Mobileplay is a new Freeware product recently listed at FreewarePalm.com that is suppose to work on any Palm hardware and OS version. They supplied the following description:
"Mobileplay delivers news, weather, finance, sports, blogs, games, trivia, movie listings, travel info, and more. All for free. Content updates are 10X faster than a browser and 10X easier to view and navigate on a mobile device. Easy download and install. Content partners include USA TODAY, Weather.com, Sporting News, PC World, Fodor's, About.com and more. Download via wireless, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or desktop cradle/cable sync. Sync-and-go delivery stores updates on the device, so they can be viewed offline. Mobileplay's peer-to-peer features allow users to save or share articles, games, and more with others both in and outside of the Mobileplay network."
The above description, linked with the information I found on the Mobileplay website made me think that they were re-examining the "how to provide offline web services and information" question. In fact, I thought it might very well be a refreshingly new revision / version of the mobile user staple AvantGo. It just might be, but for now, Mobileplay is still in Beta, and, it reared it's ugly beta head at me just about every time I tried a new feature.
After reading through the Mobileplay website and deciding it sounded good enough to try, I started the registration process. Most of the registration went well, the questions weren't too intrusive, and the process seemed well thought out, but when it got to the stage where I identified my mobile hardware (Palm T|X) and started the download process Mobileplay kept locking up with an Apache Tomcat error The requested resource (/registration/Mobileplay.exe) is not available. BTW, I did like the fact that Mobileplay gives you the option of downloading two different versions of their installer: one for people / devices that must (or just want the ability to) sync through a Desktop, and a second version that lets your device sync directly to Mobileplay.
OK, since the Mobileplay error meant I couldn't download their software directly from them, I went back to FreewarePalm.com (where I originally learned of Mobileplay) and downloaded the archive from there - without further incident.
Unfortunately, the process didn't get any better after I had the software. It seemed to install on my desktop and PDA fine, but every hotsync after the initial one that installed Mobileplay, caused my Palm, my Desktop, and often my internet connection to lock up solid. I had to end task on the hotsync process and several times I also had to reboot, in order to stop the hung Mobileplay update and free up my TCPIP stack.
When I first installed Mobileplay on my T|X, I made sure I started up the software and setup my UserID and Password for my Mobileplay.com account, and selected the various services I wanted to install. When Mobileplay consistently locked up my hotsync process, I thought I might have entered an incorrect UserID or Password: so I went back and double checked them both without finding any errors.
I eventually thought of trying the Mobileplay sync via WiFi. That seemed to work fine (at least it didn't lock up my T|X) but it was slow, and most of the information I subscribed to didn't sync the first time, so I had to repeat the slow sync several times. I never did get all the information services to sync, but I did get most of them. Unfortunately most of them were disappointing.
The whole Mobileplay interface is extremely slow. When you are testing beta software, you expect things to be slow, if only because the developer probably still has all the diagnostic and tracking routines turned on: but this felt really slow, 7 to 10 seconds for it to refresh the opening screen on a 312MHz processor! Feels like 3 minutes. Oh, and that's after having to click on the "No Thanks" button for the advertisement that displays each and every time you change displays; in fact, the advertising seemed to be the only part of Mobileplay that was working 'normally'. There were a lot of other features that still have quite a ways to go before Mobileplay will be a hit outside the USA. The weather forecast is a perfect example: from the quick look I gave the US selections, it only supports the major centres. The non-US selections were extremely slim pickings, listing weather for only the most major of worldly centres, entirely missing half the Canadian Provincial Capitals (like Winnipeg, MB) and often providing only one city per European country.
Mobileplay pointed out to me that while the initial listing of US selections only include the major centres, they do support the entire US because:
you can put in any U.S. zip code and get local weather. (Sorry we don't have Canadian zips covered!)
To sum things up: the descriptions provided on the
Mobileplay website lead me to believe that one day, Mobileplay will be installed on as many, in fact - probably more, PDA's as AvantGo. I can definitely see the bones of a great product under all the problems I encountered. But unfortunately, it's just not ready yet!
Updated: 2006 May 31, Wednesday at 21:10
I contacted Mobileplay via email after posting this review, and supplied them with a quick description of the problems I encountered (as well as a link to the review). They replied today (actually, James Ryan, the CEO, took the time to reply to me) stating that my problems seemed to be, maybe not unique, but at least unusual (my wording). In response, I have edited this article to clarify a few things, and I'll make a new post as well.
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