This is a fun FREE game with nice 3D graphics and great physics!

Overall Score: 4/5

Shuffle Party has some fun gameplay and great presentation with good lasting value. And it’s free!

Gameplay: 4/5

In this game, you slide a puck across a table in order to knock down bowling pins, collect coins, or make the puck stop in certain zones. The controls are easy enough to use, and thanks to all the different modes, the gameplay is pretty fun. Bowling is your classic style of bowling, with strikes and spares, etc. There is a Challenge mode where you have to collect stars on the table while also making the puck land in a certain zone, which is a nice change of pace. Also, there’s the classic style where you have to get the puck to stop as close to the end of the table as possible.

Presentation: 5/5

The 3D visuals look great, and the physics are oh-so-awesome! There were some moments in the game where I wish I was recording it, because bowling pins would ever-so-slightly wobble and spin just like real life and I wanted to capture how cool the physics were! The sound effects are good too.

Lasting Value: 4/5

With the variety of 3 game modes plus a local multiplayer mode (pass the phone to your friend style), you can get some good lasting value. The Challenge mode has a number of levels to play, and you can always replay them to collect all three stars on each level.

Title: Shuffle Party
Price: FREE
Publisher: Microsoft Studios

Before however rejoicing that this would mean an even earlier announcement of a Nokia Windows Phone 8 handset, it seems the event is set to become a lot more closed and a lot more secretive.

While Nokia calls it moving from a CES to SXSW model, in fact the event will become even smaller, centred around operator and retail partners, not normally the most loose-lipped folk.

If Nokia does show a new Windows Phone 8 phone (which is very likely) this will not necessarily result in an announcement to the general public.

The cause for this change in MO is likely Nokia’s financial stress, which makes the usually extravagant Nokia World event an expense they could not justify, especially with Nokia promising recently to focus on"lowering the company’s costs, improving cash flow and maintaining a strong financial position."

See the post at Nokia Conversations here.

Read more at Microsoft News

The latest news regarding Windows Phone 8 from a trusted source according to MML is that current generation Windows Phone devices will have Windows Phone 8 update. Our good old Microsoft leaker @MSNerd passed on this information to Microsoft bloggers.

Waggener Edstrom person says MSFT has Windows 8 (for x86), Windows RT (for next-gen ARM), & Windows Phone 8 (for current-gen phones).

Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft’s PR agency have told the above statement which makes us to truly believe that Windows Phone 8 subset may come to current generation Windows Phone devices after all. Of course, hardware specific features such as display resolution, NFC, Bit-locker encryption, etc, won’t make to current-gen phones. But consumers should be happy to get second major update for their 2 year old Windows Phone devices.

What do you think?

Source: MML 

WPGeek Ltd, the company behind WindowsPhoneGeek.com – the leading Windows Phone development community, today announced the launch of the invitation-only beta of their new Marketplace for Windows Phone app development components.

The WindowsPhoneGeek Marketplace for Windows Phone app development components is the place where developers can buy and sell UI controls, development tools, SDKs, application templates, source code and all kind of components and tools that can be used for Windows Phone application development.

The purpose of the Marketplace is to help developers to build better apps, and more quickly by offering the components they need, but don’t have either the time or resources to build themselves. On the other side, developers that have already built reusable pieces of code for their projects will be able to share them with others and make more money from existing code. Both paid and free components can be published to the marketplace for FREE.

Boryana Miloshevska,  Founder and CEO of WPGeek Ltd: “… Our purpose is not just to list thousands of low quality components, but to list those that really can bring value and can help developers to build better apps. So, quality and not just quantity is what we aim to achieve with the WindowsPhoneGeek Marketplace!  ”

“We decided to make this an invitation-only beta so that, together with members of the Windows Phone development community, we can create the perfect environment for developers to share their tools and components with others.  We expect to start the public beta in September 2012.” – said Yordan Pavlov, Founder and CTO

About WindowsPhoneGeek.com

WindowsPhoneGeek.com is the leading  community web site for Windows Phone Development. WindowsPhoneGeek.com provides high quality development articles, tutorials, source code, examples, forums, tips, resources, demo videos, latest development news and more. WindowsPhoneGeek.com is a valued community partner and is listed on the Microsoft Windows Phone developer portal at create.msdn.com/en-us/resources/partners .

About WPGeek Ltd

WPGeek Ltd based in London, UK,  is the company  behind  WindowsPhoneGeek.com. The founding team has many years of experience in building reusable components and is constantly looking for ways to help Windows Phone developers build great apps.

For more information and screenshots see windowsphonegeek.com

We have already seen the Nokia Lumia 900 becoming available unlocked from Amazon.de on the 31st May.

Now according to O2 Germany on twitter, the German carrier will also be bringing the Nokia Lumia 900 to their subscribers some time next week.

The O2 rep was was unable to pin it down any closer or provide more information but  our earlier info said the handset will be available for € 541 unlocked or for 24 instalments of € 22.50 in  in Black, White and Cyan.

Thanks Bajanx for the tip.

HTC today announced Titan 4G with 4.7 inch display and 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor in Australia today. The device will feature a 16MP camera with 720p HD video recording and 1.3MP front camera. The Titan 4G will be available for free from Telstra for $78 per month on a 24 month plan. The unlocked device will cost over $890. Australian Windows Phone users should be happy to hear the first 4G device on their country.

Soure: CRN

Power Planner was just updated, adding new features like two-week support, multiple live tiles, and more! Plus, I reduced the price from $1.99 to $0.99!

I’m a student at the University of Arizona, and I realized there weren’t any quality homework planners for WP7. Therefore, I set out to develop the best homework app possible. Over time, Power Planner’s features have expanded and now include:

• Take a pic for a homework assignment
• Multiple live tiles for each class (paid)
• A schedule tile displays your upcoming class and room number
• Calculate your grade and average GPA (paid)
• Hyperlink detection in details text (supports phone numbers, URL’s, etc)
• Two-week schedule support
• Fastest homework entry system on WP7.
• Automatic reminders for every homework assignment
• And so much more!

Instead of the slow default date selector, I created a custom calendar date selector that dramatically reduces the time it takes to pick your due date. Plus, unlike all the other apps, Power Planner remembers your previous due date and selected class, so you can quickly add multiple items to a class faster than any other app.

Power Planner also intelligently creates reminders based off your class schedule. At the end of your day, Power Planner tells you what’s due for tomorrow. And if you didn’t complete an assignment, Power Planner reminds you an hour before the class starts. Also, the live tiles display your actual homework items so you don’t even need to open the app to see what you have due next!

There is simply no better homework app for students. Trust me, I’ve tried them all. If there was a good app, I would have never built Power Planner!

Download Power Planner for FREE or $0.99.

Overall Score: 5/5

First of all, you must actually like the board game Monopoly in order to like this phone game! It’s basically the exact board game, but virtual. Everything works perfectly, so you can simply experience Monopoly as it should be played.

Gameplay: 5/5 (Weighted to be 2x more important)

The controls are simple and effective. If you’re ever unsure of what a button will do, just hold over it with your finger and the button will reveal its title. The controls allow you to enjoy Monopoly. Gameplay is essentially the classic board game (don’t buy the game if you don’t like Monopoly in real life!). Fans of Monopoly will enjoy the multiple AI (computer opponents) difficulties and the ability to play with their friends (up to 4 people can play).

We all heard about Nokia Lumia 900 going out of stock often at various retailers, but now its time for HTC Windows Phone devices. Both HTC Titan and HTC Titan II are now out-of-stock on AT&T’s website. We don’t know the exact reason why the devices went out of stock, either it may be because the devices sold out completely or HTC was lazy to fill the supply chain. Either way, you should wait for some more days if you want to own a HTC Titan or Titan II from AT&T.

Source: AT&T Titan, AT&T Titan II

Thanks to gb for the tip.