using another conversion program on the same computer.) You can save your converted video directly to a storage card or onto your PCs hard drive and synchronize it with your Windows Mobile device at a later time using ActiveSync. If you have Windows Media Player 10 on your PC and Pocket PC, you can set things up to have converted videos synchronized automatically. Pocket DVD Studio 3.5 is priced at $39.95 and is available on the PQDVD Web site (http://www.pqdvd.com).
Pocket-DVD Studio is fast, easy to use, and produces high-quality video!
Rudeo Play and Control
This program lets you browse and download music stored on UPnP media servers and play the music on your Pocket PC. Its the first software that utilizes the free Microsoft Windows Media Connect software (http://www.wmcplayer.com), a PC program that allows a Wi-Fi enabled Pocket PC to connect to a Wi-Fi enabled desktop PC to browse and download music. Rudeo Play and Control works best if your Pocket PC has the newer Windows Media Player 10 installed. At the moment only downloading of non-protected music is possible. Later, Rudeo plans to add streaming capability for both protected (DRM) and non-protected music. The advantage of downloading music (instead of streaming it) is that your music resides on your Pocket PC and can be taken with you. Additional information is available on Rudeos Web site. Rudeo Play and Control is priced at $19.95 and can be downloaded from Rudeo (http://www.rudeo.com/playctrl.htm).
Browse and play music from your desktop PC on your Pocket PC
ANYCOM Blue Stereo Headset BSH-100
These Bluetooth-enabled stereo headphones are small, lightweight, and fold up for portability. They include a microphone and can be used as a headset for Bluetooth-enabled Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices. In addition, the headset supports the new High-Quality Stereo BT (A2DP) profile, which is built into the new Windows Mobile 5.0 software. The small, rechargeable battery in the headset powers it for up to 7 hours of continuous use and gives it a standby time of up to 200 hours. The headset weighs a mere 2.7 ounces (76 grams) including battery.
More information is available on the Anycom Web site (http://www.anycom.com). You can pre-order the device for $93.95 from the Expansys Web site (http://www.expansys.com).
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