What one can do with his smartphone / PDA.
Author: Leonid Sinichkin

Suppose you bought a smartphone or a PDA, you must then be
quite happy about it. But do you really use it to its full
power? Smartphone is in fact a computer and it requires
software to function. Of course, there are already basic
programs pre-installed on every smartphone, like Internet
browser, e-mail software, text editing software, etc. But
one can do much more with smartphones. In many cases they
can be more handy than big desktop PCs because of their
small size. Let us see what one can do with his smartphone
or PDA with the help of the vast choice of software
available for them.

We will describe the following software groups:

* Backup of user data and system information
* Remote control - control your PC remotely from your
mobile device
* Antivirus and security
* Office applications
* Mobile dictionaries
* Voice recording software
* Communications tools
* Entertainment
* System tools and maintenance
* Software for webmasters

Backup. We would say, backup is a must for any mobile
device. Of course, all mobile phones can be synchronized
with computer. But synchronization does not save all user
data and does not save the system information at all.
Backup programs make a complete backup of mobile device,
including all user information, the system and all the
programs installed. In the case of any trouble one can just
run a self-extracting backup file and all the information
on the phone will be restored completely. A very good
backup program is Sprite Backup. Once you install it on you
phone you get protected from data losses, just do not
forget to backup your data regularly. In the case of
upgrading to a newer model, one can also use the backup
file to easily transfer all the information from the old
phone.

Remote control. These very useful applications allow one to
control one's computer remotely as if one is just sitting
in front of it. Remote control works via a Web interface
and can be done from any PC or even mobile device connected
to the Internet. We recommend LogMeIn because it has a free
option and works on all Windows Mobile devices. Of course,
it is not so convenient to control a PC with the small
screen of a PDA but in the case one has some urgent work to
do and there is no access to a computer this can save the
situation.

Antivirus programs. Most of us are not aware about mobile
viruses but they do attack mobile phones. They can spread
via IR beaming, Bluetooth, MMS messaging, malicious Web
sites, infected software, and e-mail attachments. Many
antivirus manufacturers produce mobile antivirus software.
There is also good advice on Microsoft's Windows Mobile
site.

Office applications. As we have mentioned above, all
smartphones and PDAs have office applications
pre-installed. However generally they cannot open pdf
files. That can be solved by installing Picsel PDF Viewer -
a free program for viewing pdf files.

Dictionaries. Mobile devices are very suitable to be used
as dictionaries because such a dictionary is always at hand
and does not occupy any extra space. Besides, searching for
a word in such a dictionary is much faster than in the
classical book dictionary. There are a lot of mobile
dictionaries, just search the Web for the languages you
need.

Voice recording. Mobile phone has all the hardware needed
for the voice recording. Many phones have also voice
recording software pre-installed. However, often this
software is located among many other programs and takes
some time to find, so one can miss the moment and start
recording too late. Therefore, it may be helpful to use
special recording software. A good free program is Power
Dictaphone. However, the best program of this kind is Resco
Audio Recorder. This program is not free but it allows
one-button recording at any moment regardless of what you
are doing with the phone. This is very useful in the
situations when recording needs to be started quickly
(e.g., recording a phone conversation).

Communications software. Communications is the primary
function of a mobile phone, every phone has already a lot
of communications tools installed. However, as everybody
knows, using mobile phones is quite costly, especially for
calling overseas. To reduce the call costs, one can use
VoIP on mobile phones. We all know about Skype and other
VoIP programs for PCs. But one can also make very cheap
calls from mobile phones using special mobile VoIP
programs. Skype offers a program for mobile phones, however
it works on very few devices. But there are third party
applications that work on virtually any phone and can
establish a connection with the Skype network, so that one
can use his/her Skype account to make calls from mobile
phone. Another useful communications tool is SMS Scheduler.
This program allows scheduling SMS sending for any time in
the future. Apart from that, SMS Scheduler allows creating
contact groups (a useful feature that is missing in Windows
Mobile), so that a message can be sent with one button
press to the whole group without the need to select
recipients one by one.

Entertainment. There are of course heaps of various
entertainment programs. The most widely used are media
players which are pre-installed on all smartphones.
However, those players mostly cannot play Real Player
files. By installing Real One Player for Windows Mobile,
one can play Real Player files and watch live broadcasts on
mobile device.

System tools. In many languages there are symbols that are
not available in the standard English version of Windows
Mobile. Installing an on-screen keyboard can solve this
problem. Many such keyboards are, however, not stable and
may just stop working after some time. We recommend
Hikeyboard as a good and stable piece of software. Besides,
Hikeyboard includes many different national layouts and
allows one to easily switch between them.

System maintenance. These tools will help you keep your
mobile device in good working condition and may be helpful
for resolving some small software problems. However, one
should use them with care as there is a possibility to
loose important data or even to corrupt the system. pmClean
finds all temporary and unnecessary files and can delete
them and thus free the device's memory. PHM RegEdit is a
program for editing Windows Mobile Registry (Windows Mobile
does not have a built in Registry editor). Editing the
registry may be helpful in solving some specific problems,
however one should have some knowledge about the Windows
Registry to do that, otherwise improper meddling with the
Registry may result in a system corruption. Check
Notifications program checks system notifications and can
remove double or faulty ones. That may be helpful when
there are problems with the notifications (not working
alarms and reminders).

Software for webmasters. Sometimes it may happen that you
have to change something urgently on your Web site but you
have no access to a computer (imagine that you are lying on
the beach or travelling somewhere in the mountains and your
boss calls and wants you to urgently update information
about some product on the Web site). There are a few
programs which can save you from a spoiled vacation in such
a situation (once I experienced a similar situation myself,
so I know how helpful such programs can be). Easy HTML
Editor is a Windows Mobile software for HTML file editing.
Updated HTML files can be uploaded on the server using
SoftX FTP Client or Orneta FTP. Of course, it can be quite
tiresome to edit files with the small screen of a PDA, but
in case there is no other way out one does not think of
conveniences. (One can also connect to a PC using LogMeIn
and do all the work remotely from the PDA, however the
inconvenience of a small screen will be there in that case
too).

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of programs for
smartphones and PDAs. Here we tried to describe those,
which are, in our view, most useful for a wide range of
users. There are several mobile freeware web sites. Those
who need some programs not described here can just search
the Web.


About the Author:

Leonid Sinichkin is an IT specialist and programmer in the
field of system and process automation. He is also an
expert user of smartphones an PDAs. Visit
http://www.skypemobile.info to learn more about software
for mobile phones and to get direct download links.
(Russian readers can visit http://www.skype-mobile.ru).