How do you get your news? Many people head to the BBC (I know it's one of the first bookmarks I add to any smartphone to see how the browser copes), but in an app world surely a BBC News application is the way forward, and not the humble web browser? That's what Lawrence Gripper thinks, and he's put together his own rather popular BBC News app for Windows Phone.
As the school summer holidays stretch out into the distance across the United Kingdom, parents might be looking for something to make the days pass a little bit quicker. As another long seven weeks come to a close in Edinburgh (this city runs about four weeks ahead of the rest of the country), can I recommend Origami HD?
Here's one of those applications that's practical without screaming out that it's a 'must have' when you stumble over it in the Marketplace. Parking Pal UK will help you find a car park anywhere in the British Isles, along with details on the cost, capacity, and in some cases provide you real time information on how many free spaces are available.
Back in my day we all used to buy music on CD (legal). Back in the following generation's day (early 2000s), the thing to do was to pirate music from file sharing sites (illegal). One phenomenon I've observed in the current day (2010 onwards) is that youngsters, rather than even bother to pirate music, simply play the appropriate YouTube video and, often, leave it running in the background on their device (legal but awkward). Yes, bandwidth really has become that plentiful, it seems. Mp3Tube is a utility that tried to take the same idea but makes it one step more efficient by downloading the music from that source (a legally very grey area!) - an approach which kind of works but which isn't without massive caveats.
Even if you are not a member of Qype, it's likely that you'll have benefited from the European based service when searching the web for local customer reviews of shops, cafés, etc. With the mobile app, you can look up reviews of locations in your area, as well as checking in at and reviewing places you've just visited. Fortunately, Qype is available on all major mobile platforms, including Windows Phone.
Why is it that the modern smartphone seems to let the side down a little bit on the humble To-Do list? While calendars and contacts are the common currency of clouds and social networks, the 'big list of things that must be done' seems to be left behind for the third party developers to pick up the slack with various levels of success. Still, when that gives you something as flexible as Wunderlist I can just about live with the omission.
Gameloft's long running street racing franchise Asphalt Urban GT power slides onto Xbox Love with Asphalt 5. Unfortunately, the gaming world has left the start line and is a couple of laps ahead of this tired title that needs to be quietly pulled aside and retired from the race.
While it might not be as ubiquitous as Facebook or Twitter, the business-focussed social network LinkedIn is a vital part of the online life of many people. If you're looking for a more advanced interface than their mobile website (or the basic integration the service has inside the People Hub), then the LinkedIn Windows Phone client is going to be an application you will spend a lot of time with.
I've always been a big fan of eBooks, no matter the platform, so it's always fun to see what's on offer. It also means I can be incredibly critical of an application in terms of how it presents the contents of a book to me. Thankfully, tweaking the presentation is one of Freda's strengths, but this eBook reader for Windows Phone has a few more advantages.
Cloud storage is an integral part of Windows Phone 7, and in Microsoft's vision of the third ecosystem, SkyDrive plays a large part in your online life. However, what if you're already using a different cloud service? What, if like many people, you're already using Dropbox? Well you’re not as stuck as you might think you are. Windows Phone 7 has several Dropbox clients, and BoxShot is one of them. Here you can browse and open your files, and even automatically sync your camera roll.
