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.
It's another Angry Birds game! It's Star Wars! Again! What could go wrong? Quite a bit actually. Rovio's cash cow is starting to bulge at the edges, with a grab for cash, poor level design, and forcing me to admit Jar-Jar Binks is good for something. That's not a smart combination for the latest Xbox Live title on Windows Phone.
The Lumia 1020 is still pretty new and, arguably, something of a niche device, but there have still been some decent case designs for it. After all, if you're going to spend £500 on a smartphone and carry it to the ends of the earth, it would be nice to keep it protected as much as possible, and in a premium way that enhances the phone hardware rather than gets in the way. Noreve's Tradition case is just such an accessory, with only a couple of small quirks to complain about.
Sparkle 2, from 10tons, naturally enough, is the sequel to Sparkle. Playing very much like the Zuma games, is this the colour orb matching game that will be crowned king of the genre? I'm not so sure, but it is a satisfying slice of arcade fun.
Last week's Xbox Live release gave us The Sims: FreePlay, a freemium version of Electronic Arts popular people management franchise. Is it worth the investment of time (and some money) to play? I think it is, and here's why.
Depending on who you talk to, the Nokia PD-95G, otherwise known as the Lumia 1020 Camera Grip (or, hereafter in this review, just the 'grip'), is either a plastic monstrosity or a slice of engineering genius. As usual with these affairs, reality is somewhere in between. The grip is expensive, large, plastic and unwieldy, but at the same time there are some advantages and nice functionality bumps. Read on for my full review.
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.
Saddle up, as all the cliches would say, it's time to take yourself to the Wild West, to seek your fame and fortune. But in the case of the latest Xbox Live title, Six Guns, the fortune is going to be earned by Gameloft, through a rather punishing freemum system.
