In some ways, Skyfire had gotten a little ahead of itself. It was based on a solid server-side optimization model, which compresses websites—including Flash and Flash video—to speed up loading over a mobile connection. As advanced as its rendering powers were, it had some glaring problems. One higher-resolution screens, which are common on Windows Mobile phones, the text looked fuzzy and pixelated. The interface was functional, but a bit small and convoluted in places, which made it a chore to use on some touchscreen phones. Scrolling was kludgy, and zooming was haphazard. Cue the version 1.5 changelog:

• Full VGA Support. Skyfire now provides native support for the VGA and wVGA resolutions as seen on many recent Windows Mobile phones.
Smooth Scrolling. Kinetic scrolling has been added to Skyfire. Flick and you will see that scrolling has become very smooth.

• Finger friendly UI. There are many UI updates to enable finger friendliness, increase the ease of use and add a bit of fun to the Skyfire experience. We updated as well the start page to be simpler-to-use with high-resolution devices.

• Full screen mode. For touch screens we have a mode that will completely remove all UI elements from the screen to provide maximum visibility onto the page. Tap the bottom right corner to bring back the toolbar.

• Auto-Move text entry. This keeps any text entry box visible when the virtual keyboard is used. This convenient feature assures that web site forms are easy to use, in case the SIP (i.e., virtual keyboard) covers it.

• Latest versions of Flash 10 and Silverlight. 1.5 has been updated to the newest and most stable versions of both rich-media formats.

• Performance enhancements. Both Skyfire's client and servers have been upgraded for faster, more responsive browsing.

The best thing about Skyfire hasn't changed: It's free. [Skyfire]

Members at XDA, a cloistered online pit of despair where thousands of obsessed individuals diligently find, execute and post about literally every possible permutation of every conceivable Windows Mobile hack (side note: I love you guys), have ripped the Marketplace installer out of 6.5, and shared it with the world. The Marketplace itself could still use a few months to ripen, but it's far from terrible as is.

The first version, a few days old and in stock form, is here—it seems to work for most folks. The second version's been fiddled with a bit, has been hacked so as to allow app installation on SD storage, which the Marketplace disables by default. Both are simple .CAB downloads, so all you've got to do is throw them on your handset and run them as installers.

Let us know how it works in the comments. [XDA via Pocketnow]

He's not revealing the method for ethical reasons, but anybody wanna fill us in on how these shenanigans work, so hopefully it'll get fixed so developers don't get screwed? [XDA via Engadget]

HandMarket App Store: Handmark's mobile client for their ample Windows Mobile app market has left beta, and by all counts, it was ready to: Navigation is easy, there are a fair number of free apps, and they've snagged some big names, like Skyfire and EA games. Waiting for Microsoft's official store is for chumps, I say.

Skyfire: Speaking of SkyFire (unnecessary abbreviation: "SkyFi"), they've updated their start page with new content. This may not sound like much, but anyone who's used the browser can attest to the start page's usefulness as a launch pad. Previously it featured Twitter, Facebook and others; now, there's search history, Gmail—awesome—and Facebook album previews. Free.

Terrestrica: A crowd-sourced geotagging/tourism app, Terrestrica just got a fair bit more useful with the addition of direct, location-tagged Picasa uploading and Twitter integration. The user-contributed map data is still a little slim, though.

Google Maps Layers: If you like your map overlays a little more, shall we say, filled out, Google Maps has just updated their excellent WinMo app with support for user layers, just like the desktop version has. It's had Latitude support, too, for a while now, which is more than can be said for, ahem, some other mobile platforms.

iDialer: I appreciate when my mobile apps have a sense of humor, and I can't help but think iDialer does: At first glance, it looks like an iPhone dialer ripoff—the kind of pathetic app that makes Windows Mobile users cringe, and iPhone fanboys feel warm and smug inside. But there's a minor detail that you shouldn't overlook: it's a seamless, easy to setup Google Voice client, too. Ha. It's donationware, so be generous.

SPB Radio: A tidy little radio app from a company that makes some of the more polished Windows Mobile apps out there today, SPB radio has a healthy directory (around 1,500 streams) of radio content and a slick, finger-friendly interface. The stations are free—it's a shame the app isn't. $10.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Emulator: It's a stretch for an app roundup, but everyone seems pretty curious about what Windows Mobile 6.5 is going to be like, so here you go: If you're not venturesome enough to install one of the many betas floating around to tubes onto your primary phone, have a go with Microsoft's free desktop emulator. You're in for a pleasant surprise, actually.

Office Communicator R2: Suits: Your preferred corporate communication app has been upgraded, and now you can log into your office's private branch exchange from anywhere, VPN-style. Neat, right! No? Just click next.

Bing: Microsoft has released a full, dedicated mobile app for its Bing search engine, which brings fuller phone integration, map searches and easier local listings compared to the regular mobile web interface. It's like all those Google search apps you've seen elsewhere, except decidedly Bingier.

Dorothy: WebKit has become the de facto mobile browser engine—it's the heart of the iPhone, Android and Symbian browsers—but Windows Mobile has been sadly neglected. Iris browser works, strictly speaking, but it's a little slow, and awkward to use (though development seems to have picked up as of late). Hopefully Dorothy, which is still in a closed private beta but looks fantastic, can fill the void.

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this month, give us a heads up or let us know in the comments. Have a good rest of your weekend, everybody!

(Previously)

The company posted a third-party case study on their Developer Network, which explains, step by step, how an app—Amplitude, a simple sound amplifier—can be ported from iPhone OS to Windows Mobile. The process isn't perfect, leaving Windows Mobile users with a jankier UI and, as is often the case, a limited list of compatible devices, but the important thing is, it works.

So yes, ho ho, Microsoft wants also-ran apps for its also-ran app store, but this is actually a great thing. For Windows Mobile users, obviously, but for iPhone owners too. If releasing a Windows Mobile version of your app alongside the original iPhone version (or vice versa) is a trivial process, then app writers suddenly have a much larger install base to tap into, which could draw more money, manpower and creativity into development. Progress by regress, or something. Note: A code-savvy commenter has pointed out that the porting process was far from "trivial," so that dream, at best, is miles off. Which makes this MSDN posting slightly saddening. [MSDN via PCWorld]

Microsoft's also promising a "detailed report" explaining why an app gets rejected, if it does. A not-so-subtle, but altogether appropriate, jab at Apple's black box iPhone app approval process. And developers can win things, like a Surface table. Oooo.

But you know, don't submit not too many apps now. [Windows Team Blog]

Searchme: Searchme apps have been available for other mobile platforms—iPhone, Symbian and Android—for quite a while now, only now coming to Windows Mobile in free beta form. Searchme, for the vast majority of you who never stray from the comforting, safe embrace of Google, answers queries in screenshots of websites and various media, some of which can be played back in the results. Though the panel-based interface works best on the iPhone, the Windows Mobile version is far from ugly, and you may find it quicker for certain types of searches. Free.

TheChanner: A moderately useful mobile TV app saved by its price, TheChanner doesn't have a particularly compelling selection of channels—they're pipe through to your phone from a variety of preexisting free sources, though there aren't many names that you'll recognize. There are plenty to choose from, though, and a lot of them are fairly niche. The app itself is a bit glitchy, and as you'd expect, it's a huge battery hog. Free.

GPS Spot: I kinda love the concept of this app: press a button, and it'll save your location according to your device's GPS. When you're trying to get back to that location at a later date, it'll tell you how to get there with a compass and distance readout. Basically, it's for finding your car in a huge parking lot. It's four dollars, which you can't really escape paying—the trial version is fairly useless.

Skype 3.0: We covered this before, but it's worth mentioning again: there's a new Skype client for WinMo. You can text of SkypeOut credit, though unfortunately people can't text you back. The new file-sending/recieving feature, though, is what makes this release awesome.

AIM 2.0: The official AIM app for Windows Mobile has hit 2.0, landing an interface lift and a new "lifestream" feature. It's a separate tab from your main buddy list, which consolidates updates from tons of social media services (Twitter updates, Flickr friends, Facebook statuses) and presents them in a single stream, as per its name. I'm partial to multi-protocol apps like Palringo, Fring, and Nimbuzz (more on that below), although this official app isn't half bad if AIM's your messaging service of choice.

Numpty Physics : As a time-suck, it's hard to beat Crayon Physics. Sadly, it never made its way to Windows Mobile, leaving physics-minded, Microsoft-using puzzle gamers with no recourse. Well, open-source Crayon Physics clone Numpty Physics will do just fine, thanks. This may be obvious, but you'll need a touchscreen phone to play. Free.

Nimbuzz 2.0: This multi-protocol instant messaging app has been updated, and is largely unchanged: the interface is tweaked a bit, and you can now report your location to other Nimbuzz users. So why should you care about this then? One word: SkypeOut. You can now make calls using SkypeOut credit, which, assuming your carrier isn't too stringent about such things, will turn your phone into an ultra-cheap international calling machine. Of course you could just use the Skype app, but as is the point of these types of all-in-one apps, Nimbuzz could save you a few screen taps/button presses, and a little time.

Auto Call Recorder: Super-simple (and free!) call recording. I've had trouble finding a decent solution for this in the past, since apps are generally either paid, crippled trialware or not widely compatible, so it's a relief to find one that works. Indispensable for interviews, conference calls and the like. Note: this app is to be used for good, not evil. Thanks.

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this month, give us a heads up or let us know in the comments. Have a good rest of your weekend, everybody!

Newly added treats include updated themes and a tweaked UI, improved add-on support and numerous bug fixes. We gave the alpha a quick spin and found that while a bit slow, it shows plenty of promise. The interface and overall experience is actually pretty usable, and it renders pages beautifully.

A corresponding Maemo release for Nokia's N810 has also been made available. If you want to know what all the fuss is about (or you're one of those add-on writing folks we love so much), then you can experiment with the desktop versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Update: And it looks like there may be some reprieve coming to neglected Android users as well, eventually. [Mozilla—Thanks, Tim!]

It might've been hard to tell through the thick fog of Palm Pre coverage, but it's been a good month for Windows Mobile. We got free online backup from Microsoft, along with a new Facebook app and a hefty update to the already-great Skyfire browser. Windows Mobile 6.5 inched closer to release, and I showed you how to try it out ahead of time. And even though the Windows Mobile Marketplace isn't open for business yet, there's still plenty going on in the world of WinMo apps:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Fennec: The Windows Mobile version of Mozilla been available for a few months, but it has so far lacked some important features, like, uhh, the ability to connect to the internet. Now the project has gone Alpha, and the new version actually works. It's an early, early build and still quite slow, but I already like their new navigation system, and page rendering is close to perfect. For VGA phones only. Free.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Kinoma Play: There's a special kind of expensive, power-user mega-app that you only really see on Windows Mobile, which Kinoma exemplifies gloriously. The app, which is, or was, primarily a media player/viewer, has expanded its purview to include social media sites as well. A short list of capabilities: video playback; music playback; picture viewing; YouTube browsing/playing; Twitter integration; Flickr support; Last.fm streaming and scrobbling; and RSS reader; an interface for the MobiHand app store; and too many more too list. It's pretty cool, but also $30: maybe a reasonable price for a mobile OS or really good shell conversion, but for a single app? Ha. UPDATE: There's a free version, appropriately called Freeplay, and it's got a fair portion of the pay version's features. Definitely worth a try.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.SugarSync: A years-old cross-platform backup service, SugarSync has undergone a nice little transformation this month: now that Microsoft has opened up their 200MB My Phone backup service to everyone, SugarSync is giving away 2GB accounts for free. The Windows Mobile client is simple and tidy, just like a backup app should be.
(via Modaco)

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.SportyPal: For GPS-equipped phones only, SportyPal is a workout tracker—that is, if your workouts are based around running, biking, rollerblading or otherwise moving yourself from on place to another. It plots your journey on a Google Map, and gives you a rundown of distance traveled, calories burned and speed sustained. The app is free and fairly easy to use, as is the accompanying site, which you'll need to register for.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.VLC Remote: A nice little remote app if your digital media life is centered around VLC, the cross-platform, do-it-all media playing app. It's stripped down, efficient, minimalist, and free, just like its control-ee.

Windows Mobile On Giz:

• How To: Install Windows Mobile 6.5 Right Now
• Cashmere and Alchemy: The New Heart of Windows Mobile (and Maybe More), Not a Ladies' Soap Store
• Windows Mobile's App Sharing Feature Isn't Really Sharing At All
• Microsoft My Phone Beta Open to the Public
• Windows Mobile 7 May Get Gesture Controls After All
• Windows Mobile Team Admits, Explains 6.5's Half-Assed UI
• Windows Marketplace for Mobile Now Open to Developers
• Windows Mobile Official Facebook App: Unpretty But Useful
• This Is What the Windows Mobile Marketplace Looks Like
• Skyfire Leaves Beta, Steals Windows Mobile Browsing Crown

This list is in no way definitive (especially cause it's our first!). If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this month, give us a heads up or let us know in the comments. Have a good rest of your weekend everybody!

But its "address book" is way more useful than the iPhone app's, since it supplies you more instant connections to Facebook contacts via text, email or phone. The icons are nice and shiny, but otherwise it looks like it was beaten by Redmond's mobile ugly stick into the appropriate size for Windows Mobile. Like those fonts! They make my eyes wriggly with icky. [Cnet]

The first thing you'll notice about these efforts—coming from such traditionally competitive companies as Palm, BlackBerry, Nokia and Microsoft—is just how similar they all sound. App World? App Catalog? App Market? Mobile Marketplace? This outward likeness actually runs pretty deep—these stores are advertising uncannily similar feature sets, for both users and developers:

Although it might not evident in the feature-by-feature breakdown above, there are two distinct kinds of app store: The primary store, which is the first and only source of an OS's apps (see Apple), and the secondary store, which is built around an existing stock of third-party apps, and with preexisting developers in mind (see BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Nokia). It's a combination of these different lineages and divergent policy choices that make the smartphone app store experience so varied.

Apple's iPhone App Store
At least for now, the App Store is the standard by which all others are judged. Beyond that, it's given us a rough guide for what works. With a $99 dollar developer's fee and a novice-friendly SDK, the barriers of entry for an iPhone developer are fairly low. Distribution, payments and to a large extent marketing are managed by iTunes, which iPhone owners are necessarily familiar and comfortable with.

And, of course, there's the iPhone: This store may only serve one handset (and its very similar nonphone brother), but it's a wildly popular one. This makes the app store uniquely attractive to developers, because it provides access to the largest uniform app-buying market in the world. Microsoft can argue that Windows Mobile 6.5 will connect developers to x gajillion different customers through y zillion different handsets, but this variety is a curse: Handsets have different resolutions, processors, 3D hardware, input types and basic feature sets. A motion-sensing 3D game with a GPS social networking feature won't work on a lot of WinMo handsets, but a 2D, keypad-controlled Asteroids clone won't make a developer rich.

But the App Store is far from perfect. Apple, like all App Store owners, has the final say in what gets listed, delisted or banned, and they aren't afraid to remind us of this. Along with the typical risque/racist/infringing content prohibitions, Apple enforces strict and often limiting rules against apps that compete with the iPhone's native set—iTunes, Mail.app, Safari to name a few—and apps that their partnered carriers aren't too fond of, i.e video streaming and tethering apps. Now, all these rules are showing signs of loosening with OS 3.0, but as long as the App Store is the sole source of iPhone apps, any rules will seem like too many rules—especially if you're accustomed to a totally unregulated system like Windows Mobile 6.1's. Hence, the gray market.

Android App Market
This second major entrant into the app store race represents a consciously different approach than Apple's, but not in that many ways. Immediately, we see a lot to compare: A single-handset userbase (at least for now), low costs for developers and a presence as the primary—though not sole—source of apps from Day One.

But the App Market is a different breed than the App Store. Most importantly, it's not the only place you can get apps. Google has been much more lenient about what they allow in their store since the beginning but in the rare case that they don't approve of an app, as in the case of tethering apps earlier this month, you can just go download an .APK file and sideload it onto your G1 anyway. This is a healthy middle ground for everyone involved; Google doesn't alienate users by destroying entire categories of apps, but isn't forced to come into conflict with carriers because of overly liberal policies. Google has also made their Market more friendly to consumers, with a no-questions 24-hour return policy.

Great! Then why is the App Market so underwhelming? Well, the G1 wasn't exactly a runaway hit, and the store got off to a slow start. Paid apps weren't made available for months after launch, and when they arrived they didn't benefit from the convenience and familiarity of a storefront like iTunes. Moreover, there's no guarantee that things will change that much in the coming months—more handsets from more manufacturers will boost Android's user numbers, but will lead to the WinMo-style toxic fragmentation that Apple so adamantly avoids.

BlackBerry App World
Matt took a dive into the newest mobile app store, and found it agreeable, but not spectacular. RIM's is the beginning of this "secondary" app store concept, and it shows: You'll be hard-pressed to find anything here that wasn't previously available elsewhere. It is simply an aggregator for existing applications.

This was a given, as developers have been cranking out BlackBerry apps for years now. But App World was a great opportunity for RIM to give the lethargic dev community a shot in the arm. Instead of doing that, they've made the store almost hostile to would-be app writers.

Listing your wares in App World costs a hefty $200, which gives you the right to upload 10 apps, but doesn't come with any new SDKs or development tools. The payment system is PayPal, which is clumsy to use and a pain to set up. A minimum non-free price tier of $2.99, probably intended to filter out spammy apps and cover PayPal's transaction fees, discourages developers from even trying to make simple, useful apps, eliminating the $.99-to-$1.99 sweet spot that has been central to Apple's success. App World feels like an afterthought, and a reluctant one. UPDATE: It should be noted that the 70% dev revenue share figure in the chart is incorrect, and has been update to 80%—a marked advantage over the other stores.

Windows Mobile Marketplace
With Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft will introduce the Windows Mobile Marketplace. So far, their announcements have shown an awareness of the pitfalls of both Apple's and RIM's approaches: They're emphasizing non-exclusivity and app approval transparency, a 24-hour return policy and wide device support, but also making sure to get big-name app and game developers on board to ensure that users actually have something new to look forward to at launch.

On the developer side, it's a mixed bag. As in every other store, the dev take-home is 70% of each sale, but the listing fees aren't great. $99 gets you five apps a year, but anything beyond that will cost an additional $99. I'm sure this will help vaccinate the Marketplace against the fart app epidemic that Apple has proven so prone to, but it'll do so at the expense of potentially useful free and $0.99 apps—again, a crucial price range. One important factor that's still TBD is the payment system. Microsoft says they'll support both credit card payments and carrier charges, but hasn't yet said how that'll look. In both cases the process will need to be as seamless as possible.

Nokia Ovi Store
You probably haven't heard much about this store, set to debut within a month, but it's kind of a big deal for the 40m+ Symbian S40 and S60 users that it'll serve apps to. It's planned to shoehorn into Nokia's new Ovi app suite, which we were introduced to with the XpressMusic 5800, and provide a go-to source for not just apps, but ringtones, wallpapers, and basically everything else that you might have found in a 2001 vintage carrier WAP store.

There has been a decided lack of fanfare surrounding this launch, probably because there just aren't that many Nokia smartphones in the US. But its success or failure will be informative: It will be the most open of all the app stores. For the time being, there is no developer fee, and app listings are free and unlimited. You can easily publish tons of different kinds of content—Flash Lite apps, Java apps, Native S60 apps, multimedia uploads and others—which will be subject to a vetting process that Nokia has assured will be minimal. As Nokia-averse Americans, we can view the Ovi Store as an experiment in laissez-faire app-mongering—a multi-handset, mixed-media, unfiltered feed of Symbian content.

Palm App Catalog
And finally, we have Palm's App catalog. This is the store we know the least about, but that is already set for a different course than all the others. At launch, the only handset it'll serve will be the Pre—though Palm has indicated that other WebOS handsets are inevitable. It'll be the first—and likely exclusive—source of WebOS apps, and developers will be furnished with a solid, though fundamentally limited, SDK.

Palm's still-vague plan for the App Catalog will no doubt be central to the success or failure of the Pre, but we can make an educated guess at what to expect, assuming that Palm doesn't get taken over by idiots in the next couple months: Palm will vet the apps thoroughly, provide an in-house payment system, and make development simple and cheap (previewed Mojo SDK apps have shown great promise). The end result will probably look something like the iPhone App Store, but with one huge difference: there will be no local natively running apps—the Mojo SDK doesn't provide for that, just for what amount to turbocharged, locally-stored web apps. Granted, these web apps will have privileged access to some of WebOS's core functions, but it's doubtful that high-end gaming, as we've seen on the iPhone, will even be possible on the platform. These limitations (along with WebOS's multitasking advantages) will affect the nature and quality of the apps that are listed in the store much more than the Catalog's policies, though exactly how, we'll have to wait and see.

Still something you still wanna know? Send any questions about app stores, SDKs or the finest in fart-app technology to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

Our tipster points out that an attractive, functional Facebook app is a pretty big step for Windows Mobile users, who either had to put up with the aggressively shitty basic mobile interface or access the iPhone version of the site in Opera Mobile—an expensive download for people who just want return a few pokes. It's not clear whether or not this app will be standard in WinMo 6.5 or just available as a free download, but it is showing up in most of the early builds. [XDA via PocketNow—Thanks, Ron-Mexico!]

Work rules, lame carriers, prohibitive contracts—whatever the reason you're shacked up with a WinMo phone, you've been through the same experience. You toil with the layers of menus, hidden device settings, poor browsing and crashy, inconsistent performance. Surrounded by fancy, shiny phones with even fancier, shinier OSes, you're even getting a bit jealous, and feel like you have a genuinely last-gen device. Well, as Windows Mobile enthusiasts (who are out there in droves) will tell you, it's not that terrible. With the right apps you can get quite a lot of utility and—yes—enjoyment out of your aging phone.

For God's sake, get a new browser
Internet Explorer Mobile, even in its latest incarnation, has rarely been described as "good." In fact, it's pretty much the complete opposite. No worries though—Windows Mobile, through third parties, has the broadest and most versatile collection of browsers of any of its competitors.

Opera Mini/Mobile: A Java-based browser, Opera Mini is a free download that will immediately give your phone a new lease on life. Fancy this: Now, with your phone, you can visit actual websites, rendered to a reasonable degree of accuracy! OH MY GOD!

There's also Opera Mobile, a native app with a few more advanced features, which has recently shifted its emphasis to a relatively narrow set of touchscreen devices (mostly from HTC and Samsung), on which it performs as a reasonable counterpart to Safari Mobile or Chrome Mobile. It's free when it's in beta, but will cost you for long term use.

Both browsers Opera Mini routes content through Opera's servers for optimization and compression, which can occasionally break formatting. Update: Opera Mobile runs independently of Opera's servers, though there is noticeable compression performed—presumably locally—on some images.

Skyfire: This upstart company has produced a phenomenal browser, dedicated to bringing a full desktop browsing experience to Windows Mobile phones. This powerhouse app is now available to the public, and lives up to most of its claims.

Skyfire routes web content through its servers like Opera Mini does, but with a greater emphasis on exact page reproduction. For the end user, that means fully optimized streaming Flash video, which will allow you to watch everything from Hulu to Megaporn—all automatically transcoded into a lower, EDGE or 3G-appropriate bitrate. Skyfire works wonderfully on most WinMo phones, touchscreen or not, but its version for VGA-resolution phones needs better visuals.

TorchMobile Iris: This is another browser that claims to bring the "desktop experience" to your phone, and for the most part it does, assuming your phone has a touchscreen. It got its start on the LG Dare, where it performed relatively well. In short, this WebKit-based browser render quite well, but it's not terribly fast and the navigation paradigm isn't the most intuitive of the lot. But! It's free and it's not Mobile IE, and for this I am grateful.

Give your old phone a new look
This is where Windows Mobile feels the most out of date; its interface is a classic example of design by committee, only this time the committee was made up primarily of the visionaries responsible for Windows Bob, Windows ME, Windows Vista and possibly the Pontiac Aztec. The solution? Skin it.

PointUI: About a year ago, our own Jason Chen raved about PointUI, and not much has changed—it's still fantastic. This layer, not unlike those designed by HTC, Samsung and Sony to mask WinMo, will provide pretty, finger-friendly navigation to a touchscreen Windows Mobile phone. It looks like the project is on temporary hiatus, but the app is still available here.

SPB Mobile Shell: This one isn't free ($30, actually) but does provide a fairly complete conversion. It reaches deeper into layers of the interface than PointUI does, is a bit more friendly for QWERTY-based phones and offers a load of user skins.

ThrottleLauncher: HTC's TouchFlo 3D is a wonderful Windows Mobile shell, but unfortunately can be difficult to port due to its 3D acceleration requirement. ThrottleLauncher is a TF3D replacement, which works on most Windows Mobile touchscreen phones. It looks like TF3D, and offers skins to look like Android, iPhone OS and others. There are a fair number of bugs present, but they're tolerable.

Fill out your app list:
Most of those things that modern smartphones have—the swank maps, the messaging services, the productivity apps—you can have too. They may not be as polished, but they work very, very well.

Google Apps: Aside from plethora of mobile web apps offered by Google, there are a few native ones as well. Google Maps is a must-download, and provides almost all of the functionality of its iPhone/G1 brother, including GPS integration. Google Mail provides a nice, speedy interface for your Gmail account, offering relief from Windows Mobile's occasionally frustrating mail app, and allowing for relatively easy switching between accounts.

Skype: Here's an area where Windows Mobile generally trumps all others OSes—voice over IP. The native Skype app is lovely, functioning well over Wi-Fi and cellular data connections, provided your carrier allows the latter.

Palringo: Palringo is a multiprotocol IM app, which enables messaging on many networks at once in a single program. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ—they're all there. Like any decent IM app it works with the WinMo notification system and runs in the background, so you can be constantly apprised of your new messages, just like those smug BlackBerry users. In fact, I think it's fair to say that in the area of messaging, Windows Mobile shines. Similar, also good: Fring.

TCPMP Media Player: Its development has been discontinued, but the app is perfectly usable as is. What is it? It's a barebones media player that'll handle almost any codec, audio or video, that you throw at it. In other words, you can encode video for mobile consumption however you like, something that can't be said of most other OSes (cough*Apple*cough).

Pocket Scrobbler: An unofficial client for the fantastic Last.fm internet radio/social network service, this app will handily stream endless, personally catered internet radio over a cellular data connection or Wi-Fi. Windows Mobile actually has a distinct advantage with this type of programs: the ability to run apps in the background!

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every other Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.