If you like looking at the planet through Google Earth then Pocket Earth is an excellent application that allows you to watch and interact with the glorious globe all the way from space. However, there's more to this than pretty pictures. You can search for locations, check the weather - including wind speed and humidity - get information about moon phases, sunrises and sunsets, and see what time it is across the world. There are even thermal maps.

Literally everything you want from the planet is on here. You can zoom in and out and scroll about from point-to-point to track distances between different locations. The graphics are great and the scrolling feature is smooth. There really is so much in this simulation that you should just get downloading it right now.

Download Pocket Earth 3.5 in Softonic

I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to imagine how any of us got around before the invention of Google Maps. The online app is now probably the best way of finding the best route between A and B, and is also great for looking down at your house from the clouds.

Combined with GPS satellite positioning and a mobile phone, Google Maps is a powerful weapon against getting lost, and Google Navigator merges these three things beautifully. The program is able to download maps from the great Google site for offline viewing.

From here Google Navigator can search, view points of interest, plan routes and explore any area of the planet. Like Google Maps, the program includes three viewing modes: map, satellite, and hybrid; different zoom levels, and the ability to save your routes KML

More importantly, if you have GPS, you can view your position on the screen and activate the route planner navigation mode. This works in much the same way as a sat-nav system you'd use in a car and even includes voice instructions to help you get to where you're going.

If you find yourself getting lost on a regular basis, Google Navigator will help you get out of tight situations using your Pocket PC. If you have a GPS receiver too, you'll find this app even more useful.

Download Google Navigator 4.1 in Softonic

Wayfinder Earth brings you current and regularly updated maps to your mobile phone, for Europe and North America all the way down to street level. Zoom in any location on the planet and get an overview of New York or of the surroundings of the Niagara falls. Search amongst around two millions of Points of Interest such as restaurants, hotels, museums, nightlife and much, much more. Wayfinder Earth Beta is free for personal use.

Download Wayfinder Earth 0.36 beta in Softonic

Are data costs an issue for you? No problem. MapLoader is a quick, uncomplicated PC solution that allows you to download maps from the Internet and install them onto your mobile end device. Just select the region you want, download the maps, transfer them onto your memory card or mobile device and start exploring the world!

Download MapLoader 1.2 in Softonic

smart2go is a comprehensive navigational package packed full with maps from more than 30 countries with thousands of cities making it perfect for the traveller. The freeware provides a route planner which works in the same way as similar other software programmes. Simply specify a new route by entering either an address or, interestingly, one 'Point Of Interest' such as a hotel or restaurant. You can save these once you have located them.

There is the option to search for directions using roads or motorways depending how you want to travel, and you can choose the longest or shortest route, depending on how much time you have. Before all this you must load the map data, for free, from your PC using MapLoader. You can make this as detailed as you want by even adding petrol stations directly from the internet. There are more features available but unfortunately you'll have to pay and the free software will probably give you what you need.

Download smart2go 1.1 w in Softonic

There are many GPS-based pieces of software around now, each promising to get you home from any destination, but it's nice to see the old A-Z making something of a come back here in this full colour mobile version of everyone's favourite mini road atlas. Of course the downside is it only covers Great Britain and won't sync if you leave the country or tell you exactly where you are at any point in time. But if you need a simple to use and friendly road map you'll do well to find anything better.

The pocket A-Z also comes with a facility to save your favourite places, for when you want to revisit and quickly find directions, plus a marker tool that allows you to map locations and work out the distances between two points. There is a fully searchable 4,400 index of key places including cities, towns and airports but if you want to find anything less well known you'll have to search around yourself. For drivers this is a really useful application and will save unfolding those giant map pages screwed-up in the glovebox.

Download Pocket A-Z Road Map of Great Britain 5.0 in Softonic

Microsoft is joining in the web-based world viewing market with a service very similar to Google Earth call MSN Earth, a practical viewfinder of maps totally online. Virtual Earth Mobile allows you to directly use this new service from your PocketPC.

With Virtual Earth Mobile and an Internet Connection you can use your mobile device locate any point of the planet and to visualize it with satellite photos. The program is designed so that he is very simple to locate to a point near you, to locate the direction of a contact, to increase or to reduce the distance, to select the type of map and to display the images in pixel-perfect quality.

In addition, you can use Virtual Earth Mobile and a receiver GPS to see your position in real time on the map. Really, Virtual Earth Mobile in a compendium of functions to operate the possibilities of Virtual MSN Earth.

Download Virtual Earth Mobile 1.69 in Softonic

Pocket Distance Calculator computes distance and direction between any two points on the earth. In addition includes a huge database of 1150+ world city coordinates.

Key features of the program include.

• Coordinate (Latitude - Longitude) database of world major 1150+ cities
• Computes distance (range) and direction (bearing) between any two points on the earth
• Distances given in both kms and miles
• Angle of direction given in degrees
• Manual input of any coordinates
• Automatic and instant computation of distance and direction
• Very accurate ellipsoidal distance algorithm is used in distance computation

Download Pocket Distance Calculator 1.1 in Softonic

A map of Austria divided into 3 smaller territories for the ease of use. Designed to be very good for intercity travels with SmartMap, this VITO map will prove an invaluable travel assistant.

VITO SmartMap is a GPS moving map application for your Pocket PC. It uses relatively small vector maps, which are perfect for driving or hiking with it. You can also use VITO SmartMap without maps for recording tracks to find your way back. The program enables you to view maps, determine your position on the map, view the current track (trail of moves), set pushpins and save the current track.

Layers include:
• Towns
• Settlements
• Airports
• Roads
• Railroads
• Rivers
• Inland water
• Administrative borders
• International borders
• Trees
• Map scale is 1:1 million

A handy and easy to use map of Austria to help you on your travels.

Download VITO Map of Austria 1.0 in Softonic

MapsGo is a simple GIS for Desktop PC and Pocket PC. You can also export maps and database files to MapMap GIS for Palm (by Paul Sokolovsky). You can export the maps from ArcView, export and import dbf, txt files and do a GPS export and import.

Its easy to use interface, wide range of available maps, GPS functionality and a wide range of compatible maps - all make MapsGo an excellent, free soultion for viewing maps on your Pocket PC.

With MapsGo, you'll never get lost again!

Download MapsGo 4.0 in Softonic

The AtlasCE is a Pocket PC program that allows you to have the information on all the countries in the world in your pocket. With its convenient and intuitive user interface you can quickly find and retrieve country information.

Key benefits of AtlasCE include:

• Comprehensive almanac with statistics, flags, population, languages, religion, monetary units, history, culture, geography and economy for all countries of the world.
• Up-to-date continent and country maps are available as an optional and valuable add-on to the program.
• Limit your search by tapping on the continent and filtering the country list by the countries situated on that continent.

Attractive atlas program for Pocket PCs.

Download AltasCE 1.0 in Softonic