There is a LOT of freeware out there for Windows Mobile, however you could spent months trying stuff out, installing, un-installing etc. So what I’ve done is collated what I consider to be the best software, utilities and games available. I’ve kept the list all freeware and opensource, enjoy…

Essential Windows Mobile Freeware

Special mention needs to go to Pocket PC Freewares, which is my main source for software.

• View the status and information about your phone/device.
• Compose and send SMS messages
• Reading, deleting, forwarding and replying to SMS messages
• Command console for interacting with the phone directly via AT commands

Download

Current Version 2.1

• Windows Installer – Setup SMS Toolkit 2.1
• Unix – SMS Toolkit for Unix
• Source Code – Source Code

Pre-requisites

The SMS Toolkit uses SMS Lib (http://smslib.org/), for Windows users I provide a compiled version of SMSLib and it’s supporting libraries (Sun Comm API and/or RxTx) This means Windows users have a choice, they can run either the Sun Comm API version (very, very highly recommended) or the RxTx version (not recommended). Unix users also have the choice but I don’t supply the files (See Installation below)

Installation

• Windows

There is a supplied installer which does all the hard work for you. Simply run the installer and follow the prompts. This will install all the pre-requisite required libraries and files, and create shortcuts to
start the app.

• Unix (Linux, Solaris, OSX)

I don’t supply any installer, for the supporting libraries (SMSLib, Sun Comm or RxTx) you will also have to supply your own. I don’t have resources to test all the combinations of Unix and the differing libraries. Installation of SMS Lib is easy, and instructions are on the SMS Lib website here – http://smslib.org/installation_java.php which also covers the installation of RxTx and the Sun Comm API.

Device Connection

First of all you need to connect your device (this is most likely to be a mobile phone, however GSM modem devices such as the MC35 are supported too). The mechanisms and means to doing this are too numerous to document here. In all cases the only thing the SMS Toolkit needs to know is the COM or Serial port the device is attached to. In the case of cable connections this will be a real physical port (e.g. COM1) in the case of Bluetooth or IrDA connections this will be a virtual port created by the Bluetooth or IrDA software.

Quick Start

First click the ‘Device’ button on the toolbar, this allows you to specify the serial port and the baud rate to connect on. Choose the port of the device (as explained above) and the baud rate can be left at 9600 or increased. I’ve never seen much difference with baud rate speeds but some devices may only support certain rates.

After this is done, click the ‘Connect’ button on the main toolbar. If everything is OK then SMS Toolkit will connect and you will see your device details on the Device tab. If there was a problem connecting then you will see an error. The most likely causes will be the port you specified was incorrect or another application is using the port.

SMS Functions

Most of the functionality is pretty obvious, but I’ll cover a few potential problems.

If when you click the ‘Refresh’ button on the inbox screen and no messages are shown, goto the SMS options and select which location you want to read from; either SIM card of your device or the internal memory of the device. Some devices store only on the SIM, some only in memory, and some use both. Try different options.

The same can happen when sending a message, if you get an error sending a message, try changing storage location in the SMS options dialog.

Console

This is intended for advanced users that wish to interact directly with their device via the AT command set.