Below are two articles providing their picks for the top 30 Windows 8 apps. I've added 3 of my favorites that were not mentioned. Enjoy.
Facebook
This app was only recently released around the time Windows 8.1 was
made available. Its interface is immediately familiar to Facebook users
and is a great way to work with the social network.
Viewing shared photos on a Windows tablet is particularly enjoyable.
The app runs fast and fluidly on touch screens. Toast (pop-up)
notifications and live tile updates are both supported to help keep
users informed of friends' updates.
Free on the Microsoft Store
Windows Mail in Windows 8.1
The Mail app shipped with original Windows 8.0 was particularly bad,
especially for Gmail users. That's all changed with Windows 8.1, as it
includes a nicely updated Mail app.
The user interface and functionality of the app is good for all
Windows 8.1 users, and the Gmail experience is vastly improved, too.
It's not as full-featured as a dedicated Gmail app would be, but it's
possible to do almost anything that can be done on a dedicated Gmail
app.
Included in Windows 8.1
IM+. One app, all your messaging.
IM+
supports all major IM services, including Windows Live Messenger,
Facebook, Skype chat, Google Talk, AOL/AIM/iChat, Yahoo!, ICQ,
Vkontakte, Mail.Ru Agent, Odnoklassniki, Yandex chat, Mamba.Ru, Mig33,
SINA Weibo, Renren, Fetion, Gadu-Gadu, MeinVZ and Jabber.
IM+
features text messages and photo sending, supports group chats in Skype,
AIM and ICQ, allows to add multiple accounts per service, lets you show
your mood with personal status messages and customize application
appearance, supports typing notifications and we're not done yet, new
IM+ features will keep coming!
Follow @implus on Twitter and Like www.facebook.com/plusim to get the latest updates from IM+ team!
IM+
uses your personal data to login to your instant messaging accounts.
You will be prompted to authorize IM+ to use your personal data upon app
launch.
Show more
- support for all popular instant messaging services
- free text messages and photo sending
- group chats
- multiple accounts per service
- typing notififcations
- personal status messages
The Top 30 Best Windows 8 Apps - PCMAG.COM
Now with over 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, there are actually some
good choices. Here are the top apps we think you should install on your
Windows 8 PC.
With the launch of Windows
8.1 just a month away and a new Surface tablet coming even before that,
on September 19, it's time to take stock of where Microsoft's new
operating system stands when it comes to app selection. The news has
been pretty positive, with the
benchmark of 100,000 apps having been surpassed on July 1.
Some marquee names have joined the flock of the best Windows 8 apps,
including Twitter, Vevo, Foursquare, Rockmelt, Rhapsody, and OpenTable.
We're still waiting for a couple of major entries, to wit, Facebook and
Flipboard—Luckily, these will become available at Windows 8.1's public
launch on October 18, along with a bunch of much-needed updates to the
operating system itself and an more usable updated store for getting the
apps.
Don't forget that Windows 8 (and 8.1) still runs nearly all of the
millions of applications programmed for Windows over the past decade and
a half—in its desktop mode—though that doesn't apply to ARM-based
Windows RT tablets. The new class of apps, formerly called "Metro" but
now simply called Windows 8 apps, are full-screen, touch friendly
programs can connect both to the Web, to each other through "contracts,"
and to features of Windows 8 itself, such as the Search and
Share charms.
You get the new-style apps from the new Windows Store—Microsoft's
equivalent of the iTunes App Store—which automates installation and
updating, and gives both users and developers a central place to
discover new and needed software. It's true that the Windows Store has a
ways to go to catch up in number with the more than 300,000 iPad apps
available in Apple's iTunes App store. But according to the excellent
site,
MetroStore Scanner, there are currently over 115,000 Windows 8 apps, with hundreds being added every day.
As with any app store (Android's in particular), a good many of these
are no better than chaff, and many are country specific, though over
83,000 of them are for US English speakers. Just as with those other app
stores, some gems appear among the muck. The good news? Most of the top
apps we include here are completely free. Some have in-app purchases,
but even apps that cost money often offer trial versions—something not
available in Apple's App Store. Most of these apps run on both Windows
RT tablets, and all run on full Windows 8 Pro systems like the Microsoft
Surface Pro and standard laptops and desktops.
The redesigned Windows Store gives you help in separating the app
gold from the silt. In addition to the store's highlighted staff pick's
section for new and noteworthy apps, each app's page in the store
includes user ratings and reviews. You can also browse the list the top
paid, top free, and newly released entries, both overall and in sections
like Games, Social, Entertainment, Photo, Music and Video, News and
Weather, Lifestyle, Productivity, Security, Business, and more.
Whatever your software needs, we think you'll get more out of your
Windows 8 PC experience by installing these 30 apps, but they're not the
last word—there are a number of important ones we don't include here.
What we wanted to do for this first list was to assemble a collection of
apps that can make your Windows 8 PC or tablet productive, creative,
and informative. You won't find any of the excellent default apps you
get with Windows 8 here—the People, Mail, Photos, Music, Video, News,
Games (really a game center), Bing, and SkyDrive. Nor will you find that
most useful of all apps,
Microsoft Office, since it's a desktop, rather than a new-style Windows 8 app.
You can either navigate our list via the 30 Best Windows 8 Apps
slideshow above or page through this article for five at a time. We've
linked the app names to their Windows Store descriptions and download
page, or, if we've reviewed the app, we've linked to our more-detailed
review. Don't hesitate to leave comments below if you feel that our
selections are dead-on or if we've overlooked worthy candidates. And
don't forget to check out the links below for even more Windows 8
coverage.
Halo: Spartan Assault
$6.99
Halo has long been one of the legends of first-person shooter video
games, and PCMag's Samara Lynn thought well enough of this sequal to
award it a 4 out of 5 rating. You don't need to have ever played the
game's previous versions to enjoy this one: Its gorgeous graphics and
fun, touch-based gameplay will draw you in. The music is quite
impressive, too, not the typical low-budget canned electro stuff. You do
have to buy credits if you want certain weapons and armament upgrades.
Weekly and mission-specific challenges keep the game fresh, but it can
be tricky to master the shooting and moving gestures.
Allrecipes
Free
Even if you're not going to win American Chef Idol, or whatever the
latest cooking game reality show is called, Allrecipe can be an
invaluable friend in the kitchen. It gives you ideas for proven
successful recipes, or lets you choose what to cook based on what
ingredients you have on hand. You get step-by-step instructions, along
with nutrition information. The companion
Allrecipes Video cookbook app could be an even better fit for those who need more handholding or for trickier techniques.
Flixster
Free
When you're fetching around for a movie to watch—one that you actually
might enjoy—there's no better solution than Flixster. The Windows 8 app
from this cinematic informer is well-designed, letting you view playing
and upcoming flicks and DVDs by current box office hits, local theater
showings. One of the best things about the app is that it uses the very
reliable Rotten Tomatoes ratings, which are a pretty good indication of
whether the film is a dud or a dream. Each movie's page also shows the
synopsis, cast, journalist reviews, and trailer playing. One downside
was that tickets for most movies can't be purchased through the app.
Another is the lack of Ultraviolet integration.
Khan Academy
Free
Khan Academy is an education in a tablet—not a pill: I'm talking about
your Windows 8 tablet. The organization behind this app has as its goal
to offer "a free world-class education for anyone anywhere". You can
also watch the thousands of course videos on a desktop PC, covering
Math, Science, Economics and Finance, and Humanities. Each of these
general topics is broken down into several sub-topics to get you to your
specific area of interest or need, with several videos available below
yet another, more specific level of topics. For example, you could learn
from 12 videos about Chemical reactions. You can download videos to
your local device. Literature content seemed lacking, but there are
other special talks and interviews in addition to the course work.
comiXology Comics
Free
Comixology is the de facto comic app, with over 40,000 comics and
graphic novels from publishers such as Marvel, DC, Dynamite
Entertainment, and more. The app starts you out in its featured new
releases section, and there are quick links to categories like
collection, kids, free, top rated. You can see books that release the
same day as print, and digital firsts. You will need to register for an
account (which requires credit card info) if you don't already have one,
and most hot books cost $3.99 or $2.99, while extended graphic novels
can cost up to $19.99. The comics looked beautiful on my Surface Pro,
and the Guided View, which lets the story unfold as you tap, has a
definite leg up on traditional paper comics.
Skype
Free
This one is a no brainer. If you want to visit with Grandma without
crossing state or national lines, there's no better choice of app and
service. When you first run Skype,
it will ask permission to use your webcam and to run in the background.
It's full-screen view of your video-call partner and good use of the
Windows 8 touch interface and notifications are a great start, but you
don't get some Skype for desktop features like multi-party calling and
screen sharing. With Windows 8.1 comes a great new capability: you can
answer calls from notifications on the lock screen without having to log
in to the PC.
Twitter
Free
No tablet platform is complete without a Twitter app. Windows 8's
included People app does show you Twitter (and Facebook updates), but
it's not as useful as Twitter's own app for other platforms like the
iPad. Twitter fans now can take advantage of a native app on Windows 8,
and it's a good one, even offering capabilities not found on other
platforms. For example, you can tweet through it from any other app via
the Share charm. It also shows a "collage" of tweets or of photos from
tweets. And you can pin it to the side of your screen to see your live
Twitter updates.
Audible
Free
Audible is a godsend for those of us weary-eyed folk who spend all day
staring at a computer monitor. When I get home, I love to read, but
being read to instead helps save the old orbs. This book-reading app
from Amazon.com is simplicity itself. After signing in, you can browse
the extensive catalog of audiobooks—from Tina Fey's hilarious bestseller
Bossypants to classics such as the works of Dickens and Twain. You can
preview a healthy selection of titles for free, too. There are a couple
drawbacks, though: The app doesn't uses the standard Windows 8 Search
Charm, and you only get three categories on the main page to browse, and
to search, you need to open the sidebar, which is really just a
collapsed webpage.
Netflix
Free (requires subscription)
If you're one of Netflix's 30-plus million subscribers, you'll be happy
to know that Windows 8 and RT allow you to get your movie and TV show
fix. The app's home page show the 10 ten for you, New Releases, and
Genres options, and you can scroll through thumbnail piles of your
Instant Queue, Top 10, Popular on Netflix, New Releases, Recently Added,
and any of the genres you've shown a predilection for. Clicking on a
thumbnail brings up the movie page, which is informative and
interactive, letting you rate, play, and see who starred in it. While
playing a movie, you can use the app bar to pause, scrub, change volume,
or disable/enable subtitles if available.
Hulu Plus
Free
Keeping for a moment with our television theme, for serious couch
potatoes who want to keep up with the latest TV shows, or maybe just for
active folks who want entertainment on their own schedules, the Hulu
Plus app does the trick. It's as well designed as the Netflix app, but
it offers more up-to-date television content. Hulu also throws in a
decent selection of full-length feature films, if you're a subscriber.
You get everything you expect from the service, the ability to view your
queue, personalized recommendations, and all the popular genres and
trending shows.
Angry Birds Star Wars
$4.99
The latest version of Rovio's breakout hit Angry Birds series is
available on pretty much every mobile platform, and it's sure to please
fans of the feathered pig-smashers. During the game, you'll head out on
an intergalactic journey across the deserts of Tatooine all the way to
the depths of the Pig Star. Along the way, you'll use the Force, and
wield a Lightsaber in your quest to blast away the Pigtroopers and take
down the evil Darth Vader, "Dark Lord of the Pigs." This one is sure to
tickle Star Wars fans as well as inveterate Angry Bird players. If
you're not all caught up on the series, you can also get Angry Birds Space.
Bejewelled Live
$4.99. 10 levels free.
One
of the most addictive and enjoyable time-killers on record now comes to
Windows 8. A free trial gives you 10 levels to play with. The "Live"
means its equivalent to the Xbox Live version, which is basically
Bejeweled 3. The free version entitles you to play only the Classic
mode, while the purchased version lets you engage in Butterflies and
Diamond Mine modes, too, and lets you accumulate Acheivements.
Flow Free
Free
If you're a city dweller, you've likely seen people playing this game
of connecting colored dots with meandering lines. There's a reason: Flow
Free presents a rewarding puzzle in increasingly challenging patterns.
Once you've exhausted all the levels in the free version, you can unlock
all extra packs for $4.99 or individual packs for $1.99 and $2.49. This
will also remove the ads that appear along the bottom of the game
board.
Where's My Perry
$1.49
Back in the realm of amusement, Where's My Perry, from Disney Studios,
is very fun indeed. It's great use of touch input to manipulate a sewery
world of water puzzles from which your goal is to extract the cute top
hat-donning platypus from Phineas and Ferb. Just beware of evil villain
Dr. Doofenshmirtz's lasers, and collect as many gnomes as you can along
the way.
Fresh Paint
Free
If you're running Windows 8 on a touch tablet, there's no better
demonstration of the cool types of things you can do with multitouch.
Five simultaneous fingers are supported, and you can actually mix new
colors on a virtual palette. If you'd rather not start with a blank
canvas, "packs" of line drawings and cartoons can get you started. The
Fun Pack is free, but the more artistic Variety Pack is a $1.49 in-app
purchase, and the Adventure Pack, with its 24 character sketches and
Friends Pack of mostly pets cost $1.99 each.
Of course, you
can just start finger or mouse painting on a blank page or a photo of
your own, with a good variety of brush and pencil tips. You also choose
among a dozen canvas and paper textures. Once you're done, you can
export your masterpiece to a PNG file, or even use the Share charm to
send it to any apps that can share to email, social networks, and more.
This is a surprisingly polished app, but it's one that's been around
since the early days of Windows 8 prereleases. What's most impressive is
that the paint is just so real looking.
Facebook+ Lite
Free
You can get some of its functionality in the OS's built-in People app,
but there's no official client app. Quite a few Facebook apps are
available in the Windows Store, but we consider Facebook+ Lite even
better than some of the competition you'd have to pay for, which often
simply look like nothing more than the social network's website, rather
than adding any tablet conveniences. Facebook Touch uses a Windows
8-new-style interface with big buttons and swiping gestures to navigate
your news feed, photos, friends, messages, notifications, and events.
Its Start menu tile shows your important contacts' latest updates. And
it lets you upload photos via the Share charm from the default Photos
app.
Rowi
Free
Yes, there's now an official Twitter app for Windows 8 and the
platform's own included People app does show you Twitter (and Facebook
updates). But Rowi will appeal to those who prefer its very clear three
column view, with a huge space for the tweet you're viewing in the
center. On the left you choose whether to view newsfeed, interactions,
directs, and favorites. On the right you see your images and can switch
to trending topics. The app also makes good use of the Share charm from
other apps to post tweets, and pops up notifications for new tweets.
USA Today
Free
Of course you could just browse news sites on your Windows 8 PC's web
browser, and there are apps for many leading large papers, but USAToday
stands out for having created a well-designed, reasonably rich,
touch-friendly news app. You scroll through sections for News, Sports,
Life, Money, Tech, and Travel, each with buttons to call up relevant
photos, videos, and "snapshots" or infographics. For Sports and Money,
sections are added for scores and markets. Your local temperature and
weather icon appear at top right, and clicking this opens a map and ten
day or hourly temperature and precipitation forecasts.
The Weather Channel
Free
Just
as with the iPhone and iPad's, Windows 8's built-in Weather app is not
bad—but why not get your sun and rain report straight from the source?
The Weather Channel's app lets you see conditions hour by hour or over
the next 10 days. You also get maps and videos, as well as warning
messages for severe weather conditions. Add to that wind speed,
humidity, sunrise and set times, visibility, atomospheric pressure, and
UV index—you can see, it's the full package. You can even watch a
60-second video report for your area.
ESPN
Free
With the Super Bowl just behind us, you many wonder why we include a
sports app. In fact, you could get by with the included Bing Sports app,
which is surprisingly good. But this one comes from the ultimate
authority on high-paid play. Sports-related news pieces, scores, videos,
photos, and podcasts are at your fingertips with the ESPN Windows 8
app. As with the built-in Sports app, ESPN lets you pin your favorite
teams to the Start menu, where you'll see scores and headlines for your
clubs. This one is really everything you need to get your fandom on.
Kindle
In truth, I'm a Nook user, but I know there are plenty of Kindle users
out there who would feel highly put out by a platform with no app for
reading their chosen ebook flavor. Kindle for Windows 8 shows large
color thumbnails of your book covers in Library view in Cloud and Device
sections, the latter for titles you've already downloaded. True to
Kindle form, the app supports WhisperSync so that the current page your
reading shows up on any device. You can change font size, background
colors, and column number, and you can highlight, bookmark, and write
notes. Double-clicking a word brings up its Dictionary.com definition.
Thankfully, Amazon has added the ability to buy new books from within
the app, but not periodicals.
Nook
Microsoft's investment in Nook has finally paid off in the form of a
Windows 8 app. As I mentioned above, I prefer Nook to Amazon's ereader
ecosystem, and the Windows 8 store ratings give Barnes & Nobles a
slight edge when it comes to Windows 8 apps. The interface is extremely
well designed, intuitive, and capable. All the font and navigation
options you get on the nook device itself are here. And unlike the
Kindle app, in addition to the over 3 million nook books (a million of
them free) you can browse and buy new magazine and newspaper issues as
well as books right from within the app.
OneNote
I was originally planning to include Evernote
here, but while that service's Windows 8 app does let you view, tag,
search, and add notes, it's pretty primitive compared with the OneNote
Windows 8 app. Unlike the rest of Microsoft Office
, OneNote is not a desktop application, but instead offers apps for
iOS, Android, Mac, and PC, and Windows Phone, so you're covered when it
comes to devices. An insertion wheel lets you add a table, tag, photo,
list, or paste to your note. I use this app to take notes at all my
vendor meetings, and since I log into the same Microsoft account as on
my Windows 8 machine, all my notes were available. I could even play my
recording of the meetings, but playback wasn't linked to text as it is
in the desktop version.
Box
Free
Also the productivity veering on business vein, Box (formerly box.net)
is an increasingly popular tool for collaboration on work files. It
integrates with Salesforce.com and Google Docs, and lets users share
online "workspaces." It also lets users assign tasks, post comments, and
can notify you when a document involving you has been edited or
commented on. With Box, anyone can get 5GB of free online synced
storage, and apps are available for all the major mobile and desktop
OSes.
Music Maker Jam
Free
This musical app from Magix lets you craft tracks by adding loops for
drums, bass, brass, pads, synths, and even vocals. You enable and
disable instruments and cycle through varying options for each: For
example, your synth can have the organ, filler, brute reverb, be choit,
unreal, or royal synth sounds. You can raise and lower the volume, and
change keys in loops. A very cool Effects graph lets you apply
distortions to your whole combo, in heavy and soft, high and low
directions. You can record your workOne downside is that it doesn't play
while running in the background.TuneIn Radio
Free
Another app we loved on iOS arrives for Windows 8. Use it to play any
Web-streamed radio broadcast on earth. It can find local radio station,
has a sleep timer, and can keep playing in the background while you do
other things with your PC. Stream categories include local radio, music,
sports, news, and talk. And you can search by other locations or find
and play podcasts. I only wish the app let me choose a bit rate for
stations that offered several, like those from SomaFM, but it shares
that limitation with its iOS version. The latter still has a bunch more
features, such as the ability to record and favorite what you're
listening to.
Vevo
Free
The
Windows 8 Vevo app plays top-charted music videos for free on you
Windows 8 PC or tablet. If you can't decide what to watch or listen to,
you can start playing the VevoTV Live video broadcast. Organized
somewhat like iTunes or Windows 8's own app store, you can swipe through
categories for Featured, Premieres, Top Videos, Top Artists, and Shows.
The videos start quickly, playing in glorious full screen, but you'll
see a pre-roll ad occasionally. Still missing are search, personalized
suggestions, and song sharing via social networks.
Vyclone
Free.
There's no Vine
for Windows 8 yet, but Vyclone offers a similar social video
experience—without the 6-second limit! Vyclone is already available on
iPhone and Android, so you don't have to worry about a lack of content
and potential contacts. As with all these social apps, you can follow,
heart, and comment on videos submitted to the service. You can also
watch nearby footage, but where Vyclone really shines is when you have
multiple people shooting the same event: The service edits the disparate
angles together.
YouCam Mobile
$4.99
CyberLink's video editing software has long garnered top ratings here
at PCMag, and now the company has brought some of its expertise over to
Windows 8. YouCam lets you manipulate both photos and video even while
you're still shooting. You can crop, tag faces, frame, draw on , and
stamp photos with stock art like flowers and kissy lips. On top of its
photo features, YouCam lets you trim video, and then upload it to
YouTube or Facebook.
CameraStudio+
$2.99
For many of the more tradition photo adjustments—brightness, contrast,
white balance, along with artistic filters—look to CameraStudio+, from
Moobila. It's surprisingly rich for a $2.99 app, with cropping,
resizing, red-eye correction, as well as frames and overlays. Once
you're done perfecting and enhancing your photo, you can save it as a
JPG or PNG to the folder of your choice or up to the SkyDrive cloud.
It's really all you need to improve the photos you snap on your Windows 8
tablet.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415211,00.asp
=================================
29 Best Windows 8.1 Apps
Great British Chefs
A forceful poke in the eye to anyone who says Windows 8 apps are
unattractive, the Great British Chefs app looks as appetising as the
dishes it will help you to cook. A compendium of recipes from culinary
luminaries such as Marcus Wareing, Nathan Outlaw and Tom Aikens, the app
provides a wide selection of dishes for cooks of all abilities. Once
you’ve selected your chosen dish(es), the combined ingredients can be
added to the shopping list, which are handily broken down by shopping
aisle (i.e. meat, vegetables) and can be exported to email or Evernote.
When you get back from the shops, pop the recipe in Cooking Mode and
you can swipe step-by-step through the instructions on your tablet, with
a handy timer available on the side of the screen. With a series of
interesting food articles, plus video guides to tricky jobs such as
extracting the meat from a lobster, you really couldn't ask for any more
from a free app.
(Free)
Ilomilo+
A Microsoft Studios game that has migrated from Windows Phone 7, to
Xbox Live, and now Windows 8.1, ilomilo+ is a delightful little
timewaster that Windows tablets could desperately do with more of. The
idea is to reunite ilo and milo - see what they’ve done there? - by
navigating the 3D level they’re trapped on opposite sides of. You
alternate between controlling both characters, using one to open
trapdoors or create paths for the other, until they’re back together.
It’s clever, beautifully presented, but perhaps a little too prim for
some tastes. A two-player mode adds longevity.
(£3.49)
Redditting
Navigating the morass of news, memes and endless discussion threads
that comprise Reddit is no mean feat, but the Redditting client does a
brilliant job of boiling it down. It effectively turns Reddit into an
RSS reader, allowing you to browse your favourite subreddits, filter out
sources or contributors you’d rather not hear from, and read the source
article alongside the comments in split-screen. Once you’ve logged in
or filled out the simple in-app registration, you can also vote posts up
or down, add comments or submit links of your own. A setting that
allows you to filter adult content could also make Reddit palatable at
your place of work.
(Free)
Halo: Spartan Assault
Halo is the Xbox’s best-know game franchise, and its less graphically
ambitious transition to tablets and smartphones is nonetheless a
success. It has everything you associate with Halo: a variety of
futuristic weaponry to choose from, vehicles to commandeer and an
intelligence-free pack of comrades who repeatedly need you to dig them
out of a firefight.
The top-down approach is unusual for Halo, but works well, as do the
touchscreen controls. Attempting to fleece you for in-app purchases
after paying a fiver for the game is a touch gratuitous, but they’re not
necessary. Try the Lite version first.
(£4.99)
Fhotoroom
This free photo-editing app comes with a wealth of options packed
into its simple interface. The Basic Edit category has tools to crop,
resize and rotate images, and sliding scales can be used to change
exposure value and colour temperatures. Other options include the
sharpen and blur tools, which can be tweaked, and there are lens flare
and shadow categories that contain dozens of options.
A broad selection of Instagram-style filters and frames are included,
too, and pictures can be pulled from a variety of sources – from local
folders to the SkyDrive. It’s an extensive tool, but it’s also possible
to upgrade to Fhotoroom Pro for only 99p. The upgraded app includes
additional filters, and it’s also compatible with images larger than 4
megapixels in size.
(Free, 99p Pro version available)
TuneIn
It’s one of the most popular radio tools around, but it’s taken its
time arriving as a Windows 8 app. It has all the features you’d expect:
hundreds of radio stations divided up by region, and many more
categorised into dozens of genres. As on the website, sports and news
stations are given their own sections, and it’s also possible to filter
the thousands of stations by language. TuneIn supports podcasts as well,
with shows organised into similar genres. If you’re a radio fan, this
app is a must.
(Free)
Toolbox
This multitasking tool is one of the cleverest apps we’ve seen in the
Windows 8 Store. It includes a host of small utilities, from a
calculator and converter to weather and clock tools, and it even has a
basic web browser and social networking clients, with Facebook and
Twitter supported.
That’s not the clever bit, however. Swiping up from the bottom of the
screen reveals a host of different layouts, with between two and six
windows included on each. Different apps can run in each window, so it’s
great for multitasking, and Toolbox also includes six pre-set
configurations.
(Free)
News Bento
This is a great app for keeping tabs on multiple news sources – and
it’s totally customisable. Hundreds are available in six categories:
News, Business, Tech, Photo & Design, Entertainment and Sports. A
tap on a logo adds or removes a source from your feed, and News Bento
also supports your own entries – it’s as easy as adding a name, URL and
optional logo. The browsing interface itself is top-notch, with Live
tiles rotating with article pictures, and both light and dark themes
available.
(Free)
Nextgen Reader
Nextgen Reader is one of the few Windows 8 apps that’s been designed
with both desktop and tablet users in mind. By default, it looks like a
rudimentary desktop feed reader, with your list of feeds running down
the left-hand side of the screen and a reading pane to the right. Tap
the app’s logo in the top-left corner, however, and it flips into Modern
View, with feed articles turned into the familiar Windows 8 tiles that
are much easier to tap on and read on a tablet. The app requires a
Google Reader account, and managing subscriptions requires an awkward
trip back to the browser, but it’s otherwise a smartly designed, fully
featured reader.
(£2.19, free trial available)
Chimpact
Games are the strongest suit in the Windows 8 Store, and Chimpact is
an amusing little diversion, especially for tablet owners. The idea is
to catapult your simian friend around the levels, collecting bananas,
squishing caterpillars and avoiding foes. The game is part Angry Birds,
part platformer, and works best on a tablet, where you can drag your
finger across the screen to fire the little critter. Chimpact doesn’t
require much in the way of grey matter. In fact, it might be best
deployed as a cheap back-seat diversion for your own little monkeys.
(99p, free trial available)
Sim Trader
Ever thought you could make a killing on the stock market, but
haven’t had the cash or the nerve to prove it? Sim Trader is an
inexpensive way to see if you have the magic touch. You're handed an
imaginary $10,000, with which you can buy and sell shares with financial
impunity, monitoring the progress of your portfolio and that of other
players all from the single screen. The app is about as visually
appealing as an Excel spreadsheet, and clicking on a news item throws
you out of the app and back into the browser, which is a bit jarring.
But it’s a fun five-minute diversion each day.
(Free)
Wordament
Need one killer reason to buy a Windows Phone? Then meet Wordament,
the horrendously addictive word game that you may well spend the rest of
your life playing. The idea will be familiar to anyone who’s played
Boggle: from a 16-letter grid of letters, you have two minutes to form
words using vertical, horizontal or diagonal moves. You compete against
the rest of the world in real-time, with the biggest challenge being to
break into the top ten in a given round – something no-one from the
PC Pro team has managed to do. Yet. (
Free)
Khan Academy
If you haven’t heard of Khan Academy, it’s a global not-for-profit
organisation that aims to educate the world for free. The iPad app gives
access to its library of over 3,200 teaching videos, covering all the
branches of maths, the sciences (including its foray into computing,
which is still in its early stages), history and even finance and
economics. It also has a section for talks, similar to the TED app. The
quality of the teaching varies by topic and teacher, but it’s a free
resource that’s designed specifically to engage and explain rather than
simply talk at students. (
Free)
Encyclopaedia Britannica
There have been Britannica apps on iOS for a while, but it’s the new
Windows 8 app that stood out from a relatively meagre crowd in the
Windows Store before launch. It’s well designed, making full use of a
large monitor to bring you detailed information, loads of images and
other interactive elements, and a search for one topic quickly leads to
several more. The bad news? Beyond the top 100 articles, you’ll need to
subscribe to view more, so don’t go expecting the app to be a free way
into this wealth of knowledge. (
Free, then £10.99 to subscribe)
Netflix
Although on other platforms we could have gone for LoveFilm Instant,
the Netflix alternative is a lot better designed, and it's currently the
only option on Windows 8. Categories drill down into subcategories with
more creativity, and the scrollable cover-flow layout makes spotting
your favourites much simpler. (
From £5.99/mth)
Plex
Streaming your music and video to mobile devices is made easy by
Plex, which works on a wide range of phones and tablets – including
windows Phone handsets as of earlier this year. Set up the client on
your home Windows or Linux PC, or Mac, and you’ll be able to access its
content on the move, as well as taking advantage of a wide range of
internet channels. Just watch your 3G data usage if you’re not on an
unlimited contract. (
From £2.99)
Skyscanner
Flying is almost as unenjoyable as actually paying for the tickets,
so anything that improves the latter process is welcome. Skyscanner
already enjoys a reputation for finding some of the keenest prices
around, and the app makes navigating them easy and quick. It’s intuitive
considering the wealth of information it manages, and we especially
love the Explore feature, which allows you to circle the globe finding
prices to virtually anywhere from your home airport. (
Free)
Fresh Paint
This app emulates the joy of slapping paint on canvas like no other.
Paint in one colour and then brush over that same area with another and
watch as the colours bleed authentically together. When you’re ready,
you can switch on the dryer and stop the colours merging. The option to
paint over your digital photos is another feather in this terrific app’s
cap. (
Free)
Xbox SmartGlass
SmartGlass turns a Windows 8 tablet into a touchscreen controller for
the Xbox console, allowing you to access the non-gaming aspects of
Microsoft’s console. The SmartGlass interface includes tiles for the
apps – such as BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, Sky etc – that you may have
installed on your Xbox, although navigating through those apps can be a
little tough. But swiping around the homescreen is perfectly intuitive,
and it’s a godsend when your Xbox controller batteries have died. (
Free)
Cocktail Flow
Cocktail apps aren’t rare on iOS and Android, but this early Windows 8
app is a fine example of the genre. Select cocktail recipes by name,
type and even colour, or – we like this bit – select all the spirits,
mixers and liqueurs you have in your kitchen and the My Bar section will
scan its database for cocktails it can create from them. Alas, it’s not
yet adventurous enough to create something drinkable out of eggnog,
champagne and beer. (
Free)
ESPN FC
With no sign of a Sky Sports app on Windows 8 devices, it's up to
rival ESPN to bring us our football news and scores, and this quickly
improving app does a fantastic job. You can select favourite teams for
quick updates, view the latest results and tables from pretty much every
major league of interest around the world, as well as European
competitions, and it also has some nice feature articles from the ESPN
writers. (
Free)
Skype
It's no surprise that some of the best-designed apps to hit the
Windows Store have come from within Microsoft. The Skype app was built
from the ground up to be ideal for use on a tablet such as the Surface,
able to run silently in the background at all times, ready to burst into
action when a call or instant message comes in. It's also one of the
few apps we've seen that remains genuinely useful when snapped
side-by-side with other apps. (
Free)
Star Chart
One of the early showcases for Windows 8's full-screen style, Star
Chart takes a familiar app idea - using your tablet's camera to explore
the night sky - and executes it with tremendous panache. Use it as an
augmented reality star finder, or simply as an educational tool if
you're indoors - and it has a neat Night Mode to make it easier to see
what's going on in the dark. (
£4.49)
Armed
A real-time strategy game in the ilk of PC classic Starcraft, Armed
is proof that Modern Windows 8 apps won’t lack substance. Equally
manageable with a touchscreen tablet or a mouse, Armed requires you to
build a base, harvest resources, defend against attack and explore new
territories. It’s a little complicated to wade straight into either
single or multiplayer gameplay, but the excellent tutorial shows you the
ropes. (
Free)
Ministry of Sound
A must-have app for fans of the legendary dance club, Ministry of
Sound provides a wealth of free music sessions for clubbers. The Live
From The Club section provides a five-hour set from the past Saturday
night, giving you a feel for the atmosphere of the London venue. There’s
also pre-recorded sets from well-known DJs such as Sister Bliss. If you
like the free music on offer, there’s also an opportunity to preview
and download the club’s huge back catalogue of albums via the app. (
Free)
Wikipedia
The Wikipedia app provides a more convenient way to browse the
people’s encyclopedia, particularly on tablet devices. The app’s
homescreen highlights featured images and articles of the day, which
provide a fun way to dip into a completely random topic. However, to
search for articles, you’ll need to use the Search charm – activated by
swiping a finger from the right of the screen on tablets. You’ll also
need a live net connection to perform searches. (
Free)
Pinball FX2
Touchscreen tablets are perfect for pinball games, allowing you to
merely tap on either side of the screen to operate the flippers. Pinball
FX 2 isn’t the most impressive pinball app we’ve ever seen but it has
some great features, not least the ability to see how your scores
compare to other friends on Xbox Live, and the online tournaments. (
From free)
Music Maker Jam
A terrific little tmusicimewaster, Music Maker Jam allows you to
blend together your own Dubstep, Jazz or House music, simply by playing
with a range sliders and effects. You get to choose which instruments
and vocals appear on your tracks and how much emphasis to afford to
each, and once you’ve got the balance right you can start experimenting
with key changes and writing your own loops. The resulting soundtracks
are awesome, especially when played back through proper speakers. (
Free)
Growth Tracker
A smart little utility for parents of babies and young children,
Growth Tracker allows you to monitor the height and weight of your child
at regular intervals, and see how they compare to the averages for
their age. The Height Predictor feature will even take a stab at how
tall they’re going to be in adulthood. There’s a one-child trial version
of the app available; it’s a mere £1.39 if you like what you see. (
£1.39)
Author: Barry Collins