Windows Phone "Must Have" Apps

evolutionqy7

Right ok theres been a one or two threads about Xbox Live Deals and New Apps but nothing really on what people use day in and out on their Windows Phone. All the app recommendations sort of get lost in the ever long getting Windows Phone 7 Launch Thread

If your posting an app try to add a description and a link from www.windowsphone.com or zune link to make it easier for for folks to get it quick rather than go searching for it.

Pics are nice but not required

Ill try to post some Xbox Live Deals and Stuff I Use the most once in a while so watch this space if your in the look out for some cool things to do with your phone

evolutionqy7

PC Remote - Self Explanatory. Controls your PC and Apps over WiFi. You will need to install PC Remote Server App on your PC from their website too.

Free and Paid Version Available

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IMDb - Most people know about this. App to look up movies info. Even though I dont use it to look up movie reviews, its a very good app to find Cinema listing and Movie times and watch trailers for them.

Free App Available

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Insider - Just a general app review app with some how-to's and your free source of weekly ringtones and daily bing wallpapers

Free App Available

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Navigon - Forget about asking directions. Full fledged navigation on your phone. I got it myself 20 euro less on the introduction sale. But even at €86.49 its still a bargain as your getting a full fledged offline sat nav with tons of features. It was by far my most expensive app ever purchased but i was happy in the end. New version allows to download map of the countries you only need.

Paid App [€86.49] Available

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SuperTube - Probably the best YouTube app since the unfortunate departure of MetroTube [damn i loved that app ] . Metro style youtube app that will let you play and download youtube videos.

Trial, Free and Paid App [€1.29] Available

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TuneIn Radio - Really good Internet Radio app. Mango Enabled features and more. Great selection of radio stations from around the world.

Free App Available

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Pocket Recorder™ - One of the best audio recording apps i used. Beats the pants of most stock apps anyway. Mango features enabled. Can upload your Records to Skydrive or Sync to PC via their own PC app + Zune. Lets your categorize and crop files. Really good audio recording quality. Ive used it both on Samsung Omnia 7 and HTC Titan and have no complaints.

Free and Paid App [€0.99] Available

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Reinstaller - Finds the apps you downloaded or purchased in the past and lets you put them back on the phone. I know i really needed this when i moved to the Titan and i didnt know what apps i had before and i didnt. Help me out a lot!

Free App Available

Do-more

If you edit the thread title to, Windows phone "must have" apps, it would be a lot easier to understand what the purpose of the thread is.

evolutionqy7

BusFinder - BusFinder gives you access to live updates on the latest Dublin bus departures by searching for a bus stop or route. Its finally good to get a Dublin Bus App. But, you cant search for routes. You have to know the route and or the bus stop number. Unfortunately doesnt seem to have find the nearest bus stop function

Even though the UI doesnt look Metro. Its just the colour scheme. Controls are as Metro as they get

Free weeks Trial or Paid App URL="https://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/b30deeff-6dec-4717-bb2b-212982375795/ValidatePurchase/ecb39e55-7964-4772-b988-ea4e09188fed?appType=Regular&purchaseFlowStart=App"][COLOR=#0066cc]€1.29[/COLOR][/URL Available

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Irish Train Times - Cant forget our own resident boards.ie dev
As the title says Irish Train Times App at its best. Simlple quick and easy to use Metro UI. Real time arrivals and a handy journey planner included.

Free Application Available

helpsoftware

Hi

We are listening, and we're planning a series of updates fro BusFinder.

We are working on many cool new features like near by maps and route planners.

However it take time to build and deploy a decent app, and Microsoft marketplace don't allow fast deployment.

On average expect about two weeks between each update.

The v 1.1 is already there, we have fixed the problem with the real time information (hard to get accurate data in Ireland :-)) and we are working on a better route page.

Regards
Help Software

Try also our others Windows Phone apps FotoIreland, fotoBank, NASA Ringtones and Reskit.

You can get more details on www.developers.ie/apps.aspx

evolutionqy7

Xbox Live Games coming to Windows Phone 7 in the coming weeks/months.

Windows Phone

• “Carcassone” (Microsoft Studios) –The award-winning tile-based board game “Carcassonne” is coming to Windows Phone! With the online multiplayer, Xbox LIVE achievements, leader boards and more, this game never gets old.
  
• “Civilization Revolution” (2K) – Award winning Sid Meier’s “Civilization Revolution” is coming to Windows Phone! Build, Discover, Rule the world.
• “DODONPACHI” (CAVE)– An original shooter by Arcade veteran CAVE is arriving for Windows Phone. Can you handle EVAC Industries’ Maximum Bullet Simulator.
• “GeoDefense Swarm” (Microsoft Studios) –The fast-paced tower defense game “GeoDefense Swarm” for Windows Phone gives the power to obliterate a horde of vibrant, vector-styled enemies with multiple weapons of choice.
• “Gerbil Physics” (Microsoft Studios) – In “Gerbil Physics,” a physics-based puzzle game that blows up buildings made of gerbils for Windows Phone, it’s all about adorable destruction.
• “Pinball FX2” (Microsoft Studios) – “Pinball FX2” for Windows Phone features new tables and all-new features including a state-of-the-art physics model and a connection to your Xbox 360 “Pinball FX2” scores.
• “Pirates!” – Available now on Windows Phone, Sid Meier’s “Pirates!” is an exciting high-seas adventure overflowing with intense pirate action and a treasure chest of gameplay riches!
• “Pro Evolution Soccer 2012” (Konami) – This spring, the unrivalled and award-winning football simulation from Konami is entering a new season on Windows Phone!
• “Shoot 1UP!” (Microsoft Studios) –This Spring, an armada of ships is coming to Windows Phone in “Shoot 1UP.”
• “Wordament” (Microsoft Studios) – In the world of “Wordament” for Xbox LIVE, Windows Phone word searchers across the whole Internet compete on the same board, in real-time, to get the highest score.

Source : Major Nelson

Some other cool apps I came across in recent weeks or so

8tracks

8tracks is handcrafted internet radio. It offers a simple way for people to share and discover music through an online mix, a short playlist containing at least 8 tracks.

Really cool sort of like radio app. Just the user makes playlist

[+]Lock Screen

Lock Screen+ supplies thousands of beautiful pictures which are perfectly made to fix you Phone.

Even more, you can add an DIY Calendar on the picture and highlight the date information from you local calendar.

I really only bought this cause I loved the wallpaper selection in it. But it has some cool things like adding a calendar widget to you lock screen to or some accents to the clock, date and appointments list.

Paid and Lite versions available.

I'm a musician - piano

No more envy pianists. And no more read notes for playing the piano.
Even though you don't know how to play the piano, just touch the buttons on the screen.
The performance sometimes speeds up and then slows down with only touch it.

Want to to play the piano without knowing how to play? Well now you can. Easy and simple I love this app personally. Though I would really love to see this getting an update as its not even Mango enabled

Paid Version, Free for LG Users.

Skype

Dont think I really need to explain what it is. Though I will mention this is a beta and wont run in the background. Its an open beta so if you cant see it by searching in the marketplace that's the reason why. Use the link above

Free app

Burning Eclipse

I'm a big fan of Pulse, it's a great news app. Would recommend to anyone!

neilksos

Complete self promotion so I apologise but I just released my new Windows Phone web texting app into the store. Its modelled after the Messaging hub so it saves all sent messages. Its called Noelle.

You can find it at this link http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/c31db512-358c-47d4-bfe7-f4ef3f22568c

evolutionqy7

neilksos wrote: »

Complete self promotion so I apologise but I just released my new Windows Phone web texting app into the store. Its modelled after the Messaging hub so it saves all sent messages. Its called Noelle.

You can find it at this link http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/c31db512-358c-47d4-bfe7-f4ef3f22568c

Well done its a really nice looking app and works well

PseudoFamous

Baconit is a pretty minty reddit app. I like it, it's feature packed, and makes great use of metro.

Nebula is my app of choice for soundcloud. Works extremely well, even can run in background with music playing, which is actually hard to come by for music related apps. Can even save songs for offline listening.

Odaise Gaelach

I really like the RTE News Reader app. It's quite simple, but works perfectly.

Alanstrainor

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

I really like the RTE News Reader app. It's quite simple, but works perfectly.

That's a nice little app!

Corruptedmorals

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-GB/apps/5192e2d0-60e1-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

Surprisingly strong beam of light from it, very handy. I stupidly thought these types of apps meant turning the screen white as they used to..:o

evolutionqy7

zune://navigate/?phoneappID=1e92b202-f13b-4af4-94ff-a35caaa258c0

PrimeTube is a new YouTube client which is free. Finally a good replacement for MetroTube. It also loads my subscriptions and favourites over 3G .

I deleted SuperTube in favour of this.

Well worth trying as its sweet

AntiVirus

Goal.com

The best app for all your football needs

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/apps/bb316f94-8f2d-46e2-88d4-33b353638c5d

chrislad

AntiVirus wrote: »

Goal.com

The best app for all your football needs

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/apps/bb316f94-8f2d-46e2-88d4-33b353638c5d

Really? It's probably the best free app but it's very slow to load data. I personally paid for this one. Only had it a week now but the live tile changes to the most recent game your club had, then to the live game on the day. You can add up to 4 teams for quick access, it has a history of the league etc

You can have notifications for one other team (so you have live tiles for your main team eg United and notifications for, say, their main challengers, like City) and it works well, and is only let down by Windows lack of a notification centre.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/search?q=Premier%20Leagues%20+

AntiVirus

chrislad wrote: »

AntiVirus wrote: »

Goal.com

The best app for all your football needs

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/apps/bb316f94-8f2d-46e2-88d4-33b353638c5d

Really? It's probably the best free app but it's very slow to load data. I personally paid for this one. Only had it a week now but the live tile changes to the most recent game your club had, then to the live game on the day. You can add up to 4 teams for quick access, it has a history of the league etc

You can have notifications for one other team (so you have live tiles for your main team eg United and notifications for, say, their main challengers, like City) and it works well, and is only let down by Windows lack of a notification centre.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/search?q=Premier%20Leagues%20+

I tried out that app and its very good, much quicker than Goal.com

I even paid for it, they need one for the rugby too

evolutionqy7

Calc Pro is probably the best calculator app you will ever use. Its expensive at 7.99 for an app (but an average scientific calc cost around 18 euro so not that expensive) with a try before you buy. But it has many different types of calculators and is extremely feature rich. If you do a lot of science work and calculations its definitely worth it. Direct link for your phone here

http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=8e7f8368-3fc7-df11-9eae-00237de2db9e

Odaise Gaelach

I really enjoy Penguin. It's quite relaxing and good for a few minutes of fun.

evolutionqy7

PES 2012 is out http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/fbadf894-311a-4757-a84a-51d66432755b

Got it myself today. I always liked the PES 2011 on the phone ( I hate it on consoles, I don't even like football in general but on the phone it seems fun and simple) but never got it, so decided finally to get 2012 as the graphics and gameplay seems to be a lot better

Also Glow Artisan is DOW http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/1f107762-9fd8-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

Pretty good puzzle challenge game. Worth a try

chrislad

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

PES 2012 is out http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/fbadf894-311a-4757-a84a-51d66432755b

Got it myself today. I always liked the PES 2011 on the phone ( I hate it on consoles, I don't even like football in general but on the phone it seems fun and simple) but never got it, so decided finally to get 2012 as the graphics and gameplay seems to be a lot better

Also Glow Artisan is DOW http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IE/apps/1f107762-9fd8-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

Pretty good puzzle challenge game. Worth a try

What's annoying me is that I have paid for 3 games - PES 2011, Crackdown and Twin Blades. All of these have now been pulled from the market and I can no longer download them. I've swapped phones so I don't have them on my phone any more.

evolutionqy7

chrislad wrote: »

What's annoying me is that I have paid for 3 games - PES 2011, Crackdown and Twin Blades. All of these have now been pulled from the market and I can no longer download them. I've swapped phones so I don't have them on my phone any more.

That happened to me for a two apps not much you can do it happened to me on previous platforms too. Quite frustrating.

If you have a dev unlocked phone you might find some one storing an app that was pulled and side load it though

evolutionqy7

http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=9efaf5ed-6702-40b4-a4da-268cf5e6c12c

HTC Locations were updated today and they added free offline voice guided 3D navigation. Just tested it quickly and seems to be good. Has POI's too so finally we can forget about bing maps.

Its free and ready to download in link above

Walkman

Is there a good speed test app for testing network connection speed?

evolutionqy7

Walkman wrote: »

Is there a good speed test app for testing network connection speed?

Since the last time I tested I found a lot of the speed test apps to be horribly inaccurate.

I just use http://testmy.net

I don't use it that much though

FGR

Any word on when Netflix will release an app for the irish marketplace?

chrislad

ForegoneReality wrote: »

Any word on when Netflix will release an app for the irish marketplace?

According to one of their devs on twitter, latest update with UK and Ireland support has been submitted to the market.

Walkman

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Walkman wrote: »

Is there a good speed test app for testing network connection speed?

Since the last time I tested I found a lot of the speed test apps to be horribly inaccurate.

I just use http://testmy.net

I don't use it that much though

Just found one called 'Bandwith', seems accurate, has a 'S' on the tile.

MJohnston

The Guardian have a fantastic official app which is as full featured as their other platforms (but also free) and as a bonus, allows you to pin different sections of the site to your homescreen, with Live tile updates on major headlines.

Nokia Drive is sort of available - only if you have a Lumia or a dev-unlocked device and a XAP file - and it is superb. Really plain and simple and missing a few features I'd love them to add (and judging by their updates so far, probably will be in the near future) but it's a joy to use.

Spotify is a must if you have a premium account, although it definitely doesn't feel as stable when it's running in the background as on iOS.

Weather by MS themselves is a really simple app, and does what it says on the tin with no fuss. You can also pin live tiles for different locations.

Wunderlist is an excellent small and (again) simple task management app that works across a whole load of platforms, including web.

Apict is pretty much the Instagram camera without the social network connection, you just insert or take a photo and it adds lots of nice retro effects (automatically computed based on the photo itself) and lets you save or upload to Facebook/Twitter. I wish they'd let you remove the "Polaroid" style frame they add, but you can quickly edit that out with other photo apps.

Bing Get Me There is very helpful if you're ever in London.

These are also self-explanatory but really useful: Yelp, Skydrive, Flixster (especially for the Cinema pinning), Foodspotting, Huffington Post, pumps.ie, Pulse, TripAdvisor.

FGR

I'll hang on for the Netflix app and probably take the plunge then! For now my Nokia C5 seems to do the job!

evolutionqy7

FGR wrote: »

I'll hang on for the Netflix app and probably take the plunge then! For now my Nokia C5 seems to do the job!

Netflix is out for about a week now

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Microsoft Translator just got updated to V2.0 and it seems to bring lots of new features on board Lots of handy ones too

Check it out, its free anyway