BostonPocketPC

Introduction
While many people look at some of the new and innovative user interfaces for mobile phones as a way of adding "sex and sizzle" to their devices, I tend to look for applications that make my interactions more efficient, friendly or just plain fun (without adding complexity, of course). While the iPhone and HTC's "Manila" interface tend to grab a lot of the headlines, there are any of a number of smaller and more focused applications that are also very useful and aesthetically pleasing.

One great example of providing a friendlier face to a Windows Mobile application is Electric Pocket's FlipSide. As someone who uses Windows Media Player on my Windows Mobile phone quite frequently, I have to say that the "drill-down" approach that Windows Media Player uses to get to my music can be quite frustrating and, well, bland. FlipSide provides a finger-friendly and visual way of interacting with your music collection.

Features

• Visual and intuitive way of interacting with music on your Windows Mobile device;
• Extra functionality for album art and artist information.

Installation
FlipSide is available for installation as both a CAB file for direct installation from the device, or as a desktop installer. FlipSide requires the .NET Compact Framework 2.0. For Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional devices, the .NET CF 2.0 is pre-installed and should not pose a problem. Electric Pocket's FlipSide download page does provide additional links and instructions if a .NET CF 2.0 installation is necessary.

Installation was simple and straight-forward. An interesting note - as a result of leveraging the .NET Compact Framework, FlipSide itself is small; very small. Taking up only 127K for the actual executable is rather impressive, especially considering the functionality FlipSide provides (more shortly).

One final note - as an application focused on the touchscreen interface, FlipSide is intended for Windows Mobile Professional / Pocket PC devices. While the FlipSide web site states that FlipSide supports all Windows Mobile versions, I did not test this application against a Windows Mobile Standard device.

Usage
Basic Functionality
When you first open FlipSide, you will immediately be reminded of the media interface seen on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The application scans for music and album art already installed on the device to build its own index of information. This process does not take very long and is visually represented by a very small progress bar at the bottom of the screen. The positive to this approach is that you can still interact with the application while the metadata is being captured. One big "pet peeve" I have had with the Windows Media Player interface for quite a while is the need to navigate menus to build the library and having to sit and wait while the library is built. Kudos to Electric Pocket for allowing me to move forward while work is performed in the background.

FlipSide presents your library organized by album.

    

Using gestures across the screen from left to right (or vice-versa), you move between the various albums. A nice fluid animation scrolls you from album to album. You also have the ability to use the left and right portions of a directional pad to perform the same actions.

When you find the album you wish to listen to, simply tap on the album art and the track list is displayed.



You can then select the first track you wish to hear by tapping on the title. I must admit that this can be a bit difficult with the large fingers possessed by yours truly, but if all else fails the stylus works well too.

Once music is selected, the track information is displayed and a progress bar designates the play progress.

You can fast forward and rewind within a track by touching the progress bar.

FlipSide works in both portrait and landscape modes.


This functionality does bring to light one of the shortcomings of FlipSide. Many common interactions are mapped to keyboard keys. While this works well for devices with QWERTY keyboards always displayed, it does not work well for devices like the AT&T Tilt that has a slide out keyboard. Actions like pause and play, for example, are mapped to the spacebar. If you do not wish to slide out the keyboard, you can choose to leave full screen mode by tapping near the bottom of the screen. This will bring up the default menu bar.



From this view, you have access to more functionality and a few features. I do hope that a future release of FlipSide will allow for hardware button mapping, as this would greatly reduce the keyboard issues.

As far as playing music goes, FlipSide had no problem playing my Windows Mobile music. No more so, that is, than Windows Media Player itself Sound quality and performance were the same as if using the Windows Media Player directly. Of couse, that also means that the limitations imposed by Windows Media Player (no equalizer, no cross-fade) were also in place.

Enhancement/Features
FlipSide provides some nice and useful features in addition to the user interface functionality. They include:

• Downloadable album art. If your music did not have album art or perhaps not the most recent art, you can choose to download art from the Internet.
  
  
  
  You will be reminded that the Internet will be searched and data charges may apply.
  
   
  
  If located, the album art will be displayed.
  
   
  
  As you can see, the album art might not always be the the most pleasing to the eye, buy hey - it's better than no art at all You also have the ability to remove album art if you choose.
  
• Artist information. At any time, you have the ability to locate (from the Internet) artist information using the Find Extras menu option.
  
  
  
  This option opens a browser window that presents biographical information and related information, all nicely formatted for a mobile device and powered by Last.fm.
  
  
  
  I found this feature to be very useful and a lot of fun as well (trivia buff that I am).
  
• Shuffle
  FlipSide does provide shuffle functionality, either at the album level or for all music.
  
  
  
• Playlist functionality.
  FlipSide provides the ability to work with playlists on the device, including the ability to create and/or modify playlists.
  
  
  

Overall, the additional features for FlipSide serve as a good "icing on the cake" to enhance the overall user experience.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Visually pleasing user interface
• Intuitive navigation
• Informative and useful extra features

Cons

• No custom keyboard mapping
• Some finger functionality difficult in the limited screen real estate

Pricing and Availability
FlipSide is available for a trial download at the FlipSide web site. FlipSide is available for purchase from the FlipSide web site (partnered with MobiHand) for $19.95.

Conclusion
By providing a combination of an aesthetically pleasing interface with intuitive user interface functionality, FlipSide adds a new and fun level to playing music on your Windows Mobile device. The additional Internet-related extras provide a great way to enhance the experience even further, making FlipSide a great enhancement to your Windows Mobile-powered device. I strongly encourage everyone to at least give FlipSide a try; it is worth the effort.