Top 5 Java applications

In time past, you could easily define the difference between a smartphone, and a non smartphone. As technology has developed, the lines distinguishing differences between the two have become increasingly blurred. This can be seen most clearly in the area of applications for mobile phones. Nowadays not only smartphones can have applications added to them. As handsets become more powerful, the development of applications in java has spread, and there are some very good applications available which add real functionality to a mobile phone. Here is a list of five of our favourites, in no particular order.

Gmail – As with most things Google offer, Gmail has a simple, clean, easy to use interface. The java Gmail application is around 100kb in size, and replicates the UI you get with Gmail on the PC. You can view attachments, archive email, search through saved mail, and all standard email features, just as you can on Gmail on a PC. To download the Gmail app, point your phones browser to gmail.com/app

Opera Mini – Another way to distinguish a standard mobile phone to a smartphone used to be web access. Smartphones allowed access to the full internet, whereas most normal phones had a basic WAP browser. These days there is Opera Mini. Opera Mini works by condensing down the website you are requesting to view and delivering a slimmed down version to your phone. This allows for faster browsing with less data transfer. Less data transfer meaning less cost. You can access Opera Mini by entering www.operamini.com into your phones native browser.

Yahoo Go – If you have a Yahoo account you can access various services via the Yahoo Go application. Yahoo Go offers quick access to Yahoo Onesearch, your Yahoo Calendar and address book, Yahoo Mail, Sports and News headlines, Flickr and Yahoo weather reports. You can download Yahoo Go by entering get.go.yahoo.co.uk on your phone browser

Yell - Everyone at some point uses Yellow Pages. You could be searching for a dentist, florist or chemist. You could be looking for a hotel, a gift or legal advice. With the Yellow Pages you can virtually find anything and everything. Once you’ve chosen your category, enter the business name or type and the town or post code area you want to search in. The Yell application connects to the net and delivers the results on your phone screen. Certainly cheaper than a call to 118 whoever. Once you have the results your options are to call direct, show the location of the business on a map, get directions to the place from your current location, send the info by text to someone else or simply store the info to your phonebook for future reference. You can download the Yell application from mobile.yell.com/uk on your mobile phone.

Shozu – Shozu is a neat application that allows you to upload pictures to your blog, on the move. With most medium range handsets on the market having at least a 2.0 megapixel camera, you can take quality ‘point n shoot’ pics and upload them for friends and family to see. Lots of online services are available, including Flickr, Blogger, Picasa,Typepad, Vox, Wordpress. You can even use Shozu to upload video clips to YouTube. Shozu also allows you to back up your contacts online. So, if you get a new handset, all you need to do is install Shozu and download your contacts to your new phone. Simple and straight forward. You need to set up a Shozu account online, at www.shozu.com. Enter which phone you have and your mobile number and you will receive a text message with a link to download the application.

And an honorary mention goes to Sky By Mobile. This application would have definitely been in our top 5, if it were freely available. But SKY, in their wisdom, claim that the application is only compatible with a small selection of phones. My own personal usage shows this to be different, I’ve used it on every phone I’ve had over the last two years. SBM is an excellent application that allows you to view a SKY TV Guide screen layout. You can access the latest news, weather, sports scores and results, and most impressively if you have SKY+ you can set the box to record a program, from your handset. If you are out with friends and you forgot to set the box to record your favourite program, with SBM this is no longer an issue. Login, select the program and set it to record. Come on SKY, get your fingers out and make this app more available to all.