INTRODUCTION 

 

Many of us who purchase Smart Phones do so not only because we wish to  wirelessly wrap our words around the whole wide world, but because we are told that we can tirelessly titillate our tiny minds with virtually all videos available to sentient bipedal vertebrates on our new mobile medium of mass media.

 It does not take long to realize that all that glitters is not gold for as we begin to explore today’s video digital delights, we discover that not only does our new piece of talk time technology not ship with the necessary software in order to access free online video content such as that from YouTube but,  to our horror, we also discover that what little online video content we may view on our coy silicon conveyance will be rationed out at the sole discretion  of our wise and oh-so-wonderful wireless provider and, at a premium.    

 

I, therefore, hereby call upon the peoples of the planet to demand and declare videos and justice for all. 

 

Hmm!  Nothing happened.  Oh well, it make take a little while longer, eh? 

 

Until that day when there is wireless liberty, videos, and justice for all, I suggest you read the following in order to enjoy free online video content on your mobile Smart Phone via vTap.

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Make sure you have an unlimited data plan setup on your mobile phone, from your wireless provider, before viewing any online video content from the Internet.

 

V TAP DESCRIPTION

vTap allows you to browse and view web videos from around the world including those from YouTube, Google Video and others.  Stay up-to-date with the latest news from CNN, Fox, CBS, all right from the comfort of your mobile phone. 

 

GET V TAP

 

Note:  It is strongly recommended that you elect to install vTap on your device’s storage card, if available. 

 

1.

Download a free copy of vTap.  You can (A) have vTap installed directly to your Windows Mobile device by typing http://vtap.com into your Windows Mobile browser and follow the onscreen instructions; or (B) you can install vTap through your PC via ActiveSync or through the MS Vista Mobile Center. 

Click Here to download installer for non Touch-screen models (Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone and Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard Edition).

 

Click Here to download installer for Touch-screen models (Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC and

Windows Mobile 6.0 Classic and Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional).

 

You can also download the .cab files directly to your PC and transfer them to your Windows Mobile device instead of using the installer.  (For advanced users only.)

 

2.

After successful installation of the vTap application, first, power off the device and then, second, power it on again.

 

That is all there is to installing vTap.

 

USING V TAP ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE

 

In this section of the article, I will discuss how to use vTap on a Windows Mobile Smart Phone. 

 

First, I will describe how a sighted (no access technology) user operates the program then I will provide detailed instructions for low vision and blind vTap clients using Mobile Speak for Smart Phones.  I strongly recommend that sighted users read this article in its entirety as some aspects of the interface apply to everyone, however, in my effort to reduce redundancy I will discuss it only once. 

 

Sighted Users (no access technology):

 

1.

From the phone’s Start menu, select vTap.  After the application opens, note that the Left Soft key is labeled “Refresh” and the Right Soft key is labeled “Tools”.

 

2.

At the top of the display screen, select either WebClips (recommended) or WikiPedia. 

 

3.

An edit field text box labeled with “Start Typing” is located on the second line of the display.  Press the Down Arrow key, once, to enter this edit field in order to begin typing a search term/phrase or press it more than once to scroll through a listbox of various preloaded items.  Please note that the text edit field is dynamic.  That is, as each letter or number is entered, the preloaded display list will change in order to match the search term being entered.

 

4.

Press the [Enter] key on a highlighted item.  A short description will be displayed for the item you have selected. 

 

5.

Press the [Enter] key, again, to play the video.  Please note that at the bottom of the display screen you will see a number representing the percentage of the video clip downloaded.  Playback will begin when this number reaches 100%.

 

Finally, explore the Tools menu as doing so will enhance your vTap experience.  Don’t worry, the Tools menu is quite intuitive. 

 

Visually impaired Users (Using access technology such as Mobile Speak for Smart Phones):

 

There are two ways to interface with vTap.  I strongly recommend the second method over the first.

 

First Method:

In order to access vTap as described above, you will need to be an advanced user of Mobile Speak’s Review Cursor.  (I do not recommend this method for most users of MSS)  This is because, at the time of this writing, the vTap user interface is not completely accessible with MSS.  I am happy to report that all of the application’s menu items are accessible.  Further, using the Review Cursor, you can determine what percentage of the video has been downloaded.  Should you decide to use vTap as described above, please keep the following five points in mind: 

 

(1)You may select WebClips or WikiPedia from within the Tools menu.  (2) From within the Tools menu, you can select to turn video off.  This will allow your selections to be downloaded more quickly.  (3) When you attempt to use the arrow keys to scroll up and down the vTap home screen as described above, MSS will say only “Start Typing”.  You must invoke the Review Cursor to read the screen.  (4) Pressing letters or numbers while on the home screen will cause them to be entered into the edit field list box.  (5) In order to update the percentage number, described above, you must first invoke and then exit the Review Cursor repeatedly.  It is my fervent hope that Code Factory will update MSS so it is completely compatible with vTap.

 

Second Method:

 

This method is by far and away the easiest and most comprehensive and satisfying method of using vTap.  In fact, I recommend it for both sighted and non sighted vTap users, alike. 

 

1.

After successfully installing vTap on your mobile device, in your phone’s browser go to:

http://m.vtap.com

 

Here you will find a mobile friendly website with all of the features described above and more.  You can even create an RSS feed and a login account for future visits. 

 

2.

After locating a video via the search edit field, Click the [Enter] key on it.  A second, more detailed page will appear.

 

3.

Scroll down to the link on the page that reads, “Click here if you already have vTap installed on your device.” 

 

4.

Simply Click on the link and the vTap application will open, buffer, and begin to play the selected video.  Please note that in order to hear the download progress, you must invoke the MSS Review Cursor and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the download percentage.

 

Congratulations and Enjoy,

 

Mark