Pocket Tunes Deluxe Reviewed
Pocket Tunes (”PTunes”) is the most popular Palm OS MP3 player. Available in basic and deluxe, the basic version is a free download to Treo 600 users who register their Treos with Palm. PTunes comes pre-installed on the Treo 700p, and is available to everyone else for $14.95. Windows Mobile Treo 700w owners can run PTunes with the assistance of StyleTap.
The basic version of PTunes is robust. It offers valuable functionality, including MP3, WAV and Ogg Vorbis playback, and a useful graphic equalizer. However, to get the full PTunes experience, you must buy the Deluxe edition for $34.95. For owners of previous versions of PTunes, the author has a discount scheme for you to upgrade for between $21.95 and $26.95, depending on the version you’re upgrading from.
When starting the program, you’re greeted with an attractive media player screen. The controls are clear, with large buttons, which is good for those who don’t want to use a stylus. You can also use the 5 way nav to control most functions.
One of the great things about PTunes is that there are loads of skins available. If there are particular functions that you want displayed or hidden, just download a skin suiting your tastes.
As with most media players, there are two ways of using PTunes. You can create playlists or let the program scan your SD card for media files, filing them by artist/album/genre etc.
As with all media players, scanning the SD card takes a while, especially if you have a large card. On the plus side there is no such delay if you stick to using playlists once you have created them.
One of the main features that keep me a PTunes customer is the “play in the background” feature. This enables you to start the media player, select your tunes, and then go off and use other programs without interrupting the music. The clever bit about this is that you can still use the volume keys to control the volume of the music. At the press of a button you can call up a mini media player to control the music without quitting the program you are currently using.
If you listen to music with the basic version, there is a gap of about half a second between tracks. This gap is not noticeable with some music but is a complete pain when you listen to live albums. This issue is addressed with the Deluxe version, allowing the option of gapless playback.
If you are a Windows fan, then PTunes has several options for you. The Deluxe version supports WMA files and allows you to play downloaded music bought from any playforsure accredited on-line store. Unfortunately, this means it doesn’t support iTunes. The program also comes with a conduit allowing you sync your Treo with several desktop Windows media players.
NormSoft has not missed a trick when it comes to taking advantage of the unique features of the Treo. Their developers realized that, although most Palms only have a handful of buttons, Treos have full qwerty keyboards. Why not use them? The developers have cleverly mapped keys to shortcuts. For example, if you want to see song information, just press ‘i’. Other shortcuts aren’t as obvious. To shuffle your current playlist, press ‘h’.
Treos have ready access to wireless data. PTunes takes advantage of this by offering the ability to stream radio over the data connection. Just open Blazer and go to www.shoutcast.com and select a station playing at a bandwidth supported by your data speed. PTunes starts, and you are away listening to whatever radio station you want. To listen to high bitrate feeds, you need to have a good data connection.
A great way to annoy iPod users — who brag about how much storage space they have — is to ask them how many radio stations they can listen to! But do make sure you have a good value data plan, because streaming radio uses a lot of bandwidth.
One PTunes option I use every day is volume boost. This function is hidden away in the options menus and allows you to increase the volume of your Treo speaker very substantially. This is useful if you are using PTunes to play MP3s ringtones in conjunction with a ringtone manager like Callfilter or if you’re using your Treo to drive some non-amplified speakers.
In conclusion, I think PTunes Deluxe is the best music player for the Treo. With options like background play, internet radio and volume boost, it’s a highly functional piece of software that meets all my music needs.
If you want to give PTunes a try there’s a free 15 day trial version available in the download area. Our members clearly have a favorable view PTunes, because the average rating of the program is 8 out of 10.
Related Links
Download Pocket Tunes.
Discuss Treo Applications in mytreo.net/forum.
Filed under: Software reviews
Loading ...
PTunes is great but the skipping that’s happening with Treo 700p is really unfortunate. Even with the latest update (v3.1.6) music is still skipping. Not knowing if it’s Palm’s or NormSoft’s fault, I only hope that the skipping is resolved soon. I believe it’s now a joke if we show it off to the iPod users because of the skipping.
I’ve been using PocketTunes Deluxe for 7 months now and love it. The one big feature the reviewer didn’t hit on is PT’s ability to play leased music from Rhapsody To Go, Napster To Go, Urge, AOL Music Now, and the other new subscription music services.
With my Rhapsody ToGo flat-fee subscription, I can download any of their two million songs to my Treo650 and keep them as long as I keep my subscription. I have a 2G card and mini-out adapter which connects to my car stereo, so I can carry around about 50 CDs at a time.
I don’t think that people fully understand how powerful this really is. I think it is the next wave of online music consumption, and it really works well. iPods are not compatible with these services. I ask my iPod friends if they’ve heard the latest CD from this-band-and-that-band and, of course, they haven’t, because they would have to purchase the tracks for life to even listen to them.
I really like PT’s auto-bookmark feature. It comes in handy when listening to long podcasts, like TWiT. When auto-bookmark is enabled, PT will create a bookmark whenever a new mp3 is selected. If I get tired of listening to talk and go for music, I can always go right back to the discussion easily.
There are two shortcomings I’ve found with PTD. One is that in order to play songs from more than one CD, one must create a playlist, save it, and add the songs. I’d like for selected songs to be added to the end of the current temporary playlist. This behavior would be great, for instance, when sitting at a traffic light. One could cue up additional songs while music still plays.
I asked Normsoft for this behavior and they quickly replied that they have had many requests for this feature. They almost promised that it would be included in an update soon.
The other problem is the selection of skins. The basic skins are not very good for controlling play with a thumb. I did buy a skin called Thumbscreen-Freestyle for something like $3 and it has been a fantastic improvement. I listen to a lot of podcasts, so it is nice to use my thumb to scan forward or backward in the track.
With my Treo650, PocketTunes Deluxe, a large SD card, a music subscription, and a stereo adaptor, I have a huge leg up on iPod (nano especially) owners and can listen to just about anything I want.
Treo650 owners (and probably Treo700p owners), you can add some goodies to PTunes: Softick Audio Gateway and a bluetooth stereo headset (Plantronics 590A has a really great sound, don’t buy a cheap headset…). This makes the perfect combo and your Treo will thank you for that ;-)
Cool short review, could anyone post link to PT features description?
does ptunes work with the motorola bluetooth head phones?
Anyone else use/have success with mediamaster.com? For those of us who have plam-based treos, you can just upload your music to their website, and then access it on your treo anywhere you go (that has a connection) via mediamaster.com/mobile. Full disclosure, my company does work with these guys, but it really is a great product, and has helped me avoid pocket-tunes altogether.