Yes, you read the title right, PWAs - Progressive Web Applications - are now a bona fide way of gaining new apps under Windows 10 Mobile. I have several examples, but I'll start with Flipboard. With the withdrawal of the old WP8.1 app last Autumn, the PWA provides an almost identical experience and will work on any device that runs a modern web browser (such as Edge).
Guest writer Lloyd Moritz brings us a review of Nimbus Note UWP, a worthy replacement under Windows 10 (including Mobile) for the likes of Evernote. He reports on the background for the app's existence, how it works in practice, and tips on getting your data from Evernote itself.
I know, I know, Sygic GPS Navigation is something I'd been meaning to review for years here on AAWP*, but it never quite worked right, despite multiple attempts. Yet the continued failure of Microsoft to offer real time traffic avoidance in Windows 10 Maps, added to the 'old' maps used (I'm still chasing that one down), led me to experimenting with Sygic all over again. And... it's a story of brickbats and bouquets. The latter because it's a first class navigation solution, the former because it's not 100% stable and because it too has old (2016) maps.
Who doesn't love a good physics-based arcade game? From Angry Birds right up to this, Heart Box, recently massively updated for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile (as well as other platforms) - it's unashamedly garish and brash, yet with new physics elements introduced steadily through the 160 levels - so you never get bored, only challenged.
When did applications start putting 'review-like' text in their title? Must be a new trend... In any case, 'Vime - 'Ultimate Vimeo Client' (I'm just going to call it 'Vime'!) is a cracking UWP application that delivers Vimeo into your Windows 10 Phone far more effectively - and beautifully - than just using the Edge browser.
First impressions can be deceptive. Animotica opens to a HTML front end and the fear is that this is an online editing service with a wrapper of some kind for Windows 10. However, there's also a proper editing UI and a great many trimming/merging/enhancement functions that can be applied successfully to both local and (e.g.) OneDrive-hosted photos and videos.
Unbelievably, we don't seem to have reviewed this secure database (i.e. secret stuff manager) system before on AAWP. Even in the days of the WP8.1 version. And at some point a Windows 10 UWP version was released... and we still didn't review it. Partly the developers' fault for not, you know, contacting us - ever, but we should have spotted it anyway. Making up for lost time, here's a look at the latest generation of this massively sophisticated personal security tool.
I have a confession to make - the 'finally!' in the title refers to my logistics, not to the application or its developer. 'ini Reader' has been a Windows Phone 8.1 application for years, letting users browse their Feedly aggregated news, and some time (cough - over a year) ago it got a big Windows 10 UWP rewrite. And it sat in my to-do list ever since. But I'm making that right with a review now.
It's a fair cop - MapFactor GPS Navigator isn't new and is in fact a Windows Phone 8.1 application. But - interestingly - it uses bang up to date OSM (Open Street Map) err.... maps. Which, as I ranted recently, doesn't apply to Windows 10 Maps, which are missing recent roads. So is this worth using instead?
We've all seen 'short' URLs, and there are dozens of services which create them, but Short.y is a new UWP utility that lets you create short links on your Windows 10 phone/tablet/laptop, either manually or via 'Share'. As a bonus, it safely inspects where short links you've been sent actually point to. A top notch addition to any Windows 10 device.
