Ewan Spence
Ewan has been working in the smartphone market long before they were even called smartphones. Covering the early Psion, Palm and Windows Pocket PC machines first in Technical Support, then as a developer and publisher, and finally as a reporter he has been one of the more outspoken and long serving members of the All About family. When not working on the All About sites, Ewan produces a variety of entertainment-based podcasts and writes in his personal blog.
You can contact him at ewanspence@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at the admirably short @ewan or on Google+.
Recent Content by Ewan
Will Windows Phone's killer game be a glance and go affair?
As I look through the games under my Xbox Live title, I can see a variety of styles of games. There are incredibly detailed and complicated titles like Infinite Flight (reviewed here by Steve, our other Flight Sim nut), there are the long and involved strategy games like Plants vs Zombies (my review is here) or Fusion: Sentient (review), or the quirky fun of Katamari (in our App directory). But the games that I keep coming back to on my handset are the casual games. Certainly, for me, the games that are working well on Windows Phone are the same games that follow the design philosophy of the platform. Glance and Go works for Live Tiles, and it appears Glance and Game is also working.
Review: Blocked In
Sometimes all you need to do to keep people coming back to your Windows Phone game is to implement all the basics really well, add in a touch of consistent design, and let the original concept of the game shine through. That's what Sour Green Plums has done with its puzzle game Blocked In.
Review: Bullet Asylum (Xbox Live)
Another week, another Xbox Live title, and another review. I'm really glad that Microsoft has picked up on the idea of regularity and "appointment apps". I'm less impressed with Bullet Asylum, a modern reworking of Missile Command. It looks wonderful, and I was itching to play it. The truth, unfortunately, is that one big problem gets in the way of making this a title I could recommend.
Review: Descent
There's a certain delight in going far too fast, even in a simple smartphone game. Descent (no, not that one) brings you that 'past the red line' experience to Windows Phone, asking you to zoom through a never ending tunnel peppered with obstacles, fuel, and power-ups. Stripped down to the basics, this is an impressive little graphical tour de force for Windows Phone. And it's fun as well.
Review: 8tracks
Every smartphone platform has its star applications, the big names that everyone looks for. On the music side of Windows Phone, you'd have to put Spotify on that A-list, and there's a strong argument for Last.FM to be included (if Pandora ever makes it, it can go straight in as well). But many times it's in the B-list that you find the applications that people take to their hearts and defend with a passion. That's where you'll find 8tracks.
Review: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Xbox Live)
If you're looking for accuracy, realistic car physics, and a relationship between the driver, car, and road... you won't find it in the Need for Speed series of games. You will find lots of arcade action, glorious graphics, and a cinematical flair in the presentation of this arcade franchise. That heady mix has driven Need for Speed to success over multiple gaming platforms. And now Xbox Live brings the Cops 'n' Robbers styled Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Review: InTheKnow (Google Analytics Client)
For many online publishers, the key to everything is data. If you have good data, then you can learn from it and improve your content. Throw in the current fascination for real-time engagement and stories that can go from breaking news to yesterdays musings in under an hour, and you'll see that access to your website statistics on your smartphone might be a very good idea. Which is when Doug Rathbone's Google Analytics client for Windows Phone, InTheKnow, becomes very useful.
Review: Baconit (Reddit Client)
It's fair to say that Reddit has made itself part of the fabric of the Internet for many people. The user driven site (which is barely a "social network" but honestly all the better for it) allows people to post links to stories and pages around the site, discuss the stories, and vote them up or down depending on what they think of them. And now Baconit will bring all those links to your Windows Phone... and more.
Review: Wordfeud
And so the next big name in the 'not quite Scrabble genre' arrives on Windows Phone. In term of broad strokes, there's little difference between this title and Words by Post (reviewed here). Both titles are played on a board that's an adaption of the Scrabble standard, with more bonus squares in better positions for high scores and combinations; both games allow local play but are stronger when playing friends or random opponents no matter where they are in the world, on a turn by turn basis; and both have subtle hooks into your social networks. But which is better?
Review: WizTiles
No matter how minimal and stylish Metro UI can be (and I know that's a discussion piece that could open up a huge amount of debate), there are always people ready to bend it as much as they can without breaking it. Those live tiles just call out to be edited, tweaked, spun, photo-shopped, pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, or numbered. But without some help that's not an easy task for the regular user. And as if on cue, over the horizon comes WizTiles.