|
Name |
Function |
Notes |
| Amaze (FW) |
GPS Navigation |
This is a free voice navigation application
that is certainly not the fanciest thing around, but given its
price (free to install and no monthly fees), what do you expect?
It provides all of the basic voice navigation functionality,
telling you to turn right in 500 ft and so forth.
It has two map views, a satellite view and
a street map view. The satellite view is very incomplete. For
example, in my area it stopped just outside of metro Los Angeles
and would njot even reach into the suburbs. The street map view,
however, seems very complete.
You can navigate in map view or simply with
large friendly arrows assisting the voice navigation. In map
view, you can view a top down 2D map or a heads up 3D map.
You can do searches for addresses or businesses
and the list seems fairly complete for my area.
Unless you want to pay for a Tom Tom or Telenav
or Garmin, this is the way to go for voice navigation on the
phone.
|
| Bag-o-Bones (FW) |
Dice Roller |
A neat little dice
rolling program for the ppc. Very flexible, and with history
and counting pips features useful for some games. |
| Beyond Pod (FW) |
RSS and Podcast
Player |
This simple application
subscribes to RSS news feeds and podcasts and allows you to read
them and play them. Very simple, but very effective. |
| DivX Player |
Video Player |
This is a freeware
video player that is probably one of the best on the scene. It
plays .avi videos and does so very smoothly, and with a feature
that remembers where you last left off. Perfect for viewing movies
ripped to your ppc. |
| First Aid Guide
(FW) |
First Aid |
This program contains
a variety of emergencies and maladies and offers guides on symptoms
and how to treat these problems. For example, if you look under
choking there is a step by step instruction ion the Heimlich
Maneuver, as well as information on how to help drowning victims,
etc. Some sections even have small quizes at the end to see if
you absorbed the knowledge. This is a great reference program
not only outside of emergencies, to brush up on your knowledge,
but in a pinch, you could instruct someone on how to perform
CPR or otherwise aid a distressed person. |
| Free Dictionary
(FW) |
Dictionary |
Made by Tildetech.
Unfortunately, this program comes budnled with demos of shareware
games and a freeware game of hangman, but you can ignore and
uninstall those. The dictionary is nice, and very useful. |
| Free M4a to MP3
Converter (FW) |
File Converter |
This nice little
program runs on the desktop and converts M4a audio files (i.e.
the music files from Itunes) into MP3 files that can then be
loaded onto your Windows Media Player Mobile and played on your
ppc. |
| Google Maps (FW) |
Maps and Navigation |
Google Maps does
not have voice navigation. It does have excellent, complete satellite
and street map views, along with the ability to plot a graphic
course from one street address to another and to search for businesses
by name or type. It includes traffic views for freeways and supports
GPS. |
| Icontacts - Burt's
Version (FW) |
Contact Manager |
This is a version of a freeware contact manager
that has several different tweaked versions floating about. I
like this version because it seems to be the best developed and
most stable.
The program is essentially afinger friendly
version of the contact manager. It has all of the functionality,
but big buttons support finger scrolling and the flicking gesture
comparable to the iphone. The program is skinnable, and several
come with the application. It also has a nice alphabet grid for
quick navigation and a favourites button to store your favourite,
most-used contacts.
The program replaces the standard WM contacts
manager with regard to your soft buttons and with most other
applications, but your old WM contacts manager is still available
even after you install this program.
|
| Help to Speak (FW) |
Translations |
This program gives you common phrases for
travel or business in a variety of area (e.g. rastaurants, hotel,
travel, shopping, emergencies, etc.). Languages covered are English,
French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Easy to use, the main probem
with the program is that it doesn't say the phrase in the new
language, it just spells it out, with no phonetic guide to help
you.
In many cases the pronounciation is obvious
or you can get it close enough to say what you need to say. But
some words in French and German, for example, are very hard to
guess at the pronounciation, and a phonetic guide would have
been helpful. Nevertheless, this is a useful program to have
when you travel.
|
| Live Search (FW) |
Maps and Navigation |
Essentially similar
to Google Maps, it also has specific buttons for gas prices,
movies, etc. But for all intents and purposes, a similar program
to Google Maps. |
| Mobile Tipper (FW) |
Tipping Program |
There are a lot of tip calculators out there,
and they all leave much to be desired. Most don't account for
sales tax, instead having you pay the tip on the entire bill
amount (you are supposed to only tip on the bill net of sales
tax). Mobile Tipper is the only one to account for sales tax,
but unfortunately, it requires you to enter a % for the tax.
This is great except that it still calculates the tip based on
the gross amount, and to enter a tax with frcational % (Los Angeles,
for example, has an 8.25% tax) you have to manually enter it
each time. The drop down menus only have whole %.
You can get around this a little by simply
entering in a prorated tip amount. But the problem is that the
drop down menus don't support fractional %, so you have to enter
it manually each time. Of course, if you go with a 15% tip in
an area with an 8% tax you are close enough to 15% of the net
that it shouldn't matter much.
Nevertheless, the program is useful and if
you live in an area where the tax is a whole number, it should
be even more convenient. It also divides the bill by the number
of people.
|
| MSS Converter (FW) |
Conversion Utility |
This is simply a
conversion utility that converts just about any measurement into
any other applicable system. There is a bewildering variety of
measurements here, including ones only used by engineers and
physicists. Nevertheless, the metric to imperial and the currency
exchange features can be useful to anyone. It has a feature to
manually update currencies via the internet, or you can automate
it using Activesync. |
| Pocket Screen (FW) |
Screen Capture |
A simple screen
capture utility for your ppc. You really only need screen capture
in order to post shots of your Today Screen or tutorials on the
web, but since I do that, this utility is great to use. You could
also use this to email maps, though most map programs have an
email function anyways. |
| S2U2 (FW) |
Lock Utility |
This excellent program provides a lock to
your ppc that activates when you turn on the ppc or it comes
out of sleep. The lock is its own screen, that is customizable
with wallpaper and various notifications such as mail, calls,
or SMS received. You open the lock by sliding a slider with your
finger, just like the iphone.
This program has many uses. First, it provides
an automatic lock for your phone, meaning you don't have to waste
Today Screen real estate to access the normal lock function.
Further, it locks automatically, so you don't have to constantly
engage the normal lock function. Third, it unlocks with a single
finger friendly gesture. The normal unlock requires two strokes,
one of which is a rather small screen tap.
The program also serves as a sort of screen
saver and splash screen that you can customize to give your phone
a personalized look. In addition, it can display a nice amount
of information, almost becoming a second Today Screen. Mine shows
battery level, time, date, next appointment, signal strength,
carrier, volume, and an unread email icon, unread SMS icon, and
uncompleted tasksicon. These icons show how many of these are
unread/uncompleted.
If you get a call while in lock a caller ID
screen will appear and you can take the call.
There are a lot of settings for the device,
and you can link it to other programs authored by the same person.
All in all this is a really great program and fully skinnable.
|
| ShantzTodayChanger
(FW) |
Today Themes |
This neat little
applications allows you to have your ppc cycle through your Today
Themes randomly at an interval set by you. For example, I have
it change my Today Theme every 10 minutes. A fun little program
for those of us who create themes and want to display them all.
However, it can cause crashes and even file corruption if it
induces a change during activity by another application. Until
this issue is fixed I cannot recommend this application. |
| Skyfire beta (FW) |
Web Browser |
Skyfire is in public beta testing, and that
means you can enjoy and use this application. No doubt once it
goes live it will be shareware. Skyfire improves on the PIE experience
by providing the full web experience on your ppc. When you load
a web page (even one not optimized for mobile) it quickly calls
up a thumbnail that puts most or all of the page on your screen.
That thumbnail then can be used to drill down to magnify whichever
section you are interested in reading by simply double tapping
on the area.
In both thumbnail and magnififed view, you
have full finger scrolling.
Skyfire is fully capable of playing streaming
video and sound on the web, including Youtube.
The only disadvantages of Skyfire are:
1. Essentially the program is hosted on their
servers. That makes for fast load times, but also means if their
servers are swamped or down, so is your browser. As such, you
would always want PIE as a backup.
2. Some web pages do not load correctly on
Skyfire. For example, www.projectgutenberg, org does not once
you drill down into the alphabetical book title pages.
The program also comes with an opitonal Today
Screen plug in that allows you to enter a search term or URL
right from your Today Screen.
|
| SPB Mobile DVD (SW) |
DVD Ripper |
This excellent program
is one of the best and easiest to allow you to pop a commercial
DVD into your DVD drive on your desktop and convert it to an
.avi or .wmv file. The interface is appalingly simple to use
for novices, yet gives you nice flexibility, including framerate,
aspect ratio, screen size, et al. The application provides one
of the best combination of file size and quality I have seen.
Occasionally the program hangs up on Vista, but the program is
worth it just the same. |
| SPB Pocket Plus
(SW) |
Today Screen |
This excellent shareware (cost is $29.95)
does a multitude of useful things.
First, it puts a plug in onto your Today Screen
that serves as a multi-tabbed launcher, allowing you to essentially
launch any or all of your programs or settings from the Today
Screen. This function is extremely customizable, including labels,
size of the icons, placement, categorization, etc. It also provides
battery and memory indicators and an on screen button for soft
reset.
It also has a Close Button routine that lets
you define what the close button (the 'x' in the upper right
corner) does, along with a contextual menu for that pot that
serves as a task manager and has some other optiuons.
It has a taskbar battery indicator, in case
you ned taskbar real estate at the top of your phone. You can
change the normal icon in the taskbar to a small or large bar
running across the top of your task bar.
It has some nice changes to Pocket Internet
Explorer, including the ability to have a tabbed browser and
the ability to drag and finger scroll across a web page instead
of having to use the sylus and the scroll bars.
It also provides additional functionalty to
the File Explorer, allowing zipping of files from File Explorer,
ability to change extensions and attributes, and allowing save
and open dialogues to drill down beyond one level of folders.
It allows user-defined functions for long
holds on most of the hardware buttons for your ppc. This means,
for example, you can program the message button to still call
up your messages on a normal press, but do something else entirely
on a long press. This effectively doubles your hardware buttons!
It has a safe mode startup that disables all
plug-ins to let you troubleshoot your ppc.
And finally it has smart scrolling, which
allows many programs to be scrolled using the finger or stylus
in the body of the pgram rather than using the scroll bars.
As you can see, this sucker does a great many
good things for your Windows Mobile experience.
|
| ThemeGenCE (FW) |
Today Themes |
This is a desktop
application, but it creates Today Themes for your ppc. It is
very easy to use once you read the tutorial, and can take any
graphic image and turn it into a Today Theme, complete with portrait
and landscape views and with a feature that allows the Start
drop menu to have the corresponding background so that it appears
transparent to the image behind it. You can also change the colours
of the bars, notifications, text lettering, and horizontal bars. |
| Today Agenda (FW) |
Today Plug-In |
This marvelous little
plug-in shows your appointments and tasks on the Today Screen.
That doesn't sound like much, but the amount of flexibility and
customizability is amazing. You can have it show X days of appointment
in its own scrollable listing that can collapse or explode each
day's appointments as you desire. There are options for fonts
and other filtering criteria to further customize which days
you see. Same with tasks. |
| Total Commander
(FW) |
File Explorer |
This utility allows
you to have two file explorer windows open at once, allowing
drag and drop functionality instead of the tedious copy and pasting
required of the standard WM file explorer. In addition, it has
built-in zip capability and other functionality similar to that
provided by SPB Pocket Plus (see above). |
| Unity HTML Editor
(FW) |
HTML Editor |
This small application
allows you to enter HTML code in the bottom half of the screen
and it will display WYSIWYG on the top. It would be much more
useful the other way around, but oh well. It is still somewhat
useful for typing up simple web pages or downloading source and
then modifying it. |
| Vade Mecum (FW) |
Ebook Reader |
This lttle program allows you to read books
on your ppc. The books have to be in Plucker format, and the
best place I have found so far to get such books is Project
Gutenberg. The pgoram features bookmarks, a search function,
and a progress indicator, as well as formatting options such
as text size and font.
Project Gutenberg features a great many classics
in the public domain, including Moby Dick, Last of the Mohicans,
and almost any other classic you can think of.
|
| VS Painter LE (FW) |
Drawing and Painting |
There are a few
free drawing programs for the ppc, but none as complete as VS
Painter LE. It supports many types of image files and is almost
a full-featured paint and draw program. If you are an artist,
the ability to sketch and paint on the fly can be useful. Otherwise,
its main use would be to sketch maps or to annotate pictures. |
| Yahoo Go! (FW) |
Yahoo Portal |
This is a strange
little portal to the various Yahoo services. It is in the form
of what appears to be a touch-friendly carousel, but in fact
it is not, as you can only spin to the adjacent items. Beyond
that, all this does is essentially serve as a portal to Yahoo
and its various areas and you can customize each area to your
liking. So, for example, under Sports I can specifiy the Angels
as my baseball team and it will highlight Angels scores and news.
While it is somewhat useful, the interface is a bit of a pain
and frankly it is just as easy to go online using PIE or Skyfire
and go directly to Yahoo. |
| Youtubeplayer (FW) |
Youtube Streamer |
This program allows
you to search, view, and download Youtube videos. You won't really
need this if you have Skyfire beta, but without it, PIE cannot
play or download Youtube videos, and so this comes in handy.
It's a decent player, though every time Youtube changes its formatting
this program errors until it can be updated by the author. |
|
Name |
Genre |
Notes |
| Crimson Fields (FW) |
Strategy Game |
Crimson Fields is
a hex-based turn by turn wargame. It is not set in an historical
period, instead set in an alternate world at a roughly modern
or near future time period. There are a variety of scenarios
or missions to run and the graphics are decent for a top down
hex-based game. |
| Distant Galaxies
(FW) |
Arcade Shooter |
This is a variation
of a Galaga type game, where your ship scrolls in a top down
view across various screens and nasties swoop down from the top
to try to kill you. Obviously, it is not that easy to operate
a button controlled arcade shooter on a ppc, but this one allows
you to customize the buttons and it works about as well as anything
can in this genre on a ppc. |
| Legacy (SW) |
FRPG |
Legacy is an amazing fantasy role playing
game in the tradition of the old Wizardry or Bard's Tale games.
It includes a quasi first-person view and settings include dungeons
as well as cities and wilderness. You can have a party of up
to 4 PCs of various classes, including clerics, spellcasters,
and various types of warriors.
The equipment and inventory selection is quite
extensive, and the spell lists are moderately developed.
The setting is expansive, and includes a nice
storyline, and the game can be modded using a toolset and there
have been quite a few expansion packs for the game, both official
ones that are shareware and fan-made freeware packs. As such,
this game is bound to provide hours of play time.
The actual play is nothing compared to modern
desktop RPGs, as the graphics are limited. However, compared
to anything else available on the ppc, this is a gem! The same
company designed an even more advanced FRPG called Quest that
I have not yet tried, but intend to after finishing Legacy.
|
| Leo's Flight Simulator |
Flight Simulator |
This program is both amazing and frustrating.
And for the same reason. It is a full-fledged flight simulator
on the ppc. When I say full-fledged, I mean it. There are over
30 types of aircraft to choose from, ranging from WW1 Sopwith
Camels to modern experimental planes to spaceships. There are
options for gliders and an amazing number of settings, including
terrain, weather, time of day, cloud cover, wind, etc.
The frustrating part of the game is that being
a full-fledged flight simulator, the learning curve is immense.
You have to set radio frequency, contact air control towers,
and basically do everything needed to fly a plane. If you are
a pilot or an expert of desktop flight simulators, then this
program is for you. If you are not, there is almost no way to
learn to really fly the planes. Yes, you can manage to take off
and buzz around, but to really use it and land and do all of
the things possible in the program requires a lot of knowledge.
There is no manual for the game. There is
a very sparse manual on the desktop version of the game, but
the author is a native Italian speaker and his English is not
good, and he is clearly writing for people who are already pilots
or experts at flight simulator programs. as such, if you are
a casual user, I can only recommend this as a curiousity.
The program also has a few bugs. The sound
sometimes shuts off, and the graphics can sometimes be a little
hinky.
Nevertheless, it is fun simply to see how
much stuff Leo managed to cram into a single ppc program. And
running it on your ppc will certainly amaze your friends.
|
| Leos' Space Combat
Simulator (FW) |
Space Combat Shooter |
Nowhere near as complex as the flight simulator
(see above), this program puts you in the cockpit of a space
fighter and sends you on missions to destroy enemy ships. The
view is from the cockpit seat, and you have lasers and missiles
at your behest. as with Leo's Flight Simulator, there is no functional
manual in English, which means you have to spend a lot of time
tinkering around to figure out how things work. Patience can
be rewarded however, as this is a neat program and fun to play.
Sometimes the sounds cuts out, and the graphics
can turn white all of a sudden, but if you are willing to accep
tthese occasional glitches, the game is a good one.
|
| MBPoker Pro (FW) |
Card Game |
This applicationw
as written by my uncle, Mike Berro. It is a 7 card stud game
where you play against a number of AI opponents. There are several
stud variations available, including wild cards, and you start
with a bankroll and the object is to eventually wipe out the
other opponents' bankrolls. Each opponent has a different personality,
and so learning how each bets is part of the fun. The graphics
are functional but nothing to write home about, and I recommend
using the option that displays the cards via colour, letter and
number (e.g. a jack of hearts is a Jh in red letters) rather
than the graphic deck because the graphics are fuzzy looking
and it is diffuclt to tell a club from a spade or a heart from
a diamond. |
| Minesweeper (FW) |
Strategy Game |
This is the classic
minesweeper game and done exceptionally well except that you
cannot change the size of the game. The set size correpsonds
roughly to a medium game. I would have liked the option to set
the size of the field and number of mines. But if you don't need
customization, this is a very good rendition of the classic game. |
| Teknowmagic Othello
(FW) |
Board Game |
The classic board
game also known as Reversi. You can play against the computer
at various difficulty levels or against another human. Good graphics
and a fun game. |
| Pocket Conquest
(SW) |
Board Game |
This is Risk for
the ppc. It has very nice graphics and a simple interface and
plays exacrtly like the board game but with options for various
house rules. You can play againsty multiple AI, and the AI is
pretty smart about going after the human player, though against
the other AI it can make some stupid moves. The demo version
is fully playable, but has a certain set of house rules fixed
and the number of players, difficulty level, and initial set
up is fixed. |
| Pocket General (SW) |
Board Game |
This is Stratego
on the ppc. It has good graphics and game play and plays exactly
like the board game. The demo portion is fully usable, but has
a limited number of starting positions. If you register, then
you can set your starting positions as you like. |
| Pocket Humanity
(FW) |
Strategy Game |
A basic version
of the Civilzation computer game, the graphis are needfully primitive,
but the game play is all Civilization, and if you like Civ you
will probably enjoy Pocket Humanity. Certainly, there is not
the complexity of Civ 4, and the game seems to be about the level
of Civ 1, but you can play on up to avery large world with up
to 17 AI civs. Given the lack of Civ-like games fo rthe ppc (the
official Civilization Mobile game is an abomination that is nothing
related to Civ), this game's shortcomings are easily forgiven. |
| Pocket Mille Bournes
(FW) |
Card Game |
The classic mille
bournes game, playable against 1, 2 or 3 AI opponents. Includes
all of the mille bournes rules. The graphics are nice and functional
and easy to read. |
| Pocket Parchisi
(FW) |
Board Game |
The traditional
board game done on the ppc. Good graphics and you can play up
to 3 AI opponents. |
| Pocket Racko (FW) |
Card Game |
Racko is a fairly
simple game, where you draw cards and try to arrange them in
ascending order on your rack, while your opponent does likewise.
It is a simple game to learn, but difficult to master, and this
program plays it well. You play against a single AI or against
2 AI and there is an option for a partner-style game. It is a
fun game and well implemented. |
| Pocket UFO (FW) |
Strategy Game |
This is an almost
direct port of XCom UFO, routeinly voted the best PC game ever
made. This port is very true to the desktop version. So much
so that there is no manual for it...you are advised to download
the desktop version's manual! The graphics are very nicely done
and true to the desktop, and the encyclopdia of equipment and
vehicles is neat to pore through. One of the best games on the
ppc. |
| Pocket Uno (FW) |
Card Game |
Uno is a great game,
and this version is the best available. It is better, in fact,
than the shareeware Uno game put out by the owners of the Uno
card game. You play against 3 AI players, and even at Normal
difficulty level they play tough! This is an excellent way to
learn and master Uno. The graphics are crisp and clear and the
game plays very fast paced. |
| Smart Mahjongg (FW) |
Tile Game |
This is the classic mahjongg solitaire game.
You get a variety of configurations and you try to pull all of
the tiles by matching them together. The game is fine except
for two probelms:
1. The tiles are very small, making it difficult
to view the symbols on them.
2. If you make a wrong move, the program takes
a while to give you the notificatyion box and then redraw the
tiles. This is not a game breaker, just mildly annoying having
to wait 15 seconds.
Nevertheless, if you can stand the eyestrain,
it is a nice game.
|
| TripYzee (FW) |
Dice Game |
A nice Yahtzee game,
and you can play one or two players. All of the standard yahtzee
rules, and the dice are skinnable. This version is not finger
friendly, and the stylus is highly recommended for marking down
your score on the scoresheet. |
|
Name |
Shot |
Notes |
| Angels Baseball |
 |
A theme
using the Angel's red colour with their logo. The image is quite
crisp. The artifacts you see on this screen shot are a result
of the screen capture program. |
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force |
 |
A theme
highlighting the main characters from ATHF. While the white text
is difficult to read with this screenshot, the actual on screen
theme is more muted and darker, allowing the white text to be
more easily read. |
| Dungeons and Dragons |
 |
A theme
using the official D&D wallpaper from WOTC a while back.
Shows a group of adventurers planning a mission around a table
with the D&D logo overhead. While the white text is difficult
to read with this screenshot, the actual on screen theme is more
muted and darker, allowing the white text to be more easily read. |
| Kate Bush Kick Inside |
 |
A theme
using the album cover from Kate Bush's first album The Kick
Inside. While the white text is difficult to read with this
screenshot, the actual on screen theme is more muted and darker,
allowing the white text to be more easily read. |
| Kate Bush Sensual World |
 |
A very
minimalistic theme using a shot of Kate form her album The
Sensual World. Although my busy Today Screen covers some
of her picture, most today screens will have the whole picture
visiable. |
| Maxfield Parrish
Standing Woman |
 |
Taken
from a very famous Maxfield Parrish painting. While the white
text is difficult to read with this screenshot, the actual on
screen theme is more muted and darker, allowing the white text
to be more easily read. |
| Maxfield Parrish
Sitting Woman |
 |
Taken
from a very famous Maxfield Parrish painting, and flipped horizontally
so that the cloud background is where the text tends to reside
on the Today Screen. |
| Maxfield Parrish
Two Sitting Girls |
 |
Taken
from a very famous Maxfield Parrish painting. |
| Maxfield Parrish
Reclining Woman |
 |
Taken
from a very famous Maxfield Parrish painting. While the white
text is difficult to read with this screenshot, the actual on
screen theme is more muted and darker, allowing the white text
to be more easily read. |
| Jack Vance Rhialto |
 |
Taken
from a painting of Rhialto the mage, a character from Jack Vance's
Dying Earth novels. |
| Jack Vance Ruined
City |
 |
Taken
from the cover illustration of Songs of the Dying Earth,
a tribute anthology to Jack Vance's Dying Earth setting. |
| Jack Vance Mazirian |
 |
Taken
from a painting of Mazirian the mage, a character from Jack Vance's
Dying Earth novels. |
| Jack Vance Dying Earth Cover |
 |
Taken
from a cover of the novel The Dying Earth. |
| Jack Vance Wizard
Cover |
 |
Taken
from a Jack Vance novel set in the Dying Earth. |
