In this age of iPods, mp3 players, personal stereos, mobile phones and convergent devices, it comes as no surprise that people are forever upgrading to the next latest and greatest device to try to achieve their own personal nirvana of the perfect personal entertainment equipment. The problem is... what if you cannot afford to, or don’t want to, buy yet another device? What if your existing device already has everything you need except for that one tiny feature, or perhaps you’re under contract/finance for another year? Well, if you can’t or won’t upgrade the hardware, then perhaps the answer may be found in new software.  

I recently had to upgrade my poor old faithful O2 Xda II - it’s had a very hard life and the dip in the toilet a few months ago can’t have helped! I find the large screen of the Xda II absolutely essential for writing all my articles on and have been very unimpressed by WM5, so it is no real surprise that I ended up with an Xda IIi (speedily and efficiently supplied by Mr. Gadget). The one downside of this decision is that I was not able to put away my FM CD Walkman for listening to the radio on the train since the IIi is not fitted with an FM radio, unlike the newer Atom, et. al.  

I’m an avid Triple J listener and love the spontaneity and variety of the morning show, so the idea of using my Xda or an mp3 player (or whatever) to listen to a predefined playlist just doesn’t appeal to me at all. Besides which, the O2 supplied headphones are pretty crappy and uncomfortable, so it looks like I'm stuck with the old FM CD Walkman.

Hang on a minute though, my new device has WiFi and A2DP Bluetooth, perhaps there a way... enter Resco Radio!  

Resco Radio is a rather clever piece of software which enables internet radio streamed broadcasts to be played on the Pocket PC through the internet connection and, in the case of wireless devices, wirelessly. When started, the software presents a relatively simple interface - a set of ten (in portrait mode) preset “favourites” buttons labelled with internet radio station names, a message window, two function buttons, a five-way nav-pad control and a menu bar at the bottom.  The player is compatible with MP3, OGG Vorbis and AAC & AACplus format streams.

When the device is connected to the internet, it is a simple case of tapping on one of preset buttons to connect to that station and start it playing. The centre button of the main control can be used to play/stop the current station, the up and down buttons adjust the audio volume and the left and right select the previous or next preset stations respectively; these functions are duplicated onto the physical nav-pad and the software buffers a user configurable amount of data before playing.  

To change the buttons to different stations is a simple operation - simply tab and hold the desired button to display a selection screen. This selection screen displays a long list of music categories, from pop to classical, blues to rap. Tapping on a category header expands the section and displays all the predefined radio stations in that category; tapping on a station selects it, closes the screen and assigns it to the desired button.  

Naturally, the 150 predefined radio stations and categories will not be suitable for all users - Triple J was missing for instance - so the station selection screen has a simple menu structure to enable stations and categories to be added:

• Import... - enables the user to import a stream definition file (.m3u or .pls) which contains all the necessary settings for configuring a new station and are often available to download from streaming station web sites.  
• New Category... - allows the user to enter the name for a new category  
• New Radio... - for those web sites which don’t publish the necessary settings files, this screen enables the user to manually enter the details for a stream.  

The screen includes two special categories - My Radios and My Favourites - to store personal entries in and also provides a popup menu which permits the maintenance of all categories and stations.  

Back on the main screen, the Disp. Off button may be used to switch off the screen during play, setting are also available to customise how easily the screen may be turned back on and if it will automatically turn the screen off during play. In addition Radio also provides a sleep timer of up to two hours, to automatically turn the radio off, perhaps after the user falls asleep at night.  

The final function on the main screen is the very useful Record Button. This does exactly what you expect, saving the audio data as an mp3 file on the storage medium of choice. Note: Radio appears unable to record Ogg Vorbis format streams, only MP3, AAC and AACplus - I don't know the reason but have confirmed this on their website. Radio does not provide playback functions for these files but they are compatible with WMP and other software for the Pocket PC. 

But how does all this help me listen to “The J’s” on the train when travelling to work? Sadly TransPerth doesn’t provide a WiFi feed on its trains, free or otherwise, at least not yet anyway; nor are there enough 'free' hot spots along the route for uninterupted connectivity (though there are quite a few!). However, Resco do thoughtfully provide a scheduler. Simple but effective, the scheduler allows the user to specify the start time, end time and preset station number, then simply records the desired feed automatically.  

Since I live in Western Australia and Triple J is broadcast from the east coast, I am ordinarily listening to a delayed broadcast on my FM radio. However, since the internet stream is live and ahead of WAST by either two or three hours, I can simply set a schedule to record the morning show before I get up and then play it back on the way to work. I can even fast forward it to the point where the time calls are in sync with WAST and it’s no different to listening to the FM radio, except that it gets NO interference... wonderful. Armed with a pair of A2DP Bluetooth headphones and I’m ready to rock... and totally wirelessly too!

Resco Radio is an excellent example of innovative thinking. The software is stable and well designed with a clean and simple interface that lends to ease of use without the stylus, it’s even skinable for those who are into that sort of personalisation.  The only area I think that could be improved would be the scheduler which cannot cope with complex, repeating schedules and the rather annoying habit it has of creating an alarm to go off just as it is about to start recording. That said, if your device can connect to the internet, be it wired or wireless, then you too can enjoy streamed music on your Pocket PC. 

Don't agree? Discuss it here.