Kinoma Notes

PalmAddict readers have spoken, and we’re honored that they picked Kinoma Play as 2009’s Best Multimedia Program for Windows Mobile.

Over 60,000 votes were cast in PalmAddicts’ year-long reader survey, and the other nominees we were up against were the best-of-the-best.

Many thanks to the PalmAddict readers who voted for us!

• PalmAddict Reader Awards 2009 results

When I was a kid, I couldn’t get enough of “how stuff works” books. Pre-Game Boy, they were one of the few things that could keep me occupied for a few hours — it was really cool to learn about the secrets behind of everyday things.

Recently, one of our customers (thanks, Grogck!) let us know about a cool collection of podcasts from the HowStuffWorks folks. Like the books I used to love, they’re full of interesting revelations.

The HowStuffWorks podcasts are available right now, in Kinoma Guide > Education > HowStuffWorks.

• BrainStuff – If you’ve ever wondered how cabin pressure works or why apples turn brown, then this is the podcast for you. Listen in as Marshall Brain delievers a much-needed dose of daily ingenuity in BrainStuff.
• High Speed Stuff – Addicted to speed, cars or trivia? Then this podcast is for you. From the early days of racing to a future filled with flying, shape-changing cars, the High Speed Stuff team takes a look at all things automotive.
• Stuff From the B-Side – Whether you’re into classical music, zydeco, punk rock or anything in-between, the genre-hopping B-Side team is ready to explain all things musical in this podcast.
• Stuff Mom Never Told You – Do male and female brains really differ? Are men and women “partisan” when it comes to office politics? Check out this podcast to get a female perspective.
• Stuff You Missed in History Class – What made Peter the Great so great? What made Henry VII so bad, or Ivan so terrible? Tune into this podcast to learn the stories behind the lines of your textbooks.
• Stuff You Should Know – Why robots can’t get married? Are exorcisms real? Listen in as the Stuff You Should Know takes a look at astonishing facts from across the globe in this podcast.
• TechStuff – Whether you’re looking for the scoop on the latest online innovations or the oldest video game, TechStuff is for you. Tune in as our experts take a look at the past, present and future of all things tech in this podcast.

Enjoy!

As usual, this new Kinoma Guide content is free for all Kinoma Play customers.

If you have favorite podcasts, radio stations, video streams or other media, send a URL and short description to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to discover and enjoy.

Zune Pass is a music subscription service from Microsoft’s. Think of it as “all you can eat” music rental for a monthly subscription fee.

That’s pretty neat, but who wants to carry around a Zune and their phone? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could play Zune Pass music on your phone?

Kinoma Play to the rescue

With Kinoma Play, you can enjoy your entire Zune Pass collection — not to mention the rest of your media library! — anywhere, anytime by installing Orb on your home PC or media server.

Not every song available in the Zune store has “subscription” rights, although most of my favorites did. And if you do buy tracks, those MP3 files will play perfectly with Kinoma Play as well.

Install and configure Orb

You can find instructions for installing Orb, and using Kinoma Play to stream your complete media library from your PC here.

Important: As I write this, Orb 2.5 has a bug that interferes with Zune Pass streaming. For now, use the latest 2.0.1 release from the Orb download page.

Try it for free!

Don’t have Kinoma Play yet? Get Kinoma FreePlay from http://kinoma.com/get/, and a 14-day Zune Pass trial from http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunepass/.

Are you a mobile network operator or device maker looking to add unique value to your products and services?

Are you a content developer trying to figure out the best way to distribute your content to phones?

Kinoma is at CES 2010, and we’d love to talk about how we can help.

Please email sales@kinoma.com with your contact info, some available meeting times, and a bit of background. We’ll get back you ASAP, as our CES schedule allows.

Kinoma Play is chock full of little niceties that customers really appreciate. We’d need a 20-foot-tall product page to list them all, so instead we like to talk about them here.

For example, did you know that Kinoma Play automatically remembers where you stopped playing something so you don’t have to?

This is a super-convenient way to nibble on long-form content like podcasts and audiobooks as you have time — nibble while you shop, nibble while you work out, nibble while you drive (with audio-only content, please!).

History continued

This feature works great with History, another handy Kinoma Play feature.

Choose History on the Home screen for a list of everything you’ve listened to lately, and then choose an item to continue right where you left off.

Phone interruptions? No problem

This feature also lets you auto-continue after you make or receive a phone call.

Kinoma Play automatically pauses what you’re playing and then automatically resumes it when the call completes, slowly fading up the volume as it does. Smooooth!