The Very Best Free Software for Windows Mobile Phones - Smartphone or Pocket PC

I recently purchased a Samsung SCH-i760 cell phone which is a Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PC (PDA) phone. To take advantage of the phones abilities I went searching for the best free software for Windows Mobile. Here is a list of what I found.

UPDATE: I recently returned the Samsung SCH-i760 because I was tired of muffled, tinny voices when I used it like a regular phone. I also didn't like carrying around a brick. I always like flip phones, so I got the Verizon PN-820 Smartphone. It sounds better than the Samsung, but it has a terrible, tinny speakerphone. Anyway, now this site is updated with even more applications for smartphones!

Information you will need: When you go to download these different software programs you will sometimes find that there are many different versions of the software. You will need to know if your phone is a Smartphone or a Pocket PC. I noticed that many websites incorrectly label what type a phone is. Usually a Smartphone does not have a touchscreen. Usually a phone that is a Pocket PC will have a touchscreen. Another piece of information you might need is what type of processor your phone is using. On Windows Mobile 6 (wm6) I can find this information by going to Start -> Settings -> System -> About. There I can see that my phone is using an ARM processor.

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 ^{Windows Mobile 5 Only}

If you have Windows Mobile 6 on your phone then you can skip this section. If you have Windows Mobile 5 then you will want to install the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 at:

Go to: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/

Opera is no longer free for Windows Mobile but it does have a 30 day trial at this time. Many people say that Opera Web Browser for Windows Mobile makes web surfing look more like on your desktop PC then Mobile Internet Explorer does.

Calculators

gCalc

Go to: http://www.airfagev.com/downloads1.asp?id=216 I like to use gCalc instead of the calculator built in to windows mobile 5 smartphones because the built-in calculator doesn't show you what key to press for -, *, +, /. Also with this calculator if you press shift there are more options like square root.

Go to: http://micromeg.free.fr/english/progs.html#MSSConverter or http://www.freewareppc.com/calculator/mssconverter.shtml. MSS Converter allows you to make conversions between many units. Supported units are currencies (with the ability to automatic update rates), lengths, areas, volumes, masses, speeds, temperatures, pressures, times, angles, energies and powers.

Convert It ^(Smartphone)

Go to: http://www.airfagev.com/downloads1.asp?id=197 Convert It allows you to convert between currencies, lengths, areas, volumes and temperatures for your smartphone.

Customize Today (Home) Screen

HTC Home Plugin

Go to: http://www.pocketemu.com/downloads6.html Do you want the Today Screen on your mobile phone to have bigger icons with helpful information? If you have a touchscreen you will especially want this plugin because then you can get to important programs just by using your finger. This plugin works on both wm5 and wm6 just fine. Features Display Time in big numbers. Display number of emails, text messages, and missed calls. Quick access to Favorite people (Just click on their photo to call. Quick access to weather Quick access to frequently used programs Quick access to Music Player Note: If the HTC Home Customization does not show up on the Today screen then go to Start -> Settings -> Today -> Items. Then click OK and then OK again and wait a few seconds.

HTC Home Customizer

Go to: http://www.pocketemu.com/downloads3.html After you install the HTC Home Plugin above you will probably want to download this HTC Home Customizer. The original plugin has very dull looking almost black and white icons. With this HTC Home Customizer you can choose from a variety of colorful icons. Also with HTC Home Customizer you can choose to use Windows Media Player as the music player, because HTC Home Plugin wants to use another application, HTC Audio Manager. To do so go to Programs -> HTC Home Customizer -> HTC Options -> Default Music Player -> Windows Media Player. Or you can try to download HTC Audio Manager for Pocket PC here: http://rs30.rapidshare.com/files/36721305/HTC_Audio_Manager.cab

CLaunch

Go to: http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/~welic/claunch.html CLaunch lets you really customize your today screen with tabs and icons. You can customize the size of the icons so that they are big enough to press with your finger. The hardest part of CLaunch is that nothing is setup for you. You have to manually setup each program icon that you want to appear in each category.

Go to: http://www.cellosoft.com/software/view.php?id=42

At the above website you will want to download 4 files. The first file is the PocketDict v1.2 Setup file. It does not contain the dictionary words, just the program. Then you will want to download the OPTED dictionary for PocketDict, Encarta Dictionary for PocketDict and English-to-Spanish dictionary for PocketDict. Extract these three ZIP files contents to anywhere on your windows mobile cell phone (internal memory, memory card, etc.) Then run the PocketDict Setup file from your computer and it will install the program to your phone and automatically find the dictionaries on the phone.

Finance

Go to: http://www.camilloferraris.com/home.php?subaction=showfull&id=1158056824

When you always use your credit card or go shopping or go on holiday, it is always better sign down what you spent. This software allow you to annotate every month your income so you can keep track of your finances.

Flash

Go to: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer_pocketpc/downloads/player.html

With this flash player plugin you can display flash content when you use Pocket IE.

Language

Go to: http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/DownloadManualInstall.asp

MobiReader lets you read ebooks on your windows mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC. After you install it you can then download and read the free 25 language phrasebook that includes German, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Croatian, Turkish, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, and Thai. You can download the 25 language phrasebook here: http://www.mobilereference.com/Phrasebook/index.htm

Pocket Translator ^{(Pocket PC only)}

Pocket Translator comes standard with translation of words between english and french. But you can also download additional language addons such as Dutch, German, Latin, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.

You can also use PocketDict above for a English to Spanish dictionary.

Keyboards ^{(Pocket PC)}

The following applications for the pocket PC phone are bigger on screen keyboards for touchscreens. These are easier to type on with your finger or stylus then the keyboard built into windows mobile.

PocketCMKeyboard

Go to: http://www.pocketcm.com/keyboard.php This onscreen keyboard for touchscreens is bigger than the keyboard built into windows mobile, but it is still a little difficult to use with your fingers. Easier with fingernails. It doesn't actually press the key until you lift your finger off the screen, so you can make sure you are on the proper key.

TouchPal

Go to: http://www.cootek.com/ Touchpal offers a big keyboard that has predictive text. It has two letters per key so it is easier to press the buttons with your finger. You can also press a key and then hold and slide your finger left, right, up, or down to select capitals, the exact letter you want or other symbols.

Lyrics

smsTunes Lyrics

Go to:

smsTunes Lyrics lets you type in the number of the radio station you are listening to and then it displays what song is playing and the lyrics for the song.

Maps and Directions

Go to: http://google.com/gmm/ on your PC or your phone's web browser to download Google Maps. Google Maps is a great program for showing maps of areas, searching for businesses and restaurants, and getting directions. It also shows traffic of certain locations and works with bluetooth GPS dvices.

Live Search for Windows Mobile

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/livesearch/default.mspx on your PC or http://ls.windowsmobile.com on your phone's web browser. Find local listings search for businesses, shopping, restaurants, movies and more. Display traffic. Works with bluetooth GPS devices.

Messengers

Go to: http://www.fring.com/

Fring lets you send instant messages or talk to others (VOIP) with Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, SIP and Twitter.

Group SMS

Go to: http://www.shubaroo.com/index.php?module=group_sms Windows Mobile text messaging does not include an option to make a group of contacts and then send messages to them. Instead you have to select each contact individually if you want to send them a message. GroupSMS solves that problem by adding a group option to the Text Message Menu. NOTE: In Outlook and in your contacts Groups might be called Categories. So in Outlook you would edit a contact and then add him to a category. You can create a new category, possibly called "Close Friends". Then in your phone you can edit a contact and scroll down to Categories and add them to a category.

imov Messenger Basic

Go to: http://www.movsoftware.com/products/imov/imov.htm

With imov Messenger you can login to AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk or Jabber and send instant messages and look at your buddy list.

Missed Phone Call and SMS Text Message Reminders

Go to: http://magazin.softimage.cz/dontforget/news/

DontForget is a missed phone call and SMS text Message Reminder for Windows Mobile SmartPhones only. It does not seem to work for Pocket PC. It just comes up with an error. Note: If DontForget vibrates even after you uncheck the vibrate option or if it vibrates forever then uncheck the "Enable LED Alert" option. You might have a Smartphone without an LED (possibly a PN-820 or a Blackjack?) and this causes the vibrating.

PhoneAlarm Lite

Go to: http://www.pocketmax.net/phoneAlarm.html Unfortunately PhoneAlarm is not free. But it does come with a 30 day trial as of this writing. It is the only messaging reminder that I have tried that works well. A couple other programs that worked for Pocket PCs and Smartphones, namely MyReminder and PhoneReminder did not work well and they both wanted you to pay for them after a free trial. MyRemdinder did not give any reminders half the time and PhoneReminder wanted you to supply a .wav file. But most cell phones don't have wav files anymore, they have mp3 files. But as for PhoneAlarm, it plays a little reminder beep every minute or so when you miss a call or a SMS text message. It also has a Pocket PC version and a Smartphone version. In addition to that it also provides information regarding your signal strength percentage, your memory usage percentage and your battery percentage left. I am just using the Lite version.

Go to: http://page.freett.com/todamitsu/GSFinderE.htm

GSFINDER+ is a good file navigator, but you will especially want this program if your mobile phone has wifi. With it you can map a network folder and stream music and videos and transfer files over a wi-fi network.

Notes ^{(Smartphone Only)}

Go to: http://www.selfmummy.com/notebarn/

NoteBarn is a free note taking application that requires the .Net Compact Framework 2 to work. It does not sync with Outlook Notes, but syncs with Outlook through Tasks. After you have installed it make sure you do the following for it to work:

1. Start NoteBarn.
2. Click on Menu -> Create Container Task.

PocketNotepad

Go to: http://www.tillanosoft.com/ce/pnotepad.html

PocketNotepad also starts in T9 Predictive text mode and can open/save txt files. It features cut/copy/paste/find/word wrap. Note: It will not synce with Activesync however.

SmartphoneNotes

Go to: http://www.syncdata.it/sphnotes.html

Ok, SmartphoneNotes is not free. But it does come with a free trial. If you really need your smartphone to sync with Notes in Outlook then you need to use this application. It really works!

Radio

Go to: http://bigrradio.com/ on your phone's browser, select a station and it immediately streams through media player on the phone! Includes many stations such as 70s FM, 80s FM, 80s Metal, 90s FM, 90s Alternative, Classic Rock, Grunge FM, The Rock Mix, Alternative Rock, Top 40 Hits, Country, Soul Hiphop, Jazz FM, Blues FM, Business Talk Radio and more.

La Vella Mobile Radio

Go to: http://www.lavellamobile.com/download.htm

This software only gives you a couple of free stations.

SiriusWM5

Go to: http://www.geekstoolbox.com/

If you already have a subscription to Sirius Satellite radio then you can use this software to type in your access name and password and listen to the stations on your mobile phone.

Record Conversations

Please help me finish this list by letting me know if your windows mobile phone records both parties in a conversation using the applications below or any other application. You may need to try it in "speakerphone" mode. Please leave a comment to let us know.

X = Did not record conversation
• = Recorded conversations
SP Only = Only records conversation in speakerphone mode

	LivePVR	Resco Audio Recorder	Vito AudioNotes
PN-820	X	X	X
Motorola Q	X	X	X
Samsung Blackjack	X	X	X

Regedit

Go to: http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/RegEdit/ for Pocket PC.

Go to: http://www.phm.lu/Products/Smartphone/RegEdit/ for Smartphone.

PHM Registry Editor lets you edit the registry of your windows mobile phone.

Remote Control

Go to: http://www.mymobiler.com/

My Mobiler is a great free program that lets you view and control your phones screen right on your computer desktop. You can control everything with the keyboard and the mouse. You can also capture screen images from your phone.

Real VNC for Windows Mobile ^{(Pocket PC)}

Go to: http://www.realvnc.com/products/beta/ce/

This Real VNC viewer lets you control a desktop computer from your mobile phone. Just take the .exe file and copy it to your phone and then run it and it starts the VNC viewer.

.Net VNC Viewer ^(Smartphone)

Go to: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=128549

This VNC viewer works better for smartphones. Just copy the .exe file to your phone and then run it from a file explorer and it starts.

Ringtones

Making Ringtones: You can use Windows Media Player to rip songs from a CD to MP3 files. You can also use a free program called CDEX located at http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/ to rip songs from a CD to MP3 or Wav. Afterward you can use a free program called Audacity located at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to edit the mp3 audio file and take just the clip of the song that you want to use as the ringtone. Note: Audacity requires LAME MP3 encoder in order to export to MP3 located here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3

Vibrate and Ring

Smartphone: To set your phone to ring and vibrate at the same time you have to understand windows mobile profiles. When you go to Start -> Settings -> Sounds that just lets you select the audio files for your ringtone, alarms and messages. To adjust the ringer to vibrate and ring or vibrate then ring you have to go to Start -> Setttings -> Profiles.

To edit a profile, scroll to it and press Menu -> Edit.

Default Profile Settings:

• Normal - Rings and message tones are set to one less then loudest volume.
• Silent - Phone will not ring or vibrate, it will just light up.
• Meeting - Phone will vibrate for calls, messages and alarms.
• Outdoor - Rings and message tones are set to loudest volume.

I like to edit the Outdoor profile and change the ringtone and the message tone to Vibrate and Ring. In that case if I am in a noisy environment and I can't hear my phone, I will be able to feel it vibrate.

Screen Capture

Go to: http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/fp/screen_capture.php

With Ilium Screen Capture you can take pictures of what your current cell phone screen looks like by using a button (such as the windows smartkey button) or by choosing the picture to be taken in a certain amount of seconds.

You can also use My Mobiler above to capture screen shots of your phone.

StopWatch

StopTime ^{(Pocket PC Only)}

Go to: http://home.comcast.net/~jonsachs/#StopTime%202.0 StopTime is a stopwatch, countdown timer, note taker (draw with different colors) and a flashlight.

Stopwatch ^(Smartphone)

Go to: http://www.airfagev.com/downloads1.asp?id=81 This application is a stop watch, lap timer and countdown timer.

Go to: http://orionic.en.softonic.com/pocket

With Orionic you can view the stars, planets and constellations on your phone's screen. It can identify the names of the stars for you.

Leo's Void ^(Smartphone)

Go to: http://www.smartphone.net/software_detail.asp?id=1418

Leo's Void is a virtual planetarium for your smartphone.

Ephemeris 1.0 ^{(Pocket Pc Only)}

Go to: http://home.comcast.net/~jonsachs/#Ephemeris%201.0

Enter in the date and a location and Ephemeris shows you the sunrise/set time and the moonrise/set time. It also displays the current phase of the moon. Including a moonphase calendar.

Smartphone users can try Weather Watcher Mobile for some of these moon phase and sunrise/sunset features.

Task Manager

Go to: http://www.smartphone.net/software_detail.asp?id=3177&associateid=281

Most Pocket PCs come with a task manager. But many Windows Mobile 5 Smartphones do not. My Verizon PN-820 does a pretty good job of monitoring the tasks and shutting them down by itself. But sometimes an application gets stuck and it is nice to be able to use a task manager to end it. WM5 Task Manager works well for that and it also displays your current battery level, RAM usage, internal memory available, and storage card memory available.

Theme Generators

When I first saw Theme Generators I was excited because I thought that I could customize the size of the icons and choose what programs are displayed on the Today Screen. I was wrong. Theme Generators basically let you change the text colors, the bar colors and the background images. If you want to actually customize the Today screen then go to the section: Customize Today Screen

But if you want to create a theme then here are a few programs to use:

Microsoft Theme Generator

Microsoft has two theme generators. One of them is for Windows Mobile Smartphones and the other is for Pocket PCs.

Smartphones:

Pocket PC:

After you have created your theme copy it to the Windows folder on your phone then you can change the theme by going to Start -> Settings -> Today.

ThemeGenCE 2.5

Go to: http://themegence.en.softonic.com/pocket

ThemeGenCE is harder to use then Microsoft's versions but it has a little bit more options and it can load TSK files that you copy from the windows folder of your mobile phone whereas Microsoft's Theme Generator couldn't.

Tuner ^{(Pocket PC Only)}

Go to: http://www.frequencytuner.solcon.nl/

Frequency Tuner is a program that can measure the frequency of a sound and convert it to a note.

UnZIP Utility

Go to: http://www.cnetx.com/ezyUnZIP/download.asp

Most .cab files for your windows mobile phone are compressed in .ZIP files when you download them from the web. This program lets you unzip and run the .cab files right from your phone.

Total Commander ^{(Smartphone or Pocket PC)}

Go to: http://www.ghisler.com/smartphone.htm

Total Commander is a file explorer, but it also includes: zip and unzip, text editor, copy, move, etc.

How to unzip: The bad thing about this utility is it doesn't automatically let you run cab files from within zip files. You have to unzip it first and that is not self-explanatory. First you select the zip file, then you select the file inside of it and then you select Menu -> Copy and it will then specify that it is going to unzip the file into the current folder.

Video

PocketTV

The Core Pocket Media Player

Go to: http://tcpmp.en.softonic.com/pocket for Pocket PC.

Go to: http://tcpmp.en.softonic.com/windowsmobile for Smartphone.

This media player for your pocket PC can play DIVX movies, MPG movies, AVI vidoes and MP3 songs. It sometimes pauses or skips frames on certain video files.

Avot

Go to: http://www.avotmedia.com/ on your PC or http://avotmv.com on your phone's web browser. Avot lets you search for videos that are available on the web and then it streams it to your cell phone.

Weather

Go to: http://www.singerscreations.com/AboutWeatherWatcherMobile.asp

With Weather Watcher Mobile you can create different locations and get the weather for the week on your mobile phone.

Other Features: If you change the view to Now it will tell you the current moon phase. If you change the view to Daily it will tell you the sunrise/sunset times.