We've seen this style of mobile application before, of course, on most mobile platforms - overlaying weather information onto a photo showing what you see, but InstaWeather Pro seems to have taken on the mantle of front-runner, by virtue of the quality and number of graphical skins available. Given the overlap between smartphone nuts and weather geeks, I'd expect more than a little interest here too...
You'll remember that I recently went on a quest to find a source of the in-ear, stereo 4-pole headphones that ship with the best Lumia handsets? I came up trumps, with the replacements costing only around £6, but the quest itself made me aware of how generally unsatisfied I was with the audio quality at this end of the headset market. Hence this review, taking the next rung up the quality ladder with the new ROCK JAW Arcana v2 - with good results.
Personal money management applications. I know them well. I even wrote the manual for one of the world's best, back in late 1990's. I've reviewed many since then and yet, despite having four separate accounts, I've never - to this day - ever managed to get to grips with using an application to help me keep things tallied up. Can Monetal on Windows Phone help? Not really - but it's a polished attempt.
You'll recall that the world of Windows Phone podcatchers is a little crowded? My own round-up ran to about 5000 words and had to be split into two parts! Well, we now have yet another challenger, in Podcast+ Pro, currently free (though claimed to revert to commercial at some point) - it learns a lot of tricks from other clients, adds a few UI twists of its own and largely manages to get close to the top of the pile.
One of the peculiarities of the Windows Phone lockscreen system is that you can only really have one set of overlaid details (e.g. weather or social or Bing image, etc.) at a time. In other words, you have to choose. Awesome Lock mainly takes away that pain by providing multiple data sources within its own custom lockscreen environment. It's a trifle garish at times in terms of set-up, but it does work and you can see why this has become many people's default lockscreen on the platform.
It would be slightly unfair to lambast Perfect Shift as a cynical money making opportunity for the developers - this is actually what it is, of course, but it's lovingly and glossily done, and with a fair jolt of adrenaline for the player along the way. Would I prefer to see a Riptide-style commercial/freemium hybrid? Absolutely, but don't dismiss Perfect Shift completely because it's completely free up front...
It's sleek, it's colourful, it's cheap, and it doesn't come from Nokia or Microsoft - it's the Yezz Billy 4.7, in hand at AAWP Towers. I've been looking at it in detail and it's stunningly thin and light. In terms of functionality and performance it's - in theory - exactly halfway between the Lumia 535 and 735, I'd say. Which would put it in pretty good company, were it not for the unforgiveable lack of attention by Yezz to the finer details of getting going with a new (to the company) operating system...
Guest writer Mayuri Mehrotra had been looking for a Windows Phone DLNA server app for all her media... and finally there is one – Linada Share. A DLNA server app basically allows your phone’s media to be accessed by other UPnP/DLNA clients, with a common WiFi connection. When Mayuri had come across this app earlier, it allowed access only to photos, but now music and videos are accessible too. warranting a proper review here on AAWP.
It comes to something when the worst things I can say about the brand new Microsoft Lumia 535 are that the colour and finish on the case plastic are not to my taste. Glossy orange would not be high up my personal wish list. However, away from that factor, it's hard to argue against the balance of budget components and features in the 535 - it's finely pitched to impress as much as possible for as low a price as possible and, in that regard, succeeds.
It's a fair cop - I'm whiling away the time to Christmas and Lumia Denim/Camera 5 arriving by play-testing the latest games for Windows Phone. But then the chances are that you're on a bit of a wind down to the holidays too, so why not have a crack at a game? Mini Golf Club is somewhat minimalist and, by default, ad-strewn, but zap these with an in-app purchase and you've got six 9-hole courses of gradually increasing crazy golf intensity...
