7. Media

Windows Mobile includes a mobile version of Windows Media Player 10 which can play MP3 and WMA tracks, WMV video and DRM-protected content; you can sync music directly from Windows Media Player playlists on your PC. The Pearl and 8800 are the only BlackBerry models with a media player. It can play MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AAC and its own flavor of MPEG 4 videos, but the controls are very basic. As usual, the media player included with a Symbian device varies; often it's a version of Real Player, but Sony Ericsson puts a very powerful media player on the W950i Walkman phone. Check out third-party media players like The Core.

Watch your TV, Tivo or whatever else your Slingbox is connected to, all on your smartphone.

If you don't want to transfer content directly, there's a Sling client for Windows Mobile so you can watch your TV; if you've got a media player on your smartphone, you can stream content free from your PC with Orb media. Get peer to peer audio and video (free and pay-for) on your Symbian phone with PeerBox Mobile.

Create your own media on the move. Use your Symbian phone as a webcam with Mobiola - send footage into IM, or straight to YouTube or MySpace; a Windows Mobile version is under development. Mobiola uses Bluetooth to connect, so you need to be near your PC; with PocketCaster, you can use a Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 phone to stream video straight from the phone - viewers can watch on their PCs or on their own phones.

Navigation

Built-in GPS is becoming much more common; the BlackBerry Pearl comes with BlackBerry Maps, but it's much more useful on the 8800, which has a built-in GPS. There are several Windows Mobile smartphones with GPS built in, but you can add GPS to any smartphone with Bluetooth. With CoPilot Live (for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry), TomTom (for Windows Mobile and Symbian) and NaviCore Personal (for Symbian) you pay for the application and the maps. That includes full route finding and often services like traffic data.

Navigation is a perfect match for your smartphone; not only do you always have it with you, but you can get traffic alerts and send your position to friends.

Nokia is offering free maps with Smart2Go (for Symbian and Windows Mobile); you can find a route for free, but if you want turn by turn GPS navigation you have to pay for that. If you travel on the subway more than you walk or drive, Visual IT has navigation software for metro systems around the world, for all three platforms.

Navigate the subways and metros of the world with Visual IT's Tube 2 software.

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