Best Windows Phone 7 Apps » Top Apps

Top 3 WP7 Apps for June 2011

bestwp7apps — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:05:37 +0000

Ok we are late for this – we are working on a surprise that we hope you will like.
Amazing games this month with the Must Have Windows Phone 7 Games series big names all coming out in June.
Well here is our humble choice for the top 3 together with some some special mentions. Which one is your preferred? Vote with the poll below or leave a comment.

#3: Doodle Jump

This is one of our desert island games on the iPhone. The porting on WP7 is good, so if we end up on a palmed beach in the middle of the pacific (with a solar battery charger) we will be glad we installed Doodle Jump before leaving…

#2: Plants vs. Zombies

This is the game with the most gameplay for the money, great style and the most class on the platform. Thanks PopCap for bringing this jewel to WP7.

#1: Angry Birds
This is the game with the most friend in my list on the leaderboard, this game went to the top of the charts in only 2 days… this game is Angry Birds!

Special mentions: Penguin and Evernote
These are great games and apps released this month: what is your vote? Use the poll below!

What do you think?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Top 3 Turn by Turn direction apps on Windows Phone 7

bestwp7apps — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:56:06 +0000

Windows Phone support for turn by turn navigation has definitely room for growth. As we wait for the Mango version coming out this fall, announced to support native voice narrated directions with the Bing Maps app, we have to settle for a limited selection of such apps on Windows Phone 7 today. Luckily in this case limited does not mean none.There are currently only three generally available apps that provide turn by turn directions, if we exclude carrier exclusive apps like AT&T Navigator or TeleNav GPS Navigator for T-Mobile – which usually require an expensive subscriptions on top of your data plan anyways.Drive On, Turn by Turn Navigation and Silver GPS Navigator are the only options on our Windows Phone 7, NoDo edition today.Yeah – our job in selecting the top 3 was easy enough: we found only three that support turn by turn indications. Note that there are much more that show you the direction on the screen, including the default Maps app and the new great gMaps app, but that defeats the purpose of driving from point to point without looking at the screen to figure out where to turn next all the time.

Drive On (Free)

Drive On by NuTech is free, but marked as beta version. This is a basic turn by turn navigation app; the UI is somewhat confusing, though: there are a lot of icons but it’s not clear what they do (after you find a place, what should you tap to get there ?). Also when you search for places it is not apparent that you need to wait (the blue dots in the center of the screen are just not visible enough over the satellite image).Finally Drive On got stuck a few times not showing our progress, so it’s hard to recommend. You should try it, because it’s free, but beware this is a beta, so results are not guaranteed.A recent update is improving things slightly but the new control in the middle of the screen is too big and hard to tap. If you remove some clutter, then Drive On has potential to be a good app.

Silver Navigator ($ 2.99)

Silver Navigator by GraphicDNA is another basic navigation app. Search is ok with clear indication of the destination and the options of walking or driving. Directions volume is too low though, it’s really hard to hear where you need to go next, even at full volume.Another problem is the route on the map gets redrawn continuously and so it happens often that you can’t even see where you need to drive next. The app supports landscape mode, which is nice, but the indications cover most of the screen making it almost useless.Even at $ 2.99, given that you cannot hear the indications and sometimes cannot even see them, Silver GPS is no better than gMaps or the regular Bing Maps app, which we would recommend over it.

Turn By Turn Navigation ($ 4.99)

Turn By Turn Navigation by GPS Tuner is a new addition to the strict circle of voice directed navigation apps. This is a promising app, the best reviewed here, but it does not mean it has no room for improvement.Search is good with results shown on a map – a different approach than other GPS apps – interesting. But also sometimes annoying: if I enter the name of a place and the city where I want to go, why is the app showing similar places 20 or 30 miles away? We need to zoom to select what we already entered..not good.Selecting the destination will give you clear options to “GO” there (yeah!). The indications over the map are good with ETA, distance, speed and next turn.Navigation is just ok, though. The map is over the top rather than in prospective and the car seems to never be on the road: a little to the left, a little to the right.. A voice telling us that the GPS signal was lost is not providing additional confidence. Finally the app did not selected the best/shortest route in a couple of tries.Again, this is a promising app, and the best one available, but at the moment – especially at the price of $ 4.99 – it’s a bit of a stretch (maybe for 2.99?).Try it with the free trial that will allow you to plan trips of 12 miles or less.
UPDATE: We recently tried the most recent version of Turn by Turn (1.3 at the moment) and found it improved a lot. Now the navigation and planning works ok, bringing it at pair with some of the most expensive and popular navigators on other phones. The search could be improved, but the price tag is definitely enticing, and with a new rating of 4 out of 5 is worth a try.

Closing comments:
Overall, we have been somewhat let down by the turn by turn navigation apps on WP7, we believe the best option at the moment is the basic Bing Maps app available on every phone, with gMaps as a great (and free) alternative.Later this year the Bing Maps app will also get voiced directions, making it even harder to top.Silver Navigator and Turn by Turn Navigation by GPS Tuner are example of promising first steps towards good third party navigation apps on WP7, though.Keep following Best WP7 Apps for updates on this popular category.
UPDATE: Turn by Turn is now a viable option and our navigator of choice for WP7, you can use it for your daily trips.

Top 3 WP7 Apps for May 2011

bestwp7apps — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:08:35 +0000

Lots of great apps this month – hard choice for the podium, but a slam dunk for number one. Here is our favorite for this month with some special mentions. Which one is your preferred? Vote with the poll below.

#3: Pandas vs. Ninjas

A very nice version of the “pull your finger to throw something at a castle of enemies to take them all down” theme.

#2: gMaps

GMaps is one of the top map apps on Windows Phone 7, with a very clean and responsive interface, good navigation and search capabilities.

#1: Pac-man Championship Edition DX
Pac Man CE DX gameplay is just gorgeous: challenging, fulfilling and never-ending – you have what you are looking for here.

Special mentions: Hydro Thunder GO and Armored Drive
These are some great games released this month: what is your vote? Use the poll below!

What do you think?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Top 3 WP7 Apps for April 2011

bestwp7apps — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:45:57 +0000

Which was the top Windows Phone 7 app in April?

Well here are our top three… which one is your favorite?

#3: TuneIn Radio

The best radio experience on WP7.

#2: The Home Depot

Another great shopping app on Windows Phone.

#1: Dude, Where is my WP7 Update?
Verbatim. Even now that we have our deserved update, this is still the most used app in April.

Special mentions: Shuriken Ninja and ESPN Score Center
Both these apps are raising stars in WP7 user favor – we agree. Especially on Shuriken Ninja – really good job there.

What do you think?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Top 3 WP7 Apps for March 2011

bestwp7apps — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:02:35 +0000

Top 5 Stocks Apps for Windows Phone 7

bestwp7apps — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:35:47 +0000

There are many stocks and portfolio management apps in the WP7 marketplace today, and not all of them have good review scores. We have selected some of the best ones out there and ranked the top 5 that are best suited for your trading taps.We did not look at general financial apps (Pageonce still shines in that category, see our review here), but only to those apps that show you stock quotes, news, charts and sometimes offer portfolio management.Here we go with Number 5:

#5 – Stock Watch (Free)

This app is free and this is good. It is also the app with the best charts of all we tried, the only one displaying the stochastic curve for your beloved stocks.But… the user interface is a mess. Input UI and functionalities are really confusing. For example, the app has both a watch list and a portfolio, but you cannot enter quantity and price for the stock in the portfolio (?).Another example is the UI to add a symbol to your list: you type a symbol, a pop up list shows up, you select the symbol, hit search (?) and then select add to portfolio again (???) Stock Watch includes a handy currency exchange section, together with movers and markets watch, but has no live tile to see your portfolio move from your WP7 home screen.

The UI has improved over time, but is still messy and confusing, Nonetheless, this app is worth your taps because of the charts, and it’s free, so check it out.

Top 5 Stocks for Windows Phone 7 feature
5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Best News Apps for Windows Phone 7 (part 2)

bestwp7apps — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:52:00 +0000

Here we go with part two of the best news apps for Windows Phone 7 review. As we mentioned in our part one, we are looking for the best journalistic news apps that will keep you informed and up to date every day. Here are two more great apps for this purpose available on Windows Phone 7 today:

Got News (free app)

Got News is a great source of information as well as a fast app that presents some useful customization and clever time saving features. It is actually a hybrid feed reader / news app since provides access to pre-selected RSS feeds for specific categories.

Like a newspaper, Got News presents editorially curated categories (Headlines, Gossip, Money, Sports and Tech); with pre-selected relevant, authoritative and interesting feeds that will get you access to the best information on the topic. For example, CNN, MSNBC, Fox and NY Times are some of the news sources in the Headlines category. If you select a source, you will get access to its latest headlines, with a brief description (and a picture in some cases); one more tap and you will get to the relative website with the full content of the selected article. The app navigation and startup are fast, but the UI has some unconventional colors and fonts that might get you thinking (you get over it soon, though).

The app is customizable, and clever in doing it: you don’t need select your favorite feeds, because Got News will do it for you: the feeds that you access the most are automatically added to the Favorites category. You can also define your own category and add feeds to either existing or personal categories. Finally you can import your Google Reader feeds and share the news stories on Facebook, via email or text message, standard feature in all the best news apps we reviewed.

Verdict (reviewed version 1.2.0.0)

Overall Got News is a great package of news information and handy functionality that will save you time and keep your tapping fingers up to date with your Windows Phone 7.

News360 (free app)

Simply said, News360 is the best way to stay informed on Windows Phone 7. It is a news aggregation app, that extracts the best news from thousands of sources. If you have used Google news you know what I am talking about: news are “reported by Wall Street Journal and 97 other sources“…

As you launch the app, you access the today page, that provides a list of hot topics for the day, topics vary from politics to sports, technology and so on… the list gets updated with what is fresh, new and interesting (!). With a swipe to the right, you can access the photos section, presenting a list of pictures that can be tapped and reveal the headline of one top article (similar to AP Mobile media view). With a swipe to the left, you can access the news categories. Tap a category and the today page will filter the content to reveal only related news. Reading articles on News360 gives you access to different points of view, linking articles from many different sources to the same argument. Pictures are also linked: you can swipe tens of images on the same topic without reloading the page.

The articles have keyword expansion with extracts from Wikipedia and link to related news, you can get lost digging deep into a headline news article for a long time!
If you tap on the GPS icon, then local news are displayed, this is a very natural way to focus on local news and it works really well.
The app is generally fast, loads fast and resumes quickly from lock screen. Some performance problems appear if you scroll the today’s news list too fast, the UI will slow down and be hard to control; this is not the standard way you will use the app though: if you are reading the news as you scroll down (as you are supposed to when using that list), you will not notice any slowness and your experience will be gooood.
NOTE: News 360 just released update 1.3 that solves some of the scrolling problems: now if you scroll too fast it gets scattered but no longer unmanageable.
Additional features include the possibility to follow news by keywords: for example, give me all the news about Windows Phone 7, as well as sharing articles via Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Verdict (reviewed version 1.2.0.0)

News360 presents an impressive package for relevance of the news, easy of use, ability to drill down and completeness of features, all in a FREE app that you can’t miss to hold tap and pin to your Windows Phone 7 start menu.

Best News Apps for Windows Phone 7 (part 1)

bestwp7apps — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:19:00 +0000

There are several apps in the News and Weather category. At the time of writing, we are counting 200 of them, which makes up the 6% of all the apps in the Windows Phone 7 marketplace. With all this choices available, we want to help you discover the best apps to stay informed. We mean journalistic news apps (not RSS/Feed readers, those are material for future reviews): the purpose here, is to replace the morning newspaper, web site, TV or radio show that you use in the morning to know what is going on around the world and in town. You should not need anything more than your Windows Phone 7 and a few good news apps (which might also come for free these days!).

We have pinned to our start menu several news apps and got informed by them for a few days: initial selection included the most downloaded, best rated and most recently published news apps in the marketplace. From this list, we selected four apps worthy of your precious taps, here are two of them:

Drudgeraptor ($0.99, no free trial)

Drudgeraptor is the Windows Phone 7 client for the news site drudgereport.com, a news aggregation site editorially curated by Matt Drudge. We liked the app because the content is good and can be easily consumed.

There are top relevant headline news right on the home page, extended by additional “columns” (one, two and three) that complete the news coverage for the day. The editorial selection is relevant and fresh with politics, business, sports and all the news categories you would expect to read in your favorite newspaper; Drudgeraptor makes a great job in aggregating interesting and relevant arguments and presenting them in a concise way to the reader. On the negative side, the UI is somewhat non metro standard, since you need to swipe the title rather than the content; the UI also reloads every time the screen locks, that is annoying if you have a short time-out, but reloading is fast enough not to make this a huge problem.

Finally the content cannot be personalized and there is no sharing functionality, but I guess this is by design as it helps the user focusing on reading the news: that should be what this app is all about!

Verdict

Great aggregated news content on a quick app, but over bare bone functionality.

AP Mobile (free app)

The Associated Press is one of the most authoritative sources of information in the world, this news agency provides information to many of the information channels we consume daily (TV, web sites, newspapers and so on…) On Windows Phone 7, AP Mobile gives us first hand access to the news source, with a nice app that has great content with a few secondary technical defects.

The content is top notch: relevant important content is presented in the front page screen. The top two articles for every category are displayed here, with a link to more news in the same category. The user can add other sections and re-arrange the existing (front page and others), allowing us to have a personalized experience. We feel that two articles per category are too few, though, forcing us to tap back and forth into the categories to see more headlines. The app has an interesting media view that will display news pictures, proportionally sized to the importance of the argument. It is a nice way to visually access the interesting/important news in a single page.

The app tile is active on the start menu, displaying a picture from the AP articles; this is a nice touch, but not very functional: we do not recognize the app as we flick through our start menu. Also, navigating the app is sometimes flaky: the app will easily take a down swipe for a side one and a short swipe for a tap. This does not happen with other apps, so we believe it might be an app problem, rather than a phone one.

Verdict

Great content from one of the best news sources on the planet, some technical bug on the app keep it short of a full score.

Well, this does it for part one, check our PART TWO, that reviews additional great news apps for Windows Phone 7.