Winamp for Pocket PC
 

From what I understand from my more teched-up friends, Microsoft has made developing for the Pocket PC absurdly easy. Especially if you're already an elite and unusually attractive development crew.

I am not here to listen to any ideological BS w/r/t POcket PC, Palm, etc. All I know is that right now I have an iPaq with 256 mb of Flash memory, and it's the ideal mp3 player*, except that I don't particularly like the Windows Media interface, and I really dislike that it doesn't support .ogg. It looks like Sony has some sort of media player on their Clie, but I don't know what would involved in a port to Palm OS.

This seems like a no-brainer, as it would probably not be a massive programming effort, would probably be fun, and would give some Nullsoft folks a chance to try their hand on a handheld platform just as they become more and more pervasive and media-capable.

Am I totally wrong about this? I feel like it's a thread that should be brought up every once in a while...


* ideal here meaning that my work paid for it.

It's not a bad idea, but the dev team doesn't have unlimited resources(money-wise), and I suspect they'd need a few pocketpc's to play with before they could code for them.

If you're willing to pony-up moola for the units, I'm sure that Nullsoft would make the effort. j/k!

Seriously, the request has come up before, and they would like to do it, but it comes down to having deadlines, budgets, and all that corporate crap: Winamp3 for Windows is top priority, then ports to other PC OS's (OSX, Linux, etc.), then (maybe) to entirely different devices.

-=Gonzotek=-

I know, but I'm Quixotically hoping that keeping the discussion alive will work out in the end.

Unlimited budgets? No. BUt you can get the dev kit for what I understand is very little money, and my iPaq was $250 - some, like the Casio, are much less expensive than that. If enough people stay excited enough about it, maybe they could throw an intern or something at the project.

As is, WMP has an effectively uncontested monopoly on media players for Pocket PC, even as they become more and more popular. And I'm starting to get really creeped out by the WMP licenses as they evolve. I'd like to have nothing to do with the software, but if I want to listen to audio on my POcket PC (which makes a lot of sense for the device,) there I am.

I just don't think it's self-evident that this should be a low priority. I think it's a lot easier than throwing Winamp onto other operating systems, would open up a lot of exciting applications, and would get one or two of Microsoft's fingers off of my neck.

You are vastly overestimating the coding power of "some intern", my friend...

A WinCE port would completely rock, and not just because I myself have an iPaq. However, on a numbers basis alone, the win32 port must take precedent. For now.


--Brennan

The idea of a poll is great, but.... with a question like that it's easy to predict results. yes (1234) no (1 - by mistake)

Maybe you could ask what would is our biggest winamp-dream right now:
- Winamp 3 for Win
- Winamp 3 for Lnx
- any Winamp for Pocket PC...

I understand you have your deadlines and priorities (who doesn't ;-) but sometimes it's good to take a look around and maybe re-evaluate them.

powodzenia, Miserato

wow, that's just a tad arrogant wouldn't you think??

I think if they wanted to take the guy on WA2 dev (I think it's justin) and ask him to do a side project port of 2.xx on to WinCE or something like that then I'd be all for it. Personally I want to see Winamp3 bug free on Windows with a Linux port before they begin to work on any sort of WinCE port

Keep in mind that there are xx million of people who use Winamp, and of those people, say xxx thousand who own a pocket pc, and xx thousand who use it to listen to mp3s......now think, since there is only winamp for Windows at the moment, that means xx million people are relying on the development of 2.xx and 3.xx, and if u use a little bit of math, there's 1% of them who want a WinCE...I think out of a team of <10 (which is what I think the nullsoft team is), do you really think it's corporately viable to be putting say, 3 of them off of pleasing 100% of the user base, into pleasing solely 1%?

I have no idea what the numbers are....but I only have 4 friends (adult and teenage) who own any sort of pocket pc, and of those, 1 uses it for mp3s.

Please, I beg of you, instead of calling me stupid or somethin for disagreeing with you, prove me wrong.

Arrogant?
 

Hey guys, I just threw it out there as a request, so that they could know it was something people were interested in. If you look at my tone and delivery, you'll notice nothing arrogant about it whatsoever...the Nullsoft development team make me free software, I don't feel like I'm in any place to go off on them.

By the way, of the people I know from work, 75%+ own a handheld, and of those, not so many use it for mp3 playing...good point. But almost all of the young people I know who have a handheld do use it for mp3s.

Also as I mentioned in my previous post, they're becoming increasingly less and less expensive, and gaining more and moer multimedia capabilities (witness the 38xx series from Compaq, among others. - or even the PalmOS mp3 player on the Sony NG Clie.) It's an intuitive and natural platform for portable media, and it's currently got only one media player.

Couple this with the recent development of an integer-based OGG toolkit for open source, and I could see that there might be a *compelling* corporate interest in porting over a 2.xx player to the POcket PC platform - into a growing and almost entirely virgin market space. As I mentioned, of course, given time and resources - or perhaps they could find someone who would do it as a project on behalf of Winamp. All I have heard anecodtally is that the Windows CE development platform makes for low-effort ports.

(Actual sales of which, by the way, have been about 10 million recently - every year of which Pocket PC OS systems are usually around 20% - Gartner Research publishes numbers, they're publicly available any time you want to "use a little math" yourself.)

I put it up because I thought it would be a neat idea, and I still do. After all, isn't that was this forum is for? As for my "arrogance," well,
"The essence of this teaching can be summed up in this phrase chiseled over the portals of the ancient Greek temple at Delphi: Gnothi Seauton: Know Thyself." = ) You might want to check the tone of your own post.

Maybe of all the people who own pocket PC's, not many use them for MP3's (or indeed any form of digital audio playback) because there is no decent player.

I want a Pocket PC winamp
 

Ok guys.. I know if Pocket PC2002 of Winamp came out it would be a top downloader cause everyone is forced to use the crapy windows media player.. it has no cool features like that would be in a winamp. I just think it would be something worth the time. I am willing to say Winamp would be in everyone’s Pocketpc if it came out. But that's just my input. I have several friends that have Ipaqs and This christmas the sales of Ipaqs will sky rocket!! That is estimated to be a top seller this Christmas!!! So if ya want to hit a market now... <nudge> everyone is looking for untapped markets and I know this new technology is just waiting for the winamp development crew to place their holy hands upon this little device and believe in the power. Besides Media Player can't do things like Nullsoft Tiny Fullscreen and Advanced Visualization studio, I would love to see Geiss on it also that is one of the major design flaws in Media Player for Pocket PC. I hope that you guys can find it in your heart to deliver to the dreams of all those out there something that can change the world!!

-Jeffro

Yes i can just imagine a pocket pc playing mp3s on winamp...sounds really cool (i dun own a pocket pc so i dun have any idea)

But just like Brennan said the Win32 version would have to come first...then if theres time well there might be a WinCe version...when that happens, i would be queueing up to buy a Pocket Pc...:D

I agree, the Windows version MUST come first. Ok.. Im running Winamp on my Windows box. Now how about my IPAQ?:up:

Bus Stop Ads.
 

Just a quick note of something I saw this morning.

Microsoft has started hawking the Pocket PCs in bus stop ads (this usually means billboards as well,) as the ideal portable media platform, showing their same weak WiMP 7.1 interface playing mp3s...

These things are only getting faster and cheaper, and with storage coming down in price, someone with an enormous and notoriously ruthless marketing department has decided this is something to spend (at least) hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising.

I use my Pocket PC with a 256 mb (ok, 240) Flash card as my primary portable mp3 player. (Why would I pay for another device?) I don't trust them not to control my media, and I don't like their interface, and I have no other choice. And Microsoft is aggressively trying to put more people in my situation.

microsoft is trying to target those ppl with pocket pcs that all...
and the reason y the prices r dropping is because the eletronics sector is dropping. much of the world is still in recession, eventhought what politions might say.

so i dun really think most ppl would be thinking abt getting a pocket pc...maybe a palm instead.

and Brennan has a point..

The potential is endless
 

With the new PDA's offering wireless net connections the possibility should be reviewed with serious intent. Not only to use the PDA for playing MP3's using flash cards but to control your playlists accross your network. I use winamp to push music all through my house -- imagine being able to be anywhere in or outside to change music, volume, even the visualizations that appear on your tv's. I for one would be happy to donate some cash...;)

Mmmm, me want PocketPC port!
 

Me got 1Gig Microdrive..hold lots of MP3's..me like Winamp on PocketPC!

-/kq\-

pls read what Brennan has to say....

I wholeheartedly disagree. Why is everyone acting as though it is self - evident that simply because there are *more* Windows desktop platforms than windows CE platforms, that QED more effort should go into Winamp for the desktop? That appealingly intuitive, but certainly far from self-evident.

Other media player platforms exist for the PC. Dozens, in fact. I happen to prefer Winamp 2.81 above all of these. However, for the Windows CE devices, which are rapidly converging in price on dedicated media player devices whilst retaining a capability advantage, there is effectively only WiMP. How many of the new Pocket PC ads feature a headphone-equipped device? And how long do people think we'll really be carrying seperate phones, PDAs, and media devices around?

Meanwhile, this entire protable market goes untouched, simply because since there are *more* desktops, *all* effort should go to the development of desktop software? And none WHATSOEVER to a CE port? Why is everyone acting as though this is self-evident and rational?

Winamp3 is cross-platform. But Windows takes priority because nearly all of Winamp's current userbsae are Windows users. Why would Nullsoft develop for a platform whose total # of potential users is only a fraction (albeit a rapidly growing one) of the current number of Windows Winamp users? The company is small...they don't have infinite developer time. The PC market is a priority because of the installed userbase. Remember, when the Linux port is released, that there are some Linux-bsaed PDA-ish devices.

-=Gonzotek=-

I have an Ipaq 3970, it has a 400Mhz intel CPU, i dont know how i was surviving all this time without this lifetime portable secretary! Winamp for PocketPC is a must! i have '2' 1Gb microdrive, i have stored on it all my documents, a couple 100's of mp3's, some 100's of pics, etc... Need More?

K-lez.