[Mogul, XV6800 General] Marcoid:
* Sorry this is so long... but recently I sent an email with apps & links to some of my friends who also have HTC phones, so I figure it's just easier to simply paste the text heree. *

Hello HTC friends!

I'm sending this email to some of you who I know have HTC PDAs, or may be getting one at some point. Over the few months that I've had my phone, I've received a few tips on good applications from some people, and have discovered several myself. So I thought it might be a good thing to send out an email to my friends that summarizes some my favorites, in the interest of sharing knowledge & experience for those who might find something you're looking for (or didn't even know you were looking for!).

First of all, it should be noted that I've found several of these tools / applications / customizations at a website called xda-developers.com. It's a site dedicated so HTC -branded phones *specifically*. I mostly use it by searching their forums for answers to questions, and looking for applications or basic tweaks:

http://www.xda-developers.com

Another good site for Windows Mobile devices is ppcgeeks.com:

http://www.ppcgeeks.com

I recently upgraded my phone to Windows Mobile 6.1 with the latest ROM update from HTC & Sprint, so a lot of these are still fresh in my head. It is also worth noting that all of the apps listed here are free; that is usually a criteria of mine when searching for new software especially for my phone.

nueLED: Turn on / turn off / redirect LED lights on your phone

This was one of the first little apps I installed. After I got my phone I noticed that it was always blinking to let me know it was "alive," and since I have bluetooth turned on all the time that light was blinking incessantly as well. I installed nueLED, configured it to disable the service LED and bluetooth LED, and now if my phone is blinking at me I know it's because it's *actually* trying to tell me something (missed call, voice mail, etc.).

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=189618#post189618

Opera Mini web browser

It couldn't have been more than 2 days of using Pocket Internet Explorer before I got fed up with it and started looking for a new browser. Maybe I was spoiled by playing with my friend's iPhone, because the web browser absolutely blows away any browser I've seen for Windows Mobile. But Opera Mini is at least a step in the right direction, until someone develops something closer to the iPhone's Safari browser. I have high hopes for Firefox's version of a mobile browser, but that won't be out for a while. And although Opera Mini runs as a Java app,let I've found out how to create a shortcut for it (as well as Gmail's Java applet) so that you don't have to go through the annoying Java menus.

http://www.operamini.com/

* There's also "Opera Mobile," although I haven't tried it yet. They have a beta (currently v9.51) that is free, although I think their non-beta releases (currently v8.65) are only free for a 30-day trial. If anyone has had any experience with these, please share the knowledge!

http://www.opera.com/press/reviews/mobile/

Google Maps

This has got to be one of the coolest apps for mobile devices; a must-have. Good interface, relatively fast, great searching, and it's easy to check traffic at a glance. It also has the ability to interact with the GPS receiver if your device has one, and can give you driving directions. But it's not the best for turn-by-turn directions as you navigate if you're trying to use it with the GPS. And also be aware that any software which accesses your GPS will suck on the battery pretty good when it's turned on, which is why I only turn on the "Use GPS" feature of Google Maps sparingly.

http://www.google.com/mobile/winmo/maps/

Microsoft Live Search

Google Maps pretty much has the upper hand in most aspects: Map GUI, usability, searching, etc. However, one area Live Search seems to have Google Maps beat is turn-by-turn directions. While it doesn't include audio guidance (I haven't found a free app that does), it integrates pretty well with the GPS and will even prompt you if you go off course. Not bad for freeware. The same caveat applies for battery usage if you turn on the GPS locator.

http://mobile.search.live.com/client/download_manual.aspx

iContact: A more "finger-friendly" contacts manager

A better UI for interacting with the contacts in your address book. Originally started a while back by someone named "larna", and version 0.6 (April 2008) was good. Then after that developer didn't have any more time to devote to it, "supbro" took over and made it way better (July 2008). Now "burt" has made his "Burt Edition 6.2" (August 2008) and made some additional improvements, and now I think it's a great app. I would have recommended it even with larna's versions, but definitely now with supbro and burt's new features. It's light weight, responsive, and highly customizable. I can tell you how to set it as the default Contacts viewer, too.

http://burt.vndv.com/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=1

OggSync: Over-the-air sync with Google Calendar

This is a nice little app which synchronizes the Pocket Outlook calendar built into your device with your Google Calendar, via the internet connection on you phone. I looked at a few other solutions, and went this one because it is free, accurate, and doesn't use a 3rd-party server as a go-between. The free version is good. They also have a paid version (yearly subscription) which includes a few additional features including scheduled syncs and multiple Google calendars. The scheduled sync would be nice, and multiple calendars maybe (maps each Google Calendar to a category) -- but not enough for me to pay for it. If you don't use Google Calendar then OggSunc is probably useless; but if you do, this app is a big winner.

http://oggsync.com/

Total Commander: A more feature-rich file explorer

Although the interface looks a little bit "old school", I use this app more than I thought I would. More options when browsing & interacting with files (geez, you can even see the actual file extension for once!), plus you get a registry editor and the ability to interact with LAN file shares (if you're connected to a network via WiFi) without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.

http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm

PPC PIM Backup: Backup personal data

This is an easy way to back up contacts, call logs, calendar entries, tasks, messages, and other files, etc. to your storage card. It's pretty light weight -- in fact there's no installation process, you just run the .exe and you're off and running. There is an optional scheduling mechanism for automatic backups; but I prefer to just use the manual backup periodically. It came in handy after flashing the latest ROM update last week.

http://www.dotfred.net/default.htm

TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player)

This is a nice alternative to Windows Media player, that actually plays formats beyond WMV. Fullscreen works great, and it is pretty customizable. Link to WM 6.1-compatible version below:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=380387

There are also a codecs to play WMV files:

http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/local_links.php?linkid=61

and other audio formats including AC3, FLAC, Vorbis, etc.

http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/

Flash Video Bundle: A way to play YouTube (and other) Flash videos

My friend Scott told me about this one. It is a cab installation that includes FLV codecs for TCPMP as well as a plugin for Pocket IE that allows you to save Flash videos from the youtube.com website (the non-mobile version).

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=FlashVideoBundle

YouTubePlay: Another way to save and play YouTube videos

My friend Mike showed me this other alternative. Not only will it play Flash videos like the TCPMP plugin, but it serves as a front-end for searching & saving YouTube videos. The player is good (fullscreen works nicely like TCPMP), and it seems to be a better alternative for finding YouTube videos than using a web browser.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=385227

SPB Full Screen Keyboard

I haven't tried this because the device I use (HTC Titan / Sprint Mogul) has a slide-out keyboard. But for devices that don't have a hardware keyboard, I've seen other software keyboards that are supposedly better than the ones that come standard on the ROM. One that is mentioned often is SPB Full Screen Keyboard. They have a free download, although I don't know if it's a limited functionality version or a limited time trial of the one for purchase.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/fsk/?en

Change # of vertical lines on new SMS reply screen

Windows Mobile v6.1 comes with a new "threaded" view for text messages, but the default space for replying to messages on my phone was only 2 lines. You can increase this if you want by simply editing the the thread_sms.htm file:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=366347

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