I have a dream. A dream where my smartphone is my computer, my work horse. Within 10 seconds and almost zero preparation I want it to deliver me a big screened, QWERTY keyboarded experience. Continuum is one way to go, but we don't yet have the HP Lap Dock, plus that's going to be quite expensive and heavy/bulky, i.e. it won't fit in any pocket. The ZAGG Pocket Keyboard does, it's £60 (or less) and I'm writing this review on it. In my car, while waiting for family, with almost no preparation needed.
The concept of 'casting' content from phone to TV or other media player isn't new, of course. We've had screen sharing and DLNA and so forth for a while, on all platforms and all devices, though sprinkled with rather a lot of compatibility issues. Playcast is a UWP application for Windows 10 Mobile that attempts to bring sense into the world of casting whether it's to a Miracast-capable TV or to a Google Chromecast accessory, presenting your own media to the destination player in a sensible and hopefully glitch-free fashion.
Charging your smartphone in the car has always been something of a necessity, especially on long journeys, where the phone may also be a music or podcast player and a sat-nav. And with the new breed of current-hungry USB Type C phones - think Lumia 950 and 950 XL, what's needed is something that's both jack compatible and also capable of supplying enough power. Enter the latest lteration of the Tronsmart car charger - with both 3A Type C output and a generic Quick Charge 3.0 Type A socket.
Back in the mists of time there was Pool Arena Online for Windows Phone - but times (and OSes) change and we're now in a Windows 10 (Mobile) world. The developer has reimagined the game as a UWP (Universal Windows Program) for both phone and laptop (etc), plus it has been expanded massively to include darts and (for now) a board game too. It's early days (how many times have I said that about such a title?) for what is potentially a large multi-player gaming system, but I do have a fondness for its ambitions.
Although still, technically, in beta, Grover Pro was the most recommended title in my recent call for suggestions for podcatchers which work well with Windows 10 Mobile. And the AAWP community was right - Grover Pro is a terrific solution and gets closest of any of the apps I've tried so far to being a reliable, all-in-one solution. And, happily, a true UWP, working on Continuum too.
I seem to be hooked on tower defense games at the moment - or maybe there are just some excellent examples coming on stream. 'REDCON - Strike Commander' is something slightly off the wall, in that it doesn't look like a tower defense title - but it is at heart, it's just presented differently. And rather wonderfully - I've never seen such superlative animation and atmosphere in a mobile game. Ever. REDCON is also available for Windows 10 on the tablet/desktop, but here I was trying it out on a Lumia phone.
Tower defense is now a game genre in its own right - the combination of strategy, arcade action and combat has proved very popular. And Digfender is an astoundingly good example of the breed, here lovingly crafted for Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile by Mugshot Games. The graphics are just right, the gameplay honed to perfection and even the freemium stays well within reasonable bounds. Highly recommended.
Desktop docks are sometihng of a love 'em or hate 'em thing, but when they work well, they work very well. And thankfully this new Kidigi accessory is in the latter camp. Aside from the use of plastics rather than metal, this is a beautifully thought out USB Type C accessory that adjusts to any smartphone, cased or uncased, with perfect solidity. In this case, to my Lumia 950 and 950 XL.
The search for a really good syncable encrpyted database and password manager is one that's close to many of our hearts. And there's a new contender, OneLocker, 'built for Windows 10', meaning that it's fine on both laptop and also Windows 10 Mobile-running smartphones, syncing through to OneDrive or Dropbox. There are a few caveats, but this still seems like a viable and mature solution, at least if you're building this up for yourself from scratch.
If the Windows 10 Store was any good, it would have all the charts and filters that let users find out about great new applications and games, in an intelligently curated way. And, in truth, the Store is getting better. Very, very slowly. In the meantime, applications like AppRaisin here have risen up to take on the discoverability challenge, helped by being fed from the wide network of developers using the AdDuplex system to monetise their free apps and games. AppRaisin ends up being well coded, as you'd expect, and always interesting, though never definitive.
