How long does it take a gamer to realise that a freemium game is boring? Developers want this to be as long as possible, but unfortunately Gameloft's latest hack and build RPG title, Kingdoms & Lords, manages to be boring after about four minutes, and never improves. Which is never a good sign, but it gets worse.
In the future, when the world waits for the arrival of Charlton Heston, the apes will gather in arenas across the continents to play devilish games of strategy and skill to the death. Starting as a lowly chimp, will you be able to survive the games and advance in the rankings?
Sometimes the best laid plans go astray - I'd planned a group test of the various photo-to-sketch utilities for Windows Phone, but it soon became apparent that one was head and shoulders above the rest. Ignore the naming confusion ('Sketch') and head for the one by thumbmunkeys, reviewed here. The results are somewhat... stunning, as you'll see below.
There's probably a reason why Google shut its 'Reader' product down halfway through the year - the majority of normal people just don't need - or want - a RSS aggregator, something to trawl hundreds of web sites and gather 'new' things. They have social networks to alert them of cool happenings, news sites to browse through over breakfast, etc. However, the outcry from bloggers and journalists showed that this particular user niche used Google Reader extensively and the continuing search for a replacement has resulted in the take off of Feedly as a service and, in the absence of an official Feedly client for Windows Phone, a number of third party clients - including Phonly here.
If you're the sort of person who prefers creating collages manually rather than relying on the lazy man's 'auto' system then Diptic is for you. Tools on other platforms may compile auto-awesome, instant movies and collages, but Diptic on Windows Phone lets you create something of useable resolution and yet with full control. Perfect for sharing and even printing. It's true that the core concept itself is something of a gimmick, but it's a popular gimmick and Diptic is immaculately implemented. All the more impressive that this is essentially version 1. Recommended.
One of the delights of having an open application programming interface (API) to a web service is that, no matter what the original developers had in mind, a slew of re-interpretations, mad ideas, and useful tools will always pop up. Twitter's API is still open, and although its flexibility has been reduced over the last few years as the messaging company focused on revenue and their recent IPO, there are still areas where a slightly askew look at Twitter can create a compelling experience. That's the case with Tweetalyst on Windows Phone.
In my first review for AAWP, I look at FreeCaddie Golf GPS, a cross platform free (ad-supported) application for displaying the distance to the green. The developers claim to have data for over 22,000 courses worldwide, with the ability for users to add their own courses if they are not listed via their website. There is also a pro version of the application which offers additional functionality, which I'll hopefully look at shortly.
Gameloft's latest title in the Asphalt series, Airborne, arrived on Windows Phone last week, following a release on iOS and Android in August. Can the driving game that is focused on jumps, twists, and stunts in the air alongside driving to win on a road course deliver? It does, after a fashion.
My Talking Tom is a long running series of virtual pet games that have inhabited a number of platforms, including Windows, iOS, and Android. This week has seen the release of the feisty feline for Windows Phone 8. How much fun is this freemium tale? Let's find out...
In this review we take an in depth, hands-on look at the Lumia 1520, Nokia’s entry into the large screen smartphone space, covering all aspects of its hardware. The Lumia 1520 is due to appear in the USA and a few other select markets first, but then will roll out across the world in the coming months. Future review parts will look at the software changes to Windows Phone for the big screen, plus imaging and multimedia performance in more detail.
