Finally!!! A Remote Control for Pocket Tunes on my Treo!!!

Ever since I bought my first Treo nearly two years ago I have been clamoring for a remote control that I could use to skip and pause tracks when I listen to music with Pocket Tunes Deluxe on the go – I’m ecstatic to say that I finally found a solution that works well and simply.

Quite by accident I came across an application aptly named ‘Freedom’ which integrates with Pocket Tunes to transform most corded stereo headsets with a call answer button available for our Treo into a remote control (my own preferred music headset continues to be the stereo Seidio 2in1 Retractable).

After installing Freedom (screenshots below) all you need to do is tick “Enable redirect audio to headset” and select “Head Set” under Manual Audio Output.  The second part is to push on the “Pocket Tunes Setup” button and then tick “Stop PTunes when I get a call” and adjust your headset button preferences – I chose Pause with one button press and Next Track with two – in essence this is like a single and double-click on the button.

The button and volume slider on Seidio’s 2in1 Retractable headset (below) are easily accessible and now thanks to Freedom sure beats having to 1) power the Treo and 2) press left/right 5Way every time that I want to skip or pause a track – particularly when you’re on the go and our Treo is in a coat or suit pocket as happened to me a few days ago.  Additionally, as I’ve mentioned before, I still consider the Seidio Shield Holster (below right) to be the single most convenient case for music (and one of the best all around).

I also tested this setup using the standard mono headset that comes with our Treo and if you don’t currently own a 2in1 stereo headset then you may want to test Freedom’s functionality with it.

There are no settings whatsoever required within Pocket Tunes but I suggest setting the volume to the maximum there and then control the volume directly via the 2in1 headset instead.

There are a two small and mildly annoying things that I found using Freedom and the headset as a remote control.  First, every time you press the button to control pTunes the screen will light (with Keyguard on) for 30 seconds (or more depending on your Power Prefs) and thus eat a little of your battery.  Secondly, if you press the button to pause you will have to resume playing within 30 seconds (Power Prefs again) because otherwise you will need to access pTunes on your Treo directly again.  I can certainly live with both of these tiny shortcomings in return for the benefit of remote control functionality.

It’s evident that I would much prefer to have Freedom’s functionality built directly into Pocket Tunes (which will hopefully happen at some point) but in the meantime the combination of this new application with Pocket Tunes, Seidio’s 2in1 Retractable headset and the Seidio Shield Holster are getting our Treo ever closer to a perfect MP3 player. 

Add to this a 1GB SD card (or larger) and a subscription to one of the music services like Yahoo! Unlimited that I reviewed last week or StationRipper to get your favourite Shoutcast stations or even Podcasts downloaded to your card and we’ll have enough to truly take the musical enjoyment on our Treo to a superior level. 

There’s no doubt that I’m completely and utterly over the moon to finally have found a remote control that works with Pocket Tunes and my only question is: why didn’t I learn about this sooner!?!?!

You can download a free 10 day trial of Freedom or purchase it for $14.95 (arguably a bit pricey but then again nobody else has come up with a solution that works).
Pocket Tunes Deluxe [Treonauts Software Store]
Seidio 2in1 Retractable Headset [Treonauts Shop]
Stereo Corded Headsets with Call Answer Button [Treonauts Shop]

Treonauts are always humming a new tune…