LobsterTunes and HP iPaq rw6815

Few weeks ago mr. Iain Barclay from Electric Pocket contacted me and offered to test their Pocket PC UPnP media player software, called LobsterTunes. At first I tried to install it to my unused Dell Axim Pocket PC, but I forget that it has older OS version than Windows Mobile 5. So, dont bother installing Lobster on old gear, it requires WM5.

Few weeks passed, cause I had to travel and had skiing holiday with my kids. But lately I had enough time to go to local HP and pick up new HP iPaq rw6815 , called "Personal Messenger". Its basically Pocket PC + smartphone. Having 2,7" LCD and relatively speedy 416 MHz Intel PXA CPU.

So, following the "dont kill the (personal) messenger" guidlines, I installed LobsterTunes application. Installation was straight-forward and easy and appplication was usable right away. As proper UPnP client, it found my server and was ready playing music without any additional configuration. One of the UPnP beauties is: no drivers, no configuring. Still, You have to keep in mind, that WiFi keys should be entered.

I ran my personal usability test: from 10 000 tracks on my server, find as quickly as possible Advertising Space, Album Intensiv Care, artist Robby Williams. It took mere 30 seconds to find this track -- good resut! Not much slower than using D-Link DSM 320 with the remote. Lobsters user interface pretty much followed the same logic than any other Media Receiver.

I had lot of small interruptions, some 2-3 per track. At the beginning of each new track I had small 0,5-1 sec interruption on 2.-d second position. Almost always, regardless of signal strength, etc. As this product is yet in beta testing, there is enougt time to sort it our.

Version tested was 1.0.21.0.

Features I really liked are album art and QuickMix.