After switching to Windows Mobile 6.1, I started exploring it with hungry eyes. The first annoying feature I noticed was the recent programs list. I had to wait for the icons to refresh each time, and I got confused by those icons, as I expected a certain order inside my start menu.

After searching some specialized forums and frowning upon some nasty registry hacking, I decided to dig deeper inside my smartphone’s settings. And there it was, the option to show recent programs.

I unchecked it and the recent programs list hasn’t bothered me ever since.

Sometimes, you need to tweet and you don’t have online access or you are in the shower. The solution is Tiny Twitter, one of the best solutions I’ve found from a wide range or similar programs. And it’s free.

Install the Tiny Twitter cabinet file, and access it from your Start menu.

After setting up your account and tweaking various other options, you’re ready to rumble. Or to tweet.

My Twitter account has been updated numerous times while in the car, while eating or while no online access was possible.

Visit the TinyTwitter web site here.

I guess you’ve got used to the Windows Mobile tutorial series by now, and you’re ready to read how to add more plugins to your Core Pocket Media Player.

These plugins include AC3 audio decoder, FFMpeg, Ogg Vorbis, and more. If you are unable to see or hear a video, this could be the cause of it.

All plugins install the same, so I’ll just show you how to install the AC3 plugin.

Open the plugin archive and select the installation type. You can choose Windows Mobile CAB if you intend to install it straight from your smartphone. I chose the Active Sync method.

Follow these steps in order to install it, both on your computer and on your smartphone. The installation should last no more than 15 seconds overall.

Be careful and select the same partition for the plugin as you used for TCPMP. So, if you installed TCPMP on your storage card, you should install the plugin in the same location.

Congratulations, you can now watch AC3 encoded videos with full sound effects.

• Download location 1
• Download location 2
• Download location 3

EDIT: Download here the FLV plugin. Install it directly from your phone.

Videos of the week on Butterfly Media Romania Blog.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j104ciE-2CE[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuEX9B4t7X4[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqlTe5VXkHo[/video]

Or head over here for more: http://www.youtube.com/hotforwords

My previous article showcased the installation of The Core Pocket Media Player. Read it if you missed it.

TCPMP, short for The Core Pocket Media Player, has a lot of back-end options.

Video (and audio) can be played at many speeds, ranging from 10% to 200%. I just need a reason why one would do that. We have the obvious video options, such as zoom, pixel aspect ratio, orientation, quality and streams. Further more, we can choose what elements we want for our player.

Coming next are the audio options, volume, panning, mono/stereo options, preamplification, and driver.

By accessing the Settings menu we stumble upon many interesting and useful options. Use the right soft key to select the desired menu section.

Take a look at all these options and decide for yourselves how useful they are. I would recommend to pay extra attention to the buffering options, select Microdrive mode if you’re using a storage card, and increase the buffer size if videos play interrupted. Videos can be slow if the processor is too weak to decompress a heavily compressed movie, such as a WMV or MPEG.

Play with the equalizer, set the optimal audio range and levels for your headphones, and there you have a pocket cinema right in your hand.

Head over to the previous article to download TCPMP.