윈도우 모바일 어플리케이션 베스트 10 (윈도폰 베스트 10 apps)
Before Microsoft gets around to finally launching Windows Marketplace for Mobile we thought it would be a good idea to do a round up of some of our favourite Windows smartphone apps. One of the big advantages of the Windows Mobile platform is that because it's been around so long it's well understood by developers and as a result there's a huge range of software available covering everything from serious business applications to cool 3D driving games and everything in-between. Naturally with so many to choose from this list can't hope to cover all of the best apps. Instead it represents a selection of our current favourites, so feel free to add your own must-haves in the comments section.
CoreCodec CorePlayer Mobile
It may be an obvious choice, but CorePlayer Mobile is one of the most useful add-ons for any Windows Mobile device. It puts Microsoft's own Windows Media Player to shame not just by the quality of its playback, but also in the sheer number of formats supported. Along with the likes of Xvid and Divx, new formats such as Matroska are being added all the time. It can also take advantage of the GPU chips in several of the latest devices to off load processing from the main CPU and speed up playback.
www.coreplayer.com
Price: $29.95
Opera Mobile
Microsoft's Pocket Internet Explorer is OK as far as it goes, but if you really want to make the most of your phone's web browsing capabilities then you owe it to yourself to use Opera Mobile. Opera is faster, has better panning and zooming features and a much better user interface than Pocket IE. In fact, it's so good, many manufacturers, such as HTC and Samsung, now bundled it as standard with their handsets. However, if your phone hasn't got it preloaded head over to Opera.com and download a copy pronto.
www.opera.com
Price: Free
SPB Mobile Shell
The drawbacks of the native Windows Mobile interface are well d0cumented so we won't go over them again here. Luckily there are many applications that you can use to give your phone's interface a bit of a facelift. One of the most user-friendly in our opinion is SPB Mobile Shell. Not only does it present you with a great looking and informative home screen, but it also gives you finger-friendly access to commonly used applications, settings and contacts.
www.spbsoftwarehouse.com
Price; $29.95
Intermorphic Mixtikl Mobile
It might not appeal to everyone, but if you're into music making then you'll find that Mixtikl is a little gem of an application. It's a replacement for the much loved, but now discontinued MiniMixa app and is essentially a music creation program that lets you mix together up to 12 tracks of audio. However, what really impresses is the way Mixtikl lets you tweak pretty much every aspect of the music from synth sounds to audio effects. It even includes its own automatic music composition engine and there's also a companion PC application so you can ferry songs back and forth between your phone and desktop PC.
www.intermorphic.com
Price: $9.99
PocketCultMAME
Sure there are tons of native games that can show off your phone's muscle with amazing 3D graphics and stunning sound. However, games are like jokes in that sometimes it's the oldest ones that are the best. If you fancy a blast on classics like 1942 or Tempest then you need a copy of the MAME arcade emulator. Unfortunately there aren't many good ports of Mame for Windows Mobile. However, even though it hasn't been updated for yonks, PocketcultMAME is still one of the better ones around so it's worth giving it a whirl to see if it'll work on your phone.
www.pocketcult.com
Price: Free
NewsGator Go!
If you're a news feed junkie (you are subscribed to the TrustedReviews feeds, aren't you?) then you'll want a decent RSS news reader app for your phone. NewsGator Go! is one of the best around because it integrates with the online NewsGator service. You create an account online and use the web-based interface to select the feeds you want to track. Then it's simply a matter of entering your username and password into the NewsGator Go! software to have your feeds sync to your mobile. The navigation is excellent and you can also clip articles to store them for reading later.
www.newsgator.com
Price: Free
Google Sync
If you're a heavy user of Gmail, then chances are that you also use its calendar function to remind you of meetings, birthdays and other important appointments along with its online contacts book. Well, guess what Google Sync is for? Yes you've got it. It's a simple, no nonsense way of synchronising your Google calendar and contacts to your Windows powered smartphone. That's pretty much it, but for some it'll be a crucial addition to their smartphone.
Google Mobile - Sync
Price: Free
Dashwire
Dashwire is a web service that lets you back up your contacts, text messages, photos and videos online and then access them via your computer's web browser. However, there's more to Dashwire than merely backing up data; it also lets you share photos and videos with friends or send them to Flickr or Facebook accounts. There's also a cool messaging app built in as well as lots of other goodies.
www.dashwire.com
Price: Free
Orb Networks Orb
Orb isn't exactly a native Windows Mobile application, but it works brilliantly with Windows smartphones so we're taking the liberty of including it here. The application actually runs on your desktop PC, but the clever bit is that you can use it to broadcast the media content stored on your PC across the Internet to your smartphone. The key to the system is that the Orb software on your PC transcodes files on the fly to make sure they're playable on your handset.
www.orb.com
Price: Free
Shape Services IM+
If you make heavy use of instant messaging then you've probably got different friends using different services with the result that you have to either mess around with multiple clients or plumb for a unified instant messaging app instead. If you want to take the latter route then IM+ is a great option. It currently works with a pretty comprehensive range of IM services including iChat, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! and Google Talk. There's also a handy IM+ panel available for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 handset that can be used to display unread messages.
www.shapeservices.com
Price: $39.95