Pocket Tunes 3.1.8

www.pocket-tunes.com

Copyright © 2002-2006 NormSoft, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
    1-1 Features
2 Registration / Purchasing
    2-1 Entering Registration Code
3 Requirements and Compatibility
4 Installing
5 Copying Audio Files
    5-1 Copying Audio Files with Windows Media Player 10 or online music store software
    5-2 Copying Audio Files Using Windows Media Player 9
    5-3 Copying Audio Files With A Card Reader
    5-4 Copying Audio Files With HotSync
    5-5 Copying Audio Files With A Third-Party Install Program
6 The Player
7 Choosing Songs
8 Play Lists
9 Preferences
    9-1 Advanced Preferences
10 Skins
    10-1 Skin Preferences
11 Background Playback
12 Graphic Equalizer
13 Crossfading
14 Bookmarks
    14-1 Adding a Bookmark
    14-2 Go to a Bookmark
    14-3 Bookmark Preferences
    14-4 Auto-Bookmark Feature
15 Internet Audio
16 Sending/Receiving Audio Files
17 Plugins
Legal Information
 

Pocket Tunes turns your Palm device into a portable audio player!  Play music and audio books from your collection, or subscribe to an online music service to gain access to millions of unique songs!  With Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can even listen to Internet radio anywhere that you have wireless Internet access.

Read below for compatible devices.  Online music store access requires Pocket Tunes Deluxe and a paid subscription to one of many compatible music services.  Online music store access is only compatible with some devices; please read the compatibility list below or check our web site for updates.  Listening to Internet radio may incur data usage charges; please check your wireless data plan before using this feature.

Pocket Tunes is the most feature-rich music player for the Palm and is designed to make music playback easy and fun!

• Play music on your Palm-powered device.
  Easily play music stored on your device's storage card, internal memory, or hard disk.

• Easily copy music.
  Pocket Tunes integrates with Windows Media Player, Real Rhapsody, and many other music players on your PC to allow you to quickly and easily copy music to your device.  Just plug it in, start Pocket Tunes, and go!

• Find music quickly.
  Pocket Tunes sorts your music by album, artist, genre, and playlist to allow you to quickly find what you're in the mood for.

• Broad range of supported music files.
  Pocket Tunes plays MP3, WMA*, PCM WAV, and Ogg Vorbis files.  (WMA playback requires Pocket Tunes Deluxe.)

• Access millions of songs and audio books from popular online music stores.
  Pocket Tunes Deluxe supports all music stores that use Microsoft's Janus technology**.  Look for stores with the PlaysForSure logo.

• Use your Palm device normally while music is playing.
  You're free to run any other application on your device while playing music or listening to Internet radio.***

• Listen to Internet radio.
  With Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can tune into hundreds of ShoutCast or Live365 radio stations on devices with built-in wireless connectivity.

• Personalize Pocket Tunes.
  Choose from dozens of skins (many of them are free) at www.pocket-tunes.com/skins/ to make Pocket Tunes your own.

• Fine tune your music.
  With features like crossfade, gapless playback, a high-fidelity equalizer, and many more, Pocket Tunes allows you unprecedented control over your music listening experience.

• Listen to audio books.
  Pocket Tunes provides unique features (like bookmarks and auto-bookmarks) to make it a powerful companion when listening to books on the go.

• Mix, shuffle, then repeat.
  Quickly create playlists or pick songs one-by-one.  Turn on the shuffle and repeat options to combine your music in ways you never expected!

• Lots more!
  Give Pocket Tunes a try, and we guarantee you'll be blown away!  If not, contact our superb customer support team, and we'll do our best to make it right!

* WMA Lossless and WMA Professional are not currently supported.
** Music stores that we have tested include: Napster, Real Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music Engine.  Pocket Tunes Deluxe supports both subscription and purchased content.
*** Some applications may have excessive CPU or storage requirements and may cause music playback to skip when performing certain operations.  We go to great lengths to minimize this as much as possible.  Devices with slow processors or hard disks are especially susceptible due to hardware restrictions.

Pocket Tunes is free to try for 15 days.  After that, you must purchase a registration code.  There are two versions you can purchase: Pocket Tunes Basic and Pocket Tunes Deluxe.

Pocket Tunes Basic $14.95
Pocket Tunes Basic provides playback of MP3, WAV, and Ogg Vorbis files, including background playback so you can play music while you use other applications, customizable skins, full play list capabilities, a graphic equalizer, and much more!  The basic version includes free upgrades to all future 3.X versions, when available.

Pocket Tunes Deluxe $34.95
Pocket Tunes Deluxe includes all the features of Pocket Tunes Basic and adds WMA playback, online music store support, crossfading, gapless playback, bookmarks, and Internet audio.  The deluxe version includes free upgrades to all future 3.X versions, when available.

For upgrade options and prices, please visit our web site.

You can purchase online using our secure ordering system at www.pocket-tunes.com .  All major credit cards are accepted, and you will receive your code within minutes of your purchase.

(Prices as of July 2005.  Subject to change without notice.)

When you purchase, you will receive a registration code.  (It's the code that starts with "pt".)  Entering it is simple.

1. Start Pocket Tunes on your Palm.
2. If the registration reminder appears, tap "OK" to dismiss it.
3. Tap the "Menu" icon or press the "Menu" button on your device.
4. Tap the "Help" menu.
5. Tap the "About Pocket Tunes" menu item.
6. Tap the dotted line or area below "Registration Code" (if there is a registration code there already, highlight it).
7. Enter your 14-character Pocket Tunes registration code (starting with "pt").
8. Tap "Done" to finish entering your registration code.

If you have any problems entering your code, contact support.

Be sure to remember this registration code!  You will need it if you ever need to re-install Pocket Tunes.

• Required:
• PalmOS 5.2 or later (or Tungsten T).
• For online music store support, the following devices are supported: Palm Treo 600, 650, 680, 700p, Zire 31, 71, 72, Tungsten T, T2, T3, T5, C, E, E2, T|X, or LifeDrive.
• For all other music playback, any of the following devices are supported: Palm Treo 600, 650, 680, 700p, Zire 31, 71, 72, Tungsten T, T2, T3, T5, C, E, E2, T|X, LifeDrive, Garmin iQue 3600, or Tapwave Zodiac device. *
• 820KB memory available on Palm for Pocket Tunes.  (Some older devices require an additional 625KB of storage space when running Pocket Tunes.)
• Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Media Player 10 are required for online music store support.
   
• Recommended:
• 1,100KB memory on Palm handheld (for skins and plugins).
• A memory expansion card (256MB or larger recommended).
• Wireless Internet connection and service (for streaming audio).
• Microsoft Windows XP.
• Windows Media Player 10 or later.

* Pocket Tunes may work on other PalmOS 5 devices, but they have not been fully tested.  If you see any problems or wish to report success with additional devices, please contact support.  Also, due to Sony's decision over eighteen months ago to discontinue its Clie line of PDAs, NormSoft has frozen its support for Clie models at the following levels:

• Clie models UX40, UX50, TJ35, TJ37, TH55: Pocket Tunes 3.0.9 is the last supported version of Pocket Tunes for these devices. Customers are strongly advised not to install a later version of Pocket Tunes on these devices, and any customers requesting support for such installations will be directed to revert to Pocket Tunes 3.0.9.
• All other Clie models: There is no supported version of Pocket Tunes for these devices. Users are strongly advised not to install Pocket Tunes on these devices. If a user does install Pocket Tunes on an unsupported device and subsequently purchases a Pocket Tunes registration code, there will be no refund available for such a purchase if the user later becomes dissatisfied with Pocket Tunes operation or performance. Also please note that NormSoft support is not able to provide answers to questions concerning unsupported devices.
   

Installing Pocket Tunes is very easy.  Simply follow these steps:

On Windows:

1. Double-click the pTunes.exe file that you downloaded.
2. Follow the instructions that appear to install Pocket Tunes on your PC and/or Palm.
3. If you have an old version of Pocket Tunes installed, you must not be playing music.  Open the Pocket Tunes application (not the console) and tap the "Pause" or "Stop" button.
4. Perform a HotSync operation.
5. Pocket Tunes will be installed to the Multimedia category on your Palm.
6. If you are using Windows XP, continue with step 7.  Otherwise, you are done!
7. Start Pocket Tunes on your Palm and connect the HotSync cable (or place the device in its cradle).
8. The first time you do this, Windows XP may display the following dialog:
   
9. If you see this dialog, select "No, not this time" and then click "Next".
10. You will then see this dialog:
    
11. Select "Install the software automatically" and click Next.  You do not need to insert any CDs or floppy disks!
12. After the software installs, you should finally see this dialog:
    
13. Click "Finish", and you are done!  See the section below for information about copying music to your device.

On Macintosh:

1. You will need a program to extract ZIP files.  For Macintosh, Stuffit Expander is a popular program.
2. If you have Pocket Tunes already installed, you must not be playing music.  Open the Pocket Tunes application (not the console) and tap the "Pause" or "Stop" button before installing the new version.
3. Open the folder containing the installation files with Finder.
4. Open your Palm Desktop Quick Install (In the conduit menu it says "Install files to handheld").
5. Drag the PocketTunes file from the Finder window to the Palm install window.
6. If you wish to install the included skin, also drag HiFiSkin.pdb (or HiFiLowRes.pdb for low-resolution devices like the Treo 600) to the Palm install window.
7. If you wish to install the optional plugins for playing Ogg Vorbis or WAV files, drag the pTunesOgg.prc and/or pTunesWav.prc files to the Palm install window.  (These files are in the plugins folder)
8. Perform a HotSync to install the files.
9. Pocket Tunes will be installed to the Multimedia category on your Palm.

Before you can play any songs on your Palm device, you must copy audio files on to it.  Audio files can be copied to an expansion card (e.g. SD or MMC) or to main memory.  Some devices also include a built-in hard disk or flash memory that can store music.  There are several methods to copy audio files to your handheld.  Please read below and follow the instructions that are appropriate for you.  We strongly recommend using Windows Media Player to copy audio files.

If you have Windows Media Player 10 and you have a device that is supported for playing music from online music stores (see the Requirements & Compatibility section above), then you can copy music using a number of applications designed to work with portable media devices.  This includes Windows Media Player 10, Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! Music Engine, among many others.  For these applications, please follow their instructions for copying music to a portable device.

Important: Be sure you have installed the Windows Media Player Integration option when you installed Pocket Tunes!  If you installed Pocket Tunes wirelessly, you probably have not installed this.  Download Pocket Tunes from our web site and run the installer.

For Windows Media Player 10 (with supported devices), follow these instructions:

1. Connect your Palm device using its USB cable, or place it in its cradle.
2. On your Palm, start Pocket Tunes.
3. You may see a dialog similar to this one (the choices will vary, depending on the software you have installed):
   
4. If you do not see this dialog, check your music player software.  If the device does not appear there, you probably have an incompatible device.  Please check the Requirements & Compatibility section above and check your Communication mode on the "Copy from PC Prefs" screen in Pocket Tunes - it should be set to MTP.  You can copy music with Windows Media Player by following the instructions in the following section.
5. Click on "Synchronize media files to this device using Windows Media Player" and then click OK.
6. You will now be able to "sync" music to your device using Windows Media Player.  Please consult the Windows Media Player documentation for instructions on how to copy music to portable devices and how to set up sync relationships.

If you have Windows Media Player 9, or if you are using a device that does not support online music stores, you can still copy files directly to your Palm over the USB cable or cradle.  Please make sure to install the Windows Media Player integration (see section 4 for installation instructions.)  (For Ogg Vorbis users: To copy Ogg Vorbis files using Windows Media Player, you will need to install an Ogg Vorbis plugin, available from http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ .)

1. Connect your Palm handheld using its USB cable, or place it in its cradle.
2. On your Palm, start Pocket Tunes.
3. Start Windows Media Player on your PC.  (If you start Windows Media Player before your Palm is connected, your device may not be detected correctly.)
4. In Windows Media Player, click on "Media Library" and select the audio files that you would like to copy.
5. Right click on the audio files and select "Copy to CD or Device".
6. On the right-hand side, you should now see a dropdown with a list of devices.  (The CD Drive is usually the default.)
7. From this drop down, select your Palm handheld.  If you do not see your device, press F5 to refresh the list of devices.
8. Press the "Copy" button in the upper-right corner.
9. When the copying has completed, you may begin playing the new music!  Tap the Open button to select music that you want to play.

When using Windows Media Player, new music is copied to the expansion card on your Palm device.  If you don't have an expansion card inserted, music will be copied to main memory.  If you have more than one expansion card, Pocket Tunes will choose the one with the most available space.

Choosing Where Audio Files are Copied To

When copying music, Pocket Tunes picks the expansion card or storage device with the largest amount of free space.  If there are no expansion cards available, Pocket Tunes will store the music in main memory.  If you wish to override this behavior, you can do so by selecting the "Copy from PC Prefs" menu item in Pocket Tunes.  On this screen, you can choose the destination location and folder for the audio files.  It is recommended that you leave these set to the default values ("Automatic" and the default folder) for best operation.

To transfer an audio file to your memory card using a card reader, follow these steps:

1. Insert your flash memory card into your card reader.
2. Use Windows Explorer to copy MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or WAV files to the memory card.  The recommended location for audio files is in the Audio directory on the root of the card.  If that directory doesn't exist, you can safely create it.

To transfer an audio file to your memory card using Palm's HotSync program, follow these steps.

1. Start the Palm Install Tool.  This is installed as part of Palm Desktop.  On Windows, it is on your Start Menu under the "Palm Desktop" folder.
2. Click the Add button.  The "Open" dialog will appear.
3. Where it says "Files of type:", select "All Files (*.*)".
4. Select an MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or WAV file (*.mp3, *.ogg, or *.wav) and click "Open".
5. Perform a HotSync.

Palm's HotSync program can sometimes be very slow for copying large files.  To speed up installation, we recommend that you use Windows Media Player or purchase a card reader.  A Secure Digital / MMC card reader can be purchased for around $30 US and will drastically speed up audio file installation.

There are several software packages available to aid in installing programs and audio files to your Palm's memory card.  For an incomplete and unofficial list of such software, please visit the Pocket Tunes Knowledge Base on our web site.

When you start Pocket Tunes, you will see the player screen.  This screen will look different depending on the skin that you have installed.  All of the screen shots in the user guide are from the default skin (HiFiSkin.pdb).  Note that if you have a device that supports landscape and portrait large screen views, the Hi-Fi skin will resize to fit the screen, and the layout will be slightly different from what is shown here.

You can access many of the preferences and options of Pocket Tunes by displaying the menu.  You can display the menu by pressing the menu key on your device's keyboard or by tapping the menu icon in the graffiti area of your device.  Many of the menu items have hot keys, which are listed to the right of each menu item.  You can access these functions quickly by pressing the corresponding key (you do not need to display the menu first).

The HiFi skin was created by Lance Wehrung (www.palmfocus.com)

Below is a description of the various parts of this skin.

	Title Bar: Tap on this to display the menu.
	Battery Meter
	Volume
	Current Position in the song.  Tap on this to switch from count-up to count-down.
	Stereo/Mono Indicator
	kbps: The kilobits/second indicator shows the compression level of the sound.
	KHz: The kiloHertz indicator shows the sampling rate.
	Song Length in minutes:seconds.
	Song Title: Tap on the title to toggle between showing the playlist and showing song info.
	Playlist Panel: Shows the playlist or information about the current song.  You can change what this displays by tapping on the song title or changing the option in the General Preferences.  You can make this area bigger by pressing the open/close panel button.
	Play: Tap either of these buttons to play music.
	Pause: Tap either of these buttons to pause the music.  Tap again to resume.
	Stop: Tap either of these buttons to stop playing and go back to the beginning of the song.
	Previous Track: Tap either of these buttons to go back to the beginning of the current song.  Tap again to go to the previous song in the playlist.  Hold this button down to rewind.
	Next Track: Tap either of these buttons to go to the next song in the playlist.  Hold this button down to fast forward.
	Position Slider: Tap and drag to seek within the current song.
	Volume Slider: Tap and drag to change the volume.
	Balance Slider: Tap and drag to change the balance left or right.
	Open/Close Panel: Tap this button to open and close the control panel.
	Choose Song: Tap this button to choose a song to play.
	Choose Playlist: Tap this button to choose a playlist to play.
	Repeat: When turned on, the playlist will continue to play over and over again.  A small icon will appear below the current position timer when repeat is enabled.
	Shuffle: When turned on, songs will be played in a random order.  A small icon will appear below the current position timer when shuffle is enabled.
	Turn off screen: Tap this button to turn off the screen on supported devices.  This button is only available when a song is playing and you have the Turn off screen while playing preference item selected.  It is not available on some handhelds that don't support this capability.
	Bookmarks: Tap this to choose a bookmark.  Tap and hold this button to display the Bookmark Preferences.
	Add Bookmark: Tap this to add a new bookmark.  Tap and hold to display the Bookmark Preferences.
	Crossfade: Tap this to enable crossfade.  Tap and hold to display the Crossfade Preferences.  A small icon will appear below the current position timer when crossfade is enabled.
	Skin Preferences: Tap this to change the skin preferences (e.g. choose fonts).  Tap and hold to choose a new skin.  The first custom font is for the song title, and the second custom font is for the playlist panel.
	Equalizer: Tap this to toggle between the equalizer, bass boost, and no equalization.  Tap and hold to view the equalizer preferences.

When you are choosing songs to add to a play list or to select songs to be played immediately, you will see the Choose Songs screen.

At the top-right of the screen is a drop-down that contains a list of the memory cards available.  It also contains an entry called "Palm", which is for selecting audio files in main memory, and an option called "Internet Audio"; see the Internet Audio section for details.  Finally, there is an "All" entry for browsing all of the music stored on your handheld.  Select the memory card where your audio file is located, or pick "All" to browse your music by artist, album, genre, or playlist.

When you first select a memory card, Pocket Tunes will look for the default music directory (usually /Audio or /Music).  If it exists, it will open it and display all of the audio files available.  If it does not exist, Pocket Tunes will display the root directory of the flash card.

To select or unselect a song, tap on it.  Once you have selected all of the songs you wish to play or add, tap OK.  To select all of the songs in the current directory, tap "Select All" and then tap OK.

Subdirectories will appear with a folder icon next to them.  To view the contents of a subdirectory, tap on it.  A special folder called ".." will appear in all subdirectories.  Tap on it to view the contents of the parent directory.

Pocket Tunes allows you to create and manage play lists (groups of songs that you would like to play together).

Tap on the Play List button to bring up the "Select a Playlist" screen.  Tip: You can also double-click the select button on the 5-way navigator to bring up the play list.

Tap New to create a new playlist, Edit to edit an existing playlist, Select to select the play list and begin playing it, or Cancel to cancel selection of a play list.  You can also tap Delete to delete the currently-selected playlist, or Move to move the playlist between main memory and an expansion card.

By default, new playlists are saved on an expansion card, if possible.  If you select music from more than one expansion card, or if you select music stored in internal memory, then the playlist will be stored in internal memory on your Palm device.  When playlists are stored on an expansion card, they are stored in the standard M3U format in the /PALM/Programs/PocketTunes folder.  You can copy M3U playlists anywhere on an expansion card, but it is recommended that you store them in /PALM/Programs/PocketTunes or in the same folder as the music that it refers to.  (If the pathnames in the M3U file are incorrect, Pocket Tunes makes an effort to search for the music that the playlist refers to, but it may not be able to find the music unless the M3U file is in the same directory as the song files.)

When you edit a play list, you will see the "Edit Playlist" screen.

Tap "Add Song" to add a new song to the list.  Tap Remove to remove the selected song from the list.  Tap Up or Down to re-order the list.

When you have finished making changes to the list, tap "Save List" to save it and return to the "Select a Playlist" screen.

If you wish to delete the entire list, tap "Delete List".

Tap on the title bar of the skin or on the menu icon (the lower-left icon on the silk screen area of your Palm) to bring up Pocket Tunes's menu.  Select "General Preferences..." to display the preferences screen.

Check the Turn off screen while playing option to allow Pocket Tunes to turn off your LCD display in order to save power.  Turning off your display will noticeably increase the battery life of your Palm while playing audio files.

Select 10, 30, or 60 seconds to determine how long Pocket Tunes will wait before shutting off the display.

Select unless the Palm is in its cradle to leave the Palm on while playing a song while in the cradle (or charging).

Select Power button turns off screen to use the power button to turn off the screen while playing music.

To enable the volume boost, select the amount of boost you wish to use from the dropdown.  Note that any amount of volume boost is likely to degrade the audio quality, especially anything over +6dB.  When using volume boost, you should have your volume set to the maximum (or near the maximum).  If you don't, then lower the volume boost and increase the volume slider to increase audio quality and maintain the same volume.  Performance Note: The volume boost setting does not add any extra overhead to Ogg Vorbis or MP3 decoding, but it may slightly slow down WAV files.  This slowdown should not be noticeable.

You can choose to display your current song list in the comments area on the main screen.  If you select the Show song list in comment area option, you will be able to scroll through all of the songs in the current playlist and start playing them by tapping on them.  Note that if your skin does not have a comments area, then this option will not have an effect.

When Swap 5-way nav. axes is unchecked (default), up/down will change the volume, and left/right will change tracks.  When checked, up/down will change tracks, and left/right will change the volume.  This preference only applies to devices with a 5-way navigator.

Select Check for updates every 30 days to have Pocket Tunes remind you to check for program updates every 30 days.  You can only check for updates if you have a network connection available from your Palm (e.g. WiFi, Bluetooth, or cellular data network).

Pocket Tunes has several advanced settings that you may wish to modify.  To access the advanced preferences, select "Advanced Preferences" from the "Prefs" menu.

By default, Pocket Tunes will flash the LED indicator on your Palm while the screen is off so that you know it is doing something.  You can turn this off by unchecking the Flash LED while screen is off option.

Select the Blank screen while in other apps option to allow the LCD to turn off while you are playing music in the background.  Uncheck this option if you don't want the screen to be turned off while working in other applications.

Select Ignore screen taps when blanked to ignore pen taps on the screen while the LCD is turned off.

Select the Start playing on startup option to have Pocket Tunes automatically start playing the last song you were listening to when it's started.

By default, Pocket Tunes will pause playback when you get a low battery warning, which will allow your Palm to go to sleep and prevent it from running out of battery life.  You can turn this option off by unchecking the Stop playing on low battery option.

Select Stop playing after X minutes in order to limit the amount of time that Pocket Tunes will play music for.  After this time limit is reached, Pocket Tunes will pause the current song, and then the Palm will go to sleep as normal.

Select Warn me about audio quality to enable a warning message to appear whenever you select an option that could adversely affect the audio quality.

Select Pre-Allocate Code Memory to ensure that Pocket Tunes has sufficient memory to run when it starts up.  In almost all cases, this option will be set automatically to the most appropriate setting, and you should not change it unless instructed to do so by NormSoft customer support.

Pocket Tunes comes with support for "skins."  A skin is an alternate graphical interface for Pocket Tunes.  Visit http://www.pocket-tunes.com/skins/ to view a list of available skins.  If you're interested in making your own skins, there is information at that web site to help you.

To install a skin, double-click on its PDB file and perform a HotSync.  Skins can also be installed on the flash card.  To do this using HotSync, double-click on the skin and then use the Palm Install tool to change the destination to your flash card.  If you are using a card reader, copy the skin's PDB file to the /PALM/Launcher directory on the flash card.  You can also copy skin files to /PALM/Programs/PocketTunes (you may have to create this directory).

Next, run Pocket Tunes.  Open the menu bar by tapping the menu icon on your silk screen, pressing the menu key, or tapping in the current skin's title area (where it says "Pocket Tunes").  Select "Choose Skin..." from the Tools menu.

A list of available skins will be displayed.

Tap on the skin that you would like to use and tap OK.  To delete a skin, tap on the skin and then tap "Delete".

To copy a skin between main memory and your expansion card, tap "Copy".  (You cannot copy the Built-In Skin.)

The "Skin Preferences" screen allows you to pick two "Custom Fonts."  These fonts will be displayed in different places depending on the current skin chosen.  By default, "Custom Font #1" is used for the title, and "Custom Font #2" is used for the song information.

On the "Skin Preferences" screen, you can also select Show song duration in playlist.  This option is on by default and allows you to see the duration of each song when the playlist is displayed using your active skin.

Pocket Tunes will continue to play music even when you switch to another application.  This is called background playback.

You can enable or disable background playback from the Background Preferences screen (see below).

While Pocket Tunes is playing music in the background, you can bring up the Pocket Tunes console to control the playback of your music.  By default, this is done by making a pen "swipe" with your stylus.  While Pocket Tunes is playing in the background, put your stylus down on the "Apps" icon (to the left of the graffiti area), and drag it down to the "Menu" icon.  Then lift your stylus, and the Pocket Tunes console will appear.

The controls in the console window are similar to the controls in Pocket Tunes.  You can switch songs, play, pause, or change the volume.

If you tap on "Open Pocket Tunes," the Pocket Tunes application will be launched.  You can also type the letter 'O' to open Pocket Tunes.  Tap on OK (or press the space bar on devices that have a keyboard) to dismiss the console.

To change the pen swipe used to bring up the console, select "Background Preferences..." from the Pocket Tunes menu.

From this dialog, you can enable background play and also enable or disable the pen swipe or button press activation for the console.  You can also configure the specific pen swipe or button that will bring up the Pocket Tunes console.

On Tapwave Zodiac devices, you will also see Enable action buttons in backgr..  When checked, you will be able to use the action buttons (4 buttons on the right side of the Tapwave) to control the volume and skip tracks while in other applications.

On Treo 600 devices, you will also see Enable Treo 600 volume buttons.  When checked, you will be able to use the ringer volume buttons to control the volume of Pocket Tunes while music is playing.  When music is stopped or paused, those buttons will control the ringer and phone volume.

Select Show console when launched from other applications if you want Pocket Tunes to display the popup console automatically when you play an audio file from another application (e.g. an email program or a web browser).

Pocket Tunes has a hi-fi graphic equalizer that you can use to fine-tune how your music sounds.  To access the equalizer controls, select "Graphic Equalizer..." from the Pocket Tunes "Tools" menu.

There are three equalizer modes you can choose from: Disabled, Equalizer, and Bass Boost.

The bass boost setting enhances the bass of the music you are listening to.

The graphic equalizer allows you to enhance or diminish certain frequencies during playback.

There are 8 equalizer presets that you can customize as you wish.  Tap the popup button and select the preset you wish to work on.  Tap on "Rename" to set a name for your preset, and then change the equalizer controls to your liking.  Press "OK" to save your changes.  Your settings will take effect as soon as you tap OK.

Press the "Reset" button to reset the current preset settings to neutral.

Performance Note: Turning on the graphic equalizer can slow down your Palm somewhat.  (The bass boost setting will also slow down your Palm, but it will have much less of an impact than the equalizer.)  If you notice any skipping or stuttering, try turning off the equalizer to see if it fixes the problem.  Email support@pocket-tunes.com if you hear skipping or stuttering even with the equalizer turned off.

Pocket Tunes allows you to seamlessly fade from one song to the next.  This feature is known as crossfading.  It is only available in the Deluxe version of Pocket Tunes.

To change the crossfade settings, select "Crossfade Prefs" from the Pocket Tunes "Prefs" menu.

To enable crossfading, select the "Enable crossfade" checkbox.

Set the desired crossfade duration by selecting the duration from the popup list.  This duration is the number of seconds of overlap during which Pocket Tunes will fade from one song to the next.  A duration of "gapless" means that Pocket Tunes will attempt to seamlessly blend two song files together without any gaps.  This is most useful for audio files recorded from live albums or DJ mix CDs.

This feature of Pocket Tunes requires a certain amount of additional memory on your Palm device in order to prepare the audio information for crossfading.  Longer crossfade durations require more memory.  This screen displays your available memory and the amount of memory required for crossfading.  Additionally, this screen includes a message indicating whether you have enough memory for crossfading.

Pocket Tunes allows you to create bookmarks so that you can remember where you are in your audio file.  This is particular useful for eBooks or recorded radio broadcasts (using Replay Radio), for example.  Bookmarks are only available in the Deluxe version of Pocket Tunes.

To create a bookmark, select "Add Bookmark" from the Tools menu.

When the bookmark name dialog appears, enter the name of the bookmark and tap OK.  (By default, the title of the song is used.)

If you want Pocket Tunes to always use the title of the song, then uncheck the "Always ask for name" option.  (You can re-enable this using the Bookmark Preferences screen if you change your mind.)

To go to a bookmark (or manage your list of bookmarks), select the "Bookmarks..." menu item on the Tools menu.

Select the bookmark you wish to go to, and then tap the "Go" button.

To rename or delete a bookmark, select the bookmark and then tap the "Rename" or "Delete" button.

To change your bookmark preferences, select the "Bookmark Prefs..." option on the Prefs menu.

Check the "Always ask for bookmark name" option so that Pocket Tunes will always prompt you to give a name for a new bookmark.  If you uncheck this option, Pocket Tunes will automatically use the name of the song as the bookmark name.

Enable auto-bookmarking by selecting the "Enable Auto-Bookmarking" checkbox.  See the next section for details on auto-bookmarking.

Pocket Tunes has an auto-bookmarking feature to automatically create bookmarks for you.  When this feature is enabled (see the previous section for details on how to enable it), Pocket Tunes will automatically create a new bookmark whenever you press pause and then open a new audio file.

For example, if you are listening to an eBook, and you wish to play a music file, but you want to remember where you left off, follow these steps:

1. If auto-bookmarking is not enabled, then enable it.
2. Press the pause button to pause the playback of the eBook.
3. Press the open (or playlist) button to select the song or playlist that you want to play next.
4. Pocket Tunes will automatically create a bookmark for your eBook.

When you wish to return to listening to your eBook, follow these steps:

1. Select the "Bookmarks..." option in the Tools menu.
2. Select the bookmark for the audio book that you wish to listen to.
3. Tap the "Go" button.

If you have an Internet-capable Palm handheld, such as the Treo 600, Treo 650, 680, Treo 700p, Tungsten C, or Sony UX-50, (or if you have a Palm device with a WiFi card or Bluetooth network), Pocket Tunes can play MP3-format streaming Internet radio!  You can listen to hundreds of stations streamed live over the Internet from ShoutCast or Live365, or you can create your own station to broadcast your favorite tunes (Additional software required - see www.shoutcast.com or www.live365.com for details.)

Important Note: You may be charged for wireless data usage by your Internet provider.  Please check your data plan before tuning into a Internet radio station.  NormSoft is not responsible for any charges incurred due to using this software.

Playing Internet Radio Stations

The easiest way to listen to Internet Radio stations is to visit www.shoutcast.com or www.treobits.com on your handheld's web browser.  Look for a station that you want to listen to, and tap the "Tune In" button.  Your handheld may ask you if you wish to Open or Save the file; pick "Open".  It may also ask you if you want to accept the file; select Yes.  Pocket Tunes will then load the station and start playing it within a few seconds.

Advanced: You can also tune into an Internet radio station from the "Choose Songs" screen.  In the upper-right, select "Internet Audio" from the popup trigger.  You will see a list of all the Internet radio stations you have listened to in the past.  You can add a new station manually by tapping on "New".  Pocket Tunes will ask you for the Internet Audio URL.  You can enter either a direct path to the stream, or you can enter a path to a PLS file that describes the stream.  You can also enter the URL for a static (non-streaming) MP3 or Ogg Vorbis file.

Pocket Tunes also supports playing Internet radio stations from premium services (such as www.di.fm) that require a username and password.  To access these stations, use the Choose Songs screen to add an Internet audio URL.  The URL for the station should look something like this: http://username:password@1.1.1.1:8096

To listen to radio stations from Live365

NormSoft has made several Live365 stations available from its web site.  Visit http://www.pocket-tunes.com/mobile/ on your handheld and click on the Live365 link to list the stations available.  You can also tune into any Live365 station by following the instructions below.

1. Visit www.live365.com on your PC.
2. Find a stream that you would like to listen to and follow the prompts to begin listening on your PC.
3. When the music begins playing, save the current playlist as an M3U file.  (The mechanism for doing this depends on your music player.  Usually you can select "Save As" or "Save Playlist" and save an M3U file.)
4. Copy the M3U file to your Palm using the Palm Install Tool or a card reader.  If you use a card reader, copy it to /PALM/Programs/PocketTunes on your expansion card.
5. Go to the playlists screen in Pocket Tunes and choose the new playlist.

Connection Speed

Note that some Internet radio stations require a high bandwidth connection.  Look for the "kbps" setting for the station.  If it is 64 kbps or higher, then you may have trouble playing this station using a cell phone or modem.

Pocket Tunes supports the Exchange Manager for playing music.  This means that you can play music from web sites, receive music by email, and receive music over infrared.  (Other software is required to take advantage of this support.)

Receiving Music

When you receive a supported music file, Pocket Tunes will ask you whether you want to save the music (so that you can select it from the Choose Songs screen later) or save and immediately play the music.  Pocket Tunes may then ask you which card to save it to (if you have multiple cards).  It will then save the music to the card and, if you chose to save and play, begin playing.

M3U Playlists

This feature is available in the Deluxe version only.  Pocket Tunes can use M3U playlists to play music on the Internet.  The entries in an M3U file can refer to an Internet audio URL or a non-streaming MP3 or Ogg Vorbis file.  You can select an M3U file in any Exchange Manager compatible program (web browser, email application, etc.), and Pocket Tunes will play the Internet music listed in the file.

Examples

Following is a list of some applications that are known to be compatible with Pocket Tunes's Exchange manager support.

Web Browsers
Most web browsers work with Pocket Tunes.  Tap on a link to an MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV file, or other supported audio format to play it.

Email Software
Many email software that supports attachments, such as SnapperMail, will be able to use Pocket Tunes to play music attachments.

File Managers
Some file managers, such as FileProg, can be used to beam audio files to another Palm device with Pocket Tunes installed.

Pocket Tunes supports plugins for adding support for additional music formats.

To view a list of the installed plugins, select Plugins from the Tools menu.

To delete a plugin, tap on the name of the plugin and then tap the Delete button.

Here is a list of the plugins available from NormSoft:

Pocket Tunes MP3 plugin

This plugin allows the playback of MP3 audio files.  It is built-in to Pocket Tunes and cannot be deleted.

Pocket Tunes WMA plugin

This plugin allows the playback of Windows Media Audio (WMA) files.  It is built-in to Pocket Tunes and cannot be deleted.

Pocket Tunes WAV plugin

This plugin allows the playback of WAV files (currently uncompressed WAV files are supported).

Pocket Tunes Ogg Vorbis plugin

This plugin allows the playback of Ogg Vorbis (OGG) files.  More information on Ogg Vorbis can be found at www.vorbis.com

NormSoft, Pocket Tunes™, and pTunes are trademarks of NormSoft, Inc.

Other marks are owned by their respective companies.

This product includes technology licensed from Softick.