Symbian

Owners of Nokia smartphones will be familiar with the Symbian OS, which is a highly advanced open operating system for the mobile platform. It provides the underlying routines and services for application soft ware. It was specially designed for mobile devices with an open platform architecture and because of this, different manufacturers like Nokia and Sony Ericsson have their own designs for specific requirements like UIQ (mostly used in Sony Ericsson smartphones) and S60 (almost all Nokia smartphones use this version). The Symbian OS architecture offers some interesting technologies for the latest smartphones like Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) for optimal performance by spreading the workload of tasks across multiple processors, on the same chip; IP networking architecture that provides the capability for super fast download speeds, high quality audio/video streaming and crystal-clear VOIP calls; new graphics architecture which integrate high definition video content, life-like games and animations.

The S60 series is a very popular choice for many smartphone users. The interface is easy to navigate with the Active Standby screen providing you with fast access to key information. The feature set includes the usual productivity tools like Office applications, Personal Information Manager (PIM), Powerful messaging capabilities, a Net browser, and lots more.

Using a Smartphone powered by Symbian OS is a good choice because it provides a very intuitive interface making it easy to use yet it is also powerful that caters to most of your computing needs. But the main gripe is standardization because the same version in another phone might not have the same look and feel and you might need to feel around before you are used to it.

The openness of this OS creates the opportunity for third-party developers to come up with more advanced and enhanced application for expanding the capability of Smartphones powered with the Symbian OS. The productivity of your smartphone can be increased with these powerful applications.

QuickOffice Premier

Symbian-based smartphones normally don't have a very advanced office application. This negates the whole point of a smartphone which was intended as a smart companion to enhance productivity. But all is not lost yet; you can turn your phone into a very powerful mobile office with the help of QuickOffice -- a suite of the essential office apps (word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation) with comprehensive features.

It is almost like a full blown office suite but meant for mobile computing. It has complete support for MS Office 2007 documents and it has advanced editing capabilities that is missing in most of the in-built office suites. Almost all the features that come with MS Office are available here. There is also a file manager to organize files and folders in your smartphone.

SBSH Papyrus

Managing your time and schedule in your Symbian smartphone may not be a pleasant experience because of the very limited built-in time management tool. If you don't want to spend all your time trying to schedule your day, SBSH Papyrus is just the right solution for you. It is a very capable tool for easily and efficiently scheduling and viewing your daily schedule.

The various views (Daily, List, Grid, Monthly, and Tasks) helps you easily view and manage your daily schedule and tasks without much hassles. You can create multi-purpose reminders for important activities. Importing from Outlook is also possible.

WidSets

Widgets (web based mini-applications) allow you to access useful net applications from the Net quickly and effortlessly from the comfort of your desktop. Now you can get the power of thousands of widgets for your Smartphone with WidSets. You need to register at their website to be able to use all the widgets available.

There are a vast number of widgets catering to useful services such as news weather, utilities, chatting, Wikipedia, games, etc. It even has a news service from Times of India.

Mobiledit

With smartphones packing in a vast number of features to enhance the usefulness of the device, it is sometimes hard to manage all the features from the phone itself. So a good alternative would be to manage it via your PC. Mobiledit, a powerful all-in-one mobile phone management tool, lets you do that efficiently and easily. The treasure trove of features include option for sending and managing SMS directly from your PC, organizing and synchronizing the phone book, ability to manage multiple phones at the same time, full phone and SIM card status information, etc. It also includes a very handy phonebook editor for advanced editing of all the information stored in the phone memory and SIM card. There is even an option for handling incoming phone calls directly from your PC and support for MS Outlook is also included. Other notable features include a ringtone editor, YouTube Video Downloader, powerful backup utility, and a media converter.

Handy Safe

Handy Safe is an impressive tool for securely managing your personal and sensitive data easily. It has over 35 unique information forms to store almost everything and you can also create custom forms to store specific information using the existing templates or modify the existing information forms according to your needs. It provides password protection and 448-bit data encryption for keeping your information safe. It also comes with a desktop companion for synchronization of information on your Smartphone and your PC.

RDM+

There are situations when you are away from home and you really need to access your desktop PC remotely. Accessing a computer remotely from another computer is possible but it can also be done with your Smartphone with the help of RDM+. It helps you do almost everything on your computer from a remote location. It offers the same user interface on your desktop and it also has strong security architecture for securely logging into your computer.

WorldMate

If you are a globe-trotter then you can have all the information you want about the world right from the comfort of your Smartphone. WorldMate is a travel soft ware which provides you with important travel information. It comes with a World Clock for giving you the accurate time for different zones; a global weather forecaster, travel itinerary manager for managing your travel, currency converter and exchange rate service, size and measurement converters, world day/night map, etc. A version for Windows Mobile is also available.

The in-built multimedia tools in Symbian OS are nothing much to talk about. But as with Windows Mobile, you can enhance your multimedia experience with the vast number of third-party software available.

SmartMovie

As the name of the video player suggests, SmartMovie is a very smart movie player which also has options to convert almost any video file to a phone-friendly files format. An easy to navigate interface, high quality video and audio playback, and a huge set of features are the main attractions of this impressive video player. When converting, it can split video files into multiple segments and allows you to easily transfer it to your PC for managing and editing your video files. It has subtitles support for viewing movies in different language. The customization level for playing videos is also very high with a lot of options to customize brightness, language, volume, etc.

Resco Photo Viewer

Resco Photo Viewer is a powerful photo viewer which includes basic editing capability and can also play video (MPEG1) files. The features included in this unassuming app are amazing with lots of extras for fully utilizing your photo collection in your smartphone. It has all the usual features of a photo viewer and also some impressive enhancements that make it very comprehensive. The 'Assign to Contact' feature allows you to select a suitable image cutout for your address book. In editing mode, it can crop the image area and change the image resolution and it is also possible to adjust the contrast, brightness and gamma correction. The ability to add annotations to images with the option to add texts or drawings is another cool feature. The 'Slideshow' mode not only lets you view slideshows of your photos but also allows you to convert PowerPoint presentation to run it in your Smartphone as a slideshow presentation. A Windows Mobile version is also available.

LCG Jukebox

Using your Smartphone as a portable audio player is the easiest way to enjoy your music anywhere but the default audio player might leave you desiring for more. Installing LCG Jukebox can juice up your listening experience since it provides all your needs to get the best out of your music collection.

The vast array of features crammed into it is amazing for such a small player.

A 10-band equalizer with manual adjustment or predefined presets, Sleep timer for switching off player after a particular time, option for searching album art image on the Internet and viewing in built-in image viewer, Internet radio support, option for viewing song lyrics as the song plays, a playlist editor, etc. are some of the notable features of this nifty little music player. A Windows Mobile version is also available.

PhotoRite SP

Creating professional-looking images or adding effects to your photos can be easily done in your Smartphone with PhotoRite SP. It allows you to retouch and enhance both saved and shot images while adding a host of effects.

Its many features include a Soft Lens and Auto-fix effect, Black and White/Sepia effects, Magic Mirror effect for creating funny and distorted images, and other numerous effects. It also includes a powerful zoom option and a very handy tool for inserting and creating various photo frames to your photos. You can correct backlighting, uneven/under exposure, color, low contrast, haze problems, etc with its powerful image enhancer. Sending photos through e-mail and MMS is also possible with PhotoRite.

Windows Mobile

For someone familiar with the Microsoft Windows environment, opting for a Windows Mobile smartphone is a smart choice because it offers the power and features of the desktop OS. Microsoft Windows Mobile is a scaled down version of the popular Windows Operating System specially designed for PDA and smart phones. Brands like Asus, HP, HTC, iMate, Motorola, etc incorporate it in most of their PDA and smart phones. The feature set and built-in applications are optimized for used in a handheld computing device. Since smart phones mainly target businessmen, you will find a host of applications to enhance your productivity through your phone. The OS does not only come with business related apps but also throws in some multimedia tools for your entertainment.

The interface is similar to your desktop version with a taskbar that contains a Start Button with the added feature of the Today Screen that shows information like the current date, owner information, upcoming appointments, e-mail messages, and tasks.

Most of the productivity tools available for the desktop version are available in its mobile avatar like Office Mobile (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) which lets you view and edit MS Office files; Outlook Mobile that includes tasks, calendar, contacts, and inbox that can be synced with Outlook; Internet Explorer Mobile for surfing the net; Windows Live for Windows Mobile that offers online services such as Messenger, Contacts, Windows Live Mail and Search. Easy synchronization with ActiveSync and collaboration with Exchange Server 2007 are other notable features. Windows Mobile offers a very good platform for mobile computing but the perennial problems plaguing Microsoft Windows desktop versions like security issues, stability concerns, and sluggish performance also holds true with Windows Mobile.

Windows Mobile already has standard productivity apps pre-installed but if you want to extract maximum benefit from your smart phone you can make use of third-party software which offers much more functionality. Here are some of the best tools to enhance your mobile computing experience.

AgendaOne

The standard Personal Information Manager (PIM) that comes with Windows Mobile is good for some basic tasks but for advanced tasks it is very limited. In this kind of a situation, AgendaOne is the perfect tool -- highly advanced tool with abundance of features that will simplify and enhance your information management task.

The best thing about AgendaOne is that it is powerful, yet easy to use and includes a range of impressive features rarely seen in other PIMs. It offers various views (Today, Agenda, Week, Month, Task, and Search) and switching between the views can be easily done with a very useful tool -- the Use View Picker, which allows you to navigate to the various views easily. The appointment and task editor is another neat feature that can be used to create a new task or appointment using only the navigation key. The advanced search feature helps you in quickly finding information and contacts. Various templates are also provided for creating frequently used appointments and tasks. And the level of customization and personalization gives you the flexibility for tweaking it to your personal needs.

Documents To Go

The pre-loaded Office suite (Office Mobile) is very limited which allows you to view Office files but the editing functionality doesn't have much to talk about. So if you want to extensively use Office files on your smart phones, Office Mobile is not quite up to scratch. For getting the maximum out of your Office files, Documents To Go is a good choice. It not only allows you to view and create Office documents (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) but also offers full editing features. It supports almost all Office file formats (even Office 2007 file formats). It also comes with a PDF Viewer and a file archiving utility for easily decompressing zip files. A very important feature in Documents To Go is the use of the Intact Technology which ensures that the documents from your desktop retain its original formatting when you transfer the documents to your phone.

Code Wallet Pro

Carrying around your personal information and sensitive data like bank account number, PIN codes, credit card details, etc is always risky. That is where having CodeWallet Pro on your smartphone might simplify things and give you peace of mind. It is a highly advanced personal and business information organizer. Just enter your information and secure it with a password protection and strong data encryption. Other useful features include drag and drop option; data export for backing up a printable copy of all your important information; the PC Companion Edition for organizing and synchronizing information from your desktop PC.

Jeyo Mobile Companion

If the limitations of a smartphone like small screen size, small keypads, etc. makes you miss the comfort of your PC, help is at hand with Jeyo Mobile Companion which allows you to operate the mobile phone functions, manage SMS and contacts on the mobile device directly from a Windows PC through a Outlook-style user interface. It lets you communicate instantly with hundreds of millions of mobile phone using SMS directly from your PC, and manage all the important personal data on your smartphone.

SmartphoneNotes

If you have been using your smartphone to jot down notes, it is possible that you might be having unorganized notes scattered around in your phone. You can start organizing your notes and also use it for different purposes using smartphone Notes. It is a nifty little tool for creating, editing, and organizing text notes on your smartphone. The notes can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook just like synchronizing Contacts, Tasks, Calendar and Inbox. You can even make a phone call, send e-mail, and navigate with Pocket Internet Explorer directly from the notes that you created and option for password protection is also provided.

ListPro

Find it difficult to list out your priorities, shopping lists, to-do lists, checklists, etc? This habit of maintaining a list for almost everything can be easily done without much hassle. ListPro is an efficient list manager that helps you organize your daily schedule. The extensive features included are amazing for a list manager. A useful feature is the HTML export option which lets you share lists with friends or post them to your website. You can even turn any list into a news feed using the RSS/XML export option and if you don't want to create your own list, you can take the help of pre-made lists.

VITO VoiceDialer

Looking for an alternative to dialing your friend's number? Wouldn't it be easy if you can just say a name and call your friend? That is now possible with VITO VoiceDialer. Just assign a voice command to any of your contacts. You can also assign a hardware button to launch VITO VoiceDialer and pronounce the recorded command.

The multimedia capabilities of Windows Mobile don't always come up to our expectation but with a variety of third-party software around, you don't need to worry much.

The Core Pocket Media Player

The built-in Windows Media Player for Windows Mobile player is a very basic player and can leave you disappointed if you want more from your media player. The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) may be just the right tool for you because of its easy to use nature and comprehensive features. A very good thing about TCPMP is that it is easy to manipulate because it has the look and feel of a normal Windows application. Video and audio quality is excellent and it supports almost all popular media formats. If you are not happy with the default quality you can tweak the settings and play around with different levels of quality and performance to help you get the best possible multimedia experience. Another impressive thing about TCPMP is the range of features it provides. It has options to change aspect ratio, orientation, advanced zoom feature, set the pixel aspect ratio, etc.

SplashPhoto

Accessing and organizing your huge photo collection can be a pain with the phone in-built image viewer. For handling your photos better, SplashPhoto provides essential as well as powerful photo management tools. It is fast and easy to use image viewer which also comes with basic editing features. It is highly optimized for easy image viewing and management in your Smartphone. The multiple views options like Thumbnail View, Gallery View, Detail View and a customizable List View gives you a convenient way to browse through your photo collection. It has support for two way synchronization with your desktop PC. Other notable features include e-mail support and a slideshow option.

BlueMusic

Listening to music from your Smartphone wirelessly via a Bluetooth headset is the in thing now. But the native support for this kind of technology in your Smartphone might be preventing you from getting the maximum out of your device. BlueMusic is a nifty utility which enhance your listening experience with Bluetooth device and also throws in a lot more like Podcast support, VOIP capabilities, etc.

VITO AudioNotes

Audio recording in your Smartphone can easily be done with VITO AudioNotes -- a handy tool for recording anything effortlessly and efficiently. There are many features for recording and managing audio files. You can record voice notes in MP3 and WAV formats. There are useful features like Automatic Gain Control for increasing microphone sensitivity, VAS (Voice Activation System) to avoid silence gaps, etc.

Vox Mobile

Feeling left out of the blogging frenzy because you can't spend much time on your PC? Your smartphone can become your savior because you can use it to post contents to your blog effortlessly from your mobile. Vox Mobile is a utility that brings this power to your smartphone (you also need to sign up to the Vox site. It allows you to view and create photo, video and audio blog entries from your phone. Posting blog contents is very easy to do, you can either choose to take a new photo/video/sound and build your post around it, or you can select Add to browse the appropriate gallery and import your photo/video/sound from the options menu. And you can just publish it by selecting the Publish option, it's as easy as that.