Does anyone know of compatible software that can be loaded on either the external mem card or on the phone that would provide better control over the playback of mp3 files?

I use that mostly for audio books and have been using pockettunes on my palm zire and have been very happy with it. It holds my place, allows for rewind and fast forward and some other nice features.

If I could get something like that for my lg8300 it would solve many problems for me