Who doesn't love a good physics-based arcade game? From Angry Birds right up to this, Heart Box, recently massively updated for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile (as well as other platforms) - it's unashamedly garish and brash, yet with new physics elements introduced steadily through the 160 levels - so you never get bored, only challenged.
Unbelievably, we don't seem to have reviewed this secure database (i.e. secret stuff manager) system before on AAWP. Even in the days of the WP8.1 version. And at some point a Windows 10 UWP version was released... and we still didn't review it. Partly the developers' fault for not, you know, contacting us - ever, but we should have spotted it anyway. Making up for lost time, here's a look at the latest generation of this massively sophisticated personal security tool.
I have a confession to make - the 'finally!' in the title refers to my logistics, not to the application or its developer. 'ini Reader' has been a Windows Phone 8.1 application for years, letting users browse their Feedly aggregated news, and some time (cough - over a year) ago it got a big Windows 10 UWP rewrite. And it sat in my to-do list ever since. But I'm making that right with a review now.
It's a fair cop - MapFactor GPS Navigator isn't new and is in fact a Windows Phone 8.1 application. But - interestingly - it uses bang up to date OSM (Open Street Map) err.... maps. Which, as I ranted recently, doesn't apply to Windows 10 Maps, which are missing recent roads. So is this worth using instead?
An almost perfectly implemented game, Yaht 3D has been around for a while in Windows Phone 8.1 form - and implemented as a UWP application, bringing in Windows PCs and Hololens, etc. Dice rolling super-realistically, scoring with virtual pencil rings, and so on. Well worth a download for Christmas if you're after a graphically sophisticated game with quick yet thought-provoking gameplay.
A couple of years ago I looked at chess games for Windows Phone, looking specifically at playing against the phone's AI and not human opponents. I promised then that I'd do a follow-up or two looking at playing other people online - and here's the first!*
I can't believe it took me this long to find Video X Player Pro in the Windows Store. I blame Microsoft - for making (what is now) 'Films & TV' good enough, and the VideoLAN folks for making VLC temptingly good. But the former has a fatal flaw and the latter is fatally buggy (in my continued testing), leading me to look at this old but still updated video solution for both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile.
I'm always a bit wary of third party web browsers - they're never as efficient and speedy as the tightly coded native alternative (e.g. Edge), unless they pull tricks like content compression and ad blocking. Coc Coc Browser (I'm omitting the Vietnamese character embellishments) is clean and modern but isn't as fast as Edge, confirming my suspicions. However, it's still noteworthy for its fledgling Extension support - with a first party video downloader ('Savior') the headline advantage.
Something for the weekend, sir? How about a Windows Phone game/app that shows you in gory animated detail how to make dozens of surprisingly realistic aircraft designs out of a sheet of paper? As someone who has a bit of the child in me still, and who sometimes has to entertain small relatives, this mobile app turns out to be a star turn.
Guest writer Gilbert Schwaab brings us a review of (and tutorial for) GeoMeterPro 10, a UWP mapping and navigation application that I'd not heard of before, but which looks comprehensive, with extensive plugins. There's an older 8.1 version too, so no one need feel left out!
