Mobile Software

Most mobile users like their converted videos like they like their phones: light, fast, and easy to get.

MediaCell Video Converter is a sweet app that achieves the former and shines with the latter. The program's ease at converting from a range of file types to your specific cell phone or PDA helped the program become the single most downloaded video product at CNET Download.com.

Check out MediaCell Video Converter in the video below, and don't forget to watch other informative First Look videos on a slew of users' favorite apps.

Plusmo's mobile widgets application is a cool way to read RSS feeds on your cell phone or PDA, but that's not the only reason it was named a finalist on the Webware 100 list.

In true Webware fashion, Plusmo's site offers hands-on excitement--the chance to publish and share widget mash-ups and create an iPhone widget from templates. Users can also make personal blogs available as a Plusmo widget, and can install a browser bookmarklet or Yahoo plug-in to snag feeds while they surf.

Getting started with Plusmo

Multiple carriers and platforms, small screen sizes, and a glut of information out there make quickly and easily accessing mobile content a downright challenge. That's why interestingly (and wisely), Plusmo steers clear of browser turf wars raging among third-party mobile browsers like Opera Mini (new review) and Minimo (hands-on review); a good move.… Read more

Here's some exciting news for those of you who have an iPhone and want to have the Star Wars Imperial March play every time your mother-in-law asks you for help installing the latest sudoku game: with a bit of file-extension tweaking and judicious use of the new iTunes 7.4 for Windows or Mac, you can now customize your ringtones without having to donate another 99 cents to Steve Jobs' favorite retirement fund.

… Read more

You might love your iPod or other portable music player, but can it play OGG and FLAC files? How about a game of Pong? Tom Merritt shows you how to install Rockbox, an open-source operating system for digital music players.

Today Opera announced the latest release of its mobile browser, Opera Mini 4 beta 2. What makes this build stand out are some software trinkets designed especially for BlackBerry devices. Webware.com editor Josh Lowensohn described them in a news release. Now it's time to describe their effect on a luminescent BlackBerry Pearl I just happened to get in my possession.

In most cases, Opera Mini 4 beta 2 performed exactly as promised--beautifully fast and with a clean interface. I was able to scroll with the pointer mouse (a hand with index finger extended), play with screen width, and take advantage of zooming and scrolling with keypad numbers.… Read more

Blackberry fiends looking for a better Web browser to replace RIM's in-house solution have been able to use a mobile version of Opera called Opera Mini since late last year. The latest beta of the browser got an interesting refresh this morning, adding a slew of handy features, including a new landscape mode that's turning phones on their sides. Literally.

The new feature will let you browse sideways, making use of the taller screens on phones like the Pearl. Unlike the iPhone, the lack of an accelerometer in most phones means you have to use a button combination to swap between portrait and landscape modes. There's also a new full-screen mode to let you browse using every glorious pixel on your phone's small screen.… Read more

What makes a cell phone more than a phone? What it can do. Software can elevate your plastic slider, candy bar, or PDA above its earthly mechanics and turn it into the kind of dream machine that entertains you and organizes your life.

Consider, for example, ListPro (for Pocket PC, Palm, and Smartphone), a handy organizer with a slew of built-in, customizable list templates for managing everything from your shopping to your calendar to the sudden surge of brilliance that will eventually lead to that multimillion-dollar idea. No really, it can do that.… Read more

You've got to applaud mobile carriers for knowing how to make a buck. Additional text-messaging and data-transfer services are one way to pad the bill for basic calling, and capitalizing on your boredom and curiosity is another. It's common for cell phone carriers such as Sprint and Verizon to lease games in addition to or instead of selling them. But fees add up, and you still won't own them.

1) Instead, go for game packs such as Hot Games Pack for Palm and Mastersoft Games Pack for Windows Mobile, which generally cut you a bulk deal. Rather than paying $5 to $15 for one game, a pack might net you 10 games for $40.… Read more

Sometimes less really is more, and software that does a single task well is better than a feature-rich app that bogs down performance, clogs system memory, or over-reaches its abilities. Here are seven programs that were built to do a specific job, and succeed. These downloads may not have all the fixin's, but they taste great all the same.

UPDATED: We asked for your favorite picks and you responded. Here are five fresh one-trick ponies of the software world that you just love to bits.

MediaCell Video Converter This multiformat video converter makes the list thanks to a three-part, one-pane interface from which you browse for the video file, select the mobile device you'll be watching it on, and click the large, bubbly "convert" button. No need to concern yourself with file formats, bit rates, and sound quality. While users certainly can tweak the volume and settings themselves in the app's "output" section, MediaCell Video Converter's preset optimizations per device make it unnecessary for most.… Read more