I mentioned eBooks earlier in the article, in the context of reference material. There are a lot of novels and short stories available in various eBook formats. A list of some of the best eBook sites can be found on Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Best Sites Web page (pocketpcmag.com/bestsites.asp). The Microsoft Reader Web site (microsoft.com/reader/us/shop/default.asp) has a list of commercial sites that offer eBooks in MS Reader (LIT) format. Finally, a Web search on “eBooks” will yield thousands of references.

As mentioned previously, earlier versions of the Pocket PC have Microsoft Reader built into them. If yours doesn’t, you can download it for free from Microsoft’s Web site (microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.asp). In addition, Adobe offers a free PDF viewer for the Pocket PC (adobe.com/products/acrobat/readerforppc.html). Smartphone versions of these programs are not available. However, some Smartphones come with third-party PDF viewer programs.

In addition to reading eBooks, you can listen to music or watch videos on your Windows Mobile device. All Pocket PCs, Phone Edition devices, and Smartphones come with Windows Media Player Mobile built into them. This lets you play music files recorded in MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, and view video recorded in WMV format wherever you are. Coupled with a high-capacity CompactFlash or SD card, you can store hours of your favorite music.

The new Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PCs and Smartphones (and some Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition devices) come with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. Through its built-in DRM (Digital Rights Management) capability, this program gives you access to audio and video content that you can purchase on the Internet. Media Player 10 also allows you to download and view video and TV you have recorded with Media Center PC. Windows Media Player is free, but most of the music is not. However, if you already have CDs, you can “rip” music from them and convert it to MP3 or WMA formats using a number of programs. For example, you can convert CDs to WMA format with the free desktop PC version of Windows Media Player 10 (microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/10/default.aspx).

There are a variety of online sources for music in electronic form. From any online search engine, look for “free music” or “free MP3.” The version of Windows Media Player built into Pocket PCs and Smartphones lets you view WMV-formatted video. If you want to view MPEGs or AVIs you’ll need another player. Fortunately, there are excellent free programs available for both Pocket PC and Smartphone. The Core Pocket Media Player (tcpmp.corecodec.org/download) is another free media player for the Pocket PC and Smartphone. It supports AVI, MPEG1, WMV, DivX, and XviD video; and MP3, WMA, and Ogg audio; and other formats.

Resco Explorer from Resco (resco-net.com) is a feature rich replacement alternative to the Pocket PC’s File Explorer. It includes the standard features of File Explorer, but adds strong file encryption, ZIP compression, a file viewer, a Registry editor, and more. Other excellent, full-featured file explorers are available, including ALL-explorer (all-locations.com), PE Explorer Suite (vieka.com), and Total Commander (ghisler.com/ce.htm). All but PE Explorer are available for both the Pocket PC and Smartphone.

The Pocket PC has handwriting recognition built into it, but third-party alternatives are also available. CalliGrapher from PhatWare (phatware.com) supports cursive, print, or mixed styles, and includes a “quick correct” window for fixing mistakes. PenReader (penreader.com) and others offer handwriting recognition solutions for the Pocket PC.

Pocket Mechanic (antontomov.com) is a maintenance utility for Pocket PCs that lets you free up internal memory by finding and deleting unnecessary files. You can also use this program to format, de-fragment, scan, and repair CF, SD, and other storage cards. Tweaks2K2 (tweaks2k2.com) is a program that automates the process of “hacking” the System Registry on the Pocket PC or Smartphone. This allows you to change the system’s colors, fonts, battery settings, and much more. John Cody’s Alerts! Pro (omnisoft.com) lets you set Smartphone “alarms” that perform actions, such as switching profiles, running a program, and more.

Windows Mobile devices don’t have built-in printing capabilities, but Field Software (fieldsoftware.com) offers a number of products that add it, including PrintPocket-CE and SmartPhonePrint. (Note: Word and Excel printing not supported on Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PCs.)

Do you find the screen on your Pocket PC too small? Check out WinMobile Lens (adisasta.com), a utility that lets you magnify any part of the Pocket PC screen for easier viewing. Do you have trouble entering text on the Pocket PC using the built-in soft input panels? You can speed things up with AccessPanel (developerone.com), a utility that pops-up in other Pocket PC applications, allowing you to quickly insert text, e-mail signatures, contact data, date/time info, and more. There are also a number of very useful alternate input panels for the Pocket PC. Check out Fitaly (fitaly.com), Phraze-It (prevalentdevices.com), and TenGO (free.tengo.net).

We mentioned a freeware note taker earlier in this section. A number of excellent, inexpensive titles are also available for the Smartphone. Check out PhatNotes (phatware.com) and SmartphoneNotes (syncdata.it/sphnotes.html). One of the more interesting note taker programs for the Smartphone is John Cody’s Vnotes Pro (omnisoft.com), a program that lets you record voice memos and attach them to recurring or non-recurring reminders.

Again, there are hundreds of utilities for the Pocket PC and Smartphone. The ones described above are just a fraction of those available.