Database Users

Best Day to Day Applications to Use

hi, i am new to pocket pc in general.
could you guys that's been using your pda's please let me know what applications you guys recommend having on the pocket pc for my day to day usage. I have a Qtec S100 with 64Mb Memory.
For this I mean additional apps to download and install, but also apps that comes with pocket pc 2003 2nd edition that you recommend.
could you also state where you get these apps from.. i.e. download sites.
regards
bushmen

I pray that you days are much better than mine But here are some items.
I use Pocket Breeze to display appts and tasks on my Today screen.
I use PocketInformant to manage my calendar, etc as it find it offers much more than the built-in apps.
PocketZenPhone for different profiles (adjusts the sounds, screen, etc) by selecting an icon, or by Outlook calendar or even just by time.
ListPro. It is a list program on some major steriods. It is more a cross between a list program and a database. It is quite flexible, so I use it to keep track of things from a shopping list, to vehicle maintenance to PPC tips and software keys.

thanks harleyxlc,
this information is really valueble to me since I don't know anything about pda apps.
cheers
bushmen

My apps on S100
http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=378063
On my S100 (clone of M500):
WisBar (or my preference, SmallMenuPlus) for task management
SpriteBackup for backups. Memaid for memory cleanup
PocketMusic or Mort Player for music
TextMaker for wordprocessing
Games - BustEm2, Flux, MorphGear emulator, SimCity, SprintRG, VectorBlaster, Elite
Films - BetaPlayer and Pocket TV listings
Art - PocketArtist and Resco Picture Viewer
Sound - Resco Sound Explorer (MP3 recording/dictaphone)
Internet - MultiIE (improves Internet Explorer), Newsbreak reader, PTVNCHi for VNC (using desktop over wireless)
Reference - Britanica or Columbia Encylcopedia, iSilo (I find it's the best ebook reader if you make your own - it rips a whole website and packs it down), Repligo (like PDF but more efficient), TomeRaider 3, and WordBook dictionary
Input - Calligrapher, JogButton, TouchKeyboard, Typango, BlimKeys
Systools- CETuner, Kilmist Regedit, Tweaks2k2.net, GSFinder (ESSENTIAL, get this first), Cabinst (likewise essential), PHM Tools (all are useful)
Travel - Rough Guide to London and Visual IT Tube (free at the mo because of bombs)
Phone - unforunately most diallers etc are very poor. the built in Intellidialer is about the best, but not great. See D9 dialler for an alternative. Also, you MUST install mamaich's dialler hack from http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=11120 to get some use out of the built in dialler (see towards the end of that thread for latest version).
I use buttonmax to redfine all my keys. It's not perfect, but best of the button definers. Also, use AE Button Plus to redefine your Volume Up/Down keys to Up/Down).
So set up is
SmallMenuPlus to change StartButton and for task management etc.
ButtonMax allows me to pop this up with the camera button.
AE ButtonPlus allows me to use vol up/down to navigate the menu.
TIP - if you don't have an external SD writer, get one. About £3 from ebuyer or ebay.
Then get a FAST 1gb card - i got mine from Moby Memory. Then you can "backup" 800mb divx films on to your SD card in about a minute; makes music and films very enjoyable on the go.
If you don't have a writer, get one. Then apply the Extended Rom Hack on XDA developers to get a fre 27mb of "storage" space on your phone.
Tip - install all programs onto "Storage Card" or "storage" to keep your phone efficient and fast. Use cabinst for this.
Registry hacks - see XDA developers forum.
PM me if you need any help.
Vijay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

day to day apps for a pocket pc
hi vijay,
thanks man.. quite a bit of information there which i will definately look at.
i have a couple of questions for you
1. where can i get hold of these apps
2. if i install them, then do rom upgrade
am i right in saying, all will be lost ?
if so, is there a way to back them up to restore them once youv'e
upgraded the pocket pc.
regards and thanks for your help.

Sprite Backup is in the list.

day to day apps
fantastic..
where can i find all these wonderfull applications then?
bushmen

Re: day to day apps
bushmen said:
fantastic..
where can i find all these wonderfull applications then?
bushmen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about using Google?
Here one of my day to day apps:
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=17426
And else I use this:
Iliumsoft eWallet for storing secret numbers...
MetrO for public transport http://surf.to/metro
Collins Dictionary English-German
SPB Pocket Plus as swiss army knife...
SPB GPRS Monitor
SBSH PocketWeather
Tomtom Navigator 5
Mort's Mortplayer for MP3 playback
Andreas Lachner Mobile Golf Scorer
Landware OmniSolve as calculator
Regards
Mundl

I've got a 1gb card, and the extended rom hack.
Day to day I've got about 200mb of program files installed on the Card, 1 film ("Primer") and 2 episodes of Futarama.
My Storage (extended rom) is used to hold any apps that will use the internet. I can spop out my 1gb card and put in the ebuyer Wifi card when i want to go online, and still have access to those apps. I shrink my "storage" space down to about 9mb to give my PocketPC as much memory as possible "control > system >memory"
On my 1gb card I've got about 20mb of free space. Every so often I use sprite backup to do a backup of my PPC and Storage space. I make this an executable file, so that God forbid I hard reset, the whole thing can be restored on the go without any additional software.
Every so often I make a backup of my 1gb card onto my PC desktop, so God forbid I lose my phone, I've still got everything backed up.
This routine is very easy, and works for me (takes 3minutes per backup). I won't preach, but man it took a long time to get my PPC working to my taste. I haven't had a PPC since the original IPAQ (which the GF still uses for bubblets!). Since then I've had SPV, SPV E100, Sony P900 and finally the Magician. I like the magician, but it needs to be more 1 handed.
I tried sooo many programs before settling on this set; I've hacked the registry and written my own Today plugin for measuring temperature, day/date, count audio notes and notes saved on Storage Card and PPC.
I use SmallMenu Plus to replace my start menu and task manager, and I use ProgramMenu assigned to my contacts button to bring up essential phone apps - so I can use the phone with one thumb comfortably to do essential stuff (programmenu) , and one hand slightly less comfortably to bring up smallmenu/taskmanagement etc. It sounds complicated but it's near perfect in operation, finally.
Hence - I backup regularly! It took so long to get the PPC working spiffy, I don't want to FUBAR it!
V
PS I also use 1-pass to lock my PPC every 15 minutes. I've resource edited the program to use my own background, so everything works with my very simple theme. I'll post screenshots some time...

How did you make your backup and exeacutable?

Sprite Backup > Options > General Backup Options > Create Self-restoring backup files.
V

duh lol i looked over that thankz alot for pointing that out

day to day apps
hi,
thanks for all the people that have posted what they're using. I will definately look through the lists and see what i can come up with.
i am currently struggeling with my latest 2gb sd card from ADATA. I can not get my pocket pc to recognise the card.... getting sooo frustrated.
as soon as i can get that working, i can upgrade the rom.. install apps and run the hacks....
if anyone else has more to post on these topics, please do so.
take care
bushmen

WM5, Vario and Memory management

Hi
Hope you can help me. I've had my Vario for a few weeks now, but i'm concerned about the way the memory is managed. I know about WM5 and the memory thing, but still I can't make sense of this:
Looking at my memory status, I've got 15.94 MB free on the storage memory, and only 2.39MB free on the programme side.
Currently running applications include:
pocket informant
and that's it!
i installed AvantGo, Pocket informant, Egress RSS reader, Phm registry editor, mortPlayer, O2Plus, total Commander, Spb GPRS, Clear Notify, real one, psShutXp and A-Z pock3et viewer. Some of these apps are installed on my storage card, and none of these are currently running, with the exception of a couple of today plugins.
How on earth can I go down to 2.39MB free programme memory ?
What would you advise to increase it?
I tried earlier to install AvantGo on the storage card, but it was not a success, as the system seems to shut power to the storage card occasionally (once a week?), leading to the miniSD being renamed storageCard2 when it restores power and access to it -which means shortcuts to programmes installed on the card are disabled unless you soft-reset the device.
Am I doing anything wrong? How can I increase my free programme memory?

Put it like this, applications installed on the memory card or in unlocked extendedROM's still seem to deplete storage on device. For example I put SPB pocket plus in my Extended ROM folder and then decided to delete it, as it remioved itselef, Storage went up by 1 meg. It wasn't even supposed to be in Storage so there is obviously 'cross contaminaton' of files to make certain progs work. You can run GPRS SPB from Storage cards tho. On my device I have MS Voice command 1.5, SPB GPRS monitor, HFR Switch programme, Wififofum, Resco Explorer,Tweaks 2K,Mort Player, a different dialpad skin,an Ext Rom unlocker, Pocket TV and a Draughts (checkers) game. I have 22.2 in Program Memory and 41.3 in Storage. The only other thing I don't have that you might have is some of the T-Mobile plugins and customisation and I don't have the PDF viewer.

What do you think a good amount of free program memory is?

As the topics asks.

At least 5-6 MB free is tolerable. I really miss the 128MB in the XDA 2's
Surur

ive normaly got 20mb free...runs smooth

I am around 9MB and it slowly gets less, so there might be a memory leak somewhere.
I usually get probs when the amount of free mem gets around 5 MB. More then once when ushing TomTom to background and starting another app TomTom gets closed by the device (i guess because of memory shortage)!
This really frustrates me even more as I am not really running a lot of extra processes:
Capsnotify
MS VoiceCommand
SmartSkey
Also Todayscreen is not horrifying:
WiviT SSS
Wireless
HTCTodayscreen
I am running the test QTek aku2 rom
@Sbouri; How on earth do you get 20MB of program memory free??? I dont believe I have ever seen that even after my last hard reset!

I have 17mb free at the moment, with the following running:
Smartskey
Hudson Phone dashboard
VBar
Taskplus today plugin
Resco today plugin
Phone
Activesync
and of course PIE to write this post.

Oops.

This makes it even worse for me!!
More running and 10MB more free space!!
What rom are you on then?

I have 20 Mb Ram free
I am running this Today plugins
Pocket Breeze 5.1 beta
with all other SBSH plugins as tabs in Pocket Breeze
Ilauncher 2.03
Contac Breeze 1.201
Pocket Weather 1.33
All set on static in Pocket Breeze settings.
And I am also running Wisbar Advance 2.602 beta with Junis Black & White Theme
Using the latest Qtek rom with the cache tweak and some other tweaks.

I'm running the O2 XDA Mini S ROM released this week.

After start-up I have around 21 MB free program memory, but I seem to have a memory leak somewhere - after a while it is constantly dropping. When it reaches less than 15 MB I usually free up some RAM with SKTools or do a softreset - very annoying... :evil:
I have quite a lot of programs installed - usually running are:
Today plugins:
SPB PocketPlus + Weather + GPRSMonitor + Diary
KabuToday
Egress
Other software:
PMRecorder
SmartFilter
Always suspecting the SPB stuff to be so memory consuming... :?:
Anybody else with all the SPB plugins??
EDIT: just installed the newest version of SPB PocketPlus - according to the version history they fixed a memory leak - really seems to be a bit better now...

I got the same setup before - all SPB products and they sucked memory and was often very bugridden.
Now I have converted to SBSH products and are never going back to a SPB product except their backup application.
Nothing can beat Amit and the incredible guys over at SBSH products with their incredible customer support with frequent updates and new features
DoctorT said:
After start-up I have around 21 MB free program memory, but I seam to have memory leak somewhere - after a while it is constantly dropping. When it reaches less than 15 MB I usually free up some RAM with SKTools or do a softreset - very annoying... :evil:
I have quite a lot of programs installed - usually running are:
Today plugins:
SPB PocketPlus + Weather + GPRSMonitor + Diary
KabuToday
Egress
Other software:
PMRecorder
SmartFilter
Always suspecting the SPB stuff to be so memory consuming... :?:
Anybody else with all the SPB plugins??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

easycure1974 said:
Nothing can beat Amit and the incredible guys over at SBSH products with their incredible customer support with frequent updates and new features
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the most part I do agree with that statement. However, when it comes to a Today Launcher, Pocket Plus is more polished than iLauncher. I am a registered owner of both products. Even moving the cursor using the d-pad lags from icon to icon on iLaunch where on Pocket Plus, cursor movement is fluid. Other little things like a more convienient icon selection panel, built in power off and reset buttons make PP my choice over iLauncher.
As for other comparable products, the SBSH products are just head and shoulders about the spb offerings.

Right at this moment ive got 23MB free, running a bunch of today plugins (traylaunch, recso, phonalarm, cpu graph) and also text messaging, activesync, comm manager, contacts.

18 MB Program Memory Free:
Currently Running:
Spb Pocket Plus 3.1.1
Spb Folders ( Plugin for Pocket Plus )
Pocket Breeze 5.0.12.2
Agenda Fusion 7
Photo Contacts PRO 4
Pocket Controller Professional
TodayTime
Tmail ( which is the SMS Part that I never close )
Active Sync
When TomTom 5.21 is running it drops down to 14 MB of Free Memory.

DREAMBOXER said:
18 MB Program Memory Free:
Currently Running:
Spb Pocket Plus
Spb Folders ( Plugin for Pocket Plus )
Agenda Fusion
Photo Contacts PRO
Pocket Controller Professional
TodayTime
Tmail ( which is the SMS Part that I never close )
Active Sync
When TomTom 5.21 is running it drops down to 14 MB of Free Memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have any memory leak?
How often r u guys doing a soft reset??

DoctorT said:
DREAMBOXER said:
18 MB Program Memory Free:
You don't have any memory leak?
How often r u guys doing a soft reset??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually forgot one Tool -> Pocket Breeze 5 8)
Hmm I actually don't know how many times I do a soft reset. I usually do a complete Backup about every 3 days with SpriteBackup and before it it creates a backup it does a soft reset automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have 15 MB left but I would like 64 MB Free initially
I have 15 MB left and running:
Cash Organizer
Skype
Active sync
Resco Explorer
MobiPocket Reader
Messaging (Email)
Internet Explorer
TomTom Navigator 5
Contacts
To feel Happy I would like 64 MB free with nothing running.

Forgot to add about soft reset
I soft reset about once a month. When I do that I have 27 MB free. When I run (more or less) the above applications it goes down to 15 MB free. If I close all of them I go up to about 17 MB. If I run them again, they don't seem to take extra memory (Yes i clsoed them from the task manager), and it stays at 17 MB free until I run TomTom which it drops to 15 MB free and it stays there.
Hope this helps.

edsub, i normaly have 24mb free when i soft reset...but whenever i close a program i always make sure i go to the meory settings and close it properly....i havent upgarded roms etc I've installed stuff like spb today plug in..after running a few apps my memory goes down to 19mb..watching a full length movie drops my ram to 18mb min

Re: Forgot to add about soft reset
redjupiter said:
I soft reset about once a month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once a month? I find this very difficult to believe. You must not use many applications and the apps you do use must be very well behaved when it comes to memory. It's just a known fact that many applications do not release memory to the original amount before the program was run and if you run multiple apps it just compounds the issue. Heck, just open up IE a couple of times and see how much memory it eats up. Sync up a couple times and see how much memory Activesync chews up.
I have owned PPC's since 2000 and I have never been able to get away with not having to soft reset for that long of time. Not even close.
After a soft reset I am around 18-19mb free. That's with Pocket Plus, SBSH Pocket Breeze/Contact Breeze, Pocket Weather, SmartsKey, GSPocketMagic, OMAPClock, and MS Voice Command.
After a day of running IE, syncing, running PocketPlayer, Avantgo, misc other apps, I am down to 12mb of ram. I usually soft reset every couple of days sometime everyday depending if I am running a beta of some application.

How to redistribute free space between Storage and Program?

Hi,
I have all programs installed on 2GB miniSD card, and have 30MB in storage part of memory available, but have only 10MB free space available for programs (I'm running skype and some other big programs).
I'd like to redistribute space as I could in windows mobile 2003. Is it possible to do in WM5?
It's really anoying when iGo says it's not enougm memory available and I have to shut down some programs.

I asked a couple of times.
Got no convincing ansers. I hope some tech guru can find the solution!
I heard WM2005 handles the memory is a completely different way from WM 2003. So probably it is impossible.
Thanks
Saulo866

it varies between devices apparently. On my uk tmob vario it wont move at all, even using memaid :roll: on my old ipaq however it worked fine

You can NOT use (static) flash ROM (say, a storage card) as dynamic (program) RAM because of the speed difference, which is in the order of orders of magnitude.

That is, you can NOT increase the program memory in your PDA in any way - except for sending it in for PPCTechs for a (costly) RAM upgrade. Sorry.

HTC Wizard built-in memory is getting lost somehow

Ok - I got SPB pocket plus installed and what happened on my screen I got a shortcut telling me how much of memory I have left. Now, I did not install any extra programs but somehow it happened that from 20MB my memory got shrinked down to 13.1MB - how is this possible and what could be the reason for this.
All change I made was exchange of an memory card - from 512MB to 2GB. I might had something installed on my memory card but never re-installed it - might this cause this memory loss?
Thank you!
PS. Other then this - phone is AWESOME! I bought one more for my brother.

SPB pocket plus is also a memory hogger... why not try uninstalling it and check the memory usage at start->settings->system-<memory

Yep, it's really bad. Also you may have a program installed that has a memory leak. You might look into SPBs new mobile shell program instead of Pocket Plus. It seems to do much of the same thing but seems so far to be more memory friendly.

The reason I gave up Pocket Plus before the trial period was over was because of the memory leak. It was TERRIBLE!!
I went with iLauncher instead and have been VERY happy with it. Between Spb Pocket Plus and iLauncher, I used cLaunch -- in addition to Pocket Snapit and psShutXP and Magic Button or InClose. But when iLauncher came out with their upgrade that incorporated a screen capture utility, soft reset and task manager, I went with iLauncher instead to have one program replace 4 -- for about the same amount of RAM useage.
I had also purchased Wisbar Advance 2 and WAD and even gave them up for awhile due to the memory issues. However, Lakeridge Software has now completely revamped those apps and they only use about 1/3 of the memory resources that they used to use -- PLUS they work with WM6.
There's several things that can cause drops in memory. A good investment -- or even a trial period -- of MemMaid would be in order. I was able to see exactly where my memory was going while using MemMaid and it carries a very small footprint -- under 50 kb.

Avatar28 said:
Yep, it's really bad. Also you may have a program installed that has a memory leak. You might look into SPBs new mobile shell program instead of Pocket Plus. It seems to do much of the same thing but seems so far to be more memory friendly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that SPB Shell was very heavy on memory usage, but have no problems with pocket plus (most recent version 3.2.0 Build 5561)
As an alternative to Mem Maid check out the freeware app Task Manager V2.7 which can be found here.
It can offer you some of the functionality of memory maid.