Help me get set up on a Windows Mobile Phone

[sanddrag]

So, I'm taking the leap into the world of smart phones with a Windows Mobile phone. I will pick it up tomorrow. It has 3G and GPS, and I got an 8 gig card for it. I'm not terribly familiar in all the best applications and everything. I want to make the most use of this device that I can, so, I'm turning to CD for recommendations. It currently has Windows Mobile 6.1, but I can upgrade to 6.5 (I'm assuming this is a good idea?). So, what applications should I have? Anything FRC specific that would be handy on this thing? To start, I of course want Google Maps on there, but is there anything that will give me turn by turn voice navigation for free? Anything free that will make the phone a wifi router? I'm assuming some setting in the phone can let me tether it? Better browsers, media players? I want to take my .wtv recordings from Windows 7 and watch them on the phone. Any tips on what to use to convert them? Also, I need all the good unit conversions and stuff, and Acrobat reader. Hopefully someone here with a Windows Mobile phone can help me figure out all what I need to do to this thing. Thanks.

[Mr. Lim]

Sanddrag, I own a Samsung BlackJack II.

It's a bit older, but it's been a real workhorse for me.

I use Garmin Mobile XT on it - personally I think it's the best mobile phone GPS app out there. It's inexpensive, is a one-time cost, and works just as well as any automobile GPS out there. I love it to bits.

Beyond that, I primarily text, e-mail, manage contacts, take notes, take photos and movies, browse, and of course make phone calls on it.

I use One-Note to jot down important information, and it syncs with my laptop nicely.

I manage my contacts through Outlook, which also integrates nicely.

It's possible to tether to my laptop via USB, but I don't really ever do that. No 3rd party apps required, you can do it right from Windows Mobile under Internet Sharing.

But beyond that I don't keep a lot of 3rd party apps on it. With a newer phone with a big screen, you may want to install CorePlayer on it. It's a nice media player that's kind of like VLC for your phone.

Honestly, I tried Opera Mini, Opera Mobile AND Skyfire, and I ended up just sticking with IE as my mobile browser.

I have a 4gig miniSD, and it houses GPS maps for a good chunk of Canada and the US in and around Toronto. Once you get a good collection of contacts, texts, e-mails, attachments, calendar items, etc... the rest of the space gets filled up with photos and movies I record every so often.

When I first got it, I tried to load every possible "cool" app I could find, but the more I did that, the more I realized I just needed the core apps, and to spend my time to use them well.