For me, the Windows Mobile user interface has always been poor. It's not particularly touch-friendly, it feels very rigid and above all, it's ugly.

SPB Mobile Shell rights the wrongs in the Pocket PC's front end - then adds new functionality on top of this. The application is essentially a new skin for your Windows Mobile OS, and this latest version of SPB Mobile Shell lets you apply all manner of new tools and features too.

SPB Mobile Shell comes with a completely customizable new Today screen. Not only can you change the background image, but you can alter the items that appear on this screen, such as weather, contacts, missed calls, battery status, etc. Each of these elements comes with its own stylish icon, and you can change the size of the icons and reposition them using SPB Mobile Shell's intuitive layout editor. You can have two default layouts that you can switch between with ease.

Quicker app switching

The 'Launcher' in SPB Mobile Shell offers a more user-friendly way of accessing your apps, documents and settings. It displays your Favorites at the top, then shows Recently Used items underneath in an easily scrollable view. Again, all of this can be customized. SPB Mobile Shell comes with a Coverflow-style task switcher that lets you flick between apps with the flick of a finger.

The Contacts section in SPB Mobile Shell also improves upon what you get by default in Windows Mobile 5 and 6. You can browse contacts via picture thumbnails, and the contact dialer includes more options such as shortcut buttons for SMS, email and other phone numbers.

Fun with widgets

Version 3.5 of SPB Mobile Shell adds a number of cool new 'widgets' to the program, giving you faster access to your social networks. For instance, you can connect with Facebook to make status updates and post tweets onto Twitter without leaving your Today screen. There's also a powerful Tasks widget for keeping on top of everything in your agenda. The widgets in SPB Mobile Shell are so addictive that you'll wish there were even more of them available to download.

SPB Mobile Shell is such a powerful tool that you could almost label it as 'essential' given the enhancements it makes to the Windows Mobile operating system.

Download SPB Mobile Shell 3.5.5 in Softonic

SPB Time provides you with the World clocks, timers, alarms, stopwatches, calendars and moon phases, all from one handy interface. Oh, and it gives you the current time as well!

The skinable user interface in SPB Time is very slick. The way you can swipe between different clock faces, and the inclusion of a slide-up main menu gives the program an elegant feel. Unfortunately, there are only two default skins included in SPB Time and if you want more you have to download them.

Whether you're setting multiple alarms, counting down from a specific time, or timing something on the stopwatch, everything you do in SPB Time is very clear and straightforward, thanks to large finger-friendly buttons and good use of icons.

We were particularly impressed with the World Time feature. This allows you to add multiple locations around the planet from a massive selection of cities. Once you've configured your shortlist of cities, SPB Time plays an animation of the globe, honing in the different places in turn to tell you what the time is there. For each place you can also view information about daylight savings, and sunrise and sunset times.

I was a bit disappointed that the Calendar section doesn't allow you to add tasks and appointments. It seems it's only for checking the days that certain dates fall on, and you can't even set alarms for a certain date from this menu.

Overall though, SPB Time is one of the most complete and easy-to-use clock apps you'll find for Windows Mobile.

Download SPB Time 3.4.0 in Softonic

Features include:

* Five different view modes
* 10 professional skins
* Several weather sources
* Easy configuration from context menu
* Optimized traffic (400 bytes for 5 day forecast)
* Custom weather source support
* Custom city support
* Integration with SPB Mobile Shell
* Integration with SPB Diary
* Integration with SPB Pocket Plus

Download SPB Weather 2.4 in Softonic

Xilisoft DVD to Pocket PC Ripper is a fast and easy to use DVD ripper which helps you rip DVD to Pocket PC supported file formats. The quality of conversions is generally excellent and the conversions speeds are fast. However, note that this may not work as well with all portable PCs. The developers claim that it has been optimised for use with HP, Dell, Toshiba and other popular brands but there can be no guarantees for other brands. The program allows you a certain level of control over such aspects as bitrate and video size although the number of formats it can convert to seem generally limited to WMV, MP3 and WMA. Overall, the interface is simple and easy to navigate around with a preview window in the bottom left to help you review conversion or select which part of a DVD you want to convert.

Fast and easy to use, this conversion tool could do with converting to a few more formats but it's more than enough for most Pocket PC user's needs.

Download Xilisoft DVD to Pocket PC Ripper 5.0.40.0729 in Softonic