Photos: Windows Phone 7 - apps for office workers
Apps to network, store passwords, view PDFs, read offline, take notes and straighten your tie...
Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is Microsoft's newest smartphone OS - an attempt to reinvigorate its mobile strategy after years of struggling with Windows Mobile. A raft of WP7 handsets hit the market last autumn and since then the number of apps in Microsoft's Marketplace has been growing steadily, with more than 5,000 now available.
Games and entertainment apps lead the charge but dig into the business and productivity categories on Marketplace and you'll also find plenty of office-friendly fare. Here we round up 20 business-friendly apps for WP7...
App: Passwords by Thomas Gerber
Price: £1.99
Too many passwords to remember? The Passwords app for WP7 devices lets you store, categorise and even generate new passwords - protecting your password cache with a master password.
App: Call Groups by Dr Know, LLC
Price: 79p
Get one-touch access to your most frequently used contacts with the Call Groups app. The app lets you create and manage call groups - such as Work and Family - presenting the data using a layout "similar to the iPhone." Group texts can also be sent via the app.
App: Note2Self by DAGR8
Price: 79p
Make notes of ideas and tasks using your handset and email them to yourself - or an assistant - for later use.
App: Ontrack Time Tracker by Qmino
Price: £2.49
Track how much time you spend on individual tasks and projects using the Ontrack app. The app lets you add tasks and organise them into projects. Tap on an individual task to start timing or add in how much time you spent working on it manually. Data can be exported to Excel via CSV. The app also keeps a log of all your tasks and projects so you can get a historical overview of tasks on particular days, weeks, months, years and projects, as shown above.
App: Adobe Reader by Adobe Systems
Price: Free
Office workers may dream of a PDF-less world but in the meantime there is the Adobe Reader app - letting WP7 owners view and interact with PDFs, all from their handsets.
App: Kickbox: A Dropbox client for Windows Phone 7 by Exebeche
Price: £3.49
Get access to cloud storage service Dropbox on your WP7 device using the Kickbox app. Kickbox lets you log in to your Dropbox account and view stored documents, images and media files. Office documents can be opened in the WP7 Office Hub, while text files can be viewed in Kickbox. File uploads are currently limited to photos, owing to WP7 restrictions.
App: Presenter by Virtual Remote
Price: £2.49
Turn your handset into a PowerPoint remote control using the Presenter app. The app works in conjunction with virtual remote desktop software. Features include an on-screen timer and readable thumbnails of the presentation.
App: InstaFetch by ImmSoft
Price: £2.49
The InstaFetch app lets you save web pages for reading offline when you have more time - or less connectivity.
App: Link Me In by Starznet
Price: Free
LinkedIn users can view their account and send messages to contacts with the Link Me In app.
App: Seesmic by Seesmic
Price: Free
Meanwhile, Twitter and Facebook lovers can get their social networking fix and keep up to date with contacts using the Seesmic app, which includes support for multiple Twitter accounts.
App: Tie a Neck Tie by Blue Flame
Price: 79p
Always getting your other half to tie your tie? Help is at hand with the Tie a Neck Tie app, which offers step-by-step instructions on how to tie a proper Windsor or Half Windsor.
App: Parcel Tracker by Sebastian Kralemann
Price: 99p
Track the delivery status of parcels with the Parcel Tracker app. Delivery services supported include DHL, FedEx, Royal Mail and UPS.
App: Vibrate Clock by Jim Owen
Price: 79p
Keep track of time in meetings without having to sneak a glance at your watch. The Vibrate Clock app uses a series of buzzes to ensure you can tell the time without taking your handset out of your pocket.
App: Phonealytics by Lukencode
Price: £2.49
Keep track of website traffic stats using this Phonealytics Google Analytics client. The app lets you view charts and graphs on the handset and configure a live tile for display on the homescreen.
App: Vocabulator by E22PII
Price: £2.49
Beef up your vocabulary using the Vocabulator app, which includes pictures with word definitions to make it easier to memorise new words.
App: Translate IT by Christoph Hofmann
Price: 79p
Get help with foreign words, sentences and paragraphs with the Translate IT app - which includes support for Chinese, French, Italian and Spanish, to name a few.
App: World Clockr by Speedymarks
Price: 79p
Keep track of multiple timezones using the World Clockr app, which lets you display a collection of digital clocks for different locations around the world.
App: Percentages by Paul Chatwin
Price: 79p
The Percentages app includes eight percentage formulas to make calculating part values, percentage increases and decreases and other percentage-based calculations a fraction easier.
App: Date Calculator by App Sizzle
Price: 79p
Need to work out when particular projects will start and end? This app lets you count days or weeks between a set of dates and add or subtract days and weeks to or from a date to find the resulting day.
App: Currency Tile by Stiml
Price: 79p
Tool for converting currency with support for 150 currencies. The app includes a Live Tile feature - letting you display automatically updating exchange rates for a select few currencies on your homescreen.