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Thursday 11 June 2009

PowerMP3 out of beta but test versions still free, Music Launcher improves, WMV player plays Windows Media Video, Mobbler gets alarm clock

PowerMP3 for Symbian S60 3rd ed., Music Launcher by Florin Lohan, WMV player english version, last.fm player and scrobbler Mobbler
PowerMP3

PowerMP3 plays music in mp3, ogg, aac, and mp4 format, and m3u playlists too. Other features include a sleeptimer, album art display (including the possibility to download album art), and several ways to keep your ringtones out of your music library. PowerMP3 sorts your music by mp3 tags and folder structure.

The latest asks for a registration code that costs US$25. The registration process is still in beta testing (Mobile Castle and Mobicreed have a version that doesn't require registration UPDATE: these links expired), and since the latest update doesn't add anything useful you may just as well use (or keep using) the last free beta version instead.

Just because PowerMP3 went commercial doesn't mean all the bugs are fixed. The most annoying bug that's still there: songs with characters like ã, é, ç, etc. in their names don't show up in your imported m3u playlists.

If you install the latest version of PowerMP3 on top of an older version and it doesn't work, uninstall the older version first. If the old version won't go away just switch your phone off and back on.

PowerMP3 from MobiFactor (commercial version) UPDATE: this link expired
PowerMP3 1.16 (last free version) at MobiFactor UPDATE: this link expired
PowerMP3 1.16 (last free version) at Mobile Castle UPDATE: this link expired
older versions of PowerMP3

Music Launcher

Music Launcher by Florin Lohan does what Symbian's built-in music player fails to do: it lets you select a folder and then plays all songs in it. Unfortunately Music Launcher is unable organise your music by mp3 tags. PowerMP3 does both, and with a workaround you can make the default Symbian music player do the same.

The latest version has less bugs and displays cover art stored as folder.jpg, but Music Launcher won't display album art stored directly inside your mp3 files.

Music Launcher


WMV player

Finally there's a free player for WMV (Windows Media Video) movies. The english version of WMV player still shows lots of chinese, and it shows up as "run" in your menu (you can change the name with Menu Editor), but it's usable anyway. So if you have an older phone with a version of RealPlayer that doesn't support .wmv movies, give WMV player a try.

WMV player (english translation) UPDATE: this link expired


Mobbler

Last.fm player Mobbler is less useful than it used to be, now that last.fm requires payment for music streaming in every country of the world except for three.

(UPDATE: You can listen to last.fm radio for free with Skyfire no matter where you are)

Mobbler has a sleep timer, it can display your last.fm friends, playlist, recently played tracks, recommended artists, track info, and shoutbox. There's gesture support (for phones with an accelerometer), and you can play last.fm radio with scrobbling switched off.

The latest version adds an alarm clock, better search, better album art, better connection options, and better controls for touchscreen phones.

Mobbler
last.fm

fring can play last.fm radio too

• keep your tracks with the Last.FM Downloader for Windows UPDATE: this link expired


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