SUNNYVALE, CA, United States – Wow, we’ve finally done it! Our readers, over the last two weeks, have narrowed 32 apps down to a final pair.
We’ve come from four categories including social, gaming, news and entertainment and utility and productivity to come to a final pair of apps that will be crowned the winner of the Conversations by Nokia March Apps Madness 2012 competition. I’m excited, are you?!
Without further ado, let’s unveil the two apps that are up for vote. Competing for the grand finale are Nextgen Reader vs. Gravity Guy!
In this round, myself and Adam present our case for each contender.
Here’s the full bracket so you can see how each round played out.
Nextgen Reader, by Jason
If there’s one utility that I depend on throughout the day, it’s my RSS reader. I follow over 286 subscriptions in my Google Reader and am attached to reading the news, perhaps too much.
Even though some in the blogosphere regard RSS as a being ‘dead’ technology, for me, it’s a utility that I couldn’t live without. Yes, I see sometimes news first on Twitter or Facebook every now and then, but when it comes to delivering the niche news I’m most interested in, RSS is my go-to tool for delivering my view of the web to me.
My RSS feeds span mobile blogs to those about community management and even many that relate to the town I live in: Portland, Oregon. I even have Craigslist queries that list items that I only discover through RSS so I can keep an eye on the exact type of car I currently want to buy.
With that, I need my Google Reader in my pocket. Sure there is Internet Explorer and the web version of Google Reader, but this situation leaves a lot to be desired. Nextgen Reader is an amazing solution for Google Reader users on a Nokia Lumia phone.
Nextgen Reader takes the simple and elegant Metro user interface to create a news reading app that is both fully functional and beautiful. I love that Nextgen Reader allows me to sync my phone when I’m online and read and process my news when I’m offline. This is nice for when I’m traveling on a plane or going into a situation where I won’t have a reliable 3G connection.
For those who are into fast apps, Nextgen Reader syncs very quickly. The app is fully synchronized with Google Reader, meaning your read items are updated as such and- for this application, sync takes a matter of seconds. The text/background colors have nice options and are easily toggled using a preference.
I haven’t used this feature, but the most recent update to Nextgen Reader added a “Featured” area that lists RSS feeds that might interest you categorized into subjects.
For those wanting to take actions on multiple articles (such as sending them to Read It Later or sharing via email), you can select articles in the same fashion you select multiple emails in the native Windows Phone mail app – very slick.
For those wanting a powerhouse Google Reader app for Windows Phone, Nextgen Reader was the best $2.49 I’ve spent in the Marketplace. Check it out.
Gravity Guy, by Adam
Well, if there’s ever a game to play and it involves the natural laws of physics, then I’m in. And you don’t get more sciencey than gravity. It’s what keeps us all grounded.
I like to think that I have control over such natural laws, but in reality, I don’t. How could I? However, Gravity Guy lets me take command and give physics the finger. I control whether I’m running on the floor, or the ceiling. Not you, physics.
After serving a sting of time in space jail, Gravity Man – the little man you control in this game – decides it’s time to escape. Obviously, the guards haven’t taken too kindly to your early check-out and a chase ensues.
To escape and evade your jailer you run across a landscape full of scattered objects, walls, steps and giant holes. The only way to these obstacles is to switch gravity on or off. Switch if off and you’re flipped upside down, flying over low lying objects. Switch it on and, well, I’m sure you get the idea.
The pace of this game is a fast one, you need to keep your eye on the screen at all times, because if you look away it’s highly likely you’d have drifted into oblivion or have been zapped by the guard’s ray gun.
Have you used gravity, or anti-gravity, to escape? If not, you can download the trial to give it a go, or purchase the full version for £2.29 from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
There you have it. We’re down to the final two apps up for vote. So use the form below to vote for your favorite amongst these two top applications.
Voting will run for today only and the winner will be crowned on Tuesday, April 3rd. Thank you to all who have participated thus far and we look forward to crowing the winner on Tuesday!