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Cloud Storage
Box
Offering 5GB of free storage, Box is a popular cloud storage solution among home and business consumers alike. Download |
SkyDrive
Microsoft’s cloud storage service, use it to store and share files with friends and other devices. Download |
Dropbox
There is room for improvement in the Dropbox app for Windows 8, but it is functional and allows you to open, edit save and share your data with contacts. Download |
Bitcasa Infinite Storage
The above cloud storage solutions have an upload limit. Bitcasa Infinite Storage – as the name suggests – does not. Uploaded data is available on any suitable device straight away. Download |
Food and Drink
Allrecipes
Create meals from 40,000 recipe ideas based on the food in your larder, your dietary requirements or your favourite type of dish. Download |
YumvY Cooking Companion
A great tutorial, hand-holding app for making recipes, ideal if you’re not too hot in the kitchen! Download |
Recipe House
Create your own cookbooks and share them online with friends using Facebook. Recipes can be grouped by type. Download |
Timed2Perfection
If you ever have problems getting your meals cooked properly this app displays the correct temperature and cooking times. Download |
FOODmag
A huge selection of recipes from the Philippines, beautifully presented with full steps and even a weekly planner. Download |
Games
Gravity Guy $2.49
Superhero platformer, Gravity Guy is an Xbox Live title that requires you to unlock achievements by getting the titular character to the end of seemingly impossible levels. Download |
Game Dev Tycooon $7.99
With this awesome sim you can develop and micro-manage your own game, building a development team, researching new tech and even creating a game engine! Download |
Radiant
This almost legendary modern redux of classic 8-bit space invader shoot’em ups is hugely addictive. Download |
Xbox Games
Keep track of your Gamerscore and other Xbox Live gaming details, as well as find and buy games for Windows 8. Download |
Rat on a Snowboard
Guide Ratty across various landscapes as he snowboards to safety avoiding hazards such as pine trees, giant snowballs and even meatballs! Download |
Monkey Flight
If you’ve played Angry Birds and like the idea of launching defenseless animals across screens, Monkey Flight is for you. Toss your monkey to win fruity bonuses. Download |
Pin Steam
Steam’s Gabe Newell might not like Windows 8, but this app certainly makes Steam libraries look excellent. Download |
Pinball FX2
A free Xbox Live title, this virtual pinball machine features some excellent levels and is a lot of fun to play. Download |
Radiant Defense
Sequel to the shooter, Radiant Defense is a thematically and graphically similar game but with the gameplay switched to tower defense, in whic you must deal with 300 waves of aliens across 12 missions. Download | Full review |
Robotek
An unusual, free online multiplayer game, Robotek is a blend of strategy, action and RPG, a sort of robot Risk. Download |
Adlib
If you love word games, this is for you – find as many words as possible before the grid fills up! Download |
1Up Farkle
This Yahtzee!-style dice throwing game is addictive and great fun when played against a friend. Download |
Agent 008 Ball
Top-down 8-ball pool game with touch optimised and mouse controls, this is fast and fun and comes with various timed missions. Download |
The Chess Lv.100
With 100 adjustable playing levels this chess game offers human vs computer and human vs human (shared) gameplay. Download |
Angry Birds Space $4.99
A whole new spin on Angry Birds, as the winged avengers take on the pigs in space with a different physics! Download | Full review |
Angry Birds Star Wars $4.99
Largely the same as Angry Birds Space, but with added Star Wars-style levels. One of the best Star Wars-themed games available. Download | Full review |
Image and Photo Editors
Fhotoroom
Excellent photo app migrated from Windows Phone, with a collection of basic editing tools and over 70 styles, frames, filters and “light leaks”. Download |
Fresh Paint
Easy to use painting/art app with very low learning curve, this is ideal for kids and adults, – all you need is a desire to paint! Download |
Perfect365
Unhappy with the way you look? Add a touch-up or have a makeover – digitally, of course, with this unusual but effective portrait app. Download |
Gallery HD
Find photos and videos on your computer, network or external storage and enjoy them in stunning slideshows with fade and zoom effects. Download |
Fotor
Easy to use photo editing app, offers standard editing, visual effects, frames, tilt shift, collage option and more. Download |
Picasa Albums ($1.99)
The best solution to view your Picasa gallery on Windows 8, optimized for touch. You can pin albums and photos to the Start screen. Download |
Skitch Touch
Communicate visually with your friends and colleagues, using your finger to annotate images, perhaps mark maps or photos with relevant details. Download |
Music Players
8tracks radio
Curated Internet radio, with over 700,000 playlists chosen by music lovers and categorised by mood. Download |
Nokia Music
Mixes of music collected by genre are available in Nokia Music, based on favourite tracks that you specify. Download |
TuneIn Radio
Does it get better than free Internet radio? The popular mobile radio streaming app, now on Windows 8. Download |
7Digital Music Store
This is where you buy new music on Windows 8. With access to a library of 22 million tracks, you can buy and download music anywhere. Download |
Shazam
The popular music discovery service on Windows 8. Use your computer microphone to identify music, then buy, share, watch the video or get the lyrics! Download |
MusicTube
Enjoy the best music with this Last.fm and YouTube mashup that plays great music videos. Download |
Productivity
OneNote
Make notes, plan outlines, clip resources and sync your digital scrapbook to the cloud with this fast, impressive app with its unique finger-friendly dial menu. Features SkyDrive syncing to other devices. Download |
Evernote Touch
The biggest name in digital note-taking, Evernote is free and syncs notes created on one device to all others with an Evernote app installed. Download |
Remote Desktop
Connect to multiple remote desktops all in one go with an interface not dissimilar to Internet Explorer with this excellent free app using RemoteFX from Microsoft. Download |
Teamviewer Touch
Setup a connection to another computer in seconds, whether it is a Windows, Mac or Linux device. Connections are secure and no configuration is required for firewalls and proxis. Download |
PDF Touch
More than a PDF reader, this app also enables you to annotate documents and articles using your finger or a stylus. Fast, efficient and stable, also allows you to save changes. Download |
Reading
Kindle
Access to over 1 million books on the Kindle Store is granted to you with this app, which can sync across devices. Get reading! Download |
Nook
This Kindle competitor offers over 3 million titles, 1 million of which are free, along with magazines, newspapers and comics. You can also use your Microsoft account to sign in. Download |
Wikipedia
In Windows 8, Wikipedia has become more like an old fashioned encyclopedia in book form, and it has never looked better. Download |
Pulse News
Gathers news that you’re interested in and throws in some RSS feeds that you add to bring your favourites to you in one place. Download |
Nextgen Reader ($2.99)
Designed as a Google Reader app, this tool offers support for many other RSS feed reading services as well. Download |
for later
Popular tool for saving interesting online content to be read later, when you’re less busy. Syncs links to other devices via your Windows 8 ID. Download |
Comics
Delivers access to over 30,000 comics and graphic novels from Marvel, DC, Image, IDW, Dynamite and others. New releases and best sellers will be delivered for instant reading! Download |
Book Bazaar Reader
Provides access to thousands of free books from typical open source libraries such as Guttenberg, Flibusta, FeedBooks, FreeBooks and more. Download |
News Bento
Offering similar functionality to Pulse News, News Bento also offers a magazine view and the ability to add custom sources from RSS feeds. Download |
Discourse
Enjoy your favourite news sources in a single, clean designed, image-rich format that somewhat resembles a digital newspaper. Download |
Adobe Reader Touch
Read and search PDF documents, view in single page or scroll mode, and basically do whatever you do with Adobe Reader on the desktop. Download |
Manga Flow ($2.99)
Provides access to a selection of 50,000 manga tales, includes offline reading and a download feature, choice of views and reading direction. Download |
Shopping
eBay
Easily search, bid, buy and list your own items for sale or auction with the official eBay app for Windows 8. Download |
Amazon
Using this Amazon app is faster than using the website. Search is fast, processing purchases efficient – try it! Download |
Craigslist+
Whether you’re looking for something for sale, somewhere to live or even somewhere to work, this remarkable app lets you “win” at using the Craigslist. Download |
Social Networking and Communication
RedditToGo
Metro-style Reddit experience, this app shows the front page and all subreddits, either of which can be pinned to the Start screen. Download |
Reddit on ReddHub
An alternative Reddit reader, this is highly regarded and also features full integration with your Reddit account. Download |
Twitter
Limited compared to some of the alternatives, Twitter nevertheless offers everything you would expect as well as the Discover tool to find trends and follow suggestions. Download |
MetroTwit
Heavily influenced by the Metro UI, MetroTwit is simple to use and displays everything you need to use Twitter effectively. Download |
Skype
Always on, Skype helps you stay in touch with your contacts either via text, voice or webcam. This is the full-screen Metro version of the popular app. Download |
StumbleUpon
Official app for the popular website that finds content tailored to your interests, such as photos, videos and web pages that you can share with friends. Download |
IM+
Offers access to major instant messengers such as Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Skype chat, Google Talk and many mroe. Download |
Utilities
Toolbox for Windows 8
Displays up to six from a choice of 12 different tools (including clock, calculator, weather, timer, web search and social Facebook) in a single full-screen app. Useful! Download |
File Brick
Access all of your ocal and cloud storage from one simple app. File Brick also acts as a DLNA server and facilitates sharing from YouTube, Picasa and Flickr. Download |
YourConverter
Should you need to convert units of measurement length, time, temperature, weight etc., this app has over 140 conversios for you to use. Download |
Calculator – Calc Pro HD ($7.99)
Replace your pocket calculator with Calc Pro HD, with 10 powerful built-in calculators, five modes and five display options for you to use. Download |
Code Writer
Free text and code editor app that can handle HTM, CSS, JavaScript, XML and many other common languages, with active syntax highlighting. Download |
Google Search
Windows 8 comes with Bing search but if you need Google, this app will bring the search box to your desktop or tablet, with Voice Search available! Download |
LastPass
Securely store all of your logins with LastPass, and never be caught without a website password again! Download |
Video Players
Netflix
Enjoy TV episodes, movies and original content from the world’s leading streamed subscription service. Download |
Hulu/Hulu Plus
What could be better than unlimited streaming of top TV shows and fantastic movies? Download |
Vimeo
You can record videos on your computer and upload them with this app, a great tool for running your own online TV show. Download |
TVCatchup
50 live TV channels streamed to your computer. There’s no actual “catching up” involved, however, just great choice (UK only). Download |
Xbox Smartglass
A control interface for the Xbox 360, Smartglass is essentially a remote control for the console, utilising your Windows 8 tablet’s touch features. Download |
PrimeTube
Accessing YouTube is a little clunky through the browser, but with PrimeTube you can watch subscribed channels, manage favourites and even download videos. Download |
Plex ($2.99)
If you use a Plex Media Server, this app will stream music, videos and photos from your central computer to your Windows 8 device. Download |
MediaMonkey
Tile-based media player facilitating the management of media collections on Windows 8 devices and across a Windows network. Download |
Xbox Video
Windows 8′s native video app allows you to purchase subscriptions to top TV shows and movies and stream them to your computer. |