Donka's iPhone Rambles

Proporta have a new range of waterproof accessories that will let you listen to your mp3 player under water! Some of these look really cool including the underwater headphones and the custom iPod nano case. I'm still not quite sure how well listening to music underwater will be but as long as you avoid the 'Jaws' theme music, it should be worth trying out. Check out the Waterproof Headphones, Waterproof Case, Aquapac Case and Aquapac Belt System pages for more info.

Astraware are releasing their new title - Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars for Windows Mobile for Pocket PC devices on Wednesday 2nd August and are currently offering it for pre-order with a $10 discount. The preview page is here and includes information on the game as well as the discount. This looks like a great addition to the Pocket PC gaming scene and well worth checking out.

Proporta’s Alu-leather cases take a minimalist approach to styling with the majority of Pocket PC being put on display when the case is open. Made from soft leather, the finish of this case is very good and you have easy access to all components and buttons. This case also offers good storage options with two SD slots alongside a single credit card sized slot under the cover. The biggest asset to this case however is hinted at by its name; the leather flip incorporates an Aluminium insert allowing it to be relatively thin yet offer increased screen protection. A stylish touch is how this brushed Aluminium is visible through a small window on the inside.

Proporta employ a clever belt clip system that allows you to choose whether you want this option employed or not. Using this system is simply a case of screwing in the metal connecting post and then hooking on the detachable belt clip itself. If not, a discreet black screw fills the connector on the rear of the case and sits flush giving a smooth, seamless finish. Unusually for a flip-top case, the catch on this design folds under from the rear and fastens magnetically on the front of the flip.
If you love the styling of your Acer, this is a good alternative to the other cases available although the side protection on offer here is not quite as high as some. This case cannot be used in the cradle although a sync/charge cable works fine and may well be sufficient to make this the ideal case for many.

This case is designed for the n310 and n311 range from Acer. More details can be found at the Proporta website.

When people think of software for their Pocket PC, it normally involves an application that is installed on the mobile device itself. One area that many people overlook is software for the desktop PC with a focus on improving the usability of the handheld. One such genre is DVD conversion allowing you to compress an entire movie down to a relatively lightweight size while retaining an optimised experience for the user.
I tried out the previous version of DVD Catalyst and was impressed by how simple and quick it was to convert your movie collection to the mobile format. Building on this, a whole lot more has been added allowing the user to customise the results and yet still remain intuitive and quick to use.
Starting up the application gives you the home page where you select the type of project you wish to run through i.e. converting a DVD from the original disc, image file or folder or converting a video file from a similar range of sources. Also on this home page is a link to check for updates which for this application is quite an important feature – more on that later.
Screenshot – Home Page
Once you have selected the source of your video, the next screen in the wizard style interface takes you to a properties page of sorts which gives you some information on each video file that has been selected such as duration, resolution and frame rate. You can select which of these files you wish to convert and also amend the output name, brightness and contrast of the converted file. Clicking on a file in this page will give you a real time preview of the video that includes any changes you have applied thus far.
Screenshot – First Options page
Clicking next brings us to the main conversion page. This will be the most commonly tweaked page as it allows you to select one of many predefined profiles to suit a variety of different mobile devices such as PDAs, phones, PSP and iPods among others. Selecting a suitable profile sets such things as resolution, video and audio bitrate at a suitable ratio for the target device. These can be tweaked to your own personal preference and if you have found a customised setting what works well for you then this can be saved as a new profile for later retrieval. Profiles are a big bonus for this application as you may have a couple of different target devices and calling up a previous profile is a very quick way of setting all your options in one go. Hidden away on this page under the Advanced button are more settings which can be amended such as a custom resolution, the type of codec you wish to use, audio volume and video frame rate. You also have the option of selecting two pass encoding for a better quality conversion at the expense of time. One cool feature is that you can mix your profiles in the same encoding session so say for example you have a movie that you wanted to convert to be watched on a Pocket PC and an iPod, all you need to do is load up the first profile for the Pocket PC and then add another under the Advanced tab and select the iPod profile. This will encode the movie twice, once to each chosen output format. You can do this for multiple devices and it saves a whole lot of user interaction as the application takes care of it all.
Screenshot – Main Options page
Hitting next will bring you to the next page in the workflow which is cropping. A preview of your movie will play and beneath this are four icons that represent a form of auto cropping. Yes, this program will even crop your movies for you if you wish to remove the black bars from widescreen ratio moves as an example. Not only do the presets give you an illustration of the type of cropping, they will actively search out the black bars in the video and crop based on that so they are not set at any one predefined ratio. There are manual adjustments on the right of this page should you wish to over ride the auto mode and dial in some figures of your own. If cropping is not needed you can simply hit next to go to the final page.
Screenshot – Cropping
This last page gives you a quick overview of the file(s), the target device and estimated file size. All you need do here is click the start conversion button and the application will run through all the jobs listed on this page showing the start time, percentage done and where applicable, the finish time for each job keeping you fully up to date with the progress. This wizard approach to the conversion lets you tweak the right settings at the most logical time and is still very quick to run through; you literally can set up your video conversion in seconds.
So what else makes this application such a joy to use? Well, once you have figured out which settings you wish to use, the next time you start up the application you can simply opt to run it in quick mode which lets you select the target device, the input file(s) and then head straight to cropping before starting your conversion, missing out the conversion settings which are already in the target device settings. You can also do something similar by selecting the profile option on the home page, selecting your own profile and input file(s) and then going straight to the final conversion page missing out all the in-between steps. These two features are great for people who know how the output will be generated and wish to just select their files and let it the program do the rest.
For me, one of the most convenient features of this application has to be the batch conversion facility. When you are selecting your source videos, you can select multiple by ctrl/shift clicking or by using the ‘from folder’ option and then converting all the files in the one job. This is especially great for converting all the episodes from a series of your favourite TV program for example. Settings can bet set independently for each episode or you can apply settings globally to all the files and again you can have many video files selected and converting in literally a few seconds. The icing on the batch conversion process is that if you have more than one DVD ROM drive attached to your PC or shared over a network, you can select multiple DVDs for your sources and batch convert them all.
DVD Catalyst has been developed with a plug in system in mind meaning that new codecs and supported devices can be added simply, without the need to upgrade the whole application. Speaking of codecs, a vast majority are supported with conversion to and from popular codecs such as WMV, MP4, DIVX and many others included. While we are on the subject of updates, I want to go back to the importance of the check for update button I mention on the home page. DVD Catalyst 2.0 is a continually improving product with a very active support; I highlighted one area that I felt could be tweaked and the following morning the update was available – now that is dedication to the customer!
I have made a vast number of different conversions from DVDs and video files on my hard drive to various different formats with a total mixture of resolutions and bit rates and the application has yet to fail me. Batch conversion is completely reliable and you can quite happily queue up a few series of a particular program overnight and have them all waiting for you in the morning in their respective mobile formats. The speed of this application is determined by a number of factors such as source material, codec used and of course the speed of your computer and perhaps the longest conversion would be going from a DVD to WMV using two pass encoding. This process requires an in-between file created as an AVI before the resultant WMV can be generated. If you chose a DIVX AVI as your output file then this in-between step is not required and so the conversion would be much faster. I also found during my testing that this application will make good use of a dual core processor and I successfully converted an entire series of 25 minute episodes using two pass encoding from AVI to WMV in an average of 14 minutes per episode. You can safely half this figure to seven minutes if only using single pass encoding – not bad for a full episode using a 3Ghz Pentium D processor.

I have to say that I am nothing short of completely impressed with DVD Catalyst 2. Everything about this application is a pleasure to use, from the intuitive interface, through the speed of operation and batch processing to the rock solid stability. Throw in a very competitive price and top notch customer support and you really have one truly excellent value for money product.
For more details and purchasing, please visit Handango and if the price wasn’t competitive enough for you, use this code for a further $5 discount - 6548E9F5. Remember you have a fully functional 7 day unlimited trial to see for yourself before purchase. Please visit the DVD Catalyst home page for more details and support issues.

Proporta very kindly sent me one of their popular Aluminium cases for the Acer n300 series of Pocket PC to check out. Made from precision moulded aluminium, not surprisingly, this is one case that will offer the same perfect fit forever provided you don’t subject it to dent inducing heavy knocks. With the swing door closed, I’m confident this case will keep your device safe from all but the severest of treatment – it really does feel rock solid. You have easy access to the stylus and headphone socket up top and the power and hold switches down the left side. You also have good access to the reset button and data port on the bottom although you won’t be able to use this case in conjunction with the cradle. Fit is absolutely perfect and the neoprene lining holds the Acer snugly in place ensuring it is safe from scratching or from falling out should the case be opened. The case door is hinged on the right and is held in place with a secure metal clasp on the left while offering two small holes to view the status of the unit's LEDs. One thing I did notice though is that with the case closed there was a bit of a gap between the top of the device and the top of the front cover as if this section of the case was made bigger than is actually required. This has no impact on the protection of the device although the case could have been slightly smaller if there was no gap; I prefer to have the device as small as possible in my pocket.

This case looks attractive with its silvery finish and surprisingly is not slippery in hand. The protection to price ratio offered by these metal cases is second to none and offer a great alternative to the plethora of leather cases on offer. This case is supplied with an optional belt clip that can be fixed to the rear using the small screw in post which only adds to the versatility and a there is a spare SD card holder on the inside of the cover.

More details can be found at the Proporta website.