Our 5 favourite new Windows Phone apps of the week
Hello, Windows Phones fans! It’s been a busy week for apps fans in Lumia land.
There’s been updates for a bunch of popular services rolling out, including tweaks to Xbox Music and the Misfit app we featured last week. However, we’ve zoomed right to new releases, though, and, if we say so ourselves, we’ve got an eclectic array of software for you this week. Scroll down to see our top five finds from the week that’s been….
Shapist
What is it: a puzzle game
Why we love it: Okay, this is possibly the trippiest app we’ve ever featured… If you opened it without knowing what it was, you’d be forgiven if you were immensely confused. There are no tutorials or explanations, just floating shapes for you to drag and reconfigure. If you drag the various coloured segments around so that you totally uncover the key block (it has a little diagram on it) then you’ll progress to the next puzzle. It’s one for the logically-minded, but it’s oh-so-pretty, too, and the music is soothing.
Who it’s perfect for: gamers of all ages
Clique
What is it: a meetup.com client
Why we love it: This is one of the many social media apps we’ve got on the WP store. Rather than post endless photos of your cat, though, this is designed to help you meet groups of like-minded people and find interesting events to attend. A great way to meet new friends if you’ve just moved to a new area. The app is very functional and easy to navigate.
Who it’s perfect for: social butterflies and hobbyists
6cret
What is it: A third party client for Secret
Why we love it: If you’re an app fanatic, you’ll guess from the title that this is the latest offering from Rudy Huyn, maker of 6sec, 6tag, 6snap and more; and you’ll also now that Secret is a cross-platform anonymous messaging service. Send secret messages and get replies; see if they go viral; try and guess who’s writing to you – but don’t use your powers for evil, folk! Spread the love! The app is as cleanly designed and easy to use as we’d expect from Huyn – definite recommendation if you’ve got secrets to spread…
Who it’s perfect for: aphoristic cryptic folk
App in the Air
What is it: a flight companion app
Why we love it: If you travel frequently by air, this is a handy one. You can use it to track particular flights, get advice and tips from other travellers, get organized before you go (see their packing tips) and make the most out of the airport experience. Just add a flight to get started. The live tile aspect is especially handy; you’ll get all the relevant updates on check-in times, delays, and more. We think we’ll get hooked on this one. They offer a ‘sample flight’ so you can explore the app before you actually fly, too – so get practicing!
Who it’s perfect for: frequent flyers
Office Lens
What is it: A photo app-slash-productivity tool
Why we love it: Use this app to photograph documents (typed pages, whiteboards, etc) and convert them to Word or PowerPoint format for editing. It advertises itself as a mobile scanner, and while you won’t get the resolution of a proper scanner, it’s a really good on-the-fly alternative. Easy! Select photo, document or whiteboard mode, take your picture, save it, and select which format you’d like to work with – Word or PowerPoint. The picture gets saved to OneNote and the file to your OneDrive folder. Tap to open the file on your phone, or hold to send it to a computer via email to edit it. From your phone, you can open it as a pdf or print it. If we were to say it was super convenient, we’d really be underselling it. Top marks!
Who it’s perfect for: mobile workers
That’s it for another week – and we were, right, weren’t we? Eclectic barely begins to describe it… Which apps have you downloaded lately? What did you think of our choices? Leave your comments below and join the Nokia conversation!