Friday, September 26, 2003
Control your music the Vinyl way - Pocketwerks Vinyl Review
Posted by Jordan Rosenwald in "SOFTWARE" @ 09:00 AM
Taking control of your music collection is one of the new "best things" about having a network connected Pocket PC… wait a minute. Didn’t I just write this? I did, but this time we’re talking about Pocketwerk’s Vinyl 1.0. It’s only a 1.0, but let’s see what features are inside!
Controlling your music from your Pocket PC just hasn’t grown old on me. I think it’s one of the most ingenious uses of a network connected Pocket PC I’ve seen.
Installation – Simple as You’d Expect
This is exactly what you’d expect from an application that has a desktop component. The total package, as downloaded, is 1.35MB. It quickly installs on the server component on your desktop and the client piece on your Pocket PC. I even tested the uninstall on both and they worked cleanly.
How Does It Work? – The Server
Like I said above, there’s a server piece (VinylServer) and a client piece (Vinyl). The client piece, which sits on your Pocket PC, connects over Bluetooth, 802.11x or USB, to your desktop which is running the server code.
The server piece is pretty no frills. It tells you how many songs you have, how many playlists, your IP address and what is currently playing. The Actions menu lead to options which let you set the directories your music is stored in and what engine you want to use to play the music back. Currently you have the choice of using Windows Media Playback (on every machine but limited format support) or Nullsoft Winamp 2.x Playback (greater format support, but requires that you install Winamp on your desktop). The Actions menu also gives you the ability to refresh your directory.
The Extras menu leads to credits and copyrights, where they give some much deserved credit and thanks to all the development that went in to making this product happen. The Extras menus also has your typical About selection. With a name like Extras, I hope they have lots more planned in 2.0.
Figure 1: No frills server. But is there really that much more you need?
How Does It Work? – The Client
The client is an attractive application, which is saying a great deal since it’s essentially black and orange, not a color combination you see often in PDA applications. Access to the various screens is all through a dropdown box at the top of the screen which is initially labeled “Artist,” but changes as you move from screen to screen.
Figure 2: It’s orange. It’s black. Yet somehow rather attractive.
Starting from the bottom up, the Settings screen gives you access to your network settings, which is nothing more than a keyboard (interestingly they don’t use the standard input methods on the Pocket PC, instead they opt for their own keyboard) and a textbox where you enter your computer’s IP or machine name. Also, under the Setting screen is the typical About screen.
Above Settings is Playlists, which is where you can pick and manage your….wait for it….Playlists! A simple screen where it shows the track by artist and title and you can add, remove, move a track up or down, save or delete the playlist, etc.
Next screen as we climb this ladder is the controls screen. This screen is cool for one very important reason, it shows you the album cover of what is currently playing! I don’t know why, it’s not that big a deal, but I find this extremely exciting. We all spend so much time ripping our CDs to MP3 (or Ogg, or whatever) and we lose one of the most precious things, the cover art! In any case, this is the screen where you can see what is currently playing, how long it is, play, pause, jump to previous or next track, shuffle, repeat, etc.
The last three selections on the dropdown list are Genre, Album and Artist. It is from these screens that you sort through your music and what to play or add to your playlist. Again I’m fascinated by the use of cover art displayed next to the album information, which also shows useful information like the album’s runtime.
Figure 3: A view of your albums complete with art and running times.
Gotchas
I have one sticking point with this software so far, and that’s simply that it restricts access to your Start menu. To gain access to the rest of your PDA, it does seem that you have to close the application (not a major point since it does load quickly). Beyond that one point, there are several feature requests I can easily think of, not the least of which is some kind of visualization effect for your computer screen. However, aside from that I have no major sticking points with this software.
UPDATE: Just before submitting this review I did discover a small bug in the application. It seems that any albums named the same (such as in the case of "The Greatest Hits" will appear in your album and artist list as all being part of the same album. In my case Queen, Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Ray Vaughn are all on the same album). Pocketwerks recognizes this shortcoming and is working to see if there is a way for them to resolve it.
Where To Buy
Pocketweks Vinyl can be downloaded from the Pocketwerk’s Web site or purchased for $19.95.
UPDATE #2: Just after publishing this review, Pocketwerks made their product free!
Specifications
VinylServer requires roughly 2.5 MB of space on your computer.
Vinyl requires 338.5 KB of space on your Pocket PC.
Conclusion
I have no idea why I’m such a sucker for pretty things bouncing across my screen in time to my music, but I am. Vinyl doesn't have that. Regardless, Pocketwerks Vinyl 1.0 is still a great piece of software for those who are looking to control their music collection from their Pocket PC. It’s lightweight, responsive, gives a good deal of information about the music you’re listening to (kudos for the album art too), and is easy to setup and run. If you’re looking to control your music as it plays through your stereo, Vinyl is a fine choice and with it's new price (free!), it becomes an even more attractive option.
Controlling your music from your Pocket PC just hasn’t grown old on me. I think it’s one of the most ingenious uses of a network connected Pocket PC I’ve seen.
Installation – Simple as You’d Expect
This is exactly what you’d expect from an application that has a desktop component. The total package, as downloaded, is 1.35MB. It quickly installs on the server component on your desktop and the client piece on your Pocket PC. I even tested the uninstall on both and they worked cleanly.
How Does It Work? – The Server
Like I said above, there’s a server piece (VinylServer) and a client piece (Vinyl). The client piece, which sits on your Pocket PC, connects over Bluetooth, 802.11x or USB, to your desktop which is running the server code.
The server piece is pretty no frills. It tells you how many songs you have, how many playlists, your IP address and what is currently playing. The Actions menu lead to options which let you set the directories your music is stored in and what engine you want to use to play the music back. Currently you have the choice of using Windows Media Playback (on every machine but limited format support) or Nullsoft Winamp 2.x Playback (greater format support, but requires that you install Winamp on your desktop). The Actions menu also gives you the ability to refresh your directory.
The Extras menu leads to credits and copyrights, where they give some much deserved credit and thanks to all the development that went in to making this product happen. The Extras menus also has your typical About selection. With a name like Extras, I hope they have lots more planned in 2.0.
Figure 1: No frills server. But is there really that much more you need?
How Does It Work? – The Client
The client is an attractive application, which is saying a great deal since it’s essentially black and orange, not a color combination you see often in PDA applications. Access to the various screens is all through a dropdown box at the top of the screen which is initially labeled “Artist,” but changes as you move from screen to screen.
Figure 2: It’s orange. It’s black. Yet somehow rather attractive.
Starting from the bottom up, the Settings screen gives you access to your network settings, which is nothing more than a keyboard (interestingly they don’t use the standard input methods on the Pocket PC, instead they opt for their own keyboard) and a textbox where you enter your computer’s IP or machine name. Also, under the Setting screen is the typical About screen.
Above Settings is Playlists, which is where you can pick and manage your….wait for it….Playlists! A simple screen where it shows the track by artist and title and you can add, remove, move a track up or down, save or delete the playlist, etc.
Next screen as we climb this ladder is the controls screen. This screen is cool for one very important reason, it shows you the album cover of what is currently playing! I don’t know why, it’s not that big a deal, but I find this extremely exciting. We all spend so much time ripping our CDs to MP3 (or Ogg, or whatever) and we lose one of the most precious things, the cover art! In any case, this is the screen where you can see what is currently playing, how long it is, play, pause, jump to previous or next track, shuffle, repeat, etc.
The last three selections on the dropdown list are Genre, Album and Artist. It is from these screens that you sort through your music and what to play or add to your playlist. Again I’m fascinated by the use of cover art displayed next to the album information, which also shows useful information like the album’s runtime.
Figure 3: A view of your albums complete with art and running times.
Gotchas
I have one sticking point with this software so far, and that’s simply that it restricts access to your Start menu. To gain access to the rest of your PDA, it does seem that you have to close the application (not a major point since it does load quickly). Beyond that one point, there are several feature requests I can easily think of, not the least of which is some kind of visualization effect for your computer screen. However, aside from that I have no major sticking points with this software.
UPDATE: Just before submitting this review I did discover a small bug in the application. It seems that any albums named the same (such as in the case of "The Greatest Hits" will appear in your album and artist list as all being part of the same album. In my case Queen, Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Ray Vaughn are all on the same album). Pocketwerks recognizes this shortcoming and is working to see if there is a way for them to resolve it.
Where To Buy
Pocketweks Vinyl can be downloaded from the Pocketwerk’s Web site or purchased for $19.95.
UPDATE #2: Just after publishing this review, Pocketwerks made their product free!
Specifications
VinylServer requires roughly 2.5 MB of space on your computer.
Vinyl requires 338.5 KB of space on your Pocket PC.
Conclusion
I have no idea why I’m such a sucker for pretty things bouncing across my screen in time to my music, but I am. Vinyl doesn't have that. Regardless, Pocketwerks Vinyl 1.0 is still a great piece of software for those who are looking to control their music collection from their Pocket PC. It’s lightweight, responsive, gives a good deal of information about the music you’re listening to (kudos for the album art too), and is easy to setup and run. If you’re looking to control your music as it plays through your stereo, Vinyl is a fine choice and with it's new price (free!), it becomes an even more attractive option.
