It has been a busy week for Microsoft at the Build conference in San Francisco where we announced what’s next for Windows PCs, tablets, and phones with two updates: Windows Phone 8.1 and the Windows 8.1 Update. It’s hard not to be excited, and the developer community in attendance – the people who build apps for Windows –- seemed to be pretty stoked too. As we end this week full of awesomeness, I thought I would highlight some pretty cool new apps and games that have hit the Windows and Windows Phone Stores this week as well as some apps that recently also got some updates. Some of these apps were announced by Guggs yesterday.
Airport City (New!):
Fasten your seat belts, Airport City has just launched on Windows and Windows Phone! Take off in two exciting modes—construct a modern airport or build the city to support it. While you’re managing your airport, flights will be taking off and landing from all over the world. You’ll come face to face with a fun cast of characters and work against the clock to collect incoming exotic items from every corner of the globe. Expand your fleet from tiny prop planes to intercontinental jets. Download Airport City for free from the Windows Store and from the Windows Phone Store!
Rollerblade Inline Skates (New!):
Welcome to the quintessential app for inline skaters— from novices to hardcore pros— by the world’s leading inline skating brand, Rollerblade. Track your skating activity and check how your friends are performing. Find the best skates, choose and track your workout plans, and become a better skater with built-in lessons from the pros! Share your stats and photos with friends and take your inline skating experience to a whole new level, stat. Download for free exclusively for Nokia Lumia Windows Phones here from the Windows Phone Store!
Star Walk (New!):
When you wish upon a star… know exactly what you’re seeing with Star Walk, the most beautiful stargazing app for a mobile device. Just point your Windows Phone at the night sky and learn about the stars, planets, satellites, and constellations from any location. As you move your device, the star map updates in real time! It’s your interactive astro-guide to the night sky. Explore more than 200,000 sky-high celestial bodies with extensive info that will turn you into an astronomical genius. Download for $2.49 (U.S.) from the Windows Phone Store!
Split Pic (New!):
Bend reality with your phone! Take a picture and create highly modified versions to share with friends and family. Split Pic makes it easy to blend two images based on patterns and effect filters you select. So you can clone your friends, melt faces together, put your dog’s head on your sister’s body. Create new worlds with the most feature rich version of Split Pic yet! Get creative ideas online then explore Windows Phone’s three new picture manipulation templates not available on iOS or Android! Download for free from the Windows Phone Store!
WTA: Women’s Tennis Association (New!):
Get the latest in women’s tennis on your Windows PC or Tablet with this brand new app from the Women’s Tennis Association. Enjoy the latest stats, scores, news, videos, and player profiles. Stay up to speed with the most recent and upcoming tournaments. And get Live Tile updates when you pin WTA to your Start screen. Game, set, match! Bonus: create virtual fantasy match-ups of your favorite players with the fantastically-fun Head-to-Head feature—a Windows-only exclusive that lets you compare players past and present. Download for free from the Windows Store!
Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood (New!):
A lost family, an abandoned camper, and enormous claw marks on the roof! All clues point to nearby Ravenwood Park… If you’ve played the smash hit detective story The Ghost of Maple Creek, you know how rich Enigmatis is with horror, plot twists, and shadowy intrigue. Now, the adventure continues, taking you deep into a mysterious park on the trail of the demonic preacher who escaped your grasp one year ago. There are 36 achievements to unlock and 30 new collectible butterflies to find. Download for free EXCLUSIVELY from the Windows Store and from the Windows Phone Store!
ZEDGE Ringtones & Wallpapers (New!):
Wallpapers and ringtones and backgrounds, oh my! Download FREE, high-quality ringtones and HD wallpapers optimized for your screen size—right from the ZEDGE app. More than 80 million people browse and download 300M+ ways to personalize their phones from ZEDGE every month—in categories like Bollywood, Anime, Babes, Hunks, Pets & Animals, and Sport. And you can add your own creations with other ZEDGE users on www.zedge.net. Download for free from the Windows Phone Store!
Kingdom & Lords (New!):
You’re pitted against the Dark King and his barbarian followers in the new medieval simulation adventure Kingdom & Lords (Free). You have great power and wide leeway, however, to create a fantasy kingdom, defend it and expand it – everything from developing agricultural and production systems to building rural villages to hiring, training and growing armies for combat. And it’s fun to draw your friends into battle to see just whose forces are the best-equipped and trained. Kingdom & Lords is a kill-or-be-killed, every-lord-for-himself world, but you’re up for the challenge! Download it for free from the Windows Store and from the Windows Phone Store!
Viber (Updated!):
Text, call, share photos worldwide, for free with Viber! This messaging and calling app works over Wifi or 3G, connecting you with more than 200 million other Viber users. It syncs with your mobile contact list to auto-detect your friends who have Viber. With its newest feature, Viber Out, you can now call non-Viber numbers, and at low rates—no matter if they’re landlines or mobile devices. The update also lets you send video messages, send multiple photos at once, and makes hands-free Bluetooth connections super easy. Download for free from the Windows Phone Store!
Foursquare (Updated!)
More than 30 million people use Foursquare to find out where friends and locals love to go. Foursquare for Windows Phone was recently updated with numerous UI improvements and bug fixes. And, as showcased at Build this week, Foursquare is a featured Bing App Linking partner. What’s so cool about that? For one, it means Foursquare will automatically appear in Bing searches when relevant. And second, it means integration with the just-announced Cortana – the new personal digital assistant powered by Bing that gets to know you and builds a trusting relationship that gets better over time. Learn more on the Bing Blog. Download for free from the Windows Phone Store!
Check out these great new apps and titles and let me know in the comments what you think!