Windows Mobile Software Editor's Choice Selection
Editor’s Choice Selection of Best Windows Mobile Applications for Treo Pro, Treo 800w and Other WM Smartphones
A lot of Treonauts – particularly those new to Windows Mobile software – have asked me to recommend some of the favourite applications that I currently have installed on my Treo Pro and so I thought that the easiest way to do this would be via a post listing all of these.
As you’ll see below, I currently have some 22 software titles for Windows Mobile installed across 6 categories (Utilities, PIM, Communication, Information, Web Browsing and Media/Entertainment). Although I’m sure that I will be adding more applications in the coming weeks and months I can pretty much guarantee that I will be keeping most if not all of the terrific ones listed below for some time to come.
Also, although I have thus far only been able to review a couple of these applications in full (such as Spb Mobile Shell and Kinoma Play) I will naturally continue to review the remaining 20+ titles very soon.
UTILITIES
(Total Investment: 6 Apps – $101.79)
Spb Mobile Shell ($29.95)
The first program a Windows Mobile user needs to install. It very dramatically improves the standard user interface and adds features that most users expect from a modern smartphone. I would personally have found it much harder to make the move to the Treo Pro had I not had Spb Mobile Shell installed. (See my full review)
MagiKB Lite ($14.95)
MagiKB Lite is an extremely convenient application that allows you to easily capitalize letters or use punctuation without using the shift or option keys as well as to select and operate on text using the D-pad on your Windows Mobile smartphone. The app is arguably just a little bit expensive for what it does but then again considering the number of keystrokes I’m likely to input during the lifetime of my device I think that it’s well worth it.
[NOTE: If you have MagiKB Lite you must ensure that you also install the free HookMgr from the same developer. HookMgr prevents MagiKB from disabling the Keyguard on your smartphone.]
SKTools ($16.99)
Clean up your smartphone with SKTools. SKTools is a powerful (understatement) maintenance toolkit that helps you keep your device neat and tidy. Dust the cobwebs off your registry & file system, free-up RAM, locate duplicates and much more. In my case I was particularly interested in the ability to move apps from main memory to my SD card among others.
Best Taskman ($9.95)
TaskMan provides you with 4 main views: Running applications, Start, System information and Processes. You can switch between them with left/right cursor keys or by selecting the needed view from 'View' menu. It’s a shame that Taskman does not offer a Today plug-in to quickly launch one of your applications with just a few keystrokes but I still like it a lot.
Resco Explorer ($29.95)
A powerful file management utility that implements all standard features such as file/folder manipulation. Thus, you can copy, move or delete files, create folders, run programs and much more.
My MobileR (Free)
This is a very powerful and ultra-simple application that allows you to view your smartphone screen on your desktop and to control it by using your desktop keyboard and mouse. Additionally it allows you to copy/cut/paste text from your desktop to the mobile, capture screens (screenshots + video record), drag and drop files to your smartphone. Very, very highly recommended.
PIM
(Total Investment: 1 App – $49.95)
Pocket Mirror Professional ($49.95)
PocketMirror Professional for Windows Mobile is the only Outlook synchronization software that allows you to: 1) Synchronize multiple Outlook Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks folders with the corresponding Pocket Outlook applications on the handheld AND 2) Synchronize Outlook folders and categories on your PC with corresponding categories on your Windows Mobile handheld or smartphone.
Considering that I have over twenty Oulook Contact folders with over 3,000 names it’s clear that I could not use the full power of my Treo Pro to make calls quickly and efficiently without having Pocket Mirror Professional installed.
COMMUNICATION
(Total Investment: 4 Apps – $72.90)
Sunnysoft CallingCard ($18.00)
This application handles the whole process of using prepaid calling cards to make cheaper calls for you. All that without having to type in a single number. Just choose the destination number you want to call directly from your Contacts list. The integration with your Phone application is seamless and although it’s not initially intuitive to setup once it works it work really well.
SMS Chat ($14.95)
SMS-Chat brings threaded SMS messaging to Windows Mobile: it organizes your SMS correspondence into separate chats and is the closest SMS application that I have come across to match the best practices established by the Palm OS Messaging application. Unfortunately, for some reason the developers of SMS Chat are entirely focused on “thumb” navigation and thus are missing the opportunity to deliver a truly stunning solution. Having said this, for now at least it’s the best out there.
IM+ All-in-One Messenger ($39.95)
All popular messengers (AIM/ iChat, MSN/ Live Messenger, Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk and MySpace) in one solution are on your Pocket PC. Winner of "2006 Best Software Award" by the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine.
Skype Mobile (Free)
If you already use Skype at your PC you’ll be absolutely delighted with Skype for Windows Mobile which allows you to make and receive messages as well as calls (Skype-to-Skype + Skype to landline/mobile) on the go.
INFORMATION
(Total Investment: 3 Apps – $46.89)
Fizz Alarms ($14.95)
Fizz Alarms is your every day time manager. From repeating alarms, stopwatches to counters this application works extremely well and has an absolutely gorgeous display. There are a few minor things that could be improved though and I’m particularly missing the option to select an MP3 file outside those found in the Ringtones folder.
Hourly Chime & Speaking Clock ($6.99)
This fun little tool allows you to keep track of time as your phone will chime on each full hour, like most digital watches. There are 18 chimes installed with the program, ranging from very modest time pulse signals and subtle zen-style sounds to sonars, bells, church bells, Big Ben, etc.... Of course you can also set any of your personal favourite MP3 (or other soundfile formats) as chime sound. Or, you can even let your phone TELL you the time in "Speaking Clock" mode.
HiCalc ($24.95)
This Ultimate Calculator combines all of the features of other calculators in one. Comprehensive Unit Converter with 108 categories and 3,000 units. Online update currency rate daily for 152 currencies and much, much more.
WEB BROWSING
(Total Investment: 4 Apps – Free)
As I’ve mentioned previously, one of the greatest features of my Treo Pro is undoubtedly the fact that there are so many powerful and free mobile browsers available. In addition to the built-in Pocket Internet Explorer from Microsoft below are the other four browsers that I’ve installed:
Opera Mobile 9.5 + Opera Mobile 8.6
Considered by many to be the very best mobile browser, Opera Mobile truly provides a mobile browsing experience very similar to the one that you would experience on a desktop. I have the latest v9.5 installed as well as v.8.6 specifically because it is the only Opera version compatible with my excellent new toy – the Redfly Mobile Companion (see my review).
Skyfire
Not unlike Opera, Skyfire provides a truly superior mobile browsing experience but with the added benefit that it’s super fast and offers support for Ajax, Java as well as Flash 9 among others. In fact Skyfire is the online mobile web browser that support virtually all the multimedia formats that you typically find at your desktop.
Iris Browser
The Iris Browser also brings an unparalleled full Web experience to your Windows Mobile smartphone. It’s based on the powerful and versatile WebKit rendering engine and thus has the benefit of being small, fast and user-friendly.
MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
(Total Investment: 4 Apps – $117.80)
CorePlayer Mobile ($29.95)
If you want to watch any sort of video on your smartphone then CorePlayer Mobile is basically the most essential and #1 choice by far. With support for WMV, CoreAVC (H.264), AVCHD, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 part 2 (ASP), DivX, XviD, MJPEG, MSVIDEO1 you won’t find a better solution out there. Additionally, CorePlayer provides built-in YouTube support with browse and search functionality.
Kinoma Play ($29.95)
Kinoma Play is a terrific (albeit not quite yet perfect) application and there’s no doubt that it sets a new standard for streaming and on-board media files. The program is ultra-fast and smooth, offers one of the richest and largest set of online media sources to choose from as well as delivering a truly complete set of functionalities. (See my full review)
Pocket Tunes Deluxe ($37.95)
Pocket Tunes is the easiest-to-use feature-rich music player for smartphones and PDAs. Try it today to find out why hundreds of thousands of customers love it
Resco Pocket Radio ($19.95)
Resco Radio is a player for internet streaming radio station broadcasts. You can listen and record radios at the same time.
OVERVIEW
(Total Investment: 22 Apps – $389.33)
Clearly not everybody will want or need to have either all or exactly the same applications as me installed on their device but I think that it’s fair to say that the more third-party Windows Mobile software you get the greater your overall experience and satisfaction will be.
By the time I have installed _all_ the Windows Mobile applications that I want and need I may very well have ended up spending some $600 which is not exactly pocket change but then again it is the combination of all of these third-party software titles and the superb hardware of my Treo Pro that allow me to say that I truly enjoy (understatement) using my smartphone on a daily basis.
Separately, please note that you can buy any of the above Windows Mobile Software at a significantly reduced price thanks to the 20% off coupon that we’ve created. Simply enter the coupon code BESTSELLERS in your cart to apply this discount [please note that this coupon is not valid for use in the Treo Accessories Store or Centro Accessories Store].
Treonauts always find the best selection… 
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Comments
Hi. I noticed you added "SMS chat" on your list. But doesn't the Treo Pro come standard with a threaded SMS application?
Btw, I love the articles in Treonauts. Keep them coming. =)
Could you be kind to tell us if, YES or NOT, Palm is going to deliver a Palm OS version of the Treo Pro ( or something else) and when?
After 5 years of mosdt patient expectations Palm clients should deserve some attention. Don't you ?
@serge From what I've read on forums, Palm isn't likely to make the Treos with Palm OS anymore. The Treo line seems destined to be the business class device, whereas the Centro is the consumer end device. The new NOVA devices, supposedly coming out in 2009, will be considered a prosumer device, which is more of a middle of the road mixture. Yours and ours best hope is for the upcoming NOVA, which is supposed to offer backwards compatibility with Palm OS apps.
Wow. This is one reason why I think WinMo is going to decline. While PalmOS and WinMo currently have some really well developed programs, the cost is HIGH on a lot of these. With the App Store and Android Market, I think this will be a huge attractor for people like me. I paid money for Bike or Die, but that's it in my 6 years of owning a Palms and Treos. I'm a huge fan of open source, and open development systems like Android. It might take a while for them to kept up with some of the business class applications right now, but near $400 for software? Not me. Android's source was just released, and I've been following some people who are trying to get it working on Treos, I'm really excited about the possibilities. The Treo Pro is my favorite phone right now as far as hardware goes, but WinMo for me will be a difficult jump.
JJ,
While WinMob does now include a threaded chat program as standard--which the Pro uses rather than the one Palm created and loaded on the 750 and 800w--it is both less appealing visually (in many users' opinions) and leaves out features that Palm included in theirs. There are threads on various forums about what the differences are. While it would have been nice if Palm could have updated their app (maybe skinned the standard WinMob one and added a little code for the missing features), apparently they had other priorities for their programmers. So SMS-Chat is a good choice for this situation.
My hunch is that Andrew's reason for downloading and including it here is along these same lines. Andrew?
Do you recommend Spb Mobile for the 800w as well? It was my understanding that Palm had done some more optimizing of the interface on the 800w.
A few comments being a 700p to 750 convert.
SPB Mobile Shell, as stated..an absolute must. There is a 7 or 14 day free full trial period (i forget..it may even be 15), so it is worth investigating to see if the GUI is your cup of tea (it is for me)
Magic Keyboard Lite...absolute must for those who loved their KeyCaps in the Palm OS. I know..Key Caps was free and this is $15...welcome to Windows...lol
IMPORTANT NOTE ON MAGIC KEYBOARD. You need to also install the free Hook Mgr program that is ont he company's site as well. Without it, the keyguard for your phone will never initialize due to Windows Moobile OS limitations of being able to only run one keyboard "hook" program at a time. This free piece allows normal functionality.
And I know it all sounds expensive...let's just say where this a will there is way to get these programs 0:)
@Mike - thanks for that tip on MagiKB Lite and Hook Mgr - it is absolutely essential indeed if you don't want Keyguard to be disabled. I will update my post with the link.
Cheers, A.
Andrew,
Your posts are really helpful, I tried some of your recomendations and are really good, however I could not install skype since it gives me a message that I don`t have all the files, I downloaded the smartphone version.
I also tried the opera, but it gives me errors, I could run it twice but then no more.
Regards,
Eimy
@Eimy - I know that it's a bit confusing but you actually have to download the "Pocket PC" version of Skype for it to work with your Treo Pro.
http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-pocketpc-cab
I hope this helps.
Cheers, A.
Dear Andrew, as a former Treo680 and current Treo Pro user I miss the fact that I could have my To Do list in a view combined with my calendar (I did this through DateBk6 whereby you could see Tasks/To Do that were due on a certain date along with the appointments of that date). Do you know how to do this in Treo Pro?
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