PDAs as an Entertainment Tool
At Home or on the Road ... by William Hungerford
ComputerBits magazine-April 2004

It's amazing all the things you can do with a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). A PDA can do just about everything your home computer can do, like word processing, contact management, email, web surfing, and so much more. But did you know that a PDA can also enhance your home entertainment? Have you ever looked up movie reviews on your computer? How about checking an online TV guide? I bet you at least listen to MP3s on your PC. Well, we're going to show you how to integrate your PDA into your home entertainment lifestyle. Since we're talking software to enhance your PDA's entertainment value, and we know not everyone uses the same type of PDA, I've giving some options for both Palm and Pocket PC users.

Movies

There are now more movie channels than Janet Jackson wardrobe excuses. With all of these movie channels (including movies on regular TV), how are you going to decide what to watch tonight? Let's start with a great piece of software for your Palm PDA.

Palm: The Leonard Maltin Movie and Video Guide

This is one of my favorite pieces of software because of the sheer number of re-views. Now, beware: This is a big program, so have a few Megs available on your Palm or install to an expansion card. Some features:

• Complete details and capsule reviews of over 19,000 films
• Over 6,500 DVD, 7,000 Laserdisc and 14,000 Videocassette entries
• Easy-to-read symbols detailing MPAA ratings, WideScreen formats, awards etc.
• Filmographies for over 35,000 Actors, Actresses and Directors
• Top lists of popular movies as voted by over 100,000 regular movie-goers
• Complete film library, rental and buying list management
• Online event calendar keeping you in touch with DVD release dates, new releases in theaters and film festivals
• Full support for removable expansion card media

One of the great parts of the Leonard Maltin Movie and Video Guide is its cross-reference capabilities. It's easy to jump to an actor or director's other movies in the database. The search features are also quite robust. You can also input your own movie collections and your own reviews. Overall this is a piece of software that every Palm-toting movie buff should have.

The Maltin Guide is not available for the Pocket PC. In fact, at this point there are no pre-packaged movie review databases for the Pocket PC. There are some databases that allow you to input your own movie reviews. Consider the Memoware website.

Palm/Pocket PC- Memoware (movies section)

Memoware is not software, but a website that has one of the largest collections of e-books and documents for your PDA. What's nice is that a big part of the offerings on Memoware are free. A search on movies reveals many different documents that you can download to your PDA (make sure the format is compatible with your PDA). One of my favorites is the document of Elvis Presley movies: A great listing of all of the King's movies.

Memoware is a great site for all of your entertainment document needs. While you're there, do a search on "TV" to see all the listings there, like the M*A*S*H Episode Guide. Speaking of TV, let's talk about one of my favorite pastimes.

Television

I have to admit, I spend way too much time in front of the TV. In fact, if my computer didn't send me subliminal messages that it was lonely, I'd probably do nothing but watch TV in my free time.

Palm and Pocket PC - SecondScreenTV

I can't live without my TV Guide, which means I'm destined to lose it. Sure I use the On Screen TV Guide provided by cable, but what if you're not near your TV and you've got to know what's on? That's where SecondScreenTV comes in. You set up an account online, then, when you sync your PDA, your custom listings are updated. When you set up your account, you'll get to choose your service provider (cable, satellite) and how many days of listings you want (up to 7). While there are versions for both Palm and Pocket PC, there is a great feature for the Palm PDA: You can get a version of SecondScreenTV with a built-in remote! Does that make you as giddy as it does me? Think about it: The next time your 10-year-old daughter loses the living room remote and then takes your bedroom remote and then loses your bedroom remote (deep breath here), you'll be able to whip out your Palm PDA and change the channel before the game starts! (By the way, that was strictly an illustration because my wonderful 10-year-old daughter would never lose my remote).

Palm - ConnectedTV

This is another piece of guide/remote software for the Palm PDA. Some features:

• Touch Tuning: tune your show in a tap
• My Favorites page for shows/movies
• Details for thousands of movies and episodes
• Handy Palm buttons for instant mute, volume, browsing
• One-handed operation: stylus optional!
• Organize Channels: you can say what stations are in your guide, including order and categories
• HotSync up to 2 weeks of guide into your handheld for any U.S. TV lineup - broadcast, cable, or satellite

What I love about ConnectedTV is that you can click on the TV listing and have the remote part of the software take you right to the channel you want. Pure genius I say! ConnectedTV is based on a yearly subscription. If you don't need the remote control, you can subscribe to listings only.

Music

Palm and Pocket - RealOne Player for Mobile

RealOne player has been an important part of the PC for a long time. It only seems reasonable to have a version for your PDA. Some features:

• Playback of RealAudio, RealVideo and 3GPP compliant content via streaming or download
• Seamless integration with the RealPlayer for PC to drag and drop mp3 and RealAudio files to devices
• Access to news, sports and entertainment updates
• Access to downloadable content including music videos, travel guidance, auto reviews and much more

If you have a wireless PDA, you'll be able to stream music and videos to your PDA. Best of all, the RealOne player is free, so make sure you add it to your library of PDA software.

Pocket PC - GSPlayer

This has got to be one of the best music players for Pocket PC and, oh yeah, it's freeware (even I can afford that)! Some features:

• MP3 playback using the MAD 0.15.0b
• Ogg Vorbis playback
• Wave format playback
• HTTP streaming playback (MP3 / Ogg Vorbis)
• SHOUTcast streaming playback (MP3 / Ogg Vorbis)
• ID3 v1/v1.1 support
• PLS/M3U playlist support
• 10 band equalizer (MP3 playback only)
• Surround / Bassboost effects
• Skin support
• Hardware button mapping
• PocketPC / PocketPC2002 / WM2003 support (without Japanese versions)

The GSPlayer is extremely powerful and highly configurable. While you can play MP3s with the GSplayer, its real strength is the ability to play Shoutcast radio stations on a wireless PDA. Shoutcast is a collection of over 5,000 radio stations categorized into your favorite genres. So how do you use GSplayer to listen to your favorite music while cooking dinner or sitting in your favorite WiFi-enabled coffee shop? Glad you asked. I've written a complete tutorial to help you be jamming to those great disco classics in no time

Potpourri

Palm/Pocket PC - Who Said That?

Who Said That? is an extremely fun movie trivia game for either your Palm or Pocket PC. Some Features:

• 1,000+ quotes from over 300 movies
• Three rounds of game play: easy, intermediate and hard quotes
• Easy-to-use interface
• Multiplayer support for 1 to 4 players
• Fast play
• High score database
• Auto saves
• Color/grayscale/mono support
• Compatible with the Palm Zire
• Compatible with Palm OS 5.0 Tungsten devices
• Plays great on all Sony CLIE's
• 5-Way Navigator support for Tungstens and the Treo 600
• Built-in program instructions

This game lets you choose the number of players, or you can play by yourself. There are some great questions like:

This great game is available for both Palm and Pocket PC. If you're into movie trivia, you might want to give it a shot.

This is just a sample of what's out there. The main goal was to get you to stop playing PacMan for a minute and realize there's more to a PDA besides games and appointments. Okay, my TV is sending me subliminal messages now, so I got to go (she's lonely!). Enjoy!!