Windows Mobile devices have never been known for their audio reproduction. They have improved a lot over the last few years, but the sound could be a lot better.

Enabling the SRS WOW effects in Windows Media player beefs up your audio, adding depth to the music you are playing. There is much more bass and you are likely get a much fuller sound, depending on your speakers.

SRS WOW effects are now available for Windows Mobile Devices. Once installed you can easily set it up, and find the best equalisation for your device. If your device responds anything like mine did, you will be very happy with the improvements. The SRS effect will bring new life to your device. The audio is brighter, fuller and more vibrant. These effects will be device wide and are not limited to the Windows Media Player. You can add the effects to any music player that you like to use.

My previous device was an Ipaq rw6828. Like many devices, the output volume was very low. This program would have been a simple and effective way to get a solid volume boost.

This version I tested on an HTC Touch running Windows Mobile 6. I have read a few success stories from others using WM6 devices. I am keen to hear what WM5 users have to say about this program.

Remember, you will need to restart your device after it is installed, before you begin using it, to avoid errors popping up.

SRS WOW XT is available for free via the airfagev forums.

There are a vast amount of programs available for Windows Mobile devices. There is a good chance, that if you want your device to do something, someone else has written code which will make it happen.

As everyone uses their devices differently, occasionally people want to do things that are not the norm. Supposedly small things like turning Bluetooth on or rotating the screen when a program loads can be very useful, though hard to achieve.

Mortscript is a scripting language for Windows Mobile devices. While it is not the easiest program to use effectively, some simple tasks can be achieved without too much fuss. Mortscript allows you to:

• Run, activate, hide, close, and kill programs
• Wait functions: certain timespan, wait for existence or activation of windows, lots of other conditions (SleepMessage).
• Send keystrokes, mouse clicks, and some window messages (OK, Cancel, Yes, and No buttons) to windows
• File operations: copy, rename/move, delete, create shortcuts, read and write text files
• Support of ZIP archives (no replacement of existing archived files)
• Read/write access to serial (COM) ports
• Create and remove directories
• Read from and write into the registry
• Lots of system features (e.g. rotation, volume, backlight brightness, soft reset, battery level, …)

This program is not for a beginner, nor someone without some time on their hands. There are a huge range of example scripts available to get you going. Cutting and pasting segments of these examples will help you make your own scripts and learn the commands. The commands are fairly simple to understand and there is a very active community of users happy to assist you.

Mortscript is available for free from sto-helit.de.

Windows Mobile devices are not known for their entertainment features. Most would choose to purchase a PSP or an iPhone if they wanted to use the phone for entertainment purposes. Windows Mobile can however be a very decent entertainment device, if you install the right software.

There are many ways you can make a long trip shorter and more enjoyable using your Windows Mobile device. Sometimes there is not much we can do to be productive so we have make the most out of what we have. Basically, what we need to do is waste time.

This week, I drove from Sydney to Melbourne and then back again within three days. That is a chunk of driving. It is 10 hours each way and then having meal breaks extends that amount further. It is very boring, especially when you don’t have control over the cars sound system or you don’t have very social passengers. I got through it, and I have my Windows Mobile device to thank.

This article will look at some of the programs I keep on my device for such occasions. The majority of them are free and all are real time wasters. I hope that you will find the same comfort in them as I did.

Read the rest of this entry »

Windows Mobile devices don’t offer a great range of power management options. If you should need to reset your device, sticking your stylus in the hole is often the only way to do it. What do you do if you want to turn off the screen? It is normally a case of working your way through the various menus and hopefully finding something that will do the job. It is much more of a challenge than it should be. 

An easier option is Pocket Power Manager. Upon launching, you will see a few new icons to the bottom right of your screen, otherwise known as the task tray. Each of them can be tapped to instantly perform a task. There are no extra bits and pieces thrown in.

The icons are:

• Screen off icon
• Reset Device icon
• Power off icon
• Rotate screen icon

I know that I will enjoy having the option to rotate the screen quickly. Pocket Power manager lets you hide and disable any of he icons you don’t want. If you want to use it for only one of the tasks, you will only see one icon. You can also setup Pocket Power Manager to launch at startup. It really is a nice “no nonsense” utility!

Available for free from www.pocketpowermanager.com [via FreewarePPC]

Most phone manufacturers brand their phones with a startup sound. This is often an annoying feature for those that have a phone which won’t let you disable it. Windows Mobile users are blessed as they don’t need to put up with this sound each time their device starts up. This is because Microsoft has not included a startup sound in their mobile operating system. Maybe just because there isn’t a startup sound, many people crave for it. Reverse psychology and all that.

Well now there is a way. AudioBoot is a Windows Mobile utility that will add a startup sound to your device. As your device boots up, while the boot screens are still on display, your startup sound will come alive through your devices speakers.

AudioBoot comically plays the Windows XP startup sound by default, but this can be changed by copying any MP3 to your root directory and renaming it startup.mp3. Most other platforms don’t allow you to change your startup sound. It’s not a reason to buy Windows Mobile, but it’s a nice touch.

Available for free via FreewarePPC.com. If you are not an XDA forums member, download Audioboot from the mirror.