It's rare to find a Windows 10 UWP application that's this slick, this polished - I guess I'm coming to Realarm quite late, since it's been out for a while, but so many people had recommended it that I couldn't ignore it any longer. The delay also means that it's had plenty of time for updates. In use, I only encountered one tiny bug - everything else one might ever want in an alarm utility is present and correct and working. With sophisticated rules, puzzles to solve to prove you're awake(!), and syncing to OneDrive, Realarm is the real deal.
Part photo compositor, part meme/card creator, Pic Collage is an interesting Windows 10 application that works on both desktop and mobile, but has a few UI quirks on the latter. Outputting at under 2MP by default, the in-app-purchase here is to enable HD exporting of your creations, which seems sensible. Let's hope enough people do this to justify updates to its developer.
Heavy, metal, yet stylish, this is a new Type C power bank that's worth a look, with a few caveats. Its headline feature is that it supports Type C 'Power Delivery' (PD), of which the Lumia 950/XL are just the lowest supported rungs on a power ladder. The main use here is to have a power bank that not only supplies Type C smartphones at full capacity, but can also charge 'PD-compliant' laptops and mobile devices.
This is no hacked on front end for system music playback - Neutron is a reimagining of digital sound rendering on all Windows 10 devices - including Windows 10 Mobile here. From native EQ and DSP effects to crossfeed, stereo widening and compressions, from 64 bit dithering to a virtual preamp, Neutron is like no other music player you've ever used. Does it work? On the whole, though you'd have to be a serious audiophile to really appreciate what it's doing, plus there's a UI sting in the tail for some people.
Getting news/feed headlines on your Start screen has always been a case of information overload. A feed reader will cycle through dozens of stories from hundreds of sites. A news app will cycle through the top stories it thinks are most important. But what if you just want the top, breaking story on just one site? What if you have specialist needs? This is where the new RSS Live Tiles UWP app steps in for all Windows 10 phones, tablets, laptops, etc.
Even though both NFC 'info' tags and QR codes seem not to have really taken off in the mainstream after a decade of availability*, QR codes are still a 'thing' and most people recognise them when they see the four corner dots and mass of encoded characters within. And most phones can now recognise QR codes, even if - as here - an extra application is needed. There are quite a few QR code scanners under Windows 10 Mobile, but this is the first that I've seen that focusses (pun intended) more on QR code generation and what you might do with such a graphical construct.
I've featured PAWA UWP a lot here on AAWP over the last six months and that's now a cracking solution for massaging HTML5 web sites and PWA into Start screen-launchable and full-screen form. 'edgeTile' UWP takes a more hands-off approach, concentrating on putting shortcuts on your Start screen in a more customisable fashion but stopping short at packaging sites themselves. Hence you still end up, for web content, with URL bars on-screen, taking up room. The upside is that edgeTile is more flexible, allowing the launching of other resources, plus you can 'save' your creations, as needed.
There have, of course, been a number of third party clones of Apple's innovative (/crazy, depending on your own preferences!) Air Pods - the individual Bluetooth audio buds that charge in a little pocket case, that itself gets charged up occasionally. But this is the first I've tested, so here goes. Pros and cons, brickbats and bouquets, all here tested with a Lumia 950 XL, this being AAWP!
You've got to love a game which is smooth, fast, beautifully presented - and which helps you learn at the same time. As the title suggests, GeoQuiz UWP asks you to locate people, attractions, brands and sights on the Earth's surface. As accurately as possible, by dragging around a marker and zooming in as needed. There are over 300 things to locate here, with algorithms building in how you did in terms of location and time taken to do so - it's harder than it looks!
Blogging has moved on aways since Tumblr started (social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have taken up much of the slack), but it's still going strong, with quirky and niche content producers pumping out text and visual content. And, although there's no official Tumblr client for Windows 10, there are two UWP clients that work really well. One is 6tum UWP, featured here, but Ouga (also UWP) is bigger and more comprehensive. Get inspired, have a browse!
