PDA software sites offer a mix of freeware, shareware, and commercial software in their lineups. To unearth the free stuff, typically you can browse categories of software and sort the list by price; on some sites, you'll find a navigation link that whisks you straight to the freeware.

PalmGear.com: This is by far the most comprehensive software download site for handhelds that run the PalmOS. Its StreamLync2 freeware tool lets you click a special link that automatically downloads the file and then installs it onto your Palm (when the PDA is connected, of course).

FreewarePalm and FreewarePPC: These related sites offer 24 categories of PalmOS and Pocket PC/Windows Mobile PDA freeware. You won't find a tremendous variety of software here, but the stripped-down interface will appeal to the utilitarian downloader.

Tucows: This PC-ware download site has a library for handhelds, including PDAs based on the PalmOS, Pocket PC/Windows Mobile (sometimes referred to on the site by its original name, Windows CE), EPOC 32, and the RIM BlackBerry OS. Sort on the License column to find the freeware.

PDA Archives: Have an older PalmPilot, a Windows CE handheld, a Psion, or even an Apple Newton PDA? If you do, you probably have trouble locating software that will run on these bygone platforms. PDA Archives still has software that runs on older PDAs--cool stuff you can no longer dig up anywhere else.

Handango: There's no easy way to find all the freeware on this site (and some categories don't list any freeware), but an advanced search will bring up a category of downloads for a particular operating system: Besides Palm and Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, Handango offers downloads for handhelds running the BlackBerry, Symbian, Java, and Windows Mobile Smartphone operating systems. You can then sort the downloads by price to find the free stuff.

--Andrew Brandt

¶ 5:16 AM