14 DAY TRIAL // Usually, there are problems with other formats than the "king" MP3, as this particular one is so widely-spread that it has almost become better known than the WAV file. And I am not joking: I happened to be talking to a group of teenagers out of whom quite few really knew what WAV files were and altogether what's on with computer sounds; the first file format they have mentioned as I asked them to name the first one to cross their minds was - unanimously - the MP3.
Well, even further in what MP3 is concerned, I have been surprised to see that developers around the world have thought of such interesting ways to "tune" the MP3 format. Namely, the first software of this morning, the G-Soft EXEm - turning your usual MP3 songs in executable files, running on their own player. I don't know exactly how useful this thing is, but I like it: let's advance!
The Looks
It's rather hard for me to find the perfect word that should describe the GUI of G-Soft EXEm without being harsh or inappropriate: it is so simple and "designless" that I really don't know how I should think about it. Should I say that the developers have not put any design effort in creating this GUI just because it really did not need any fancy looks and it can work just fine as it is? Or should I be drastic and rate it bad because there's nothing eye candy-like in it? We'll see...
G-Soft EXEm is actually a small, fixed-size window, with a very DOS animation as a background: do you remember the Starfield screensaver? Well?you've got it: this is how the background of this window looks like. It's definitely not bad, but this is not a thing to be truly proud of as either; it's so old and common that even children should know about it.
This small window houses 2 active elements and - as I say "active" - I mean actually interactive: the field for browsing the MP3 files you want to "execute" and the "Compile" button. As you can see in the screenshots at the end of this article, the overall interface appearance is more than simple and intuitive and this makes working with G-Soft EXEm a really easy task, fit for anyone, even for the beginners.
Another window is opened as you play the freshly obtained executable MP3s, but it is completely independent from the G-Soft EXEm: it is just an interface embedded in the new file you have obtained. It is also a very simple and even smaller window, which displays the common commands and look-a-likes of the (now notorious) MplayerC or - if you want - the Win98 Media Player with the Starfield (only white dots on black background) as well. I guess there is really no need for me to describe the way command buttons look like in such a well-known GUI...
Well, that would be all I could decently (becoming neither silly nor boring) say about the way the G-Soft EXEm looks. Extremely simple and intuitive, easy to use and taking up little space on your desktop, the GUI of the G-Soft EXEm is a nice example of sheer simplicity and functionality; even though I'd say a nicer, more XP, even Vista-look would be just excellent.
The Works
Things are as simple as they can be when it comes to what the G-Soft EXEm does and I will be rather short here: this program will simply take one MP3 file you indicated and process it into an executable file. Launching this file will actually open the smaller window I have been telling you about, which is in fact a frontend for the Microsoft Virtual Basic (VB) runtime files.
This means you no longer need a player to listen to that particular MP3 (now executable) file, as it already contains a set of instructions according to which it will play by itself with the help of native OS-components.
Now, a little theoretical effort to think about the potential utility of such files: I can't really see why would anyone want to spend a lot of time processing huge MP3 collections into executable MP3s...especially that you can't set up a playlist, therefore not being able to play a sequence of files one after the other.
Nevertheless, the basic idea at the basis of this software is a pretty cool one: the executable MP3 will create a temporary file which will last until the playback window is closed and then it will erase by itself from you hard drive. One more thing I have noticed about the G-Soft EXEm was the fact that it does add very little to the size of the original MP3s: a 3.80 MB file turned into a 3.82 MB executable file, so as you see, everything is quite cool here.
After having passed the issue to some of my colleagues - both reviewers, webscript or Windows editors - we have reached some personal conclusions according to which we were not able to find a proper use for these executable MP3 files; yet, everybody seemed to like the main idea, the concept behind the G-Soft EXEm project.
The Good
The phrase above should say about everything regarding the G-Soft EXEm: a very fine idea, turned into a nice software. We'll just skip the "useful" issue here... :)
The Bad
I couldn't find bad things in such a simple piece of code, but I have to write some recommendations in this final chapter. First of all, a more "contemporary" GUI would be absolutely great; moreover, a player-interface to display the filename of the MP3 would be useful.
The Truth
Even if there is no urge for such executable MP3-things and I can't think of someone to drop Foobar or Winamp for the Visual Basic player, I guess the 2 dollars it sells for could be a fun investment.
Please look at the few screenshots I have managed to make for G-Soft EXEm:
