Creating applications for each mobile platform is a pain. Which is why many developers take shortcuts. They write shells around their mobile web site, they take the iPhone version and bastardise the code to run on another platform, sometimes not even taking the time to resize graphics and resources as needed. The Rightmove Group did none of those - they went the extra mile to create a Windows Phone application from scratch, taking full advantage of the strengths of the platform in terms of user interface navigation. Rightmove is a superb example of a Windows Phone application 'done right' and comes highly recommended.
It's a screen that we all see every day, but many developers have their eye on the Lock Screen with a view to making it even more useful. XAP Studios' vision is packaged up in Lock Manager, offering you wallpaper choices and personal data to be shown when you hit the power button.
NewsSpot is an RSS-based application that offers you content from your favourite website, letting you know what you have read, what you still have to read, and allowing you to share those stories with friends, the social web, and other online services. There's still a need for a solid RSS reader in 2013, can NewsSpot fill that gap?
10tons undertook a little gaming spree at the start of the year with a number of new titles for Windows Phone. They've surfaced again with a new title, following up on the success of the puzzle game Joining Hands.
Get a business card, wave your smartphone's camera over it, and have all the contact info digitised and available on your phone. That's the promise of CamCard, and it gets pretty close to achieving it.
Take on the forces of capitalism, mix it with a love of building new things, and graft on a simple freemium gaming mechanic to allow in-app purchasing. Basic ingredients that in the wrong quantities can doom a sim-style game. Thankfully, this title misses most of the pitfalls of the genre, and makes some smart design decisions on how to address 'snacking' mobile gameplay to bring you 'My Country', one of the better games I've seen in this genre.
Finally arriving on Windows Phone 8 is Square Enix's mobile RPG smash, Chaos Ring. Already an established property on other platforms, how well has it made the jump to Microsoft's platform? Pretty well, is the answer, and I think a lot of RPG'ers are going to enjoy this one, although their wallet will be a lot lighter as a result!
You can't really fail in your game when it comes to Zombies - it's the ultimate survival situation, there's very little description or story needed beyond 'OMG Zombies!' and you have a huge range of tropes and clichés that will be expected. But if you're a Bristol-based game developer called Chris Roberts, then you look at the genre zombie and decide that what the gaming genre really needs is... a collectible card game.
TuneIn Radio is an American service that allows you to stream audio from around the world. Primarily set up to allow you to listen to international streaming radio, it also allows for some podcasting and fixed audio programming to be played in the interface. If you're looking to listen in on a station from anywhere outside the transmission range, this is the app for you.
Some words for the weekend? Only if you're ready to challenge your friends to find the most words! As the summer continues to shine down, let's take a closer look at Ruzzle, the multi-platform wordsearch game from Sweden's Mobile Access Group.
