Some good Windows Mobile free software

Recently I downloaded and installed some very good software on m win mobile phone. Just want to make a short list and give you some links, maybe you’re interested.

Iris browser: go here and download this web browser, Iris - http://irisbrowser.com/ – I’m using it and I’m very happy with it. Also Skyfire is very good, but on my device Iris is faster. I really like the three switchable views “desktop / column / mobile”. In Mobile mode gmail is rendered like you are on iPhone. This simply means that some fancy javascript features just work :-)

Pocket Sudoku: http://klargodut.com/sudoku/ this sudoku player / generator / solver is great.

YomoMedia RSS reader: http://www.yomomedia.com/reader.php Yomomedia is a combination between a desktop, web based rss aggregator and a windows mobile client. Both apps can modify settings, add channels, and so on, and the other client will adapt. This hybrid solution (even if I do not like so much the fact that someone has my rss choices on his server) gives a better and faster experience. Free. Very good. http://twitter.com/yomomedia

amAze gps: more than 2 years ago a free gps navigation software caught my attention; then, given the fact that they had no windows mobile versions of their software I almost forgot of it, but some days ago I went back to http://www.amazegps.com/ and discovered that now the WinMo version is available… and it works perfectly, at least on my Asus P552w. A free GPS navigation software, works both with internal and external GPS. http://twitter.com/amAzeGPS

hulu.com, impression of usage

Ok, using a "non-standard" method I managed to access hulu.com.

Today I browsed the titles for a while, then I decided to watch a Simpsons episode, exactly "E. Pluribus Wiggum", season 19, episode 10 (wow it's almost 20 years of Simpson's broadcast!) and an excerpt from a '76 Saturday Night Live... with Chevy Chase an John Belushi (I really like those old SNL clips, they're great!)

Well, the viewing experience is good, I have to say - only some glitch here and there in the few starting seconds, but I immedialtely learned that after a reposition at the start, then the playing is smooth and continuous.

In the longer clips you will find some ads, and you can "see when" they will arrive thanks to some marker in the timeline indicator. During these ad shorts you cannot skip forward or pause... but hey, that's fine for me :-). A curiosity: the Viewing applet has this ""lower light" function, that is a little but helpful function: it will darken (but not completely) everything in the browser window except the viewing area. Good idea.

I plan to access more content on Hulu asap, but in my opinion it's a really good service. Thanks, Hulu!!!

Bye!

hulu - now I can reach it, thanks to AnchorFree

I installed AnchorFree Hotspot Shield, and thru this new VPN (ad supported) now I can access all the HULU content (but as far as I know also Pandora or any other service blocked to non-US people).

So now I'm looking at one Simpsons episode, and I just browsed some Saturday Night Live episodes... hulu.com is great!!!

If you also want to try the Anchor Free app, please go here. And happy navigation :-)

Palringo - IM for mobile and desktop

Today I read this post on LifeHacker and I decided to give Palringo a try: it's an IM app that runs on Windows Mobile - powered devices and on Symbian (but Palringo has also a desktop Windows version, and if I understand well a java mobile version is planned), and I find it really good.

In order to work you need to register on palring's own site, and then use those credentials on your mobile device to login; then you start adding your identities on the various protocols and networks Palring knows about: Msn/Live, GTalk, ICQ, Yahoo, AIM. And its proprietary network too.

I used it and I find Palringo fast and reliable... A little screenshot here:

Planning Poker anyone?

I stumbled upon ;-) this "Planning Poker" tool.

I think that it could be used, it can be seen as a mean to a better effort estimation, that runs through a group discussion; each member "plays" her/his estimation (picking a card from a deck) and when everybody has played you can start discussing the result - probably you will notice some sensible differences between various estimations, and so people will start talking and eventually correcting...

It can also be funny. I read that there are also real card deck sold somewhere, but the web version is simple and quite good.

What do you think of it?

Métro - "The ultimate public transport guide for your PDA or Smartphone"

Do you already know Métro? If not, please go to http://www.nanika.net/metro/ and see what this mobile app can do for you - for free.

It is available for Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm OS.

Its main goal is to guide you in the public transportation system of some hundreds of cities around the world. I tried the Windows Mobile version, and I find it really useful, fast, and well designed.

I'm publishing some screenshots here, showing the first screenshot, the list of my downloaded cities, a couple of calcolated routes (one in Milan, one in Paris), and a screenshot of the route building page:

mon.itor.us - site monitoring, also from mobile

mon.itor.us is a free uptime monitoring service for your website.

It can perform many different tests, from http to ftp and imap.

If you insert in your site a code snippet provided from mon.itor.us, you can also have a visits traffic report, but the site has a lot of services available.

When you register, you can have your alerts delivered also to your msn messenger / GTalk / ICQ account (you need only to add to your buddy list a new contact).

But the one very thing that caught my attention is the possibility to access those reports and data from Windows Mobile devices: simply reach http://mobile.mon.itor.us and read all the fundamental site stats on the go. Works!

Here's a screenshot of the mobile web page:

VH PocketPC Capture

At this URL http://www.hmelyoff.com/index.php?section=18 you can find this freeware app that allows you to get screnshots out of your Windows Mobile device, but thru Active  Sync from your desktop pc.

Actually it will do also another couple of things for you... you will be able to "remote control" your device, or take control of the camera output...

Nice utility.

amAze - free mobile GPS navigation application

On amAze's web site you can download and install a free GPS software for java-enabled mobile devices.

Now, that's really interesting... but I couldn't try the software yet, my iMate k-jam is not in the list... when I understand which version to try, I'll let you know everything!!!

*** EDIT ***
I had a feedback from amAze... their software is not compatible with Windows Mobile devices!!!

AdbWeather - Free Win Mobile Today Screen Plugin

How could I live without this? :-)

Seriously, I really like this great (and free) today screen plugin, that shows weather condition and forecasts on your pocket pc screen; it has a lot of features, like downloading and showing of weather radar images, or scheduled refresh of weather data, and more.

It can be configured to retrieve wether info both for US and International cities.

Here's the URL for this great app: happyjackroad.net

And here are a few screenshots from my mobile:

The same screen, but with a white background on the plugin:

The plugin responds to user clicks, opening this menu:

The app has lots of features... just an image:

ToDoList - a free to do list manager (windows desktop)

ToDoList, from AbstractSpoon software, is self-defined as "A simple but effective way to keep on top of your tasks".

I like this app a lot, and I'm using it (following the continuous new releases) from a year or so, and I'm happy with it.

You can read about it both on the Abstract Spoon site and on the codeproject page.

The app is free, under a creative commons license, and you can also download the source code, also hosted on codeproject.

Free screen capture from Ilium Software

Here you can find a simple (yet useful) screen capture program, From Ilium Software.

Here's a sample of a catptured screen from my device:

 

The use of this app is really straightforward; you can choose which key will be used to take screenshot, and the number of seconds before the screenshot will be taken.

Then the program remains in the background. When you're done, you can find your the screenshots in the device's file system root, in .bmp format.

smaato - windows mobile apps

On http://www.smaato.com/ you can find a couple of really good - and free - Windows Mobile apps.

Smaato Cost is a mobile cost tracking software, with tons of features, fully configurable, even with csv export of traffic data... really well done, please go and test it, you won't be disappointed.

Smaato News is a mobile RSS reader, and it works; it has a good and well designed user interface, I like it.