Windows Mobile – Top 10 App’s

Hi All,

I’ve had my trusty Samsung i600 for some time now, and I feel that I finally have it working to the point where everything I actually use is now installed on it!

So, here are my top 10 downloads / purchases for the i600

1. Windows Mobile 6

Yes, if you bought your phone a while ago, then you definately need Windows Mobile 6. It’s faster, more stable, and has a few new features. You can upgrade this yourself on the Samsung website, or (if like me) if you have Orange UK, follow my guide [here]

2. SDA_ApplicationUnlock.exe [sda_unlock Download]

This smart little applet allows you to run ‘unsigned’ applications on your Windows Mobile device. Obviously care should be taken, but generally, as long as you know what you are doing, all should be fine. I’ve tested this unlocker on the HTC Touch, HTC Touch Diamond and the Samsung i600 without any issues.

3. BirdieSync (commercial, but worth it!) [http://www.birdiesync.com/]

This applet basically crowbar’s itself into Microsoft’s ActiveSync, and thereby allows you to syncronise your Windows PocketPC / Smartphone with Thunderbird. Not only will it sync emails &  contacts, it will also sync with Sunbird and Lightning! Well worth the €19

4. Google Maps [www.google.com/gmm] (See item 10 as well!)

Ok… I know that i600 doesn’t have GPS built it, but as a ‘quick hack’, you can use an external GPS mouse, and armed with Google Maps, get a rudimentary Sat Nav. Obviously there are limitations dues to download speeds, and of course data costs need to be taken into consideration, but as a stop-gap this works well.

5. Ilium Software’s Screen Capture [http://www.iliumsoft.com]

This great little application allows you to take screen shots of your Windows Mobile device for inclusion in Blogs (I use it here a lot) or just for tech support purposes.

6. Mobile Registry Editor [Mobile Registry Editor Download]

This is probably one of the best registry editors for Mobile devices that I have come across. It runs on your PC (rather than the device), and uses ActiveSync as a conduit to access the registry. It’s fast, and easy to use. What more do you need?

7. BTCrawler [btcrawler-v110-beta Download]

This tool allows you to go a bit of Bluejacking on your Windows Smartphone or Pocket PC. The author of this software (http://www.silentservices.de) had to withdraw it after Germany brought in anti-hacking laws. Unfortunately some useful tools, such as this, suddenly became illegal. In any case, you can download it here (among other places), and it is great for diagnosing issues with handsfree kits etc.

8. BTARouter – Commercial [http://www.chartcross.co.uk/]

This commercial application (costs about £5) allows you to route all the Audio from your mobile device (MP3’s, games etc) into your Bluetooth headset.

9. Quickmark[http://www.quickmark.com.tw]

You will notice that there is a 2d ‘barcode’ on the home page of my blog – these are call QR Codes. You can see similar ones on other websites (I think Makezine used to have them…). The applet makes use of your Smartphone’s camera in order to ‘read’ the barcode. Once decrypted, it will then give the the ability to visit the site (for URL’s) or dial the telephone number. The applet is suprisingly fast (takes about 1/10th of a sec to pick up the details) and works flawlessly on my i600. Each screen capture is stored in the ‘My Documents’ folder on the mobile device as serialised BMP files, e.g. sshot000.bmp, sshot001.bmp etc.

10. GPS Test (Free) [http://www.chartcross.co.uk/]

This is a handy free took from Chartcross that gives you the means to test an external GPS mouse on your Windows mobile device.

Feel free to comment with more useful tools for us Windows Mobile 6 users!