By Lim Yee Hung

BESIDES Web browsing and handling e-mail, smartphones can be loaded with third-party applications that can do nifty things. This is how to make full use of the processing power in your pocket.

Make cheap VoIP calls

Call overseas with cheap rates using third-party apps such as fring, which supports Windows Mobile, Symbian and iPhone platforms. You need to have a Skype account though: What fring does is allow you to sign into your Skype account on your phone and make SkypeOut calls.

Using fring is free but you will need to buy Skype credits to make the calls.

For BlackBerry users, there are similar third-party apps such as Truphone, which uses its own in-house system to route your calls through VoIP, but charges more than Skype. You can send texts through VoIP as well.