For more free mobile apps: 50 Best Free Apps for Windows Phone 7
Ah, the joy of free mobile apps…
Forget the iPhone with its incessant bragging about oceans of mobile apps available. If you’ve got a cell phone loaded with Windows Mobile, there are many mobile apps available for you as well. There might not be an “app for everything” since Microsoft has only about 15% of the amount of mobile apps Apple has available — which Microsoft is trying to change with the new Windows Phone 7 Series.
But there are some great mobile apps to help you save money, time, patience, and to have fun. All from your mobile device that used to only be a phone.
Without further ado, here are 50 of the best free applications you’ll find for the Windows Mobile platform, which is conveniently categorized but not necessarily in a prioritized order:
Personal Productivity
Tired of web pages that don’t load right on mobile phones? With this they’ll appear just like they would on a PC, including Flash, Silverlight, and videos.
Save favorite sites to speed dial, sync bookmarks with your desktop, and use tabbed browsing.
Mobile app: Fusion Voicemail Plus
Doesn’t everyone just hate dialing, waiting, listening, and typing just to hear those annoying voice mails? This killer-app lets you see and manage your VMs on the screen.
4) Google Sync
If you use Google’s Gmail, contacts, or calendar, sync them with your phone.
5) PDFScanner
Use the phone’s camera to scan in or fax documents. Though free, unregistered users will see a watermark in images and faxes.
6) Skype
Are you a Skype talker? Download their app to use Skype on your mobile phone.
Convert between metric and imperial units of measure—great for projects, work, or school.
Fun and Enjoyment
Listen to music, rate songs, and bookmark your favorite artists and songs. Like on the regular site, you simply tell it a artist or song and it will play music matching your tastes. It’s beyond mundane Internet radio—you make your own “stations”.
Mobile app: Mobile Manager for Netflix
Search for movies and watch trailers right from your phone. Even add or update your movie queue for your Netflix account.
10) Tic Tac Toe
Looking for a simple game to pass time? Play this classic against the computer.
11) Tetris Mobile
Here’s a free classic game you’ll never get tired of.
12) Pocket Uno
Remember this classic card game? You try to match the color, number, or special card. Play the computer and/or another human.
13) Suitor
If you have to wait around, you might as well exercise your brain with this simple but addictive puzzle game.
14) X-Ray 2.0
Mobile app: X-Ray 2.0
If you’re a trickster, this is for you! Open the app and run your phone along your hand to match the staged X-Ray movie.
Information Updates and Searching
15) AP Mobile
Read international and national news from the Associated Press, plus local coverage from more than 1,200 newspapers. Set default news categories and locations for quick access, or do manual searches. News can be read offline—doesn’t require constant network connection. Forward news via text, email, or social networks.
16) SmartTouch
You can still access online services—like Facebook, MySpace, Netflix, and others—without a data plan! This app uses texts to send and receive the data.
17) Bing
Have you become a fan of Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Internet portal? This gives you all the Bing services on your phone.
18) YouTube
Search for and watch YouTube movies with their mobile app.
19) YomoMedia
Mange your RSS feeds, download them to be viewable offline, and easily forward news.
Take a picture and start selling items on eBay right from your phone.
Mobile app: BarcodeZilla Lite
Take a picture of a barcode on many types of products using your phone’s camera and it will come back with pricing and product details—great for price comparing in the store.
22) ChickenPing
Use the regular Windows application to search for recipes and then transfer them to your Windows Mobile device to view them in the store or kitchen.
23) WeatherBug
You might have seen the desktop app, but now you can check the weather from anywhere.
24) Scrub
Mobile app: BarcodeZilla Lite
Quickly see what details are missing for the contacts in your phone, so you can store as much info on everyone as possible.
Protect your investment! Backup phone settings in case you lose or upgrade your phone, plus find it if you do lose it.
26) Smoothies
Stay healthy with this app—it lists smoothie recipes so you can reference the ingredients or send them to a friend.
27) w0lf’s Translator
Uses Google Translate engine to provide translations between many different languages.
Social Networking
28) CellSpin
Mobile app: CellSpin
Can’t seem to get away with using just one social network site? You might not have to download an app for each one. Use this software to simultaneously upload text, video, photos, and audio to all the popular ones: Blogger, eBay, Facebook, Flickr, Linkedin, MySpace, Picasa, Twitter, YouTube, and more.
29) MySpace for Windows Mobile
Stay in constant contact with your MySpace friends and update your profile. Post comments and upload photos and videos anywhere.
30) Facebook for Windows Mobile
Update your Facebook profile and keep up with friends from your mobile phone. Write on walls, send messages, take and post pictures and videos, and even call people using their phone number listed on their profile.
31) TinyTwitter
Send and receive tweets with this simple app.
32) Nimbuzz Mobile
All in one messenger for Skype, Windows Live/MSN, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, AIM, GoogleTalk, Facebook, MySpace, Jabber and many more.
Phone Utilities
33) OpnMarket
Mobile app: CellSpin
Here’s an app for apps. Offers a database of free Windows Mobile downloads, which you can search through or browse the most popular. Makes installing and updating apps even easier.
34) Home Screen Customizer
Add and remove panels to your Windows Mobile home screen. Maybe display the weather, favorite apps, or favorite contacts.
35) cleanRAM
Free up the memory without restarting your phone.
36) SoftKey Manager
Lets you change the defaults of your Today screen soft keys.
37) ServersMan
Turns your phone into a Wi-Fi or 3G storage device or a mobile web server. Plus it includes its own file viewer.
38) iDialer
Make calls using your virtual number from Google Voice, Phone.com, or JaJah, via the touch screen dialing pad.
39) WiFi Monster
Turns the Wi-Fi on and off, sees nearby routers and hotspots, and connects to them.
Mobile app: WiFi Remote Access
Quickly and easily access the photos, music, videos, and other content from your mobile phone via your computer’s web browser. It even features a registry editor to tweak Windows Mobile and has the ability to send/receive texts!
41) TreeSize Mobile
Running out of room for your files and downloads? This simple app sorts file based on size.
42) Ilium Software Screen Capture
This grabs your mobile phone screen and saves it as an image, so you can share it with others.
Sports
Mobile app: Vegas Pool Sharks
Want to sharpen your pool skills before hitting the pool hall? The free edition gives you three chances to get the ball in the pocket.
44) Par 72 Golf
Taking a break from the real green, Tiger? You can still practice your swing from home. The free edition lets you play the first hole of each course.
Are you a runner, or are you trying to be? Track your distance, speed, and altitude on your mobile.
Traveling
46) Google Maps
Get maps, directions, street view, business listings, and more from Google’s database—plus you can see your location even without GPS.
47) Trapster
Mobile app: Trapster
Put your GPS to work—this app alerts when you come near speed traps, red-light cameras, and other dangers.
48) Glympse
Easily share your location with whom you want to, making use of your GPS, and they’ll see a map of where you’re at.
49) TripCase
Gives you flight information in the palm of your hand and helps you log your tips.
50) LocateA
Eric Geierr is a Freelance Tech Writer. He has authored many networking and computing books for brands like For Dummies and Cisco Press. He’s also the Founder and CEO of NoWiresSecurity, which helps businesses easily protect their Wi-Fi network.