PPCGeeks - Five FREE Must-Have Apps [Part 1]

The best things in life are free. In this thread I shall attempt to bring to light such apps that will no leave no mark on our wallets but will leave a positive mark on us. This post is by no means an exhaustive list of all the awesome free apps and so I salute any and all developers and companies that make such apps available. As long as I own a PPC and am trying different apps I shall try and write future reviews.

The following is a list of the 5 of my most favorite apps. Like any review I shall try to remain objective in my analysis and comparison, but I am only human and may fall short in some way or form. So without any further ado...

1. Microsoft Live Search w/ Voice Recognition

Why would I need this?
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*For virtually instant Voice searching while on the go (text box search available too)
*For local movie times and theaters
*For traffic information (major metropolitans only)
*For maps and directions
*For local gas prices (sorted by lowest price)
*GPS guided navigation (requires external hardware)

Also look at...
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+++Mobile Google Maps

This is the only MS application I can safely say I prefer over Google's counterpart, Mobile Google Maps. I can honestly say it's the most practical application for searching almost anything, movie reviews/times, traffic and even gas prices! I challenged my friend who has an iphone to a dual. We were looking for a Steak n Shake in the area and wanted to see who can pull up closest one the quickest. Mind you, I was the one driving. After using the voice recognition feature I retrieved the information in less than 30 seconds. I looked over to find him pulling up Google search in his browser and pecking away at his keyboard.

What can be improved?
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-More GPS navigation friendly like TomTom or iGuidance (POI warner, automatically BT on, etc)
-Ability to save, import and export locations
-A Desktop Map Loader for those who do not have a data plan

****************************Rating: 8/10******************************
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2. Quick Menu (freeware from China)

Since day one I have been looking for an all-in-one task manager. I tried almost everything out there including but not limited too: Wisbar Lite, Dinar Soft's Handyswitcher, SPB Pocket Plus, iLauncher, SmallMenu Plus, vbar, tman, MagicButton, AE Button Plus and I must say I haven't come across one that does it all and does it well like Quick Menu.

Why would I need this?
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* Fully customizable cascading menus (including I.E. favorites, recent programs, favorite apps, etc)
* Menu items to hibernate (Free ram) and soft-reset, Bluetooth discovery, Screen Rotation and soft-keyboard selection
* Ability to switch and close different apps using Start Menu (as opposed to separate menu)
* Ability to fully replace standard Start Menu
* Ability to make ok button close apps (exception list available) - good for RAM management!
* Ability to automatically close Activesync upon being removed from cradle
* Ability to create shortcuts for common commands (compare to SPB Pocket Plus)
* Battery meter on start bar which can be customized accordingly
* FAST! and small memory footprint

What could be improved?
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* No option for non-cascading menus
* No program icons on start bar (like Wisbar Lite and WKtask)

Also look at...
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+++++WKtask
+++Pbar
+++vbar
+++tman

****************************Rating: 9/10******************************
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3. Video Flash Bundle - for the ability to view many video sites on your PPC

Youtube nation. That is what we are becoming. From vlogs to views, entertainment, animation, comedy and music we crave on demand video to quench our undying thirsts. This is what Video Flash Bundle is for. It allows us to take these videos with us wherever we are. Look out iphone, anything you can do...we can do better, and in this case it applies so perfectly. I compared video quality to a friend who has an iphone and the quality on my 6700 was far superior. Not only that, but I also have the option to watch Google video and so much more.

Why would I need this?
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* Virtually instant access to hundreds of thousands of videos
* Hours and hours of high quality media at your fingertips
* Ability to save videos on storage memory in .flv
* Includes TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player), the perfect solution for watching many different kinds of video, audio and images

What could be improved?
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* More compatible and convenient option for searching and viewing on mobile
* Ability to easily seek within video
* Easy access to reading/leaving comments

Also look at...
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++++HTC StreamingMedia (for use with m.youtube.com)

****************************Rating: 8/10******************************
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The other two apps will come soon: MyMobiler and Ftouchflo. In the time being I'm gonna try to figure out how to link text in this post.

Coming soon: Top 5 Not-Free Apps, 5 apps you would never would have imagined existed and more