I posted this on Pocketnow, but I thought it would be interesting over here too. Anyone else have any money saving tips that WM can help with?
In these times of economic uncertainty, everyone wants to keep their spending to a minimum. There are many features in Windows Mobile that can help you save money while maintaining the productivity advantages of a smartphone. Most carriers trying to sell you a phone won’t tell you about these things, and most other “smartphones” aren’t even capable of some of these features.
Is it really worth it to pay an extra $30-$60 per month for internet access on your phone? For some, yes it’s definitely worth it, but for others? You’re already paying for it at work and at home. You’re only really out on the weekends, and then you’re probably too busy to care about email or internet news anyway.
Unlike many smartphones that have become symbiotically dependant on expensive wireless internet access, Windows Mobile can still be very useful without a constant internet connection.
One reason is ActiveSync and Mobile Device Center’s internet pass-through capability. That means that when your Windows Mobile device is plugged into a computer via the USB connection, it can use that computer’s internet access. Furthermore, Windows Mobile is capable of syncing your email inbox and OUTBOX with Outlook. So, while you’re out and about, you can take pictures, record videos, attach them to emails and write messages to your heart’s content. Then when you get home, just plug-in to the computer and the emails will send through Outlook as part of the sync process. You might say, “You can do that with WiFi too,” and yes of course you can, but maybe you’re still using dialup in a remote part of the world, or you don’t want to deal with the complications and expense of setting up your own WiFi router. Plus, WiFi takes up battery life and needs to turn on to connect. With the USB email sync solution, all you do is plug in a wire (which recharges the battery too!)
The internet pass-through also works with any other internet capable application as well as non-ActiveSync email accounts. So if you set up a regular POP3, IMAP or Exchange account on the device (instead of an Outlook sync,) you will be able to use it both when plugged into the USB on your computer as well as when connected to WiFi hotspots. Also with the internet pass-through capabilities, you can use any number of RSS readers to download your daily listing of news from news sites, as well as podcasts and video podcasts, which you can then read offline on Windows Mobile while you’re out and about.
Speaking of WiFi, some home internet service providers these days also offer free WiFi internet access to their customers. WiFi access will of course be limited to certain hotspots, but this can come in handy if you want to save money on your wireless phone bill. Optimum Online customers now have free WiFi in certain areas, as does ATT broadband.
Now what about GPS? Mobile phone carriers like ATT, Verizon, and Sprint often include GPS navigation programs on their mobile phone offerings. Unfortunately, they usually require an additional fee to use. Most are in the $10/month range AND require an internet access plan which tends to add up. Luckily, Windows Mobile still supports the largest number of full offline GPS navigation programs which don’t include monthly fees and don’t require internet access. Say you’re herding cattle in Montana for a week and you get lost chasing down a straggler, other smartphones are going to be pretty useless without wireless internet to download those maps. But you came prepared and installed a moving map application on your WM phone loaded with custom topographical maps of the area. Programs like Fugawi, Memory-Map Navigator, Ozi Explorer, Outdoor Navigator and Vito can all be used to navigate “all terrain” areas of the world. If you’re more of a road warrior and just want to be directed to a meeting location or friend’s house, TomTom, iGuidance, CoPilot Live, OnCourse Navigator, Garmin, etc. are all fully functional street-based route navigation programs that function independently of internet access. You do have to purchase them, but it’s a one-time fee and often turns out to be much less expensive than using the carrier-provided GPS navigation program. Furthermore, if your phone does not have GPS built in, you can easily get a Bluetooth enabled GPS receiver to connect to.
Now what about phone calls? If you want to reduce your bill with your wireless phone company, you can use a number of Voice over IP applications with Windows Mobile instead. These will require a WiFi connection, but you’ll save money by not using up your minutes on your wireless carrier. Actually, Windows Mobile has built-in native support for SIP based VoIP which is completely integrated with the phone dialer and contacts program. However, most OEMs and carriers choose to not include that feature because they want you to pay money for voice calls. There are also a number of 3rd party VoIP applications that you can use for voice calls on your Windows Mobile device. Skype is fully supported, and Fring does SIP VoIP as well as instant messaging, Skype, Twitter, etc.
How about editing Office Documents? Everyone uses Microsoft Office documents at work. It’s practically impossible not to. Since most versions of Windows Mobile included Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel and OneNote, it’s very easy to store in-progress files on your mobile device and edit them whenever you have a spare moment. Windows Mobile shows up in Windows Explorer when connected to ActiveSync or WMDC, and you can simply copy/paste files to whichever folders you’d like. You’ll quickly notice some major roadblocks if you try to do similar things on other mobile device platforms.
Another thing many people don't know regarding internet access on their smartphones is that certain carriers allow you turn on an internet plan for a period of time and then cancel it and only pay a pro-rated amount for the time you used it. So if most of the time you're next to a desktop computer, you can use the USB connection to download email and sync your device... but maybe when you take a couple weeks off to go on vacation, you can turn the data internet service on so that you'll have mobile internet access during that time. It's a slight hassle calling your phone company to turn it off and on all the time, but it could save you money if you can get by with out it for longer periods of time.