Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Best Nokia Lumia 920 apps


Nokia Lumia 920

If you're lucky enough to have a Nokia Lumia 920, we've got you covered with our checklist of some must-have Lumia 920 apps.

Google - Free
The default search on Windows Phone 8 is Microsoft's Bing, which is absolutely fine and certainly works well enough on the whole. However, there is a familiarity with Google's way of searching which for many is irreplaceable. The official Google app for Windows Phone isn't quite as comprehensive as it is on Android but you do get the option of location based search results, voice searches and fully-functional auto-complete predictions. It's free, quick and easy to use.

Toggle - Free
Toggle allows you to switch key phone functions on and off with a tap, the functionality echoes similar built-in capabilities from Android phones and it's a welcome addition to the Windows Phone platform. Essentially, with this app you can create a Live Tile for things like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data, airplane mode and location data.

Connectivity Shortcuts - Free
Connectivity Shortcuts is similar to Toggle but with more of a focus on connectivity functionality and with a slightly different look and feel which may appeal to some users more than Toggle. It's a bit more customisable as it allows you to edit the text shown on the Live Tile and you can choose the colour from Windows Phone's standard options.

Lock Themes - 79p
Lock Themes makes use of the new addition to Windows Phone 8 which allows apps to send information and content to the lock screen. The app lets you select a theme and will subsequently send pictures or quotes as your lock screen wallpaper. According to the developers new themes are being added all the time, but at present a few gems include a Christmas-themed ‘Deck the Halls' and one which is chock-full of Halo 4 Concept Art. Other options include Daily Horoscopes and a Nature theme.

Sticky Tiles - Free
Microsoft's included OneNote application is very comprehensive, but sometimes it's a bit of a bind to jump in and out of and you might not always want everything you write stored to the cloud. For functionality more in-line with a ‘Post it' or Stick Note, Stick Tiles lets you quickly throw together a note and stick it to the Start screen as a Live Tile, making it handy for reminders at a glance. You can customise the note's colour and each one can optionally have a ‘front' and ‘back' with separate info on each side.

Weather View - Free
There are plenty of weather apps out there but Weather View is both comprehensive and nice to look at. You can add up to five locations to see weather reports from each and the app features full 10-day forecasts with each day broken up into three time brackets. You can choose temperature and wind speed to be measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit and imperial or metric respectively. Other pages you can swipe to show in-depth forecasts and there's a Group View to show all your listed cities. The background image can be customised and you can have customisable Live Tiles pinned to your Start screen showing city forecasts.

Ztitch - Free
Ztitch is a photo editing suite designed to let you take multiple snaps and then piece them together into a 3D-like panoramic 360-degree environment. It's somewhat reminiscent of Android Jelly Bean's new PhotoSphere and you can fully pan and zoom the created images. Integrated sharing features for Facebook, Twitter and email mean you can send your new compositions to your friends. With the Lumia 920's amazing PureView camera the results are particularly impressive. Best of all it's completely free.

Earthworm Jim HD - £3.99
The Windows Phone Store is a bit sparsely populated when it comes to games, but there are one or two brilliant retro platformer titles which have been revived for the platform. The first of these is Earthworm Jim HD.

Earthworm Jim is one of those crazy characters who could've only emerged from the mid-90s and today in his latest iteration he's as mental as ever. In the game you play as Jim, an earthworm from humble origins who's been endowed with super abilities after crawling into a space suit. Jim's taken it upon himself to save a princess from various evil intergalactic overlords and their minions. Cue 16 levels of space-spanning gameplay with four different modes: side-scrolling platforming, space racing, underwater sections and bungee jumping. There are nine bosses to defeat and 12 differnt types of enemy to fight on your way to them. All of this comes at you in an eye-popping and colourful comic book art style

Sonic CD - £3.99
Sonic CD is another blast from gaming's past. In this time-travelling classic the iconic blue hedgehog once again takes on his arch-nemesis Dr Eggman and his latest invention, the evil doppelganger Metal Sonic.

Sonic 4 Episode 1 - £3.99
While Sonic CD is an adaptation of a classic title, Sonic Episode 4 is a true sequel to the last instalment in the series: Sonic and Knuckles and picks up where the previous game left off. Dr Eggman is gunning for Sonic again with newly adapted machine minions. Fortunately Sonic has a number of both new and classic abilities including Spin Dash and a homing attack.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

8 best apps for the Amazon Kindle Fire HD

Kindle Fire HD

If you've just got a new Amazon Kindle Fire HD, you'll probably want to start downloading applications from the off.

The Kindle range of tablets doesn't actually include Google Play, so you'll have to use Amazon's own App Store to download apps and games.

It's no issue though and there's plenty available, even though it's not the full store. We've done the hard work for you though and picked out our favourites of the year.

Angry Birds
Who doesn't love Angry Birds? The full suite of Angry Birds games is available on the Amazon Kindle HD, whether you want to play in space, with the piggies or just the original. What's even better is many of the games are either free or cost less than £1. What better way to pay this strategy game than on a 7-inch Kindle Fire HD screen?

BBC iPlayer
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD has the perfect sized screen for watching BBC TV on the move. The app alongside the BBC's media player is a must-download onto the Kindle Fire too, because it doesn't support Flash in the browser. You will need to be connected to Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot to stream and the iPlayer does use a lot of data, but it's well worth it to catch up on Eastenders while on your commute.

TuneIn Radio Pro
TuneIn Radio allows you to create your very own radio station on your Amazon Kindle Fire HD. With a huge range of radio stations on offer, ordered in genre, location, language, trending, recommended and recent, it's easy to find something you want to listen to. You can even listen to podcasts on the move. This is truly the best radio app available for the Kindle Fire HD.

IMDB
The world's favourite movie information site is available on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD as a handy app. With all the cast information, plus trailers, synopsis and spoilers (if you want to view spoilers), this truly is the font of all move knowledge, whether you're a fan of sci-fi or chic flicks.

ChefTap
If you're an avid cook, the Kindle Fire HD is a great accessory to help you along the way. ChefTap allows you to store recipes from anywhere on the web in a cookery file, making your very own cookbook with recipes available in a finger tap. Some are preloaded, meaning you can get cooking straight away.

Words With Friends
Words With Friends is a virtual version of Scrabble. Just like the original, you're given letters and have to create words on the board. Each letter has a different score and there are opportunities to increase your score by placing the tiles on the award squares. You can play over your data connection whether your friend is sitting next to you or on the other side of the world.

Pinterest
Pin your favourite pictures, products or anything else you see around the web on your Pinterest account. Whether you're planning a wedding, decorating your house or just have a fad for a certain colour, pin it to your wall and let the world see what's trending in your life.

Temple Run
This addictive games will keep you entertained for hours as you try and escape the Evil Demon Monkeys chasing you round an island. You'll have to jump, slide and turn your way to the end (although there doesn't actually seem to be one) and freedom.

 
//PART 2