Ten great finger-friendly apps for Windows Mobile

The Windows Mobile UI might have been designed for stylus use, but with the right choice of third party software you can transform it into a feast of finger friendliness. Here’s our selection of the best.

PointUI
www.pointui.com
This replacement for the Today screen is free (at present) and brings smooth animations and access to most of the common fetaures of a Windows Mobile phone. Good looking and easy to use but it lacks options for customisation.

Spb Mobile Shell
www.spbsoftwarehouse.com
Priced at a fraction under $30 this is the umber one option for all users wishing to embrace the finger friendly lifestyle. With a Home screen that replaces Today, plus a completely customisable application launcher and extras such as a photo contacts manager this is one of the most essential Windows Mobile applications. Surprisingly low on memory usage, too, although some users have reported a hit on battery life.

ThumbCal
www.1800pocketpc.com/tag/thumbcal
Still a work in progress but it nonetheless is usable as a stylus-free way of viewing, and even editing events in your Windows Mobile calendar. It’s nicely presented, with some good ideas that may turn it into a real prospect in the long run. A shareware app, and one of the rare replacements for the often overlooked calendar app.

Finger Friendly Friends
www.jotto.no/fff/
Priced at $14.99 this is the best contact manager for anyone with a full address book. The onscreen keyboard requires no accuracy on where you hit it, but still manages to drill through your contact list to find the name you are after with just three or four screen taps. With plenty of additional functionality for adding and editing, and full intergation with Pocket Outlook Finger Friendly Friends is a defintite must-have app.

TouchPal
www.cootek.com
Available in both free and paid for versions TouchPal provides an innovatve text entry system. With different layouts including qwerty and 9-key phone pad whatever type of input you prefer is available while a predictive option should serve to cut down on the number of keypresses. With practice, up to 300 characters per minute might even be possible.

Spb Phone Suite
www.spbsoftwarehouse.com
Although not explicitly designed for finger-use Phone Suite can be adapted to provide essential functionality to your Windows Mobile phone. With support for profils missing in the Professional OS Phone Suite fills in that gap. But if you add icons for that and wireless comms to your Today (the plugin is included) you can swicth profiles and turn wi-fi and Bluetooth on and off with a simple prod of your thumb on the screen.

EyePhoto
www.iwindowsmobile.com
Cheekily named image viewer – it has no connection to the Mac app, but does bare more than a passing simliarity to what you get on an iPhone. With finger scrolling to move through the images stored in a folder and quick zooming it is a fun program to use gets more life from your device’s camera. There’s no multi-touch wizardry a la the iPhone but it smart software and good value at $14.95.

Opera Mobile 9.5
www.opera.com
The best browser on any mobile device? Based on our early hands-on tests we would say without a shadow of a doubt. Opera Mobile makes no distinction between mobile and full web. Virtually all functionality is supported while smart reflowing of content fits all the text you are trying to read inside the width of the screen without affecting either the layout or integrity of a website. With full finger scrolling and navigation Opera Mobile is an internet revolution all of its own.

SMS-Chat
www.iwindowsmobile.com
Threaded SMS program that puts all your incoming and outgoing messages for a single contact into a single thread, making it easier than ever to follow a conversation. It’s a touch heavy on memory usage, perhaps, but is fast and responsive, adding a more useable instant messaging –like element to your SMS use.

Advanced Screen Protector
www.proporta.com
With all this finger prodding, the most essential add-on of all is a screen protector: most screens were made for styluses, after all. The Advanced series from Proporta are as good as any, as they have an anti-glare that makes the screens easier to view in daylight, and are thicker than most other products, not to mention washable as well.

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