Originally an Indiegogo project, Shoulderpod has just released its first product, the S1, and I've been testing it with my Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020. It's a combined stabiliser/grip/mount - it's fabulously constructed and it works really well. Here's to better smartphone-shot video (and, of course, you might find my tutorial helpful!)
The concept of a portable power bank/emergency charger isn't new, of course, especially in these days of smartphones with sealed batteries, for which the only emergency option is usually to plug something in via microUSB. The Lumsing 10400mAh option is new and reviewed here - build quality is excellent and - I contend - the value for money utterly unrivalled.
When launched a few months ago, we described the WP8.1-running Lumia 630 as 'the high point of the low end' in terms of positioning. As pricing is turning out in the UK, it's now available from under £10 a month on contract and under £100 on pay-as-you-go, making the 630 a firm contender for a budget/first smartphone and following on from last year's 520 and 620. It's solid, it's extremely functional and most (though not all) of the compromises needed to get down to this price seem to have been justified.
As a (not very good, but I do try) musician myself, I tend to get a little dismissive of novelty applications that claim to help non-musicians compose tracks, but Trap Pad is sufficiently focussed on assembling and overlaying samples that it's strictly for either 'ideas' or 'fun' use - at which point it's much easier to relax and just enjoy the possibilities.
Following on from what can presumably be regarded as a successful release of Frozen Free Fall (reviewed here on AAWP), Disney's mobile games department has released the game of the film with 'Maleficent Free Fall'. The film itself is a live-action reworking of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of the protagonist. As for the game... well, when two-thirds of your title match, is it any surprise that this is the same game?
Any fast-paced puzzle game is going to be welcomed on my Windows Phone, so the news that Beautiful Mind Games has released another game which mixes some classic puzzle genres to great effect made my weekend. Here's why.
There's nothing like a good superhero game making it into a gamer's hands. That moment when you download GameLoft's Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a wonderful high. Enjoy it, because it goes rapidly downhill after that point and there's no caped crusader to swoop in and save you (even if we could mix up the franchises).
Billed as the first proper video editor for Windows Phone, Movie Maker 8.1 has iterated rapidly and, with the current version, now seemed fully featured enough to warrant using it for real and attempting a full review. Summary? It's more capable than you might think, but there are still rough edges - it's well worth snapping up even now, but expect another month or so of development before it's finally 'done'.
Fans of quick action word games will already know that the sequel to Wordament is here. Snap Attack brings the same simultaneous global challenge to a Scrabble-like random board for word building fun. For everyone else, Snap Attack is slick, engrossing, but perhaps a little bit harder than the original.
Would you like to build a castle? There are some ruins in play, but you need to drop the blocks from the top of the screen as the Castle Inspector demands you create the perfect construction. This Xbox Live title (that's right, Xbox Live isn't dead) is an attractive game that is entertaining with little of the freemium frustration the cynic would expect.
