4) WorldMate -- Don't Leave Home Without It

WorldMate's mobile service simplifies the lives of frequent travelers by automatically delivering content and services to mobile devices. For example, free features include the Itineraries Manager function, which stores on Windows Mobile Pocket PCs information on flights, hotels, meetings, public transportation and car rentals. You can also export travel information from booking confirmation e-mails, corporate calendars and more, directly into WorldMate, which will automatically assemble itineraries.

The app's "Clocks" feature provides the current time and weather for five cities of the user's choice. The Weather function offers three-day forecasts and weather details for four major cities. The WorldMate currency converter quickly translates US dollars into Euros, Japanese yen and tons of other currencies, or vice versa. You'll also find an online exchange rate service and an easy to use tip calculator.

Need to make a quick shopping dash? WorldMate even has clothing-size conversion tables for the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and Japan in six clothing categories, such as shoe size, for overseas shopping. And there's a global conversion tool that helps you convert different units of lengths, distance, weight, volume, temperature and pressure.

More sophisticated WorldMate Live features are available to WorldMate's fee-based Premium subscribers. For fees starting at US$74.95 a year, you gain access to real-time flight alerts, flight and meeting notifications, suggested alternatives to cancelled or delayed flights, and more. A slightly different version of WorldMate is also available for Windows Mobile smartphones.

5) PIM Backup by Dotfred.net -- Don't Lose That Sensitive Data

Safe is better than sorry when it comes to backing up digital information, whether it's your PC's hard drive, your iTunes music collection or all those contacts that you store on your Windows Mobile device.

Plenty of smartphone backup applications exist on the Web, but the PIM Backup Application from Dotfred.net has one major advantage: It's free. You can easily backup your personal information--contacts, appointments, speed dial lists, tasks, SMS messages, call logs, etc.--and the app works with any device running Windows Mobile Pocket PC (Classic or Professional), according to the MobileViews blog.

And if you've got enough free space on a storage card, you can use that to keep backup data safe without the need for PC or server-based storage.

You have two options: Use a binary process for a speedier and more reliable backup, but understand that the contents can't be easily changed or edited. Or, use a text-based backup process that takes a bit longer, but lets you later edit data. The apps work independently of the language settings on a specific user's device, so you can restore a pocket PC that was backed up in Chinese to English, or vice versa.