Third Party Software

Now that I have covered the many third-party options available for text entry, let's now take a look at a majority of other excellent software applications I highly recommend to all who own this device or any other powered by Windows Mobile.

Ilium Software - eWallet  5.0

I always like to start off with one particular application I can't live without and have used on a number of PPC phones and Smartphones over the past several years.  Designed by the clever folks over at Ilium Software, eWallet is one of those third-party apps you will certainly make the most use of.  Hence its name, eWallet is a cleverly designed application that will allow you to store practically your whole life in it, and access it in a convenient and highly secure fashion.

While you can purchase the application separately for a desired platform, I recommend their professional version which includes both the desktop and mobile software.  You can create your files easier via the desktop app and then automatically sync your wallet file to your device. 

Whatever you can think of, you can store in eWallet.  The software provides a number of categories to create your cards.  This includes some standard info cards that you typically would carry with you, as well as some custom free-form cards that will allow you to store and display any information you want the way you want. 

My actual wallet files contain quite a bit of information, most of which obviously contain sensitive information I can't demonstrate here.  However, I always have a sample wallet file with some demonstrations as to what you can actually do with this excellent software...

The beauty with this software is that even if you're not exactly an organized person, such as myself, it can be "fun" to create custom cards, somewhat making you want to build it further.  Not only can you insert custom images and sounds for each card, but my favorite feature is that any web address or phone number you store in your wallet are all "active" links, meaning that you can access or dial directly from the application.  For a mobile phone, this couldn't be any simpler or convenient. 

Most importantly though is the level of security that it offers.  In fact, this is the reason I feel safe enough to store all my data in it.  Not only does their latest version offer 256-bit RC4 encryption, but you can customize security on the device to ensure that your info doesn't get into the wrong hands.  I've unfortunately lost a couple of Windows-powered phones with wallet files in them and never had a problem.  Security options are top notch and simply offer peace of mind when you configure it correctly.  On a final note, I would like to add that the password dial pad is actually large enough to punch in your code using your fingers.  Would prefer it to be a little bigger, but it works well for finger input.

PocketCM Contacts

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Before I show you some other highly recommended software for your HTC Touch, I would like to feature a particular application that is definitely a must have for Touch owners.  Look at the screenshot above.  That is the standard contact list/manager all Smartphone or Pocket PC phone users are quite familiar with by now.  Unlike many, I can navigate through the Touch without much trouble at all.  However, there is one particular menu that would seriously frustrate me and that is the Contacts List Menu. First of all, no matter how hard I would tap the screen, selecting a contact and drilling down to its details was nearly impossible.  Heck, even the d-pad on the touch doesn't respond very well at all on this particular menu. 

So is there any alternative?  You bet there is! The next third-party application I would like to feature is PocketCM Contacts, which is provided by the same highly skilled developer than brings you the PocketCM Keyboard featured earlier in this article.

Simply put, PocketCM Contacts is the type of contact management software that HTC should have included along with the Touch.  In fact, once you load PocketCM Contacts, you'll feel as if it was solely designed for the HTC Touch.  That's how well it blends in and how well it actually works.

Unlike the horrendous built-in contact list on Windows Mobile, PocketCM Contacts was primarily designed to be "Finger Friendly".  However, that's not the only thing that impressed me though.  It's the excellent navigation and added functionality that impressed me the most.  You have large menus that actually respond to touch significantly better than the default Windows list view.  On top of that, you have a very clear view of just about everything regarding your phone contacts.  This includes how many received calls and/or SMS messages as well as any new and unread ones as well.  Switching between both is also a breeze.  But it doesn't end there though.  Navigating your contacts couldn't be any more pleasant.  The additional functionality it features made me feel at times as if I was navigating through a large collection of music files on an MP3 player instead of a phone.  As an example, if you look at the screenshot to the far right above, you'll see some very small letters on the left corner of the screen.  With your thumb, tap and hold down on the screen and slide up or down on either the left of right side of the screen.  This will popup a letter indicating the location, allowing you to get to the contact you want very quickly.  There is even a custom built-in keypad as well.

Finally, what I absolutely love about this piece of software is the way it displays and manages SMS (text) messages.  I wish I could demonstrate this here for you, but there is just too much personal info on the phone to provide you all with screenshots or even a video.  You will also love its transition effects as well.  

PCM Contacts isn't perfect though and there are a few bugs and a few annoyances that I'm sure are being worked on.  Remember, both apps are in beta and still under development to improve them.  However, best of all...both PCM Keyboard and PCM Contacts are absolutely free.  If you own or plan on owning this phone, make sure you grab both of these.  They were designed primarily for use with this particular phone and both happen to be the two features HTC apparently failed to provide before releasing this phone.  I always highly respect Windows Mobile developers that provide free software to the public.  With that said, if you find both of these applications of high use, please be generous enough to donate.  This will always ensure further development and/or new features/improvements.

Instant Messaging Alternatives

I personally hate MSN Messenger and have used Trillian for many years now as my desktop IM Client.  For those looking for an excellent alternative like Trillian for your Windows Mobile device, their is one excellent option that has actually been improved tremendously over the past couple years.  I'm referring to none other than Agile Messenger from the folks over at AgileMobile.com.  Their very latest Agile Messenger 3 is an all-in-one IM client that will allow you to connect to ICQ/AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and now even to GoogleTalk. 

Not only do you have complete control of each account you sign on to, including user and status control, but there is even a traffic counter available to you for those that may not have an unlimited data plan and concerned about carrier data usage.  I've been a fan of this IM client for years and there is no better option out there for your Mobile Device.  Highly recommended!

Web Browsing Alternatives

Pocket IE does indeed work quite well for casual browsing but it can be a quite a hassle to browse the web on such small screens.  That's were Skweezer from Greenlight Wireless comes in.  Skweezer is not an application that you load on your Windows Mobile device, but rather a very clever subscription-based service that, hence its name, will optimize or "squeeze" just about any website for not only better viewing on your mobile device, but significantly impacts overall load times regardless of the connection being used to access the web. 

What I recommend is simply to create an account with Skweezer and sync the site to your mobile device.  Second, open Pocket Internet Explorer and set this site as your homepage.  After this is done, there is really not much else you need to do.  Just log into your account via your desktop and create favorites or bookmarks of sites you frequently visit.  After all this is done, browsing all sites on your Windows Mobile phone couldn't be more pleasant.  Skweezer will not only eliminate horizontal scrolling on just about any site you bookmark, but will load them significantly faster as well.  Folks, I can't recommend this enough and after recently contacting them in regards to this article, I was surprised to find that they no longer have any kind of fee and all it takes is the time to setup your free account with them.  There is no better way to browse the web on your WM device.

Entertainment Options

As far as entertainment options go, I always like to cover two in particular that I have used for quite some time now and are highly recommend.  Fortunately, they both happen to work flawlessly with the HTC Touch.

If you are new to Window Mobile devices, you'll quickly find that Microsoft's "pocket version" of Windows Media Player is, well...not exactly a "media" player.  It still will not play a very standard format, one of which is the only that I prefer for playback on portable devices.  For the absolute best MPEG video playback, resort to none other than PocketTV.  I've been using this excellent software for many years now and there is honestly no better option out there.  While they kindly do offer a free "classic" version of this player, their Enterprise version enhances video playback performance and allows greater control of your videos.  Personally, for portable video playback, I prefer MPEG-1 over any other format because I can create or tweak any very easily for highest quality and playback performance on all portable devices.  All videos loaded on the HTC Touch performed flawlessly with no jitter, lag or sync issues.  Better yet, if you grab their touch screen version, you can drag the slider with your finger to skip through any video with ease.  This actually works very well with an overclocked HTC Touch.  You also have full control of audio and video quality via its options and have high control over playback options such as size, orientation and much more.

PocketTV Enterprise was a pleasure to use with the HTC Touch.  You can switch to landscape by simply touching the screen once.  It was tested quite thoroughly and was able to play a large selection of videos loaded on a MicroSD card.  These included a bunch of excellent short films and highly "tweaked" MPEG-1 music videos from my large collection back in the days when I used to capture, edit and host them.  Despite some issues I have with the display of the HTC Touch, video quality was truly impressive.  As demonstrated in the actual screenshots above, you can see that even small text was not pixilated or unreadable...an issue I find with a majority of portable devices featuring video support.  PocketTV is highly recommend, especially with this particular phone.

In terms of entertainment, the second product I would like to show is one that many will appreciate and make use of.  Pocket Radio, featured in other articles here at ExtremeMHz, is an excellent streaming radio player provided by Resco.  This happens to be another respected company when it comes to Smartphone and Pocket PC software development.  While they have a number of other excellent products, Pocket Radio is one that I'm quite fond of.  After contacting them, I received a response with a copy of their very latest version but they seemed quite skeptical as to whether or not it would work well with the Touch.  After extensive use, I'm happy to report it works flawlessly with the HTC Touch.

You have quite a large amount of streaming broadcasts available, all of which can be saved as favorites and ten of which can be preset to allow easy access with your fingers.  This is great for the Touch.  However, when actually setting it up, you have to get to the list view showing all available broadcasts.  As mentioned in other articles, the list and fonts are super small so you'll definitely have to whip out that stylus for a while in order to customize the player and even with the stylus, you'll have some difficulty browsing this menu.  However, once you do, playback of all favorites saved to preset buttons is a breeze, thanks to the extra large buttons.  In addition, one of my favorite features is the ability to actually record the current broadcast.  With Pocket Radio, you can actually configure it to record to the MicroSD card.  I love this feature because I have actually discovered quite a bit of new music using it over time.  If you hear a song you like that you are unfamiliar with, you have that option to save the file to your device, which it defaults to both the artist and song title.

I always recommend this software to many and $20 isn't much to pay for this kind of functionality.  The only thing I would like to see is a much larger menu for browsing all stations and at least a slightly larger record button.  I say this because there were a few instances where I couldn't accurately activate the record button with my finger and have missed out on a few unfamiliar songs I would have liked to add to my large music collection.

Games

Another advantage to owning a Windows phone is that there is a large selection of games available from a majority of companies and/or individual developers.  Considering how big this article is already, and the fact that I wanted to focus primarily on a number of areas the most, I can't possibly feature a wide selection of games that I recommend.  However, there is always one particular company I make room for.  That company is Astraware, an excellent source for a wide selection of games that support a large number of phones.

I did at least request two particular games from them that many are already familiar with.  Yes, "pocket" versions of these two highly addictive games are available and while their site does not really indicate support for this phone, I can confirm that both run flawlessly on the HTC Touch.

I could play these two games for hours.  In fact, I got a little side tracked when testing them.  I don't know, that's how addictive they are.  Cubis I could actually play using my fingers quite easily.  However, for Bejeweled, you definitely want to whip out that stylus!  As always, both are recommended and a nice way to pass the time at a doctors office or anywhere you get bored rather quickly.  Highly recommended.

They offered some other games that do look impressive, however I did not have the time to fit them in.  Regardless, you can visit their website and browse the large collection of games they offer that will work with the HTC Touch.

Excellent Utilities

There are also quite a number of excellent utilities that can maximize the overall functionality of any Windows Mobile device.  While I can't show you all, there will be two in particular featured here, both of which happen to be from the same company that brings you the full sized keyboard and bundled HTC Touch software featured here. 

  The first is Spb Time, which is a handy application not only for travelers, but also for those looking for additional functionality that should have been included with the Windows Mobile OS itself.

Not only can you customize a number of analog or digital style World Clocks, but its timer features are excellent and quite handy.  You can choose from a number of countdown timers and also use its handy stopwatch feature that will even allow you to save results to file very easily.  Best of all, this particular application is finger-friendly and a pleasure to use with the HTC Touch. 

  I end this large third-party section of the review with what is now my second favorite application for Windows Mobile.  I'm referring to Spb Phone Suite, one of the very latest products from the highly talented folks at Spb.

I can't begin to tell you just how impressive this particular application really is.  You'll just have to try it and see for yourself.  However, I will provide plenty of screenshots to not only show its highly convenient functionality, but to demonstrate two particular features that I have wished for so long now. 

Once you install Spb Phone Suite, you are quickly greeted with an appealing and colorful menu bar plugin on your homescreen which provides super quick access to some of the most useful phone features.  The icons are large enough for finger touch.  This plug-in does include your standard phone and message status icons but the nice thing is the ability to easily turn both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on and off, as well as quick access to your sound/phone profiles.  The popup menus are also extra large and accessing all with your fingers is trouble-free.

Sure, the call/msg status icons may be nothing to brag about when you consider the Touch already offers this.  However, it is the additional notification options that are most welcomed.  In fact, they are features the OS itself should have provided and features I have craved for some time now.

**click to enlarge** 

With Spb Phone Suite, you can actually enable recurring notifications when you miss a phone call, text message or both.  You can set the interval and choose the sound file of choice and even set it to vibrate along with the sound as well. 

If you're like me, one who loves their phone but also values their privacy, Spb Phone Suite has a number of super impressive features that I'm sure most will make use of.  We all occasionally do not want to be bothered.  Whether it's not accepting any calls or not wishing to receive calls from someone like a psycho ex-girlfriend, solicitor or collector, this is unfortunately not avoidable in most cases.  That's where this particular software manages to impress in terms of the additional functionality it brings to a Windows powered phone.  With Spb Phone Suite, you can not only choose to ignore all calls without having to power off your phone, but you can also create both a whitelist and a blacklist, both of which can be configured heavily and set to receive calls based on both lists.  I personally never pickup a phone call that comes in as "Private" or "Unknown".  In fact, I hate receiving these and simply ignore them.  With this software, you can actually add unknown calls to your blacklist very easily.  The beauty of this feature is that when you enable your phone this way, those calls will register in the call log but your phone will not even ring!  I tested this feature on the HTC Touch quite heavily and it does indeed work flawlessly every time!

As impressive as all this is already, that's not all Spb Phone Suite will offer.  The final feature I would like to cover is one that I now use on a daily basis and this kind of functionality is simply invaluable. 

What I'm referring to here is its SMS "reject & reply" feature.  When a call comes in at a time when you can't accept it, you can ignore the call but quickly respond with a text message.  How does this work though?  Well, to demonstrate this excellent functionality, I have provided the three screenshots above.  Basically, when a call comes in that you cannot take, you simply choose to ignore it, which will quickly popup a menu asking if you would like to send an SMS (text) message to the caller.  If you choose "Yes", then another popup is displayed allowing you to choose from a number of quick text responses, all of which can be fully customized.  Seconds after, a confirmation will be shown that the message was sent.  The beauty of this is feature is that when you send a text reply this way, at no time will it load the messaging app in Windows Mobile.  All is done behind the scenes and all is instant.   

I tested this feature quite heavily and the callers did receive the custom reply almost instantaneously.  It was tested on callers on the same Cingular network, TMobile and even MetroPCS.  However, note that this feature is obviously intended for use on those calls received from a cell phone.  However, I do happen to manage a large landline digital phone system that supports SMS messages.  When testing this feature feature though, I did run into a slight problem.  When sending one of the custom replies, the software would add a "1" in front of the local number used for testing.  This resulted in a second text message on my phone stating that the message could not be sent.  After contacting Spb support and further testing, I can confirm that the reason for this is not actually the fault of the software, but due to the format the carrier or provider uses to "send" the phone number.  After contacting the provider itself, I was able to confirm this was indeed the case.  Regardless, every reply sent to all incoming cell phone calls were received by the caller. 

Spb is a great company providing not just any application, but a large number of third-party tools that people will actually make high use of.  I can't recommend this enough!

**Update 10/21/07**

Shortly after this article was complete, I came across another piece of software that is certainly worth featuring.

Mobiion may not be a company many may be familiar with, but their MagiCall software is one that I happened to stumble upon while searching for a very specific piece of software completely unrelated to this kind of functionality.

Spb Phone Suite is great and offers a mix of features that work well.  However, for those looking for a more automated means of handling both phone calls or text messages, MagiCall is one to consider.

Unlike Spb Phone Suite, MagiCall is unobtrusive and the only thing you'll find on the Today screen is a very small phone icon I circled in red above.  The color of the phone icon will be different depending on which of the many settings you have the software configured.  Everything works "behind the scenes" and you can configure it a number of ways and add any new task or function you would like to make use of.

You have three rule types to choose from.  They include both inbound and outbound calls, as well as SMS (text messages).  There are also plenty of filter types to choose from.  This includes private numbers (I always ignore these), a specific number or series of numbers, a number in your contacts, a number not in your contacts and even based on the "Category" of the contact.  After you have defined the rule and its filter type, you can then choose the action to be taken..  For example, our testing consisted mainly of sending an SMS automatically to specific calls that were received.  This is easily done by setting the second action to send the SMS.  You can define the message you would like to send by typing it in the corresponding text box. 

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You can also configure it provide notifications confirming an action has been taken and also setup a log that will record all activity.  Overall, I was very impressed with the high level of control you have on both calls and text messages.  All is completely automated and done without any kind of user interaction.

Note:  This software works extremely well only when you have configured it correctly.  I would like to emphasize on that and also highly recommend you read their User Guide very thoroughly prior to using the software!  I say this only because I discovered the hard way that configuring it incorrectly can have some serious consequences.  In my example, I did not configure a particular screen properly and this resulted in a mass send of text messages to a large number of people.  The worst part was that this occurred after some idiot tried calling me at 4AM this weekend as I was sound asleep.  I can assure you this software worked flawlessly because the very next day, I received a large number of calls in the morning regarding some messages that went out!  Please take the time to read up on setup and configure it properly before you even consider running it.  It will help avoid very embarrassing and highly awkward situations like this. 

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