TECHMUNDO 2.0

OggPlay took the place of Nokia’s built in Music Player in one of the 7 slots in my Standby Applications Bar. I have very few issues with the built in Music Player but after fiddling with the options in OggPlay, I was convinced that this audio player app. is more suited for my use.

OggPlay is available in two versions, the Non-MMF version which can solely play Ogg Vorbis files and the MMF version which can also handle AAC, MP3, WMA, and other common audio file formats. I have the MMF version installed because most of my music is in AAC.

One of the things that annoy me with the built in Music Player of Nokia is that after playing an audio track, before playing the succeeding file, I get this weird little sound (sounds a bit like a tsk, if you want to get more technical, it sounds like a glottal stop) that is clearly audible when using headphones and I really find it annoying. OggPlay also has a tiny sound inbetween tracks but it’s less pronounced.

I went Oggplay’s website and downloaded the s60v3 version for my E61. I also found a mcNuOggPlayQVLS.SIS file in there that’s supposed to be a skin for phones with 320X240 resultion (which the E61 has). Installation of Oggplay went without a hitch, but when I tried to install the skin, the installation was halted. I got some error messages and I decided to just forget the skin and start OggPlay. Even without installing the skin, OggPlay seemed to work well.

I went back to the OggPlay website and found another skin which is for QVGA devices, and a lightbulb flared in my head. Hmmm… E61 is QVGA so this just might work (even if the QVGA file is for 240X320). I stubbornly installed it and it got through. I scratched my head and wondered why a file that shouldn’t work with my phone got installed with no glitches, but the one thats supposed to be for the E61 gets error messages. I clicked OggPlay once more and . .gaaah!!! . . . Oggplay occupied just two thirds of my screen. I tried to uninstall OggPlay and I couldn’t. Once more some error messages. I then uninstalled the skin and OggPlay reverted back to its original state.

OggPlay is skinnable. There are some interesting skins available out there but sadly none for the E61.

Digging through the options in OggPlay, I found probably the singular feature that made me switch music players. OggPlay has a volume boost feature. This can be accessed by Options > Options … > Settings > Volume Boost (and make sure no music file is playing, the options menu won’t show up if the player is active).

If you’re like me, you’ll find that the built in audio player sounds tiny especially when you’re walking in noisy streets or riding a subway train thats more crowded than Times Square on New Years Eve. The 12 db Volume Gain enabled me to totally tune out everything on my ordinary Audio Technica earbuds. I would assume that those with in-ear headphones wouldn’t have problems with the volume, but for the rest of us that can’t afford $100 canalphones, the volume boost is a welcome feature.

Also, don’t forget to assign hotkeys to everything. The default hotkeys (shortcuts) will have 2 and 8 functioning as PageUp and PageDown when scrolling through your music collection; 4 and 6 as Rewind and FastForward. All 12 hotkeyscan be customized and assigned to a specific number key (0 to 9, * and #).

One thing though that I miss with the built in Audio Player is its ability to minimize to the Standby Screen. Oh well . . .