Following on from my post on iPhone Bike Mounts, here is the list that I promised containing the top ten iPhone Bike Apps. Some are free, some are paid but they’re all available in the app store now and are designed to make tracking your movements and recording your progress as easy as possible, in addition, some of the apps will provide some form of navigation or integrate with maps from the Ordinance Survey.

Whether you commute to work  on your bike, cycle for fun or to keep fit, there will no doubt be an app here that will come in handy. I’m not going to pretend to be a cycling enthusiast – my bike only comes out of the shed about 4 times a year, but writing this gave me a good excuse to fetch it out and take it for a spin to see how these apps measure up.

Reviewing 10 apps in full would probably have killed me, so I only tested the main, basic features of the app. For a more detailed review of some of the features, you’ll need to read the reviews in iTunes, but you’ll find a summary of the app and my initial thoughts listed below.

1. MotionX GPS

I was keen to try Motion X as it’s had a lot of mentions and recommendations on various iPhone forums. As with most of the apps here, there are two versions, a Lite version and the fully functioning app. The full version has more features than the lite version and is well worth the £1.79.

It’s one of only a few apps that have iPod support built in, allowing you to change/control your music without having to quit the app and lose your data. Controls on screen are clear and simple and can be used even when cycling. It can store over 300 waypoints, 100 routes and has the option of sharing them using Google Earth, Google Maps or Facebook/Twitter. As well as recording your route, it will allow you to monitor your speed, distance and journey time.

MotionX Lite – Free

MotionX GPS – £1.79

2. RunKeeper

There are two versions of this app available, the free version and the pro version – I tried the free version and was pretty impressed. The App isn’t just for cycling, it can be used for a number of sports and has the ability to change activity in the app settings. It tracks your speed, distance travelled and number of calories burned off and tracks your progress on a map. All workouts can then be synced to a website where you can monitor your progress

It has built in support for iPod so you won’t need to close the app to change tracks or switch playlists, but as with every app on this list, if you get a call or a text it can interfere with the data it records. Hopefully when iPhone OS 4.0 comes out next month this kind of app is one that will be able to run in the background.

The extra features in the Pro version don’t add any extra features to the core purpose of the app, but allow you to do more with the camera & iPod, as well as giving you audio updates on your progress through your headphones.

RunKeeper – Free

RunKeeper Pro – £5.99

3. Cyclemeter

At just under £3 this is a great app. In terms of functionality it’s similar to RunKeeper, (to be fair, the functionality of all the apps on this list are very similar) but the main difference is that this app has been designed specifically for cyclists, with other dedicated apps for running & walking. Featurewise this is a real challenger to RunKeeper as it’s half the price, but has pretty much all the same features – possibly a couple more.

I liked the fact that you can start and stop tracking by using the answer button on your earphones instead of having to touch your phone. Voice prompts and alerts are another prominent feature of the app – you can set up alerts that tell you your speed, distance etc at pre-defined intervals, or just tap your headphone remote for an update.

Recorded routes can be uploaded to Google Maps and shared with others and it’s got twitter and facebook support too -but to be honest most of your friends will be too busy playing farmville to notice that you’ve just been on a bike ride.

Cyclemeter – £2.99

4. SportyPal

SportyPal is essentially a speedometer for your bike. It uses GPS data to calculate your speed and distance travelled. It stores your routes and lets you upload them to the SportyPal website, where you can analyse and review your trips.

It’s simple, works well and has a nice clean interface. It’s jumped on the Facebook/Twitter bandwagon, but I’m not really sure what the point of it is.

It’s a good app if you’re just looking for simple tracking and speed data, but there are other apps that do more for slightly less, although none of them are quite as clean and simple to use.

SportPal – £2.99

5. B.iCycle

This is a really nice app that’s been designed specifically for cyclists – and it shows. The screen layout is clear and uncluttered. You have 3 screen options – split screen shows your speed and position on a map, big map for full screen tracking on a map and a data screen that shows all the stats you could possibly want to see.

There is an export option – at the end of your trip the app will ask you if you want the route emailing to you as a KML or GPX file. You can then use this file in Google Maps/Earth to see where you’ve been. Maps in the app are downloaded as they’re needed, but once downloaded, it saves it on to the device, allowing you to continue to use the app even if you’re out of signal.

It’s not as fully featured as some of the others in this list, but it’s still worth looking at, although there’s no lite or trial version, so you’ll need to pay to try it.

B.iCycle – £5.99

6. OutDoors

Outdoors is a great app, but not one for the casual cyclist. Mountain bikers, trekkers and walkers who enjoy venturing cross country will absolutely love it, but for your average city commuter it’s probably got way more than you’re ever likely to need.

It has maps from Ordnance Survey maps included with the application that allow you to browse and plan routes across your chosen region. As you’d expect with OS maps, the level of detail is excellent and in 1:250000 scale. Maps are stored on your phone, so even if you lose signal you can continue to wander about. You can build and plan your own routes on the device or import them from the web and save them on your phone.

The App isn’t designed exclusively for cycling as it gives you the choice of either walking or cycling. The only downsides to this one are that it’s not cheap – The main app is free but for more detailed regional maps, you’ll need to download them as an in-app purchase – these are currently going for around £10 each – so for the whole of the UK, it could get expensive. Having said that it’s still an awesome app. Tracking isn’t as detailed as some of the others in the list, but this is more about route planning and navigating than it is tracking your route and recording your progress.

OutDoors is free, but regional maps are £9.99 via in-app purchase

7. Every Trail

EveryTrail is similar in a few ways to Trails but has a lot more functionality. It allows you to track your routes, attach geo-tagged photo’s to your route and then share your routes with friends and family either through Facebook & Twitter, or through the EveryTrail website (Pro Version only). You can save your trips and can also search through trips made by other app users.

To be honest, for commuters and those who cycle to keep fit you might struggle to find a use for this. It can be used for walking as well as cycling, and I’m more likely to use this again then next time I go camping or on a trekking weekend than I am the next time I go out on my bike. It’s a great app for recording and sharing where you’ve been and is a must have app if you enjoy leisurely walks or bike rides out in the country.

I tried the free version which is ad supported and didn’t really bother me too much. The free version doesn’t give you the option to sync your routes with the EveryTrail servers or let you save maps for use offline, so if you’re out cycling in the middle of nowhere and lose signal, you could have problems. Start off with the free version to make sure it’s what you need, and if it is upgraded to the Pro version – the £2.39 is well worth it.

EveryTrail – Free

EveryTrail Pro – £2.39

8. The Bike Computer

The Bike Computer is a relatively simple, no frills app that tracks your route and displays information on your progress. It’s from the same developer as EveryTrail, but is clearly their budget offering.

It does an ok job, information is clear and easy to read while you’re cycling, but I found it a little on the buggy side. Updates are promised soon, so if you only cycle for a hobby and don’t need anything too serious it’s an ok app to go for.

Cost: Free

9. Trails

This is more of a tracking app than a monitoring app. It’s all about recording where you’ve been, recording gps data for photos. It has got some monitoring ability, but speed is recorded as minutes per mile, suggesting that it’s aimed more at walkers than cyclists.

I tried the free version, which was fine, but it only lets you store 5 routes at a maximum of 5 minutes in lenght, so if you’re often going out and about and want to record where you’ve been, you’ll need to pay for the full version which gives you unlimited routes. Routes can be imported and exported in the GPX and KML formats – standard formats for handling GPS data to geo-tag photo’s and record your journeys in google maps and various other online sites.

Trails Lite – Free

Trails – £2.39

10. Trailguru

This is a really simple, basic tracking app. It tracks distance, speed and elevation. You can view where you’ve been on a map and post your route to the Trailguru website. It’s pretty basic, but does what it sets out to do.

There’s no iPod integration either, so you’ll may lose data when trying to change track. Although it’s a free one, there are other, better alternatives.


Trailguru – Free

One app that’s worth a small mention that I already had on my phone was CoPilot Live. While strictly speaking it’s not a biking app, it does have a cycle mode and is better at getting you from point A to point B than some of the others listed above. What it lacks though is any form of tracking – but if like me you end up in a random field in a part of town you’ve never seen before you’ll be glad you had it!

So there we go, that’s my top ten iPhone Bike apps. If you use any of the apps listed here, let me know what you think of them, or if you think I’ve missed any out add it to the list by leaving a comment below.

Following on from my post on the Top HTC Desire Cases, I thought I’d take a look at some of the other ‘must have’ items for the HTC Desire – the Apps.

It’s been just over 7 months since I posted my last top ten of Apps for Android and though it was time to take another look at what’s out there.

Android Market is available on the HTC Desire

I’ve been playing with the HTC Desire & Android Marketplace for a few days now and have been trying out some of their most popular apps. I’m still using my iPhone 3G so again you’ll see some comparisons between the two, but having spent some time with the Desire I’m extremely tempted to switch!

Shopsavvy

ShopSavvy was featured heavily in T-Mobile’s first TV ad (the one where they all start dancing in the train station). It allows you to scan in the barcode of a product using your phone’s camera and it will then compare prices locally and online so that you can check to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

You can also see reviews of the product and set the app to alert you when the price of the item falls below a set limit. This is a great app that is currently only available on Android.

ShopSavvy for Android

Movies

I’ve been using Movies on my iPhone for about a year now and it’s definitely one of the best movie apps available, so when I saw it available for Android it’s gone straight into my top ten. Movies allows you to search for nearby cinemas using your GPS location, search by film, see upcoming films & trailers and share ratings with your friends on Facebook.  It provides contact details for all cinemas, but lacks the ability to book your tickets through the app – hopefully this is on it’s way.

Movies by Flixster on Android

Opera Mini

Opera Mini is probably the most popular third party web browser that you can get for mobile phones. Instead of rendering pages in the standard way, your request to view the page is handled by Opera’s servers instead of the phone. This process strips out any unneccessary information and compresses the data being sent to your phone. Not particularly exciting to the end user, but what it does mean is that your web pages load almost twice as fast as they would using the default browser – especially when you’re connected to 3G.

Layar

Augmented Reality is still the next big thing to hit Smartphones. Layar is still leading the way, but we’re still way off from it being a llife changing app! Having said that Layar really takes a step in the right direction. If you’ve not come across augmented reality before it’s where the ‘real world’ and internet based information services come together.

Your Desire uses its GPS and compass to determine where you are and which way you’re facing and then uses the camera to show your surroundings on screen. Augmented reality applications such as Layar then display information on top of what you’re look at – hence the name. These ‘layers’ of information can be turned on or off and there are layers available to show you information such as nearest cashpoints, train stations hotels – even which of your friends are nearby.

As you move the camera around this information updates in real time, with Icons on screen indicating where things are. To find out more information about a hotel for example, just press it’s icon and you’ll be presented with information such as address, phone number, website, reviews etc.  It’s still in its early stages but it’s growing quickly and you now have a number of ‘layers’ that you can turn on and off as and when you want..

Layar for Android

Seesmic

I’m still not a huge Twitter fan, but this app is highly rated by staff and customers.Twidroid used to be the leader in twitter apps on Android but Seesmic has knocked it off it’s perch.

Seesmic shows more than just your friends tweets. It brings all your timelines into one simple screen, allows you to share videos, photos and location information with your tweets as well as the usual direct messaging and tweeting options.

Seesmic Twitter Client for Android

Meebo is an Instant messaging application that allows you to communicate with your friends regardless of the messaging program that they’re using. Meebo can connect to AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk/Jabber, MSN, ICQ, Facebook Chat & MySpace IM using just one log in.

Meebo IM for Android

Locale

I loved this on the Hero and still love it on the Desire. It uses your location to adjust settings on your phone. It might seem a little confusing at first, but you can program your phone to perform certain functions when you get to predefined locations. For example – You can set the phone to remind you to charge your battery when you walk through your front door or you can set it to switch to silent mode as soon as you arrive at the cinema.

Recent updates to the app allow it to post messages to twitter when you get to work or sms relatives when you’ve arrived home. The list is endless and you can configure it to do exactly what you want.

Locale for Android

Shazam

This is one of those apps that really makes you wonder how they do it. Shazam has been around for a few years now, but instead of paying premium rates for dialling 2580 on your mobile, you now have a free of charge app that can tag songs for you.

If you’ve not come across Shazam before, it’s a music tagging system. If you hear a song that you like but don’t know what it is, launch the app, press ‘tag now’ and hold the phone towards the speaker. Within seconds you’ll get information on the song, including Name, Artist, Album, Year of release, Amazon MP3 Store link, Artist MySpace Page and YouTube Video Links. It’s amazingly fast and surprisingly accurate.

Shazam for Android

Thick Buttons

One of the most frustrating things that I’ve come across on the Desire is the keyboard – particularly in portriat view. With the iPhone, it knows which letters should come next when you’re typing and (invisibly) greys out the letters that you are unlikely to need. This makes typing a little easier as you don’t need to be 100% accurate when pressing the letters.

Android doesn’t have this as standard, but thankfully this App adds a similar feature which makes typing a lot faster and easier. Instead of ‘greying out’ keys, it makes them laarger or smaller, depending on how likely they are to be the next one pressed.

Check out the video below to see it in action.

Appmanager

Imagine you’ve spent forever and a day installing the best apps possible on your Android phone. What happens when you switch phones, or your handset breaks and you have to get a replacement? Apple have this covered as your Apps are backed up to iTunes everytime you sync, so how do you deal with this if you’re using an Android phone? Simple – use AppManager.

It allows you to back up all your apps to the Micro SD card in your phone. If you need to switch phones, you can simply move the memory card and restore all your apps once you’ve reinstalled Appmanager. Appmanager is a free download from the Android Market on your device.

Appmanager for Android

These are just my top 10, there might be other apps out there that are even better than these and I’ve just not found them yet, so if you’re using an app that you think should be in the top ten leave a link below!

Kings Of Leon

1. Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire
2. Lady Gaga – Poker Face
3. Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
4. Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love
5. Alexandra Burke Ft Flo Rida – Bad Boys
6. Black Eyed Peas – Meet Me Halfway
7. Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow
8. Flo Rida – Right Round
9. Lady Gaga Feat Colby Odonis – Just Dance
10. The Killers – Human

This top 10 is based on the number of downloads from Mobile Fun in 2009. If you’re looking for the latest releases, take a look at the UK Top 20 or browse our most popular ringtones.

Following on from my post on the Top 10 HTC Hero Accessories and Top 10 HTC Hero Cases, I thought I’d take a look at some of the other ‘must have’ items for the HTC Hero – the Apps.

Since Apple launched the App store for the iPhone, the way that we use our phones has changed. Almost all touchscreen smartphones now have a version of the App store, where you can download free and paid for applications to your phone to increase it’s functionality.

Android Market

I’ve been playing with the HTC Hero & Android Marketplace for a few days now and have been trying out some of their most popular apps. As my phone is an iPhone, there are a few comparisons to the iPhone in here but these are my favourites Android Apps so far.

Shopsavvy

ShopSavvy was featured heavily in T-Mobile’s first TV ad (the one where they all start dancing in the train station). It allows you to scan in the barcode of a product using your phone’s camera and it will then compare prices locally and online so that you can check to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

You can also see reviews of the product and set the app to alert you when the price of the item falls below a set limit. This is a great app that is currently only available on Android.

ShopSavvy for Android

Movies

I’ve been using Movies on my iPhone for about a year now and it’s definitely one of the best movie apps available, so when I saw it available for Android it’s gone straight into my top ten. Movies allows you to search for nearby cinemas using your GPS location, search by film, see upcoming films & trailers and share ratings with your friends on Facebook.  It provides contact details for all cinemas, but lacks the ability to book your tickets through the app – hopefully this is on it’s way.

Movies by Flixster on Android

Beebplayer

iPlayer is the most popular on-demand video player in the UK and if you really can’t wait until you get home to catch up on Eastenders you can now get the iPlayer on your Android phone. The BBC website doesn’t provide native support like it does for iPhone so you’ll need to use a third party app and beebplayer is one of the best out there.

Beebplayer provides support for two stream qualities – one for Wi-Fi and one for 3G. It can, in theory, play live streams of both TV and radio, as well as the catch-up programmes iPlayer is famous for. It can be a little temperamental and buggy, but this will only improve over time.

Beebplayer is only available to download through Android Market on your device, and offically only supported on Vodafone & 3. Other networks should work, but you could experience some problems.

beebplayer for Android

Layar

Augmented Reality is the supposed to be the next big thing to hit Smartphones although I think we’re some time away from it being life changing, having said that Layar really takes a step in the right direction. If you’ve not come across augmented reality before it’s where the ‘real world’ and internet based information services come together.

Your Hero uses its GPS and compass to determine where you are and which way you’re facing and then uses the camera to show your surroundings on screen. Augmented reality applications such as Layar then display information on top of what you’re look at – hence the name. These ‘layers’ of information can be turned on or off and there are layers available to show you information such as nearest cashpoints, train stations hotels – even which of your friends are nearby.

As you move the camera around this information updates in real time, with Icons on screen indicating where things are. To find out more information about a hotel for example, just press it’s icon and you’ll be presented with information such as address, phone number, website, reviews etc.  It’s still in its early stages and coverage is a little limited, but over the next 12 months Augmented reality is set to really take off.

Layar for Android

Twidroid

Personally, I’m not a huge Twitter fan, but this app comes highly rated by colleagues here at Mobile Fun. The Android Market has more Twitter apps than you can shake a stick at, but Twidroid stood out as one of the best – especially as it’s a free App.

As with most Twitter clients you can easily @reply to people and send direct messages. A full set of options is available if you press and hold on a specific message. You can also easily send links from the feed to the phone’s browser, and the software has no trouble dealing with more than one link at a time. If you are a twitter fan you may find that you get addicted to this app.

Twidroid for Android

Meebo IM

Meebo is an Instant messaging application that allows you to communicate with your friends regardless of the messaging program that they’re using. Meebo can connect to AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk/Jabber, MSN, ICQ, Facebook Chat & MySpace IM using just one log in.

Meebo IM for Android

Locale

This is the clever kind of app that I love. It uses your location to adjust settings on your phone. It might seem a little confusing at first, but you can program your phone to perform certain functions when you get to predefined locations. For example – You can set the phone to remind you to charge your battery when you walk through your front door or you can set it to switch to silent mode as soon as you arrive at the cinema.

Recent updates to the app allow it to post messages to twitter when you get to work or sms relatives when you’ve arrived home. The list is endless and you can configure it to do exactly what you want.

Locale for Android

Shazam

This is one of those apps that really makes you wonder how they do it. Shazam has been around for a few years now, but instead of paying premium rates for dialling 2580 on your mobile, you now have a free of charge app that can tag songs for you.

If you’ve not come across Shazam before, it’s a music tagging system. If you hear a song that you like but don’t know what it is, launch the app, press ‘tag now’ and hold the phone towards the speaker. Within seconds you’ll get information on the song, including Name, Artist, Album, Year of release, Amazon MP3 Store link, Artist MySpace Page and YouTube Video Links. It’s amazingly fast and surprisingly accurate.

Shazam for Android

Ringdroid

One of the biggest criticisms of the iPhone is the inability to set one of your MP3 files as your ringtone. While there are ways around this (see my post on free ringtones using iTunes) it’s a basic feature that is available on almost every other phone.

Android users can set MP3′s as ringtones easily enough, but what if you don’t want the first 30 seconds of a phone? That’s where ringdroid comes in – it allows you to select an MP3 from your phone or memory card and edit it so that your ringtones starts and ends exactly where you want it to.

While we’re talking about MP3 files, if you have all your music in iTunes and want to sync it with your Android phone, there are a couple of easy ways to do this – this post explains how: Transfer Music to your Android Phone from iTunes

Ringdroid for Android

Appmanager

Imagine you’ve spent forever and a day installing the best apps possible on your Android phone. What happens when you switch phones, or your handset breaks and you have to get a replacement? Apple have this covered as your Apps are backed up to iTunes everytime you sync, so how do you deal with this if you’re using an Android phone? Simple – use AppManager.

It allows you to back up all your apps to the Micro SD card in your phone. If you need to switch phones, you can simply move the memory card and restore all your apps once you’ve reinstalled Appmanager. Appmanager is a free download from the Android Market on your device.

Appmanager for Android

These are just my top 10, there might be other apps out there that are even better than these and I’ve just not found them yet, so if you’re using an app that you think should be in the top ten leave a link below!

Symbian S60 V3 Handsets From Nokia

I’m starting off with Symbian 60 3rd Edition (also known as S60 V3). If this doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry, S60 V3 is probably the most common operating system and is found in most Nokia N-Series (N95, N96) and Nokia E-Series (E71, E66)  handsets.  Over the last few months there have also been a few handsets from Samsung that run S60 such as the Samsung INNOV8.  The latest touch screen phones from Nokia – the N97 and the 5800 XpressMusic run on Symbian software, but as they are touchscreen, they run on S60 V5 so the applications listed here won’t work on them.  I’ll be compiling a list of Symbian 60 5th edition applications shortly.

On to the apps then.  All of these are free of charge and can be downloaded either through the Nokia Ovi Store or from Downloads.com.

1. Mobile Messenger

Mobile Messenger provides a universal instant messaging platform that works seamlessly across your desktop and mobile phone and fully integrates with your address book. As well as being able to chat using MSN/Windows Live Messenger you can also chat with AIM and Yahoo Messenger contacts.  The application remembers your username and password for quick login, supports sound notification of a new message and reacts quickly.  Mobile Messenger uses very small amounts of data, doesn’t drain your battery and is extremely easy to use. You can choose between sound or Vibration alert, have group chats and all your contacts appear in one clear list.

2. YouTube for Mobile

We all love killing time on YouTube, and this app makes it really easy to search for videos and play them back on your phone without having to navigate to their website first.  During playback you can pause, fast forward and rewind as well as play video full screen in landscape mode. One slight word of warning here is that watching video’s uses a lot of data,  so make sure you have an unlimited internet bundle on your account or are connected to a Wi-Fi network (if available on your phone).

3. Google Maps

Google Maps is an incredibly popular application on the internet, and there are times when it would come in handy when you’re out and about.  The great news is that you can now get Google Maps on your phone.  It’s not a scaled down version either, it’s a fully functional application that has been optimised to run on a mobile phone.  You will need to pick up a GPS signal in order to use some of the features in Google Maps, so if your phone hasn’t got it built in, you’ll need to get yourself a Bluetooth GPS receiver.  This will then allow Google Maps to track your location in the application for driving directions, business listings and traffic information.  If you’re out walking and getting a little bit lost, Google Maps now has street view for major towns and cities that will help you figure out exactly where you are and where you need to go.  Follow the link for download information and a demo video.

4. Trapster

This one is a must for drivers who don’t have safety camera alerts on their Sat Nav.  It’s a GPS based app, so again you’ll need a Bluetooth GPS receiver if you don’t have GPS built into your phone. It uses your GPS location to warn you of any upcoming safety cameras, but the thing that makes this different to others, is that it’s interactive. If you find a location where there isn’t a camera, give it the thumbs down, if a new one appears, a couple of presses adds it to the database and other users will be warned too.  As Trapster uses an internet connection for constant updates, it can warn you of upcoming safety cameras, Mobile speed cameras, Checkpoints, places where police are waiting with hand held speed guns and places where police frequently wait with the hand held speed guns.  On a serious note though, this application isn’t an excuse to speed. It is a way to help protect your license.  Speeding kills, so drive safely and don’t attempt to use your phone while driving.

5. Fring

Fring is similar to Mobile Messenger, in as much as it lets you chat to your friends, but supports a much wider range of IM apps.  You can use Fring to chat to friends that use MSN/Windows Live, ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo and AOL.  The big difference here is that you can also use Fring to call contacts on Skype and other VOIP services.

6. Joiku

Joiku is a great app that might remove the need to have a Mobile Broadband Dongle.  When you launch Joiku, it creates a connection to your 3G mobile network, and then uses the WiFi antenna on your phone to create a wireless hotspot that you can then connect your laptop to in order to browse the internet. It’s not just limited to one laptop though, you can connect multiple devices all at the same time.  I’ve got this installed on my N82 and frequently use it to connect my iPod Touch to the internet for emailing and internet.  There are a couple of basic requirements for this app though.  Your phone must have Wi-Fi Built in, and to avoid any nasty surprises with your bill you need to be on an unlimited internet tariff that includes laptop access.

7. Opera Mini

Browsing the internet on a mobile phone isn’t always the most enjoyable experience. The Opera Mini browser  is much easier to use than the standard one built into most S60 devices and has a few more features too.  If you use the Opera browser on your home PC you’ll be able to synchronise your bookmarks over the air, you can save pages for viewing later as well as view video’s from sites such as YouTube that are embedded into sites. You’ll also find that Opera Mini loads pages a lot faster than the standard browser too.

8. Bit Defender

As phones get smarter, so do viruses.  Bit Defender is an anti-virus application for S60 devices.  While it’s unlikely that you’ll get a virus on your phone, when you do they’re extremely difficult to remove without you losing all your data. There are paid anti-virus solutions available, but for a free one this does a great job.

9. Google Mobile

I’m sure there have been times where we have all needed to find the answer to something quickly – Google on your mobile is the first place I normally go, but having to wait for the internet browser to load, then type in google, then you have to wait for the page to load – it’s not really very fast. Google Mobile is a stand alone search app and can search your phone as well as the web.  to find the information you need, just launch the app, type in what you’re after and hit search.  Simple as that. Google Mobile is an app you’ll never want to be without.

10. Nokia Point & Find

I covered this recently when Nokia first announced it, It’s only availble for Nokia handsets, but this small app lets you discover useful and relevant information and services by simply pointing your camera phone at objects. For instance, point your camera phone at a movie poster on the street to read reviews, glance at ratings, lookup show times, and even find the closest theatre and purchase tickets in the UK if your phone has a built-in GPS. This one is still a beta application, which means there are known problems with it, and it might play up now and again.

That’s it, that’s our current top ten.  Let us know what you think to these apps, or if you’ve found a great application that you can’t live without, then tell us about it using the comments form below.

The new OVI store is designed to make it easier to download applications directly to your phone, without having to connect to your PC first, and is available as a free download to everyone with a compatible phone – currently Nokia handsets running Symbian 60 (N-Series, 5800, E-Series etc)

To get the Ovi store on your phone, you need to download it using the ‘Download!’ service on your phone. You’ll need to refresh the content in order for it to show up, and once downloaded and installed you’ll be able to browse the store for new apps. If you don’t have the download service on your phone, you can also visit store.ovi.com.

Even though it’s still early days for the Ovi store, for my Nokia N82 there were still over 550 paid apps available and 64 free apps with prices ranging from £1.50 to over £40. Content in the store is broken down in to 4 categories, Applications, Audio & Video, Games and Ringtones, and you can filter by free/paid.

Downloading content isn’t quite as seamless as the App Store on the iPhone, but no doubt over time this will only get better.

To use the Ovi Store, you will need to have an Ovi account, but if you already use any of the other Ovi Services (Share, Contacts, Files, Maps, Calendar, Mail, N-Gage, Music) then you’ll be able to use the store with your current sign in details, although to avoid any nasty billing surprises, it’s probably worth registering your credit or debit card, rather than having them charge your phone bill.

If you want to know more about the Ovi Store, allaboutsymbian.com have a pretty detailed walkthrough on how to use it on their site.

Source: Ovi Store

Getting a new game or ringtone or wallpaper for your phone should be one of the easiest things in the world. Ordering and paying for it is easy enough, just enter your mobile number, reply with ok to confirm you want it and job done. All that’s left to do now is to download your funky new tune to your phone. So how do you do it? Well, once you’ve ordered your tone, you will receive a text message from us with a link to a webpage where you can download the ringtone or game.

It’s actually pretty simple, and even more importantly its free and legal! All you need to create your own ringtones is iTunes on a PC or Mac and a song in either MP3 or AAC format that is DRM free. DRM files are normally songs that have been purchased online from places such as the iTunes Store, or imported to your computer using Windows Media Player.

Change import Settings to AAC

Before you start, you need to check some settings in iTunes. In the Preferences window, click on “Import Settings” on the General Tab and make sure that “import using” is set to AAC Encoder.

Show File Extensions

This step is important! If you’re on a PC, you’ll need to make sure that you can view file extensions (music files should show .mp3 or .m4a after the filename). If your PC doesn’t, you can change this by opening your “My Documents” folder, and clicking Tools-> Folder Options. On the “View” tab, you should see an option “Hide extensions for known file types,” Make sure that the box next to this is not ticked, and then hit ok.

Right, now for the fun bit. Find the song you want as your ringtone and play it in iTunes. iPhone ringtones can be a maximum of 30 seconds long, so you’ll need to know the start and end points for the song clip that you want to use, so play the song, and write down how many seconds there are to the part of the song you want as your ringtone. You’ll need the end time too, but this can only be a maximum of 30 seconds.

Select Start and End Times

By now, you should have the start and end points of your ringtone. Right click on the song in iTunes, and select “Get Info”

When the iTunes preferences window opens, you will see 7 tabs across the top, click on the options tab. You’ll see there is a space to enter start and stop times. Put in the times you wrote down earlier and make sure that both boxes are ticked – then hit “OK”.

UPDATE: Thanks to Dean and Snatch for pointing out that you need to ensure that you use : to seperate minutes and seconds, and not a full stop!

Create AAC File

Right click your song again, and this time select create AAC version (or similar.)

UPDATE: In the latest version of iTunes (Version 9.1) the ‘create AAC version’ option has been moved from the right click menu to the ‘Advanced’ menu at the top of the screen.

You should then see a second copy of the song appear in your iTunes music library. In order to change it to a ringtone you’ll need to drag this file to your desktop. You can then delete the 30 second version from iTunes and un tick the start and stop times on the original song.

Rename file to .m4r

Go to the file on your desktop and you should see its called “songname.m4a”. Right click it and choose “rename,” all we want to change here is the .m4a to .m4r. You can rename this song if you want, but the filename must end .m4r

iTunes Ringtone Library

That’s it! All you need to do now is double click the file to add it back to iTunes. If you click on the Ringtones link in the side panel, it should now be listed as a ringtone, rather than a music file.

Sync your iPhone with iTunes

All that is left is to sync your iPhone with your computer. If it doesn’t sync over straight away, make sure the “Sync ringtones” option is selected when your phone is connected.

UPDATE:A few people have had a problem with the ringtones showing in iTunes in the ringtones section, but they aren’t syncing to the phone. To fix this plug your phone in, and on the options screen, uncheck the ‘Sync Ringtones’ box, hit apply and then sync your phone. Once it’s finished, disconnect and re connect your phone. Go back to the options screen and re-check the ‘Sync Ringtones’ box and sync again. This resets the sync information in iTunes and your phone and your ringtones should now show up on your phone.

Download a printable instruction sheet (PDF: 300kb)

Give it a try and let me know how you get on – Got any great ringtones that you want to share with the world? Leave your comments below with the Song title and start/end times and share your creations!

2D Map View	3D Map View	3D Night View	Arrow View

Maps
When Nokia Maps 2.0 loads, the differences are noticeable almost immediately. The search bar is now a permanent feature in standby and a data counter has been introduced to help keep an eye on your data usage, especially handy if you aren’t on a fixed rate data plan. Two icons on screen tell you which keys to press to zoom in and out of the map. The signal strength indicator has been improved to show more than just 3 bars of signal reception. Locking on to signal is much faster too – I normally manage to achieve signal lock on my Nokia N82 in 5-10 seconds and often get a signal indoors.

The map views are pretty much the same as before, with the choice of alternating between 2D/3D and day/night view. On screen navigation display has been improved considerably too – you now have the choice of Manoeuvre view, Birds Eye view and Arrow view. Arrow view is a much simpler way to navigate; it shows an arrow facing in the direction you need to travel. Interesting additions are Satellite and Hybrid views, very much along the same line as Google Maps, although you can’t zoom in as far.

Satellite View
Non-Major Cities	Major Cities

Navigation
To set your destination is extremely simple. If you know the address or postcode of where you want to go you can simply enter this into Nokia Maps. Once it has confirmed the address and shown you on screen, simply select “Drive to” or Walk to”and away you go.

Navigate to Address or Postcode.

The built in search has also been improved in Maps 2.0, if you don’t know the full address or postcode, you can now enter part details in and the application will look it up and give you a list of possibilities. The search includes Transport, Restaurants, Cash Points, Post Offices and many more. You can also search by category, such as Eat & Drink, and you can set filters such as Fast Food, Restaurants, Italian etc, and it will just show the locations close to your current location.

“On Foot” directions	Local Search	Extra Services

Pedestrian Navigation
One of the biggest problems with previous versions of the pedestrian mode was that you never really knew if you were walking in the right direction until you’d walked far enough to notice the difference on the screen. Maps 2.0 has managed to fix this by using the inbuilt accelerometer to create a magnetic compass – This tells the phone which direction you have turned. Walk mode also has information built in on rail transport systems for some of the worlds largest cities to make commuting even easier.

Compatibility
Nokia Maps 2.0 is compatible with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, including N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95, N95 8GB, E51 & E90. If you are using a Nokia N95 you will need to using the latest firmware (Version 20.0.015 or newer). You will also need to have either an in-built GPS receiver (N82, N95, E90) or a separate Bluetooth GPS receiver. You will need to buy a license for the Voice Navigation, this can be done directly through your handset using premium rate SMS or by purchasing a Nokia Maps Drive & Walk Voice Navigation License.

Download
You can download the full version of this software from Nokia Maps website.