WMPoweruser

The 7 highest rated apps in the Marketplace…

May 21, 2012 | By andrewbares

James Booth from 7tutorials.com recently compiled a list of the top 7 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace, based on user ratings (courtesy of AppFlow App Discovery). Here are the top 7!

RapDialer – 4.82 / 1539 ratings

RapDialer is a fast and fluid T9 contact searching/dialing app, meant to replace the default way of searching for contacts via the typical keyboard. James over at 7tutorials.com didn’t seem to think RapDialer is any faster than a traditional keyboard, but thousands of users (myself included) would disagree! Plus, over 1,500 reviews is really impressive!

Baconit – 4.80 / 2640 ratings

Baconit also has a ridiculous amount of reviews, and is also one of the best apps on WP7! If you love Reddit, Baconit is an excellent choice. If you’ve never used Reddit… try it out and visit the windowsphone Subreddit, you may find that it’s an excellent source of news (after WMPoweruser of course). James personally wasn’t impressed with the whole Reddit network, but he also mentioned that he’s not a big fan of social networks in general.

Stop The Music – 4.79 / 273 ratings

This app is great if you’re OCD and need to clean the last playing song from your volume controls. I personally have no use for this app, but those who need this app love it!

Power Planner – 4.79 / 222 ratings

Power Planner is a homework planner app I personally developed, with features like the fastest homework entry system yet, class schedules, grade/GPA calculator, live tiles, picture support, and much more. As James nicely wrote, “users have said it made the difference in their grades. I can easily see how it would be a beneficial tool for any student. Based on the apps covered so far, in terms of real world usefulness, I feel it deserves a higher placement on the list.”

Starbucks Finder – 4.78 / 144 ratings

Starbucks Finder is a simple app that lets you locate the nearest Starbucks and get info about the stores. James points out that this app was actually created by a Windows Phone fan, not Starbucks themselves, which makes their ranking in the top 7 even more impressive! If you’re a Starbucks fan, you’ll probably love this app too.

ZDclock – 4.78 / 422 ratings

ZDclock is meant to be an app that reminds you to do everything… take your pills, wake up in the morning, make a bank payment, etc. James points out that all of these features could already be done with the built in Alarms or Calendar app. While that is true, ZDclock does give a more streamlined interface for creating reminders, and is worth a try.

Relax Melodies – 4.77 / 252 ratings

At the time James wrote his article, Flixster was actually the 7th highest rated app. As of our press time now, Relax Melodies jumped ahead. Relax Melodies allows you to create a custom soothing sound mixture that is meant to help you relax off to sleep. Reviews have been extremely positive, with one reviewer stating that the soothing sounds “make a marvelous ambiance for any situation.”

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Making Of Nokia 808 PureView (Video)

May 21, 2012 | By Pradeep

Today, Nokia released a video dedicated to nearly 400 people who were involved in the making of the revolutionary Nokia 808 PureView device for the period of over 5 years. The video shows how the idea of this device was born and the various stages that were involved in making it into a consumer product. More than the 808 PureView device, I’m excited about the PureView technology that will be coming to Lumia Windows Phone devices soon. Enjoy the video above, its worth watching.

via: Nokia Conversations

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ZTE Tania coming to China soon, processor upgraded to 1.4 Ghz

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

Unwiredview reports that the ZTE Tania may be less than 10 days away from shipping in China.

ZTE sales director Wei Xiaodong told CNMO that the Tania will be in Chinese stores before the end of this month.

The handset from the Chinese company has so far only been distributed in UK and Europe.

The smartphone will see an interesting specs update prior to its release there – instead of a 1 Ghz processor it will now sports a 1.4 Ghz processor – an interesting choice when the handset’s main weakness is its 4GB storage rather than the more generous 8 GB or 16 GB.

The handset will otherwise retain its 4.3 inch screen, 5 megapixel camera and 512 MB RAM, and likely run the latest version of Windows Phone Tango.

Windows Phone Future leak or Fan Wish list?

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

Insideris received the following pictures, which their tipster claimed was “The first look at Windows Phone 8”.

Insideris themselves was not clear if this was an interim update between Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 (as has been rumoured my come to current generation devices), Windows Phone 8, or simply a fake.

The two pictures above shows separate volumes for music and ring tones, and notifications in the volume bar.

It also shows potentially animated 3rd party tiles.

The second pair shows an already familiar feature, groups in the people hub.

The picture above shows how folders expand into individual tiles, which can presumably be scrolled horizontally.

The middle picture shows the multi-tasking screen with a close button, shortcuts or toggles to WIFI, 3G etc, and also short cuts to “quick Apps”. The last slide suggests that besides alphabetical jump lists there is also the potential for jump lists by category.

The last two shows the potential for a transparent lock screen, allowing an application to show through, while the last picture show how app folders are created. It also shows the ability to add categories to tiles or change the image associated with them (presumably for folders)

Many of these are of course features which users have been demanding, leaving open the possibility that this is simply a fan wish list.

Either way, we will leave it up to our readers to decide, and of course if Microsoft sends a take-down notice we will be sure.

Via Insideris.com

Thanks Angry for the tip.

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Kinect For Windows SDK v1.5 With Kinect Studio Now Available For Download

May 21, 2012 | By Microsoft News

As announced few months before, Microsoft today released its Kinect for Windows SDK v1.5. The new SDK version features many new items such as Skeletal Tracking, Face tracking, Seated Skeletal tracking and other improvements that will allow developers to create apps on Kinect more accurately and easily. Changes since v1, The Kinect for Windows v1.5 [...]

Buy Nokia Lumia 710 From Carphone Warehouse To Get £20 Worth Of Free Apps

May 21, 2012 | By Pradeep

You can now get £20 worth of free apps when you buy a Nokia Lumia 710 device from Carphone Warehouse. The device is available for free from £15.50 per month on contract. If you order the device before 3rd July 2012, you can take advantage of this offer.

Visit http://www.nokiafreeapps.com/ to register for your free apps coupon after you complete the purchase.

Source: Carphone Warehouse

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Kinect and Windows Phone brings WALL-E in 3D to our living room

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

Programming4fun has done it again, combining Kinect and Windows Phone to create interesting and engaging 3D project.

On this occasion he has created a model of WALL-E, the famous Disney robot, which uses the Kinect to sense and respond to the movement of viewers, and a Windows Phone to launch a set of scripted responses.

He seems some actual practical use for this combination, with children for example engaging with WALL-E on the television, while an adult controls the responses. This could even be used in a therapeutic setting.

Programming4fun is taking suggestions for other uses of the technology in the comments of the YouTube video, which can be found here.

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Windows 8 To Come With News, Travel And Sports Apps From Microsoft

May 21, 2012 | By Microsoft News

In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, we found some pre-installed apps from Microsoft such as Weather, Maps, Finance etc,. which are powered by Bing. According to Winunleaked forums, Windows 8 Release Preview will include even more apps from Microsoft such as News, Sports and Travel. I’m sure that News and Travel apps will be powered by [...]

Chinese actor Nicolas Tse promote the Nokia Lumia range in China

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

We have seen a variety of Nokia Lumia promotions, but never anything as cinematic as this one, featuring Chinese actor Nicholas Tse, who in this video plays racing driver, fighter, fire fighter and more.

The video only shows the Nokia Lumia branding briefly, but that’s probably enough to benefit from being associated with the winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor 2011.

The Nokia Lumia range (from the 610 to 800) is on sale in Vietnam from between 5 and 10 million dong.

Update: The video is in fact from Nokia China, and is still of course a great effort.

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Custom Painted Nokia Lumia Devices Coming Soon

May 21, 2012 | By Pradeep

Even though Nokia is selling their Lumia devices in different colors, some people may prefer to have their unique, custom designs on their devices. Many people use custom skins, cases, etc, to have a unique look. Now, a tatoo artist company called “I Ain’t No Saint” is looking to sell custom paint jobs on Nokia Lumia devices. They already have custom Lumia 710 battery covers on sale and they are even testing Lumia 800 & Lumia 900 with same kind of treatment as you can see in the image above.

Find another paint job on Nokia Lumia 900 after the break. Do you find these designs interesting ?

via: Nokialumiablog Source: I Ain’t No Saint

Continue reading →

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Best Windows Phone gamer in the world says Final Fantasy and Super Monkeyball II coming to Xbox Live

May 21, 2012 | By Surur

According to Zebrasqual, who has been crowned the best windows phone gamer in the world based on his large number of Achievements, we can expect two major games to show up on Windows Phone soon.

The first is Final Fantasy , which is likely a mobile version of the 1987 game which was published on the iPhone in March 2011. See some iPhone screen shots below.

Click for larger versions.

The next major game is Sega’s Super Monkeyball II: Sakura Edition, which would be a follow-up to the original Super Monkeyball which did make it to Xbox Live some time ago and which has only just been released for the iPhone and Android.

See some Android screen shots below:

Click for larger versions.

Unfortunately no ETA accompanied the leak, but I suspect E3 2012, which starts on the 5th June, would be a good date to unveil these titles.

Via BestWP7Games.com

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Airplanes 2.0 – Free Online Multiplayer Game now in Marketplace

May 21, 2012 | By Mircea

We have just released version 2.0 of our Airplanes Windows Phone game, check out the video tutorial above.

The new version brings major improvements like:

Position your airplanes with Drag & Drop
New fire/miss effects
Share your victory on Facebook/Twitter
New animations and a more attractive color theme

Also, the paid version is available with a discount from $ 1.99 to $ 0.99

Our game brings something new to the Windows Phone table by integrating Windows Phone Metro design on a Desktop/Browser application. qrcode

Here is a link to the Desktop Version and here you can find the Facebook Version.

Since this is a Online Game people can play with each other from a platform of their choice: Windows Phone, Desktop (via Browser) or Facebook. We think this is a great opportunity for people to experience the Windows Phone Metro design on their PC and also play a challenging game.

Install the game from Marketplace here.

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Get daily Bing backgrounds with Papercut

May 21, 2012 | By AndWeAccelerate

Papercut is a new app that lets you use photos from the Bing homepage as the background of your phone’s lock screen. It’s fast and easy to use, all powered by Metro UI goodness. qrcode

It also gives you a great Live Tile that shows the latest photo right on your start screen. Each image has a short headline with its description (it’s always great to learn new things, right?) – just tap the photo when it is loaded.

The best thing is that Papercut is absolutely free to use, without ads (but if you want to support the developer and donate 99 cents, there is a paid version in the marketplace). Enjoy!

Download FREE version here and the paid version here.

You can also follow @PapercutWP and its developer on Twitter.

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