Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Inspired by you, the consumer, iFlyz was born after spending tireless hours traveling and watching as passengers tired to master a way to watch their media. Either you hold it, share the holding responsibilities with someone or rig it up a cup of some sort. Every option leaves you annoyed and with a slight kink in your neck, just reassuring you that flying is sheer joy. iFlyz introduces hands-free viewing while traveling, allowing you to relax and enjoy your downloadable movie or TV show while flying."

It's hard to get a handle on how compact this is, but it's a brilliant idea for anyone that travels a great deal and wants a better way to hold their media playback device. I know I could have used this product many times in the past! It would work equally well on a Zune, a Windows Mobile smartphone, or any other number of devices. The product is available for pre-order ($29.95 USD within the USA, $34.95 to Canada, and $36.95 elsewhere in the world, shipping included) and they'll be shipping them out come February.

"Kinoma Play ($29.99) is the new media player we've been hinting at in our series of media player reviews this past week. It's essentially a super-charged media player that aims to make media you find on the internet as easy to find, play, and interact with as the media stored locally on your memory card. Those of you familiar with Kinoma Player EX on the Palm OS are going to be pleased to hear that all the functionality of the PalmOS's player is here and then some."

I've seen a lot of software come and go on the Windows Mobile platform, but watching this video and reading about Kinoma leaves me with the impression that this is one of the most impressive media players I've ever seen. The functionality, and the blending of local and online content, is extremely impressive. From an audio playback standpoint, it's a shame so many device makers use miniUSB or 2.5mm headphone jacks - I hate having to use adaptors. Check out Kinoma's Web site for a trial download.

One thing that Kinoma doesn't seem to have a good grasp on though is getting the software onto the devices. Kinoma Play isn't available in any of our software stores at MobiHand or Handango, and when I downloaded the software directly from their Web site it was only a CAB file - normally I wouldn't mind a CAB file, but when I tried to install it I received an error on my Blackjack II: "Installation was unsuccessful. The program or setting cannot be installed because it does not have sufficient system permissions." I've installed two other programs via CAB files today, so I'm not sure why Kinoma Play won't install. Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did!