For reasons that are too complicated to explain here I have gone back to using my SPV E200 in place of my trusty old Nokia 6310i. It has been six months or so since I last used the SPV and abandoned it due to it’s poor battery life. I have since discovered that ALL modern devices have poor battery life and so I’ll just have to put up with it. Actually that statement is not entirely true as my BlackBerry 7230 has phenomenal battery life but that is wandering dangerously off the plot.
In the intervening six months I have changed my service provider from Orange to Vodafone so the first thing I had to do was to get the SPV unlocked. This proved to be no more difficult that paying someone on eBay £1 for a hack. Now all I need to do is work out how to scratch off the Orange logo…
One of the great things about a modern SmartPhone is it’s ability to have new applications added and to be customised. So I wasted no time in doing both. My first frustration was that, unlike the PocketPC, there doesn’t seem to be any dedicated SmartPhone freeware sites. Maybe there just isn’t enough of it around to warrant a full site. There are a few games but I am not really a games player so this limited the list even further. However, there are still a few gems to be had. Here is a short list of what I have installed so far:
| Automatic Keylock | This is a simple but powerful keypad locker, allowing the keypad not only to be locked after a timed interval but also importantly, not to be locked when certain applications are running. |
| Metro | How to get from a to b on the London Underground (or Paris Metro) in the shortes number of hops. |
| Mobipocket | My favourite eBook reader. Available for almost every platform you could possibly imagine. |
| Oxios ToDo List & Plugin | I use Outlook to keep track of all my tasks that I have on the go at any one time and while this program isn’t free it does give you powerful access to your tasks. |
| PHM Registry Editor | Why do you need a registry editor on a SmartPhone? Well for a start you can only configure the Home screen plug-in for Oxios ToDo List via the registry… |
| Total Commander | I just love this program. I already use it on my Pocket PC and my Windows CE device and now I have it on the SmartPhone too. It is a fully featured Windows explorer on acid. It is simply great! |