WapReview

A self described "App Store for the 3 Billion Users Who Don't Have an iPhone", GetJar is the largest and one of the oldest (since 2004) off-portal download sites for free java and native mobile games and applications. Getjar's catalog contains 10,000 plus titles and the site delivers over 16 million downloads per month worldwide. And according to MocoNews, GetJar recently started working with carriers to provide the GetJar experience on-deck as well. Getjar has already signed up 10 carriers including 3 UK.

There's a full web version (Getjar.com) with a searchable and browasable directory of games and applications. Listings can be filtered to exclude apps not compatible with your device. Listings include a screenshot, description and user reviews and ratings. Files can be downloaded to your PC for side loading. Or you can make note of a five digit "download code" that can be entered on the mobile site for a direct to mobile download.

The mobile version of the site has a mobile formatted version of the same searchable, categorized directory of apps and individual pages for each app with descriptions and ratings but no screenshots.

Downloads are free, the applications and games are mostly freeware or ad supported but some are trials and demos. The type of each download (free full version, free ad-supported or trial/demo) is clearly indicated in each listing.

Freeware, ad-supported and demo game and app downloads from Mobilerated, one of the largest distributors of legal free games on the web.

Opera Software's mobile app store supports  Android, BlackBerry, Java, Symbian and legacy Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices and includes both free and paid apps. When I tried it the only payment option available was by credit card.

Opera is promoting the Mobile Store in Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, where it's linked to from the browser's Speed Dial launch screen. However the store works in virtually any mobile or desktop browser.

I tried the Opera Mobile Store in Opera Mini on a Motorola i1 (Android), Nokia N8 (Symbian^3) and Motorola Rambler WX400 (a low-end Java feature phone). The webapp correctly identified the i1 and N8. With the WX400, I had to pick a phone manufacturer and model. The WX400 was listed but took a lot of scrolling to find in a long alphabetical list of models.

App discovery in the Mobile Store leaves a lot to be desired. The site search often returns completely irrelevant results. For example, a search for "file manager" brought up several personal financial apps, a web browser, two password managers and a music player, but no file managers. Searches for specific apps by name worked better.

You can also browse the catalog, which is divided into categories like Tools, Internet and Calculators and also has Top Paid, Top Free and Featured groupings. The categories are quite broad, all games are lumped into a single category, for example. A number of apps are miscategorized with aberrations like the Calculators category which lists several games but no actual calculators on the first page of results.

 

After experiencing a lot of frustration with Java ME download sites, I created BoostApps, a free mobile Java app store for non-smartphones.

BoostApps is a desktop and mobile web download site that doesn't try to second guess the user. Unlike most other download sites, it lets you download both jad and jar files using any browser on any phone or with a PC for side loading. All the downloads are freeware or ad-supported and include essentials like Opera Mini, Gmail and Google Maps. There are also a lots of games and all sorts of useful apps including instant messengers, browsers, email clients, clocks, file managers, eBook readers and calculators.

Downloads are organized into categories and both the mobile and desktop versions of site have a powerful and easy to use Google powered site search built in.

All games anmd apps on BoostApps are tested and checked for malware. App listings include whether the app is freeware or ad-supported, how big it is and whether it uses potentially costly data. There's a link to the original author or publisher's website if one exists.

Download free ad-supported Java games. Similar to GameJump (review) it has many of the same games. Download is via the WAP site, direct to your PC for side-loading or sent as a link in an SMS. HOVR differentiates itself from GameJump by having more of a social element. Members each get a personal page called Mobile Space, where the games you've downloaded and your high scores are displayed. Your can set up a detailed Mobile Space profile with your picture and exchange messages with other Hovr users. In spite of the name, Mobile Spaces are not available in a mobile version, only as a full PC site. Full registration requires giving up a mobile number but you can use a phony one if you're the cautious type like me.

Phoload is a new JAVA ME "App Store" along the lines of GetJar.com. In fact, it's organized very similarly to GetJar. There's a full web version (phoload.com) with a categorized, searchable directory of games and applications that can be filtered to only include apps compatible with your device. Applications and game listings include a screenshot, description and user reviews and ratings. All files can be downloaded to your PC for side loading. Or you can make note of a six digit "download code" and enter it on the mobile site for a direct to mobile download. Registered users can also add titles to a "Quick Download List" which makes them appear on the mobile site's front page.

All downloads are free, the applications and games themselves are mostly freeware or ad supported but some are trials and demos. The type of each download (free full version, free ad-supported or trial/demo) is clearly indicated in each listing on Phoload.

The mobile version of the site (m.phoload.com) has a mobile formatted version of the same searchable, categorized directory of apps and individual pages for each app with screenshot, description and rating. There is also download by code feature and, for registered users, their "Quick Download List", a "vault" containing applications and games they have tagged on the full web site.

I like Phoload, the site is nicely designed, has a Ready.mobi score of four and good mobile usability. Phoload competes directly with GetJar, a site with almost identical features (everything except the"Quick Download List") and usability and probably 10 times the content. I don't think I'd choose Phoload over Getjar if I was looking for something specific, but for browsing Phoload has hundreds of interesting games and applications to choose from.

Mobango is a very popular mobile file sharing site. After registering at the PC site mobango.com, you can upload ringtones, wallpapers, videos and java apps from your PC to Mobango and them download then to your phone from the Mobango mobile site wap.mobango.com. When you upload a file you can flag it as either public or private. Any register user can download public file which currently number over 200,000. The file size limit is a relatively generous 10 MB per file. There is minimal help on Mobango's PC site and none on the mobile site. The site is pretty easy to figure out though. Here are a few tips, you can't immediately download the files you have uploaded. Uploaded files end up inyour "My Mobile Files" area on the PC site and you have to transfer them to your "Locker" before they can be downloaded. You can also browse and search files on the PC site and send any you find to your locker.

Mobango has a social aspect too, you can search for users by age, sex, country and make and model of phone. Members can exchange messages and files through both the PC and mobile Mobango sites.

Most Mobango services are free. I did get prompted to buy credits when I tried to add a 2.5 MB video to my locker. I could buy various quantities of credit from $2 up. There was no explanation how much credit was needed to transfer the file in question. I had no trouble transfering files up to 2MB in size and latter after I uploaded more files I was able to move the 2.5 MB file to my locker for free. So maybe you can earn credits by uploading.

Mobango can convert some content to mobile format. There is a simple online image editor which allows you to resize crop and add effects to uploaded images. The site also claims to be able to convert non-mobile video formats to .3gp. I tried converting a 2 MB .avi but conversion failed. Mobango claimed that the original file was corrupt even though it played without error in the embedded player on Mobang's PC site.

All sites hosting user submitted content have a problem with users sharing copyrighted material and Mobango is no exception. Each time a user uploads a file Mobango requires the user to check a box asserting that the file is their's to share legally. I'm sure they respond to take down orders as well. Manually checking 200,000 files is impossible and even YouTube hasn't ye been able to do programmatically. I don't know what the answer is to intellectual property issues on file sharing sites. Sharing content you have created is great, sharing the hard work and livelihood of musicians and software developers is not. I hate DRM and the heavy handed approach of the RIAA, etc but just asking people not to post or download copyrighted material isn't going to work. What do you think? Comments please.

For more on Mobango, see Oliver's review at MobileCrunch.

A (mostly) free, add supported ringtone, game, video and wallpaper download site. Myxer lets you upload your own music, videos and images.  The site transcodes your content to mobile format and makes it available on your phone by direct download, SMS or MMS.  Myxer also has a sizable catalog of free content as well as some premium ringtones delivered by SMS for a one time charge

Myxer seems to have it's origins in 3G Upload, a free download site for Sprint PCS users which dates back to the early days of the mobile web. 3G Upload morphed into Mixxer and was later renamed 3Guppies with support all carriers. 3Guppies still offered some free downloads but most ringtones were via a subscription service which cost between $8 and $14 every 6 months. In 2008, 3Guppies became Myxer which is a non-subscription service.

 

Nokia Beta Labs which offers often useful, bleeding edge applications and services for Nokia phones finally has a mobile site.  It used to be a pain navigating the full version of Beta Labs with a mobile browser, even a capable one like the WebKit based browser on S60 3rd editon (and a couple of S40) models.  With the "Services" browser on mainstream Nokia handsets, forget about it!

The new mobile site is very complete and highly usable.  It has the Beta Labs Blog, Forums and a catalog of current, "archived" and "graduated" Beta Laps apps going back to 2007.  There are download links for all the active and most of the archived apps that have a mobile component.

On thing that's annoying though is the way that graduated mobile apps are presented on the Beta labs site.  There is plenty of information about them but no easy way to download them.  They should all be available from other Nokia channels - so why not include a link to the appropriate mobile friendly download page or tell me to use the Nokia Download application or whatever the drill is.

Other than the graduated apps problem this is a nicely done, easy to navigate and genuinely useful site. It looks like it was built in-house at Nokia rather than being handed off to a third party too. I hope the same team that created this site is involved with the soon to be released mobile web version (for S40 phones) of the Ovi store.

Steve Litchfield (The Phones Show, AAS) has sorted thru the cruft and spamware that infests all app stores, including the Ovi Nokia Store, to create this concise directory of worthwhile apps for Symbian 3rd ed and later phones.

The Ovi Store lets you download games, applications, ringtones and themes to your Nokia phone.

Downloading is quite easy for free applications.  You do have to log in, which seems unnecessary for free apps, but my existing Ovi ID and password worked, hooray for single sign in.  If you don’t have an account it’s possible to register on the mobile site.  Registering requires an email address and mobile number and there is a Captcha too, but it’s definitely doable. The download went smoothly.  I searched for ‘Flip” and FlipSilent was on the first results page.  Clicking the app name and on the next page, the download button started the download.  Couldn’t be simpler.

 

Paid applications run from $0.99 to at least $39.95.  Most ringtones seem to be $2.95 altogether some are an outrageous $4.95 and there are a couple of free ones including the “futuristic” Nokia tune from the new StarWars movie.  There doesn’t  seem to be any way to preview ringtones, even on the desktop site which is going to hurt sales badly I believe.  The only way to buy paid applications in the U.S. is by credit card.  Nokia handles mobile credit card purchases as well as possible with only name, card number, card expiration and CSC required. You can store your card details for future use too. It’s great that you don’t have to fill in your address like all the dumb hotel booking sites do.  I wonder why no PayPal option though?

Although most of the initial reviews of the Ovi store have been pretty negative, I like the mobile web version.  It’s well designed, easy to navigate, search works well and the download process is relatively free from roadblocks. There are a few things I’d like to see changed thorough.  For the Ovi Store to be a roaring success, Nokia needs to drop the log in requirement for free downloads,  eliminate mandatory signing for java apps except as required by standard platform security and make a real effort to get all popular applications in the store.

Full Review

Download DrJukka's Symbian applications and widgets direct to your phone. Jukka Silvennoinen, aka DrJukka, is a prolific developer of free Symbian smartphone applications. His best known apps are Y-Browser, a powerful file manager and Y-Tasks, an amazing collection of system utilities that includes a task manager, file association editor, crash monitor and a font viewer/manager. I've found both of these programs indispensable on my N95. 

DrJukka's mobile download site has Y-Browser and Y-Tasks plus several others including an inclinometer, profile and theme schedulers, a fake SMS sender and 50 JavaScript puzzles and games which DrJukka has ported to the Nokia WRT widget platform.

Except for the widgets all of DrJukka's applications on the mobile site are ad supported. If you can't take the ads, alternate unsigned, self signed or older ad free versions are available from DrJukka's desktop site.

A large (over 1000 files) collection of freeware, ad-supported and demo Java game downloads.

Game developer Wapfrog offers seven free Java games for download from their site. All the games let you save your scores online and compete with other players for the highest scores.

Mobile community and content sharing site emphasizing themes. Download free Nokia Sony Ericsson themes.

I want to follow up on yesterday's piece about IDT's acquisition of Zedge.net, a mobile social software (MoSoSo) site that slipped under my radar to become a market leader.

Initially, I was surprised at how little there is to Zedge's mobile (wml) site wap.zedge.net. All you can do there is download the files that you have added to your account from the PC site. There is no messaging, chat or ability to view another user profile or any social features at all on the mobile web site, although all those, except chat, are available on the PC site. With 3.5 million users and 400,000 shared mobile files Zedge obviously is popular. As I explored Zedge's PC site, I think I found a couple of keys to Zedge's success, trust and a focus on handset customization.

• Trust is fostered by Zedge not using SMS to deliver content, there's not even a place for a phone number in the user profile. This is reassuring to users who have been burned by or heard about "Free Ringtone" services that turned out to be premium SMS scams.

• By handset customization I don't mean hardware mods or firmware hacking, instead Zedge offers users ways to personalize their phones with, easy to install content that won't break the warranty like ringtones, wallpapers, themes and screensavers. To that end, there are menu driven, online logo, wallpaper and screensaver creators. There's a large, active forum with the busiest topics being phone specific help forums and theme making and unlocking. In terms of downloadable content, there are ringtones, images, themes, wallpapers and videos with the focus on themes. There are over 40,000 downloadable themes created by users for most of the models of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Windows Mobile phones that support themes. Many users use the forums to request a specific theme based on a photograph or web link.

Unlike most phone file sharing sites, Zedge doesn't offer sharing or download of mobile games and apps. I suspect that's because Zedge doesn't want to be seen as a "Warez" site. There are intellectual property issues around ring tones, too - but tones are more of a Grey area. Is a user created midi of a pop tune a copyright violation, if it was composed from memory without starting with a digital file or score? What about supporting fair use for users who already own the CD? On the other hand, having your site be a repository for the sharing of cracked games is just asking for trouble.

It's easy to see the appeal of Zedge. The content creation tools are quick, simple wizards that let even the most artistically challenged user create something that looks good. The moderated forums have are mostly flame free and have a pretty good signal to noise ratio compared to most forum sites. Even the minimalist mobile site makes sense especially for users on metered data plans. There is no data or time wasted searching, going through lengthy menus, etc, it's just connect, download, disconnect. I think IDT has picked up a winner, lets see what they do with it. Update: 10-Mar-2007: Zedge has a new and much improved mobile WAP2 (xhtml-mp)site. No longer limited to just downloading content you've queued on the PC site, the new version lets you browse and search Zedge's huge collection of wallpapers, themes, picture messages, ring tones and videos. The social aspect of Zedge is well supported too, you can finally access your inbox and guest book as well as message with your to your Zedge friends directly from the phone.

Download Opera Mini, the fast, free web browser for all Java capable phones.

Free ringtone, theme, music, video, wallpaper and game downloads.

Download the UC Browser, a fast, free, full-web mobile browser with many advanced features including tabbed browsing and copy/paste. Available in versions for Java ME, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile and jail-broken iPhones.

Mobile Java and Qt app developer Tommi Laukkanen's blog and download site. Read Tommi's thoughts on mobile development and download his apps which include the Twitter clients Twim (Java) and TwimGo (Symbian) and NewsFlow,  a new Google Reader client for Symbian and Maemo.

Firefox Coming To Your Phone! Mobile friendly download and information page for Firefox's Fennec browser for Windows Mobile Professional 6.0 and 6.5. Source: Oh! Mobile Directory

Free wallpaper, video, music and games downloads. Plus Cricket sacores!

Download site for PicoMail, a fast, full- featured and free POP/IMAP email application for Java (J2ME, MIDP 2.0) phones.

Mobile app (and webapp) search.  Find apps in the iTunes app store, Android Market or BlackBerry App World.  The iOS and BlackBerry results have links to the apps in iTunes or App World, but there are no download links for Android apps.  There's also a "Webapps" search, although many of the results turn out desktop websites.  Support for iPad, Windows Mobile and Nokia Ovi Store apps is "coming soon".

Mobile download site for the Albite Reader, a new open source Java ME eBook reader that supports books in the open ePub format. The reader works well on both touch and non-touch devices and is available in 5 versions ranging from 186 KB (tiny) to 908 KB (HD) to work on everything from basic feature phones to Symbian^3 devices.

Booster Media's Games Plaza has about 40 free ad-supported Flash Lite games for download in several languages.

A small collection of free downloadable videos, wallpapers and ad-supported and demo games and apps. Source Oh! Mobile Directory

If you are an astronomy buff or just want a beautiful wallpaper image for your phone. check out SpaceWallpapers (spacewallpapers.net/mobile/) for a nice collection of free mobile wallpaper images of celestial objects including planets, galaxies and nebula. There are over 70 to chose from. The images are high quality color photographs and are free to download directly to your phone or to a PC for sideloading to a phone. All the wallpapers are available in 176x220 and 240x320 sizes. The well designed mobile site has a small page size of 15 KB including images. Itshould load quickly and without errors on most phones. The site uses accesskeys (numeric hotkeys) - you can press 9 for next page or 0 to go to the home page, for example. You have to go to the Help page to find a list of the access keys, they aren't displayed of the pages where they are active, I'm not sure what the point of hiding them is.

Direct download of free MP3s and wallpapers from the latest Bollywood and other movies, Bangra songs and other music, wallpapers and  ringtones.

Free classical, novelty and folk mp3 ringtones. No registration, is required for this site, you can download without revealing your mobile number so no worries about premium SMS charges - and they have the theme from the Monty Python Show!

Download free Creative Commons licensed mobile audio books

Download the latest Tamil language music MP3s. Source Tappity

Mobile portal with a large selection of free mobile app, game, theme, video, wallpaper and ringtone downloads and a small mobile web directory.

Free mobile space and landscape wallpapers in 240x320, 320x480 (iPhone) and 480x640 sizes. Source: Oh! Mobile Directory

Download free ringtones, wallpapers and screensavers with your mobile browser. 

11-Mar-2014: "Coming soon..."

7-May-2014: "Please come back later."

Free Ringtones (wap.free-ringtones.ie ) This site claims to be the largest free ringtone site. I don't know if that's true but it does have 250,000 free ringtone downloads. No personal information or phone number is required to download from the mobile site or from the web site free-ringtones.ie for sideloading. Tones are in mp3 and amr formats. Both mobile and web sites are searchable and browsable by title or artist. The web site has tools and tutorials to help you create and load ringtones on your phone.

7-May-2014: Site is down