Our favourite 5 new Windows Phone apps of the week
As today is May the 11th, and not May the 4th, we’re a few days too late to make a timely Star Wars joke – but we’re sure, nonetheless, that the latest batch of apps we’ve unearthed will shoot you straight out of orbit from sheer excitement.
Hey – what do you mean, you’ll have to put that to the test? Haven’t you heard? Doubt leads to fear! And where does fear lead? That’s right! Beware the Dark Side! We are your Jedi masters (of Windows Phone apps and games. Oh, yes.)
CNET
What is it: a tech news site
Why we love it: After a glitch beginning, the folk at CNET have updated this app so now it runs nice and smoothly. An excellent resource for tech-based news and info and reviews, if, for some crazy reason, this blog isn’t serving all your needs. It’s got a good layout to match the WP Metro interface and it’s easy to navigate. Nice work!
Who it’s perfect for: techy types
Color Sheep
What is it: A shooting game with a colourful twist.
Why we love it: So, you’re a sheep beset by an onslaught of wolves of different colours. You have to match their colours to kill them, and you can do this – switch your colour – by pressing particular on-screen key-combinations as instructed in the in-game tutorial. It’s kind of like needing to reselect a different weapon for each enemy – and the enemies come thick and fast, so you’ve got to concentrate! Peculiar, wonderful and highly addictive.
Who it’s perfect for: Gamers who don’t suffer from colour-blindness (we think you’d be really hampered).
Slowly
What is it: A slow motion video app
Why we love it: With more and more people taking video, it’s great to finally get an app that allows us to play around with slow motion editing. Great and hugely entertaining. Slowly lets you change regions of your videos and edit the speed from 50% to 25%, giving you plenty of opportunity to experiment. Free to download, it’s lots of fun and easy to play around with.
Who it’s perfect for: Anyone who loves shooting mobile videos
Open Basic
What is it: a geocaching tool
Why we love it: Geocaching is a real-life treasure hunt – objects are stored at particular coordinates and you have to hunt them down and tick them off your list. This app uses info from open geocaching sites using various international servers. Search near your own location or from point on a map, and you’ll see a list of nearby caches which you can select and locate using the map and compass. Simple as that and more fun than it sounds – as long as you actually go and hunt them down afterwards!
Who it’s perfect for: Great fun if you’re into orienteering or have older kids.
Snap Attack
What is it: A word game
Why we love it: From the makers of Wordament comes this new Xbox title: a cross between Scrabble and Bananagrams (our most favourite offline word game), the aim is to take part in a giant online 2.5 minute game. Everyone gets the same letters and the challenge is to get as much points as possible by forming words, much as you would in scrabble. With a couple of words already placed on the grid, you’ve got out two and a half minutes to find the highest scoring placement possible for your seven letters. Like Bananagrams, you can move your letters around to test different configurations: it’s only when the timer runs out that your score is tallied. The check the leaderboard to see your ranking, and what words others found from the same set of letters. Enormously addictive, but requires a live internet connection, so get on wifi or beware those data charges!
Who it’s perfect for: word puzzlers
That’s our fantastic five for this week. We’re appy happy about each and every one of them, but what about you? Are they winners or binners? Let us know in the comments below.