WP App Review : VBA8

VBA8 (Version 1.0.2)

m.k

$2.99 / Trial

From the creator of the awesome SNES emulator, Snes8x, comes VBA8, a Game Boy Advance emulator. Just like it's counterpart it emulates extremely well and is a solid emulator app. For the full version, the cost is $2.99, although you can play unrestricted with the trial, you just won't be able to save/load states. However, to support the developer I opted to purchase the full version which makes gaming on the go much easier with the save states.

WP8 "Other" Data Storage

UPDATE: Nokia has released a firmware to address this problem.

There seems to be a major flaw in the WP8 OS in how it stores data. If you look under the phone's data storage, you'll notice one section labeled "Other". This section seems to randomly fill up over time, growing in size, and there's nothing much you can do about it. With my Lumia 920, there's 32GB of storage so this flaw doesn't hit me as hard as owners who have a WP8 smartphone with less storage. Still, my "Other" section has grown to 8GB so it's definitely a concern.

WP App Review : Shrink Storage

Shrink Storage (Version 1.0)

Manu Bauer

Free

If you haven't taken notice of your phone's storage, go ahead and check it out right now. Go into "Settings", "Phone Storage", then click on "Phone" to see the breakdown on where your data is spread out on your phone. Like many users, you may notice that your "Other" section is abnormally large. There is no way to clear this and Shrink Storage is an app that tries to help free up some space in this "Other" section.

WP App Review : Submarine Patrol

Submarine Patrol (Version 2.0)

Bokach Software

$0.99 / Trial

Submarine Patrol is an interesting shooter that utilizes the phone's tilt sensor to control lateral movement. You take control of a submarine and your objective is to shoot down the passing enemy ships that come into your view. It's a simple game but can be fairly fun.

WP App Review : The Facebook

The Facebook (Version 1.0)

JDB Pocketware

Free

If you're like most users, you'll have a Facebook app on your phone. And like most users, you're dissatisfied with the Microsoft version of Facebook. The MSFT store has a ton of Facebook apps from third-party developers, and it still amazes me how one of the most widely used social networking services doesn't have a decent app. It's true that there a few decent ones available, but the fact that they charge for it puts me off. I understand that the developers need support, but this is a basic app that should be free in my opinion.

Get Local Traffic Info on WP8 Nokia Maps

When I switched over from iOS to WP8, one of the things that I and many others found lacking in the native Nokia Maps was local traffic (I'm not sure if this was a problem overseas or not.) I always liked using Google Maps but as we all know, Microsoft and Google aren't getting along so no Google apps are available. There is of course third-party apps such as Inrix Traffic which I used in place of Google Maps; and as far as I know Google uses Inrix data for their traffic info anyway so it's the next best thing. But I personally like the Nokia Maps interface and OS integration.

After playing around with the phone a bit the other day, I stumbled across a way to see the local traffic using the integrated map. I was definitely not aware of this feature.

WP App Review : Rizing

Rizing (Version 1.8.3)

Pansoft

Free

Rizing is a relatively entertaining top-down shooter featuring colorful vector-style graphics. It's not a typical shooter in that it each level does not scroll horizontally or vertically. Instead, the playing field enables movement in a full 360 degrees, but within a limited space.

WP App Review : Beem Plus

Beem Plus (Version 1.6)

Hilltop

$0.99

If you already have Tune-In Radio, then Beem Plus is definitely redundant. However, if your only interest is electronic music, then Beem Plus is a great app which combines all the Digitally Imported stations into one app. Wonderful color graphics which are laid out simply make for an easy navigational experience.

You can add your genre favorites and once you're streaming you can check out the track history as well as record. If you just want a simple player for some great electronic music without all the extra stuff, then Beem Plus is definitely worth checking out. It seems to connect slightly quicker than Tune-In Radio as well. Overall, a solid music streaming app.

Pros : Solid music streaming for Digitally Imported stations
Cons : None

WP App Review : Copy

Copy (Version 1.0)

JBen Software

Free

This is a very simple and effective app. If you find yourself having to type out the same long text over and over such as e-mail or some other type of pre-determined text, this app will let you save the text and simply tapping on the block of text will copy it to your clipboard.

But, the best part is that you can activate a voice tag to it. So if you make the voice tag "e-mail", hold down the Windows Home button, say "Copy E-Mail" and it'll copy it to your clipboard. Very simple and effective.

Pros : Simple and effective
Cons : None

WP App Review : Super Voltage

Super Voltage (Version 2.1)

nami

Free

Super Voltage is a fun puzzle game where the goal is to rotate different pipe patterns so that they form an electrical current from the left-hand side to the right-hand side. Doing so will clear out the tiles, along with any enemies which are resting on any of these electrified pieces, which of course is the ultimate goal in the game.

WP App Review : Radiant Defense

Radiant Defense (Version 2.0)

David Peroutka

$2.99

Radiant Defense is your typical tower-defense game in general terms, but it's so well put together. It features  beautiful and colorful graphics, fluid game play, solid sounds, and even a story line. Your mission in the game is to stop the aliens from invading by placing different weapons along their route. Stop all the waves in each stage to succeed.

WP App Review : Pixel Shaper

Pixel Shaper (Version 1.0)

Rockhead Games

$0.99

Pixel Shaper is an older game which is based mainly on shooting elements mixed with a bit of strategy/puzzle. Small blocks, or pixels, slowly fall from the top of the screen and your goal is to shoot small circles into the dots to clear them away. Pixels that are connected must all be filled before cleared from the screen.

WP8 Internet Explorer : Jump to Top

When browsing through long web pages such as blogs or news feed, you'll often times want to jump back to the top of the page. Back when I was using the iPhone, it was as simple as tapping the status bar. Unfortunately on WP8, there is no dedicated way to achieve this.

If you've noticed, tapping the "..." while using IE brings up the status bar and I always thought that they should enable a "jump to top" feature there. However, since they don't, here's the next best thing - create your own bookmark.

All you have to do is go to any webpage and select the "add to favorites" option. Then, change the name to "Top", "Jump to Top", etc. and make sure to add a "^" or other symbol to ensure the link stays at the top of the favorites list.

For the web address simply type "javascript:scroll(00)" without the parentheses. It takes a few taps to access but can make your browsing experience a bit easier for pages that have a lot of scrolling.

Source : thenokiablog

Lumia 920 Photo Walk (2/11/2013)

Since I currently have a week off of work due to getting my wisdom teeth extracted (not fun), I decided to do some photography with my Lumia since I was sick of being cooped up inside all day. This gave me a better opportunity to further test the add-on lens attachments I recently acquired, as well as the ProShot app.

WP App Review : ThereIsNoPauseButton

ThereIsNoPauseButton (Version 1.0.0.4)

Scott Cawthon

$0.99

ThereIsNoPauseButton is a simple side-scrolling game where the screen automatically scrolls horizontally and all you do is jump to avoid obstacles and reach the end of each stage. These "endless" scroller games can be fun a ton of fun on mobile to kill time, but unfortunately this particular app is not one of them.

WP App Updates : 4th & Mayor, MangaTronic, Snes8x

4th & Mayor, an excellent third-party Foursquare app which I use instead of the regular Foursquare app, has been updated to Version 3.13. No change log is provided but most likely includes some bug fixes and performance tweaks.

MangaTronic, an entertaining photo app which turns your photos into Japanese anime, has been upgraded to Version 1.2 with the following changes :

- Rendering engine has been updated (and is a little bit faster)

- New original effects have been added (33 available)

- "Invert Colors' option has been added

- Ratio issue has been fixed

Snes8x, an awesome SNES emulator app, gets yet another quick update to Version 1.1.1 and includes :

- Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash when trying to export the save games of multiple ROMs at once and the corresponding directory on SkyDrive didn't exist yet.

- Added file associations for *.smc and *.sfc files. You can now open those files directly from e-mail attachments and browser downloads and they will be imported by the app (.smc and .sfc files inside .ZIP archives work as well since WP8 supports .zip files)

Hit the jump for QR codes ...

WP App Updates : Nokia Access Point, Battery Level for WP8, Guns 4 Hire

Nokia has updated their Access Point "app" and as usual, no change log is provided. But I assume it was more performance fixes when managing multiple SIM cards.

Battery Level for WP8 has been updated to Version 1.4 and adds in a few bug fixes as well as localization to Russian, Polish, and Hebrew.

Rebellion's excellent Guns 4 Hire has been bumped to Version 1.4.1 which fixes various bugs and improves app stability.

Hit the jump for QR codes.

WP App Updates : Nextgen Reader, Rowi [lite], Words With Friends, Photo Shader

A few app updates :

Nextgen Reader has been updated but seems to just be minor performance/bug tweaks as no change log is present.

Rowi [lite] now includes a setting to change the tile to your phone accent color.

PhotoShader includes a few improvements in final photo output up to 8mb as well as a few UI enhancements as well as live tile setups.

Words With Friends gets an update for performance and stability issues. The app has always been a bit slow but I personally haven't had freezing. The game seems to load slightly quicker now, but it honestly still sucks compared to the iOS version.

WP App Update : Snes8x

Super Nintendo emulator Snes8x has been updated to Version 1.1 with a much needed controller size adjustment and portrait mode setting. Full change log includes :

- Added on option for gray touch buttons

- Added portrait mode

- Redesigned ROM list

- Added recently played list with a snapshot of the last games state

- Apps tile is now a live tile showing the snapshots of the last three played games

- Now possible to pin ROMs to the start screen (tap and hold in the ROM list)

- Added import and export feature for saves (SRAM and save states) via SkyDrive

- Added a feature to change the displayed name of a ROM in the ROM list (tap and hold)

- Added an option to adjust the opacity of the virtual controller

- Added an option for full screen stretch

- Added an option to scale the virtual controller's size

All these updates make Snes8x pretty much a perfect SNES emulator; and all for free. If you love classic gaming and you haven't tried this app out yet, what are you waiting for?

Click here or scan the QR code below

WP App Update : ProShot

The popular photo app, ProShot, which gives you DSLR-like capabilities on your WP8 phone has been updated to Version 2.2 and includes :

- Added Burst Mode (press and hold screen to lock focus + shutter button)

- Added support for portrait UI

- Added auto aspect ratio

- Improved UI animation

- Histogram fixes, no longer beta

- Renamed Display panel to Settings, added more options, settings for burst and image save speed

- Various bug fixes, UI tweaks

- New icon & splash screen

- Added Chinese language support

Click here to download or use the QR code below.

WP App Update : Amazon Kindle

After their last update, the Amazon Kindle app would immediately crash upon opening. Uninstalling the app and re-installing would fix it however. In either case, Amazon updated their app quickly to fix the upgrade crash. Scan the QR code below to download or click here.

WP App Updates : Super Voltage, MetroTalk, Batter Level for WP8

Super Voltage, a fun puzzle game which I hope to review soon, has been updated to Version 2 adding new monsters. 

Scan the QR code below to download or click here.

MetroTalk continues with it's performance enhancing fixes in Version 3.1.1 :
- Fixed critical bug that could cause the app to crash during authentication
- Enabling voice commands or contacts integration no longer results in an error due to corrupted contact entries
- Minor UI update to the overlay icons for pinned tiles
- Various bug fixes

Scan the QR code below to download or click here.

Battery Level for WP8 is also updated to include the following :
- Speech functionality fixed
- Localization infrastructure added; next major update will introduce localization to few European languages. The languages will be added gradually from update to update
- Statistics mechanism

Scan the QR code below to download or click here.

Free SEGA Games

Nokia Corporation is offering free versions of Sega's Sonic CD and Super Monkey Ball 2. These are the full games, however, they aren't connected to XBOX Live so if you're an achievement lover you might be disappointed. Still, I think it's great that Nokia is able to offer these full games for free.

Scan the QR code below or click here to download Sonic CD

Scan the QR code below or click here to download Super Monkey Ball 2 - SE

WP App Update : Amazon Kindle, Nokia City Lens

If you're an Amazon Kindle user on WP8, I would not download the newest update, Version 2.0.0.1. The latest update will render the app useless as it'll crash back to the home screen as soon as you try to open it. Makes you wonder if they even check to make sure the app works before they release it, especially for a big company like Amazon whose products are generally good.

Nokia City Lens also got an update to Version 2.0.17.592. No change log is available and I don't use the app so I can't tell if there's any big difference or not; most likely small bug fixes and performance enhancements. Scan the QR code below to download or click here.

WP App Review : ScoreMobile

ScoreMobile (Version 1.22)
Score Media Ventures
Free

Sometimes you just need a simple, no-nonsense app to quickly check different sports scores. Back on iOS, I used Sportacular which was efficient in this regard. On WP8, I tried a few apps like ESPN but it just seemed a bit too cluttered and many other apps had me going into menus, then sub-menus, just to check a score. For this reason, ScoreMobile is my go to app which quickly lets you browse through scores of a specific sport without any hassle.

A Bunch of WP App Updates

There have been a plethora of WP8 app updates over the past week or so which I couldn't update in time due to some internet problems. However, here's a quick rundown; Rowi [lite], Jewel3, ScoreMobile, MangaTronic, CastleMine Free, Dredd vs. Zombies, Evernote, INRIX Traffic, PhotoBeamer, MetroTalk, Battery Level for WP8, Where's My Water?, and VsysCalendar WP8. Hit the jump for the applicable change logs.