What's different about UC Browser?

UC Browser is designed to make mobile Web access quicker and more convenient. It's a pretty lightweight application that manages to cram in a number of interesting features without slowing down your browsing experience too much.

Viewing WAP and web sites in UC Browser is a painless experience thanks to its multiple tabs, which allow you to have several pages loaded at once in much the same way as Firefox does. You can flick between the pages simply by tapping tabs, or by using the window icon at the bottom to pull up a pop-up screen listing the tabs you have open.

UC Browser gives you a lot of control over page layout, too. You can choose to view pages in full screen, tweak the font size, zoom images, and tweak image quality.

What tools are in UC Browser?

UC Browser has a number of interesting tools that you don't normally see in a mobile Web browser, such as an integrated download manager, built-in clipboard for simple copy and paste, and a start page with a number of preset links to a range of categorized web sites. Of course, there's full support for bookmarks too.

There's a simple, yet effective search tool within UC Browser that facilitates quick searching through Google, Bing or Yahoo!, allowing you to choose which search engine the browser uses.

Fast browsing technology

UC Browser is a proxy-based browser, which re-renders and compresses page data on a server before sending it to the client (in much the same as Opera Mini and Skyfire do). This makes it exceptionally quick at loading pages. Unfortunately, it seems that image rendering is sacrificed somewhat in this process, and often you'll find that images won't display properly, which can get annoying.

Overall though, UC Browser makes for a quick and easy way to explore the riches of the Web from your PDA.

Download UC Browser 7.6.1.82 in Softonic

Global Navigator lets you browse maps and satellite images of the whole World. You can find places by zooming in on the world map, or by using the app's powerful search tool. Global Navigator offers several ways to look at maps, including map, satellite, terrain, and hybrid mode. You can view maps in 3D and move around in all directions, like you can in Google Earth on your PC.

Global Navigator can search, view points of interest, plan routes and explore any area of the planet. 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 satellite navigation system you'd use in a car, and even includes voice instructions to help you get to where you're going.

A feast of features

Other features of Global Navigator include the ability to view photo layers to show images on maps all over the World, add GSM or GPS information to photo and video taken on your camera, and export routes to Google KML format. You can also store favorite locations in Global Navigator.

Finding your way around with Global Navigator is a breeze, although there were some stability issues in our tests. For example, the program would crash when trying to view photos, and the maps often took an age to render in terrain mode. Another shortcoming in Global Navigator is the business look-up feature, which is pretty limited and doesn't cover all areas.

If you find yourself getting lost on a regular basis, Global 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 Global Navigator 5.8 in Softonic

Opera Mini 5 offers a faster and more powerful browsing experience than any previous version of the app. The small and compact program has borrowed much more from its desktop-based big brother this time, so if you enjoy using Opera on your PC or Mac then you can now look forward to a similarly smooth ride on your mobile.

The user interface in Opera Mini 5 is more usable than ever. This is thanks to the addition of a Speed Dial feature, whereby you can set one-click shortcuts for up to nine of your favorite sites. Just like in the desktop version, these display thumbnail previews of the sites to make things as clear and simple as possible.

Opera Mini utilizes a tab-based interface, meaning that you can load multiple pages at once simply by clicking on the tab icon at the top of the interface. You can thumb through the pages you have open using the left and right direction buttons. Other navigational aids have also been added, such as an auto-complete feature in the address bar and a built-in search bar. Unfortunately, the search bar only features two sources - Google and Wikipedia.

Viewing pages in Opera Mini 5 is a delight. As with the previous version, you can opt to view the whole web page on screen or move the cursor over a particular part of the page and tap to zoom in (there are only two levels of zoom though). Load times are as impressive as ever thanks to Opera's unique server-side rendering technology.

For those who love to tinker around with stuff, Opera Mini 5 is sure to please because the program is simply rammed with options. You can alter image quality, font size, and fullscreen browsing, and there are a wealth of privacy settings too. The program even has its own password manager.

There are still a few small bugs in this beta version of Opera Mini 5, but hopefully these will be ironed out by the time the final build is released, and it's nothing that seriously interferes with your browsing.

Opera Mini 5 is a slimline, easy-to-use browser that will significantly speed up your mobile internet experience

Download Opera Mini 5.0.3521 Beta in Softonic

Windows Mobile users have been able to use basic, stripped-down versions of Microsoft's Office tools for years. Now WM 6.5 users can experience an altogether more powerful productivity suite, in the shape of Microsoft Office Mobile 2010.

The latest version adds some powerful new functionality to the suite and harnesses the capabilities Windows Mobile 6.5 to deliver a more intuitive user experience. Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 displays a splash page with access to all the components of the suite: Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, SharePoint Workspace Mobile and OneNote Mobile. It also updates Outlook Mobile with some new tools, such as a Conversation view for combining related messages, and tighter integration with Microsoft Exchange.

The overall look and feel of all the apps within Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 is much improved on the previous version. The drop-down menus are sexier and more touch-friendly, and the apps support touch gestures for zooming in and out of documents and flicking through files. That said, the toolbar icons within the apps still look very outdated compared with the desktop versions. I was also disappointed to learn that you still can't drag over text with the stylus to select it for copying, cutting and pasting.

What's in the box

In terms of the utilities themselves, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are definitely more functional than they've ever been on a mobile. For instance, Word Mobile 2010 now includes more formatting options, a whole bunch of new preset formulas have been added to Excel Mobile 2010, and PowerPoint Mobile 2010 adds a feature for hooking up to your PC via Bluetooth and flicking through slides from your phone.

SharePoint WorkSpace Mobile is a new addition within Microsoft Office Mobile 2010. This neat app lets you hook up to a SharePoint server to view and open documents before editing them in Office Mobile and saving them back to the server. Its syncing capabilities mean that whenever a file is updated on the server, the version on your device will be automatically synced.

Another newcomer in Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 is OneNote Mobile. This very simple organizational tool lets you add voice, picture or text notes and store them as reminders. These notes can also be synced with your PC.

This version of Microsoft Office Mobile is still in Beta, and it's free to try until 5 April 2010, after which time you'll need to pay for it.

Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 is the strongest release of the suite to date, though it's still a long way off the power of the desktop version.

Download Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 Beta in Softonic

This beta version of Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile is the best incarnation of the application to date, improving what was already an excellent browser. Using the program is effortless thanks to Opera Mobile's tabbed interface, which allows you to open multiple pages at the same time and flick through them very quickly, much as you would do in your desktop browser. The inclusion of a Google search bar at the top of the interface makes it easy to get to the content you're looking for without wrestling around in menus, like you're made to in other mobile Web browsers.

Viewing pages in Opera Mobile is very comfortable. You can choose to fit the whole web page in one window or move the selection tool to the part of the page you want to look at and double click to zoom in.

Opera Mobile 10 integrates a bevy of time-saving tools and features, including bookmarks, a password manager, auto-complete addresses, and the ability to save pages for viewing offline. The program now includes the 'Speed Dial' feature from the desktop version of Opera, that gives you one-click access to your favorite pages from the start page.

Speed is something that Opera Mobile has always focused on, and this version of the app includes Opera Turbo, a technology that allows the browser to serve pages much quicker.

All of this combines to make Opera Mobile the ideal solution for anyone who wants to speed up and simplify their mobile Internet usage.

Download Opera Mobile 10 Beta in Softonic

I'm a big fan of the great outdoors and love to go off exploring hills, valleys and streams whenever I can. Unfortunately though, I have no sense of direction, which has led me into a few scrapes in my time.

Step forward Tracky, an application that allows you to plan out routes and track your current position through a highly visual interface. In order to use the program, you need to set your start and finish points, along with any places you want to visit in between.

Using GPS technology you can then take it out with you and get a portable view of your current course and baring at all times. The software downloads maps from Google Maps to provide you with a pretty detailed plan of where you are in the world. The amount of stats and options locked within Tracky are incredible, and you can access all sorts of information about your real-time altitude, speed and distance to the individual marker points.

All this is great and everything, but compared to many Sat Nav systems I've tried, it all seems remarkably fiddly to set up. The zoom control is a trifle cumbersome, GPS configuration can take some messing with, and there is a distinct lack of user help within the program itself.

Although Tracky can certainly help you find your way back down the mountain, the chances are you'll be stuck up there for a while figuring out how to use the darn thing.

Download Tracky 3.4.4 in Softonic

2009 could finally be the year when the mobile Internet really takes off. Up to now, browsing the web on a handheld device has been a painstaking process. Things are changing though thanks to factors such as faster connections and improved mobile Internet software.

Iris Browser is an example of the kind of tool that is helping to improve the mobile web ecosystem. Based on the powerful, standards-based WebKit environment, the application provides a secure and reliable platform for enjoying online content in the way it was intended.

One thing you'll notice about Iris Browser is that it makes viewing content so much easier than it is in Pocket Internet Explorer. It's very touch-friendly, so you can tap anywhere on a page then drag it around in the display. Zooming in and out of pages is as easy as double-tapping on the screen. Navigation is aided by a mini whole page preview which pops up in the corner of the page.

Iris Browser supports tabbed browsing and you can switch between these tabs through a visual, coverflow-style interface. Flicking between the pages produces an animated swoosh, and there are lots of these kind of special effects used throughout the browser.

Unfortunately all of these bells and whistles seem to slow Iris Browser down a bit too much, and it's certainly a lot more laggy than the likes of Opera Mobile or Skyfire.

It's touch-friendly features make Iris Browser enjoyable to use, but you'll probably get irritated by the slow rendering times.

Download Iris Browser 1.1.8 in Softonic

Weather applications for mobile devices are getting more sophisticated all the time. RadarLove is a radar image engine that lets you keep track of what's heading your way weather-wise.

RadarLove uses your mobile Internet connection to pull data from U.S. radar sites the displays the images on your Pocket PC. These precipitation images are overlaid onto a map, with a transparency underneath, so you can see exactly where the rain is at.

To get going, you first need to select a radar station from RadarLove's settings menu. There are lots to choose from, but unfortunately they are all in the USA at the moment. Hopefully the developer will address this in future releases of the program. Once you have selected a radar you can choose which layers you want to be drawn onto the map. These include Topography, County Lines, Cities, Rivers and Highways. You can also tinker with the radar transparency and the loop speed. I felt the quality of the maps and the transparency was generally pretty poor. It's not so bad that you can't make out what you're looking at though.

In the main view in RadarLove you can move around simply by tapping and dragging the screen. You can zoom in and out of the map using the 'Zoom' option in the bottom menu. Alternatively, you can use the directional buttons on your PDA, or tap the screen to zoom. This later option is a little temperamental, however.

It's worth noting that RadarLove is still in beta stage. This means there are still a few bugs and glitches (the app crashed on me a couple of times when I was selecting a radar site). Hopefully this will get ironed out though as development on the app continues.

Despite being a bit rough around the edges, RadarLove provides a fast and accurate way to track the weather in your area.

Download RadarLove .01beta in Softonic

Let's face it, navigating the Web on a Pocket PC using the default IE browser isn't a very pleasant experience. Its fiddly controls, unreliability and tardiness have led many to look for replacements.

To date, I've found Opera Mobile 8.65 to be the best of the bunch. However, this beta release of version 9.5 is even better, and shows that Opera has what it takes to conquer the PDA web browsing market. Opera Mobile 9.5 furthers the high standards set by the previous version, in terms of speed, features and easy-of-use.

The interface has been completely redesigned and is all the better for it. Don't get me wrong, it was good before, but now everything is so easy to reach and touch-friendly that it's almost as intuitive as browsing the Web on your PC.

What I liked about the user interface in Opera Mobile 9.5 is its no-nonsense approach. It's subtle and yet practical, to the extent that you don't really notice it's there, but when you need it it's very easy to do what you want. The stylish gray and black design keeps things as minimalistic as possible, while the large buttons make for easy access to common browser features, such as favorites, tabs, and the back and forward commands.

On the subject of features, the latest incarnation of Opera Mobile is stuffed with them - you can add multiple tabs, save pages for offline viewing, share content via SMS, MMS and email, organize your log-ins with the password manager, and access pages quicker with auto-fill addresses. Perhaps my favorite addition though is the new page zooming tool, which allows you to get a closer look at the page with a double-tap of the screen. Another double-tap will take you back to full-screen viewing again. It's one of those features that's so cool and yet so simple, you wonder why it wasn't done before.

You might be thinking that all these cool new goodies will slow the notoriously speedy Opera Mobile down - not so. Somehow the developer has managed to package everything into a browser that seems t run a fair deal quicker than version 8.65.

Because this is a first Beta release you can't expect it to be perfect and indeed it's not. Running Flash plug-ins and embedded streaming video is out of the question because ActiveX is disabled, there are some problems when you try to install it on portable storage, and the text wraps in overview mode.

I'm sure these bugs will be ironed out in time, and when they are I think we'll be talking about Opera Mobile as arguably the best way to browse the web on a Pocket PC.

Download Opera Mobile 9.71 Beta 1 in Softonic

Packed with advanced features, SOTI Pocket Controller Pro is probably the best tool available for controlling a Windows Mobile device from your Windows desktop. The aim of the program is to allow you to view whatever is on your PDA's screen, in a window on your desktop. From this window, you can interact with and manipulate your Windows Mobile device as if it were in your hand. The advantages of this sort of remote control are varied: we find the program particularly useful for advanced configuration on a mobile device, something which can be pretty fiddly using just a stylus or phone keypad.

This latest version of the app includes a much improved skins management tool (allowing you to literally have your phone on your desktop), a nifty registry editor tool and a quick shortcut for wiping your device. Otherwise, its popular screenshot, command line and system information tools remain unchanged and as good as ever.

Download Pocket Controller Professional 6.02 in Softonic

These days many of us take our photos around with us on our mobile devices. But viewing them all can be a cumbersome experience unless you have a program such as S2V.

S2V is a stylus-free picture viewing application for Pocket PC. It comes with a stylish, user-friendly interface that makes browsing through your photo collection really easy. You operate S2V simply by sliding your finger across the screen to move back or forward through the images. You can rotate the images and zoom in or out, which is done using the d-pad.

An option on the bottom menu of the S2V interface allows you to call up your files and folders, which, again, are very easy to peruse with your fingers alone. S2V can also be used to set wallpapers for your Today screen through its support for S2U2.

S2V certainly provides a more interesting way of viewing photos on your mobile, but unfortunately it's not perfect. For starters, the program lacks any kind of transition effects or the ability to apply soundtracks, which usually come as standard in slideshow apps. More worryingly, I found S2V was prone to frequent crashes and this becomes pretty annoying after a while.

Once the developer has ironed out all the bugs though, S2V could become an essential download for anyone who keeps photos on their Pocket PC.

Download S2V 0.42 in Softonic

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

If you're the kind of person who's fascinated by geometric patterns then perhaps you should invest in a program such as Pocket Fracatals.

The app allows you to produce the kind of shapes that aren't possible using classical Euclidian geometry. It does this by using patterns that repeat themselves at smaller scales that can be manipulated by zooming, changing gradients or physically moving them.

Although there are no instructions built into Pocket Fractals, it's pretty easy to start creating shapes thanks to a clearly-labelled interface and toolbar. You simply need to determine the colours, gradients and levels of detail by tapping the appropriate boxes.

Although it's fun for about 5 minutes, this is ultimately a program for people who are really interested in geometric patterns and mathematics, because for mere mortals it gets a little boring after a while.

If you're a geometry boffin or a psychedela fan, it's worth downloading Pocket Fractals.

Download Pocket Fractals in Softonic

Being a keen photographer I love messing around with pictures on my computer. In fact, sometimes I wish I didn't have to wait until I got home before I tinker around with them to make something creative. Hang on, what's that? I don't have to wait until I get home because Pocket Artist lets me edit graphics on the move? Now this I've got to see.

Sure enough, this software allows you to manipulate images on your Pocket PC, supporting all the major graphics formats, including JPG, PNG, GIG, BMP and PSD. Once you've installed the program using the Windows Installer and loaded an image the creative world is your oyster thanks to the bevy of tools on offer here.

Pocket Artist's user environment is fairly similar to the one you'll see in the popular desktop-based graphics packages, if slimmed down somewhat. There are only eight icons on the toolbar for stuff like drawing tools, shape selection, fill and stroke colour and brush style and size.

What's more, there are dozens more tools locked within the pop-up menu system accessible from the bottom of the interface. Here you can do things like apply filters to images, zoom in and out of the image, rotate and transform, and adjust colour/brightness etc. The fact that Pocket Artist also lets you work with layers demonstrates exactly how powerful this program is, and you have enough tools at your disposal to create some truly impressive imagery.

The problem lies in the fact that the tools aren't as easily accessible as they could be and because there are no floating palettes or extended toolbars like you'll find on the big screen graphics apps, you'll need to do a lot more hunting around for the features you need. Nevertheless, considering the size limitations of a mobile screen, the app does well to put as much as it does on display without looking cluttered.

Even if you're a high-end digital photographer or designer you'll be impressed by exactly how many powerful editing tools Pocket Artist contains.

Download Pocket Artist 3.3 in Softonic

Shipped on millions of devices from the major mobile phone manufacturers and operators worldwide, the award-winning Opera Mobile™ browser lets you surf the full Web on your mobile phone. And when we say "the full Web," we really mean the full Web. Equipped with Opera's Small-Screen Rendering™ technology, the Opera Mobile™ browser lets you access any site on the Internet, just like you do on your computer. Opera 8.5 Pocket PC beta version is based on the same core as the Opera 8.5 desktop browser and brings the full internet to mobile Pocket PCs. The version is available for both WM 2003 and WM 5.0.

Features of Opera include:

• Open URL with auto-complete
• Zoom
• Download
• Multiple Windows
• Navigation and history
• Bookmarks
• Landscape/Portrait Mode
• Full screen/ Fit to screen
• Pop-up handler
• Pad-lock icon on secure sites
• User preferences
• Context menu

Download Opera for Windows Mobile 2003 8.65 in Softonic

Shipped on millions of devices from the major mobile phone manufacturers and operators worldwide, the award-winning Opera Mobile™ browser lets you surf the full Web on your mobile phone. And when we say "the full Web," we really mean the full Web. Equipped with Opera's Small-Screen Rendering™ technology, the Opera Mobile™ browser lets you access any site on the Internet, just like you do on your computer. Opera 8.5 Pocket PC beta version is based on the same core as the Opera 8.5 desktop browser and brings the full internet to mobile Pocket PCs. The version is available for both WM 2003 and WM 5.0.

Features of Opera include:

• Open URL with auto-complete
• Zoom
• Download
• Multiple Windows
• Navigation and history
• Bookmarks
• Landscape/Portrait Mode
• Full screen/ Fit to screen
• Pop-up handler
• Pad-lock icon on secure sites
• User preferences
• Context menu

Download Opera for Windows Mobile 5 8.65 b in Softonic

Fizz Weather is a fully featured application & home screen plug-in. Supporting over 58,000 cities world wide we have one of the best, most comprehensive weather reporting tools for your mobile device.

Features include :

• Windows Mobile 5 Compatible
• Square Screen Support
• Landscape/Portrait Support
• Global Coverage
• Over 58,000 cities worldwide
• 7 day full forecasts
• 2 day forecasts, 6 hourly intervals
• Current location conditions reporting from various stations
• Weather maps with zoom & pan support
• Ski Reports from popular global resorts
• Airport delays
• Weather warnings and alerts for the US
• Customizable interface with amazing new graphics and skins
• Full VGA support for compatible devices including support for TrueVGA
• Full control of downloads, update your weather whenever and however you want
• Active Sync Synchronization
• Download forecasts on the move
• Graphical display to allow you to track your downloads
• Customizable home-screen support

Download Fizz Weather 2.4 in Softonic

PocketPicture allows you to turn your pocket PC into canvas and easel and be creative everywhere. It is useful to draw small icons in zoom mode as well as rather big images (with scrolling). It has following tools:

• Pencil, brushes of different width, gas brush and blur brush
• Selection copying, moving, resizing and cropping
• Lines, ellipsis, rectangles
• Flood fill
• Undo for 5 last steps
• Zooming

It requires Microsoft .NET framework 2 installed. You can download and use it free. Sources available under LGPL license.

Download PocketPicture 2.2 in Softonic

Open, view and print PDF documents received via email, downloaded from the Internet or transferred over the network on your Pocket PC with Westtek's ClearVue PDF. With the integrity of the original files in tact, the information can be accessed just as the author intended. ClearVue PDF does not require any file conversion, desktop connection or ActivSync® filters. All files are accessible from wherever, whenever.

ClearVue PDF Features:

• Normal View
• Multiple Page View
• Preset Zoom Levels
• Customizable Zoom Levels
• And much more

A powerful program for handling PDF files on your Pocket PC.

Download ClearVue PDF Professional 3.0.552 in Softonic

Winamp has always been one of my favorite music players for Windows, and I still maintain that it is better than the bloated monster that is iTunes. If you too are a fan of the player then you may wish to download WinamPAQ for your Pocket PC. The application lets you play MP3s and other audio tracks (but not videos) on your device.

WinamPAQ's oh-so familiar interface consists of the player control window, EQ and playlist editor, all stacked on top of each other. If you want though you can choose to hide any (or all) if these windows to make space on your screen.

Tiny dancer

One of the traditional complaints from anti-Winamp users is that the user interface is too small and fiddly, and this is only exacerbated in WinamPAQ by the size restrictions of the Pocket PC display. Touchscreen users can forget being able to quickly use the volume control, EQ sliders and many other functions simply because the buttons are too tiny.

Luckily, there is a Scale feature in WinamPAQ that lets you zoom in by up to 200 percent, although if you do this you'll have to scroll around the interface rather than viewing it all at once. Another way around the problem could be to take advantage of the programmable hardware button support afford by WinamPAQ, which lets you assign common controls (Play, Pause, Back, Forward, Open, etc.) to individual keys on your PPC.

Audio features

Like its Windows-based relation, WinamPAQ manages to pack in lots of cool MP3 playing features inside. You can repeat tracks, shuffle them, organize them into playlists and manipulating playback sound all through the main interface. The Preferences menu lets you make further customizations to the player, though sadly this version of the program only comes with one skin.

Die-hard Winamp fans will enjoy using WinamPAQ for sure, while others will probably get frustrated by the overly intricate interface.

Download WinamPAQ 1.0 in Softonic