Freeware MP3 Players for the Pocket PC

by Rachel Eichen

When the good old monochrome screen Palm Pilots were in their prime, people didn't expect too much from their PDA. You could check appointments, look up phone numbers, make some notes, and not much else. There were accessories that expanded the memory and allowed you to play MP3s, but they retailed for upwards of $90—a lot for a Palm user in those days. In addition, playing audio files was cumbersome, frustrating, and often not worth the effort.

Oh how times have changed! Not only is digital music easily obtainable from dozens of online sources, we now have the Pocket PC with its faster processor, huge amount of internal memory for storing music, stereo headphone capability, and it's built-in music player. And thanks to its "multi-tasking" capability, you can listen to music and check your appointments at the same time.

Why not stick with Windows Media Player?

With Windows Media Player already built in, why do you need another music player program? First, Media Player is a video-centered player that is based on the library model of organizing content, not a directory model. This can make finding and listening to your MP3s can be a bit awkward and frustrating. Second, it does not support additional file formats (like .OGG) and does not handle streaming radio very well. These are two extremely popular items that add new dimensions to the music listening experience. Finally, Windows Media Player hardly has any advanced or helpful features. In the day of the computer, people expect more from an MP3 player than just the default "play/stop/next/back" buttons—you should too!

There are a number of good commercial music player programs for the Pocket PC, but why pay for a program when there are quite a few freeware programs available. I picked two of the best to review in this article: GsPlayer and Mortplayer.

Figs. 1 & 2: GSPlayer's simple user interface can be displayed in portrait or landscape modes on 2003 Second Edition or later devices.

GSPlayer: Easy to use and fast

GSPlayer makes finding and listening to your MP3 files quick and easy, but also offers extended functionality. Windows Media Player is a resource-hungry application; GSPlayer is a small but powerful program you can use without having to worry about your CPU usage.

After you install the program, start it to display its simple user interface (Figs. 1 & 2). Tap on the File menu, select Add File, and use the program's file browser to find your music files (Fig. 3). Tap on any music file to begin playing the song and add it to the list of files displayed in the main screen. Repeat the process to add as many files as you like. No additional "library" work is required on your part.

If you want to listen to another song in the list, use the directional pad to scroll down to it, and press the center Select button to play it. (You can also tap and hold on the song title with your stylus, and select Play from the pop-up menu. You can also use this menu to delete or reorder any song in the list.) After you've created a list of songs that you like, save them as a playlist by tapping on the File menu and selecting the Save Playlist option. You can reopen this or any playlist you've created by selecting it from the File > Open File browser. The playlists are saved in the standard M3U format, which can be exported and used in a variety of music player programs.

Fig. 3: GSPlayer's Add File browser makes it easy to add music files to your playlist.