Mobile movies can be a hit and miss affair for many people and the resultant experience greatly depends on a variety of factors; hardware, mobile platform, conversion quality, third party software, screen size, audio quality and compatibility. It is far from an easy process on some platforms to get started, but with a bit of work everyone should be able to experience that ‘movie feeling’ anywhere they like.

If money is no object then the Apple mobile movie set up is probably the best that is currently available on a smartphone. The movie playback and sound quality are quite excellent and there is no set up at all required- you buy the film and move it to your iPod or iPhone. On an iPhone or iPod Touch this experience is enhanced greatly by the large screen and of course the battery which will allow for long periods of intensive media use. Having a few Gb’s of storage only helps things further. I mention money being no object because TV Programmes and Films are of course now available on iTunes, but the pricing for some shows leaves a lot to be desired. Why would I purchase The West Wing series 1 for £31.99 when I can purchase it as a full DVD box set for around £20 online or in some retail stores?

There are so many TV shows on iTunes that are priced way above what you would pay elsewhere and further thought makes this entire process even more ridiculous. I wanted to watch The West Wing series 1 and 2 so I purchased them for £20.99 each in a local store. After watching them, and treating them very carefully, I sold them on eBay for a total of £38 after costs. My net cost was £3.98 to watch two entire series. If I had purchased them on iTunes my net costs would have been £62.98, a difference of £59.00! Let’s say that I wanted to watch these series on my iPhone anyway. All I would have to do is purchase Mobiola Video Studio to convert a DVD to iPhone format for $19.99 (£10) and I would still be up £49 and have the software for future use.

The same applies to films which are usually priced at £10.99 on iTunes for new releases. I wanted to watch The Bucket List so I bought it on DVD for £9.99 and sold it on eBay for £11 including postage (it never fails to amaze me how little research some eBay buyers do) I am not having a go at Apple here- they can charge £2000 for a film if they like and that’s business. We are not forced to buy a film from iTunes, but at this time the model seems flawed for people who are prepared to make a little effort to watch the same films for 10% of the iTunes price. Remember that there is nothing illegal at all in the process described above, except that you should probably not keep an iPhone formatted copy of a DVD series after you have sold it...

This process also works for Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Palm devices- there are many conversion applications on the market that will convert DVD’s or movie films into a format suitable for your device, and some will convert to multiple device formats as well. One example is Pocket DVD Wizard which converts DVDs to every mobile device format on the market and which retails for $24.95 (14% less if you use discount code ‘247forever’)

I guess that this pricing theory could be levelled at music as well, but for some reason that bypasses me I have not bought a real CD for years and always purchase new music online in digital format. Maybe it is because the ease of use seems more beneficial at this lower price point, or maybe it has just captured the public’s imagination more than the mobile movie industry?

Tomorrow I will look at how each platform, and their respective hardware, fairs in terms of mobile video quality.

The battle of open-source mobile systems continues to heat up. Motorola, NEC and Panasonic are rolling out seven new mobile handsets based on the LiMo (Linux for Mobile) software platform.

The handsets bring the total number of commercial LiMo-based devices to a respectable 21, according to the LiMo Foundation.

The new handsets are: Motorola Motozine ZN5; NEC Forma N906i, N906iμ, N906iL and N706i; and Panasonic Forma P906i and P706iμ.

Several of the models include features from the forthcoming 2.0 release of the Linux-based mobile platform such as higher resolution displays, 3G/High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) roaming capabilities, GPS, mobile TV, and advanced video streaming. The 2.0 release is due to be published in late 2008 and completed early in 2009... More at The Register.

TuneClone Audio Converter Software can help to break you away from iTunes and to experience your entire iTune music library on any mobile device! It simulates the process of burning your collection to a CD and the result is DRM free music. What are your thoughts on this?

You have purchased lots of music from iTunes, Yahoo Music, Wal-Mart or other online music stores, and want to play your music with other mobile devices, such as MP3 player, cell phone, Zune and PSP etc? You got the right place! Click here to download TuneClone Audio Converter and get your music files converted.

With just a few mouse clicks you can enjoy all your protected songs on any MP3 player devices - without any restrictions or DRM protection.

The music files you purchased from online music stores are protected by DRM. You could NOT play them on your own mobile devices other than iPod, iPhone etc. However you can burn the protected music files to CD-R/RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some cd ripper softwares to convert the audio cd track back to MP3,WAV,WMA etc.

There is a free alternative called doubleTwist as well which could be worth investigating.

One thing that has bugged me about the E71 is the poor music quality, or should I say the quietness of the music. Today I purchased a very cheap (£1.99) headphone adaptor which allows standard 3.5mm headphones to work (see image). Suddenly the volume is very loud and the quality is brilliant!

I’m not sure of the make because it was purchased from one of those dodgy looking stores that sells lots of cheap Chinese accessories, but it worked a treat for me and should work on lots of phones as far as I know!

Total PDA is selling the HP iPAQ 314 Travel Companion for only £99.99 + VAT. This is a seriously good GPS unit and a steal at this price!

Make the journey fun again using the HP iPAQ 314 Travel Companion Navigation System. With the high resolution 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen and advanced high definition 3D navigation system, you can pan and zoom to the level of detail you desire, and find yourself fully immersed in the navigation experience.

Navigation is quick and easy using spoken and on-screen guidance; the HP iPAQ 314 will even announce street names to help you find your destination. The blisteringly fast dual-core 600MHz Titan processor will pinpoint your location quicker than ever before. Integration with your Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile contacts lets you quickly find directions to friends, family and business colleagues. Also, you can use your HP iPAQ 314 in combination with your mobile phone as a Bluetooth hands-free system to take those important calls while you drive. And with online trip planning services through HP, you can ensure your journey will be as smooth as possible.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted it was a "mistake" to roll out the company's MobileMe service at the same time it launched the iPhone 3G and other big products, tech news site Ars Technica reported late Monday.
 
Ars Technica cited an internal memo sent by Jobs to employees that acknowledged MobileMe had flaws and was released too soon. In the memo, Jobs said the launch of the service could have been handled better, the article said. He also acknowledged the service was "not up to Apple's standards." And he said the individual MobileMe services could have been launched slowly instead of all at once.

"It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store," Jobs said in the e-mail, according to Ars Technica. "We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence."

MobileMe is the next evolution of Apple's .Mac service. It's essentially a cloud storage solution that allows subscribers to synchronize e-mail, calendars, contacts, photos, Safari bookmarks, Dashboard widgets, and more, among Macs, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch. It allows for 20GB of storage on Apple's servers, and it even cooperates with Outlook on Windows computers. Because it is Web based, subscribers can access the online applications from any Web browser. More at Yahoo.

While nearly one-third of U.S. households have a video-capable mobile phone, operators are struggling to find an audience for their mobile video services, according to a report from Parks Associates. The report found a majority of consumers with a video-capable mobile phone have never used the video features. For example, 56% have never watched a video clip using a mobile phone.

These low usage rates are discouraging for operators hoping to boost revenues through new TV and video services.

"Buy before you try is always a tough sell," said John Barrett, Director of Research, Parks Associates. "Most subscribers must pay additional money to watch video and mobile TV services, even once they have purchased an appropriate phone. This circumstance presents an obvious chicken-and-egg obstacle to adoption. Many consumers are hesitant to pay for a new, unfamiliar service, but they will remain unfamiliar with the service until they or someone they know uses it." More at cellular-news.

Monkey See, Monkey Die [A Reigning Cats and Dogs Mystery] has a bizarre title, but could be quite good...

Is a certain vet detective about to become an endangered species? It's been over a decade since Jessica Popper spoke to vet-school friend Erin Walsh. So when Erin calls out of the blue, Jess agrees to meet her. When Erin doesn't show, Jessie begins to suspect that her old pal was making a monkey out of her--until she learns that Erin was murdered. Jessie can't resist getting involved, but her sleuthing quickly pulls her into a jungle of suspects. Did Erin's husband, Ben, kill her--or was it the eccentric lizard-loving coworker with whom she may have been monkeying around? Was Ben's outrageously wealthy new partner trying to cover up some monkey business? Or was it Erin's ambitious boss, a distinguished primate specialist determined to remain top banana in her field? With the killer going ape to stay hidden, even Jess's animal instincts might not save her from a fate more fatal than a barrel of monkeys....