Despite the flurry of attention surrounding the iPhone and other new mobile phone platforms, Windows Mobile still has a widespread distribution and capacity for customization. Approaching its ninth birthday, Windows Mobile has a large selection of old and new software that helps enhance the user experience and make getting things done (and sometimes goofing off) all the easier. If you're rockin' a Windows Mobile handheld, check out our favorite programs, add-ons, and tweaks for getting the most out of your Windows Mobile device.
Synchronize and Back Up Your Windows Mobile Device
You can use a Windows Mobile device without syncing it to a computer, but most likely you don't want to. 
To make sure your home or work computer has the same data your handheld does, ensure you have the newest version Microsoft Active Sync. If you're a Mac user with a Windows Mobile device check out SyncMate.
As people come to depend more and more on their mobile devices to keep them connected to the outside world and manage their contacts, tasks, and calendars it is increasingly important to have a good backup system in place. As with any kind of backup system a multi-pronged approach is best.
Free utility PIM Backup helps you back up appointments, call logs, contacts, messages, speed dials, tasks, and specified folders and files. PIM Backup is very speedy even with a large number of entries to back up. The handiest aspect of PIM Backup is its ability to back up your data to removable media. The backup on the removable flash card in my phone has saved me on many an occasion from a vacation or business trip without my contacts and customizations.
If you have Outlook on your machine, you can easily sync and back up your contacts and so forth to Outlook through Active Sync. If you're not using Outlook as your primary personal information manager there are alternatives such as syncing your Windows Mobile device to Thunderbird.
For a robust remote backup solution, Dashwire is an excellent solution. Once installed on your Windows Mobile device, Dashwire backs up your photos, videos, text messages, ringtones, bookmarks, speed dials, contacts, and call logs. Everything is accessible from the Dashwire web site and you can easily restore it to the phone.
Calendars, Contacts, and Task Lists Oh My!
We've covered how to sync and back up all those appointments and contacts, but what about displaying and working with them on the phone? Window Mobile's implementation of many basic features like displaying tasks leaves a bit to be desired.
If you practice the Getting Things Done personal productivity system, you might have found that Windows Mobile doesn't handle things like contexts and projects well out of the box. Smarter Tasks is a no nonsense task manager that was designed from the ground up to be Windows Mobile GTD task management system.
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