WP App Review : MLB At Bat 13

NOTE: This review has been updated at the bottom.

At Bat 13 (Version 1.0)

MLB Advanced Media L.P

Free

MLB has finally released a Windows Phone 8 version of their popular At Bat app. For baseball fans like myself, it was a long time coming. Having an official baseball app further solidifies the Windows Phone platform as more and more official apps from popular companies are added to the marketplace. So how does this new app perform?

WP App Review : Tiny Space

Tiny Space (Version 1.0)
Redware
Free

Tiny Space is a simple strategic game where you must destroy  the bases of two opposing teams by controlling a regenerating squadron of tiny airships. As the name implies, the battlefield is small, consisting of your phone's screen. This makes for a faster paced game play and it doesn't take long to start getting into the game.

WP App Review : Tunes

NOTE: This review has been updated at the bottom.

Tunes (Version 1.1)
stain-sr
$1.29

Nowadays, the smartphone has become an integral part of the driving experience as different apps can be used for traffic, GPS, music, and more. One of the most common uses is music and having a solid gesture-based music app is something I rely on daily. There are currently only a handful of these apps and I've previously used CarTunes and Gesture Music Player. Both worked well with only a few faults but I eventually defaulted back to the OEM player or various reasons. With the new Tunes music app, there's a slick new gesture-based music player that I can happily use.

WP App Review : Monster Burner

Monster Burner (Version 1.0)
Ubisoft
$0.99

Monster Burner is a fun, arcade style, castle defense game in which you must "throw" fireballs at the incoming monsters before they reach the bottom of your screen. The game play is smooth, the graphics are clean, and the fun factor is addicting.

WP App Review : Instance

Instance (Version 1.1.5)
Daniel Gary
Free / $1.49

Instanceis a recently released third-party Instagram app which features uploading as well as viewing photos, commenting, and liking. As of this review, it's more fully featured than the other third-party Instagram app, Instagraph, although an update is upcoming for the latter.

WP App Review : Fotor

Fotor

Chengdu Everimaging Science and Technology Co Ltd

Free

As a photo enthusiast, several photo apps are loaded on my phone such as Camera 360, Creative Studio, Lazy Lens, Photo Shader, and more. But as of late, I gravitate to using Fotor the most for it's solid UI, performance, and editing tools. If I had to choose just one app to keep right now, it would definitely be Fotor.

WP App Review : Puzzle Craft

Puzzle Craft

SYZYGY Deutschland GmbH

Free

If you're a fan of role-playing/simulation and puzzles, you'll want to check out Puzzle Craft which is a game that incorporates a bit of all these genres. The game has you build a settlement and advance it by constructing buildings, hiring workers, mining, farming, and more. Straying from other similar types of games, Puzzle Craft has you complete mini-puzzles to obtain the necessary ingredients/materials which makes the overall game play fun and addicting.

WP App Review : Indigo

Indigo (Version 1.0.21)
ARTIFICIAL SOLUTIONS IBERIA SL
Free

Indigo is a voice-enabled personal assistant app, much like Siri on the iPhone. You can update social networks, play music and videos, get directions, set alarms, and more, all by voice - in theory. Although available in the marketplace, it's still in beta form and minor glitches may affect it's performance, although I didn't encounter any during my short trial of the app. Indigo shows a lot of potential but unfortunately fails to deliver.

WP App Review : tumblr.

tumblr. (Version 1.0)
Tumblr
Free

Tumblr, the popular blogging platform, has officially arrived on WP8, adding yet another mainstream app to the marketplace and further proving that the Windows Phone platform is gaining more popularity and that developers are starting to take the platform more seriously. For those not familiar with Tumblr, it is as mentioned, a blogging platform which has gained it's popularity as a photo-blogging site where users share random photos. Searching tags will yield several image results as well as any other related material posted on Tumblr blogs.

WP App Review : Camera360

Camera 360 (Version 0.9)
成都品果科技有限公司
Free

Camera 360 is a nice and simple photo app which gives you the ability to view real-time photos effects on-screen. These effects are your usual photo filters found in various other photo apps, just with slight variations and various "names" for the filters. However, the user interface is one selling point in using this app as it provides a very intuitive and clean layout.

WP App Review : Instagraph

Instagraph (Version 1.0)
Venetasoft
$2.49

After a long wait, there's finally a Windows Phone app which lets you upload photos to Instagram. The initial release was plagued by two main problems. First, uploading a photo would send it into a queue, causing it not to be so "insta" in terms of sharing your photo. It would take anywhere from 5 minutes to up to 30 minutes for the photo to show up on your photostream. Second, the photo that actually appears on your photostream would sometimes not be yours. Venetasoft quickly pulled the app and shut down the servers to work on a fix and have recently updated it.

WP App Review : LazyLens

LazyLens (Version 1.9)

Capsule Digital

Free

There's no question that there are a handful of these photo filter apps available and LazyLens can be added to that growing list. It provides you the option of applying several different filters to your photograph in a simple and effective user interface and if you're a fan of this style, LazyLens is certainly one of the better ones out there.

WP App Preview : Instagraph

The long-awaited third-party Instagram application, Instagraph, finally hit the marketplace, but in less than a day has already failed miserably. Linking your pre-existing Instagram account was easy enough (sorry, no new account creation for now) and I would've loved to test out the app more thoroughly, but  the developers turned off the upload and have temporarily removed the app from the marketplace.

WP App Review : SophieLens for Nokia

SophieLens for Nokia (Version 1.0.0.3)

Nokia Corporation

Free

SophieLens for Nokia is a photo app which adds the current fad of "photo filters" to your snapshots. SophieLens is available in a PRO version for $0.99 but Nokia provides it's users with a free version. The default "Standard" filter pack includes Cinematic, Flare, Mayfair, Roid, and XPro filters. But Nokia offers an additional "Lomo" filter pack for it's users for free.

WP App Review : #2InstaWithLove

#2InstaWithLove (Version 2.0)

Nokia Corporation

Free

A majority of current WP8 users as well as those contemplating on switching to a WP8 device usually want one major app in the Windows Phone ecoysystem - Instagram. Instagram is obviously a popular service and the lack of it's availability on WP8 deters new users. Sure, there are those who couldn't care less. They don't use the service and often argue that there are several alternatives in adding these "hipster" photo filters. But the reality is that it's not the mainstream photo filters that makes Instagram what it is, but the social aspect of connecting with your friends just like Facebook. If your friends aren't using whatever alternative you decide to use, then it would be pointless.

Gesture Music Player's newest update makes it near perfect

Gesture Music Player was reviewed just under a week ago and if you've read the review, you'll know that when the app first hit the market about a month ago, I made some suggestions to the developer in the MSFT marketplace review. The first update included many of the features I had asked for. I again made some more suggestions after the first update and in just under a week the developer has updated it again to fix some of the problems and other features I wanted to see.

WP App Review : UC Browser

UC Browser (Version 2.8.1.269)

广州市动景计算机科技

Free

UC Browser is an app developed by a Chinese software company which makes mobile web browsers. When I first picked up my Lumia 920, I found Internet Explorer to be a bit lackluster in user interface and features. I searched for different web browsers and tried out UC Browser late last year, but at the time, it was a bit slow. Browsing through the marketplace, I came up on this app again and decided to give it another try. The newer update seems to improve on speeds and after giving it a second try, it's a lot more efficient.

WP App Review : Gesture Music Player

NOTE: This review has been updated at the bottom

SECOND NOTE : This app's developer has changed from Red Queen to Laukik.

Please scroll to the bottom for updated information and review.

Gesture Music Player (Version 2.5)

Red Queen

Free

Previously known as Car Music Player, Gesture Music Player is as the name suggests, a music player which is controlled based on on-screen gestures.When Gesture Music Player first released in early February 2013, it was called Car Music Player. Since this was a new release, I was hoping that the developer would update it to make it more user friendly, and the newest updates takes it one step closer to becoming a great gesture based music player such as Fluxtunes or the now discontinued Flicktunes found on iOS.

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.

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.