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Tips & Tricks to help you do more with your device!

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Sending an MMS video message

Submitted Friday, August 1, 2008

Amy Mayer from pdastreet.com describes how to send a video you record using your smartphone's camera as an MMS message. Click here for the article.

Listen to Sirius or XM satellite radio on your device

Submitted Tuesday, January 29, 2008
With a subscription to Sirius or XM satellite radio, the proper software, and a live Internet connection, you can listen to commercial-free music and other satellite radio programming on your touch screen device. Here’s how you do it.
Sirius subscribers
  1. Download Sirius WM5 at geekstoolbox.com and install it on your device.
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Assign pictures to your Contacts

Submitted Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Windows Mobile devices have the ability to assign a picture ID to your Contacts. Once you assign a picture to a contact, it will pop up on your screen when that contact calls you. After you have snapped a picture of the contact with your device (or saved one on it from another location), do the following:

Touch screen devices:

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Create your own ringtone

Submitted Thursday, December 27, 2007
The surest way to have a unique ringtone on your smartphone is to create your own by recording one! The process is simple on Windows Mobile devices. Follow these steps.

Touch screen devices:

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Use your Pocket PC as a Web camera

Submitted Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Werner Ruotsalainen discusses the third-party application CoolCamera which uses the built-in camera as a Web camera. Click here for the article.

Sound recorder compatibility with Windows Mobile 5 devices

Submitted Thursday, September 6, 2007

Read Werner Ruotsalainen’s roundup of sound recorder applications here.

AM/FM CF/SD radio cards

Submitted Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Read Werner Ruotsalainen’s post and subsequent discussion regarding radio cards for Pocket PCs here.

RealOne streamed content on Pocket PCs

Submitted Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Werner Ruotsalainen explains how to watch and listen to RealOne streamed content on Pocket PCs, including using a Wi-Fi access point. Click here for the article.

Speed up playback of audio files on Pocket PCs

Submitted Thursday, September 6, 2007

The "Voice Pitch Lock" setting on Vito SoundExplorer (vitotechnology.com) allows you to slow down or speed up the playback speed. (Vito SoundExplorer supports Windows Mobile 2003 through Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PCs and includes a plug-in that lets you record and play back voice memos from the Today screen.)

Use third-party programs to convert images during synchronization

Submitted Thursday, August 16, 2007

Werner Ruotsalainen discusses different ActiveSync plug-ins that convert images so that they will fit onto Pocket PC screens, such as Resco Picture Viewer and SplashPhoto. Click here for the article.

Playing MiDi files on your Pocket PC

Submitted Tuesday, August 21, 2007

If you are interested in playing MiDi audio files on your Pocket PC, read Werner Ruotsalainen’s complete roundup of third-party applications that can do so. Click here for the article.

Get album art to appear in Windows Media Player

Submitted Friday, August 24, 2007

Media Player Mobile is designed to display album cover art when a song from the album is being played. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always do it—a bug that can greatly annoy music enthusiasts. One way to ensure that they will display is to manually create folders for each album and include the album image in the folder. Follow these steps:

[Read more]

Use third-party programs to convert images during synchronization

Submitted Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Werner Ruotsalainen discusses different ActiveSync plug-ins that convert images so that they will fit onto Pocket PC screens, such as Resco Picture Viewer and SplashPhoto. Click here for the article.

Listen to Internet radio on your device

Submitted Friday, August 10, 2007

Jaime Lendino provides advice and software and service recommendations for listening to Internet radio on your device. Click here for the article.

Seamless playback of songs

Submitted Friday, May 25, 2007

There are a number of third-party MP3 players for Windows Mobile devices that offer seamless playback (without noiseless gaps between songs). These include iPlay (40th.com) and Pocket Music (pocketmind.com).

Tips for taking good pictures

Submitted Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Even though the built-in cameras on touch screen and non-touch screen smartphones aren’t of the same quality as most standalone cameras, you can still take pictures that are worth saving if you keep in mind a few simple pointers:
  • Make use of the entire frame. Most people have the tendency to only focus on the center of the view.
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How to use your alarm to wake up to music

Submitted Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Many bedside alarms these days include a setting that allows you to wake up to music first thing in the morning. Touch screen devices are no different. You can use the third-party program The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) (see Web site below) and the built-in Alarms program to wake up to music.

Stream your own media content

Submitted Wednesday, December 13, 2006
You can stream music and videos you have stored on your desktop PC over the Web and listen to or view them on an Internet-connected Windows Mobile device (or other computer) anywhere in the world. Orb (orb.com) is the free service that makes this possible. After you’ve signed up and installed the Orb Media application on your PC, you can access the media content stored on it over a secure Internet connection.
[Read more]

Play video & audio in various formats

Submitted Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Media Player Mobile can only play video in ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) or WMV (Windows Media Video) formats. In addition, it can only handle audio in WMA (Windows Media Audio) and MP3 formats. If you want to play content saved in another format, you will have to first convert it to one of the supported formats or install a media player application that supports the other format.
[Read more]

"Rip" music from your CDs

Submitted Wednesday, December 13, 2006
All touch screen devices and non-touch screen smartphones come with Windows Media Player Mobile built in. This lets you play music files recorded in MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats, and view video recorded in WMV format.
[Read more]

Microsoft Reader is no longer built-in: it's now a free download

Submitted Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Microsoft no longer offers Microsoft Reader as part of the built-in software on the Pocket PC. However, it's available as a free download. You can get it at Microsoft's Web site (microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.asp).

Playing YouTube and other Flash Video Files (.FLV) on a Windows Mobile device

Submitted Wednesday, April 18, 2007
You can download the free Macromedia (Adobe) Flash Plug-in (adobe.com/products/flashplayer_pocketpc) to view some Flash content, but it will not support most YouTube and Google Video files.
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How to listen to music and watch videos

Submitted Friday, December 8, 2006
Microsoft Windows Media Player Mobile is software that lets you play music and videos on your Windows Mobile device.

How to create a podcast

Submitted Friday, December 8, 2006
You can create and post podcasts from your Pocket PC using Resco Audio Recorder.

How to make Video iPod owners envious

Submitted Friday, December 8, 2006
Use Pocket PC Encoder on your PC and TCPMP on your Windows Mobile device to convert and watch full-screen videos from a variety of content sources.

How to set an image as your Today or Home screen background

Submitted Friday, December 8, 2006
On most Windows Mobile devices, you can use the Pictures & Videos application (known as “Pictures” in pre-WM 5 Pocket PCs) to select a JPEG image file as your Today or Home screen background image. Open the full-screen view of the desired image and select Menu >Set as Today Background (or Menu >Use as Home Screen).

Reduce size of video and music files

Submitted Friday, December 8, 2006
Although some movie files can be up to 700 MB, the size of video and music files can be greatly reduced by reformatting them using Windows Media Encoder (microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx), a free desktop PC application from Microsoft.
[Read more]

Getting movies onto a Windows Mobile device

Submitted Wednesday, April 11, 2007

You can use the third-party program Windows Movie Maker on your PC to convert MPEG movie files into DIVX or WMV format so that they can be viewed on your Windows Mobile device. After you install it on your PC, simply import the MPEG into Movie Maker and then save it as a Windows Media file. Windows Movie Maker is a free download from Microsoft: microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx.

Playing tracked music on your Pocket PC

Submitted Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Many Pocket PC games contain “tracked” (a.k.a. “module”) music that is very easy to extract and listen to without actually running the game. In my post titled “Listen to the music of the great space shooter game Enslave without having to start the game” (4/8/06), I’ve already elaborated on the JT MOD Player 1.0. In this post, I elaborate on the latest developments in the Pocket PC world relating to playing back tracked music.
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How to convert embedded voice recordings in Notes files to .wav files

Submitted Wednesday, April 11, 2007

If you want to convert a voice note that is embedded in a note (.msg file) to a .wav file, you can use the third-party program Gold Wave.

How to add a picture to Contact information

Submitted Friday, February 23, 2007
Users of WM 5 and 6 devices can add a picture to an individual contact from the Pictures field in the New or Edit screens in Contacts. Select “Picture” from the Edit menu, select the picture you want to correspond with the contact, and select OK (or Done on non-touch screen smartphones).
 
 
The ability to add photos to your contacts is built into WM 5 and 6 devices and can be added to pre-WM 5 Pocket PCs.

How to save Web images on pre-WM 5 Pocket PCs and non-touch screen smartphones

Submitted Friday, February 23, 2007
Viewed Web images are automatically saved in one of the sub-folders found in the \Windows\Profiles\Guest\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 folder. Use File Explorer or File Manager to find them. Then copy them elsewhere and rename them as necessary.

How to use Pictures & Videos

Submitted Friday, February 23, 2007
Pictures & Videos lets you view, edit, delete, and beam digital images, as well as play slide shows. (Note: On pre-WM 5 Pocket PCs, this program is called “Pictures.”)

How to save Web images on WM 5 and 6 touch screen devices

Submitted Friday, February 23, 2007
On Windows Mobile 5 and 6 touch screen devices you can save images displayed in Internet Explorer Mobile by tapping and holding an image and selecting “Save Image” from the pop-up menu. If a thumbnail of the image is displayed on the Web page, tap on or select the image to see if you can get it to display larger and then save it.

Speed up Web browsing and save money by disabling image downloads

Submitted Friday, February 23, 2007
If you are using a phone-enabled device and find that Web sites are taking a long time to load, you can make your browsing experience faster by disabling picture downloads.
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