My Windows 8 Phone – App Review {#HolidaySwap}
It’s week 3 of my Microsoft Canada, Holiday Swap adventure! My last post took you through my first impression with the Nokia Lumia 920 and now I’m ready to talk about my experience with some of the apps that I’ve been working with. As a blogger, the social media and camera apps are the ones I use most, so I will stick mostly to those.
Let’s start with my home away from home: Twitter! You don’t send 22,000 tweets in 10 months without a good smartphone app, am I right? Then again, most people don’t do that anyway… Unfortunately for the Windows phones, the standard Twitter application is not very good at all. Low functionality, trouble sending tweets and the inability to link multiple accounts make this app almost unusable.
Luckily for the Windows Phone there are some great third party Twitter apps, with my favourite of the bunch being the Rowi app. I actually like the Rowi product better than the iPhone Twitter app I was used to. It has a fully customizable home screen that lets you check things like trending topics, your retweeted tweets and all the standard options. It also allows you to link to multiple accounts and makes it easy to switch between them. Essentially, Rowi saved the day for Twitter and the Windows Phone.
I have mixed feelings about the standard Facebook app. I like the way it looks but the functionality could be a lot better. It’s quite possible that I just haven’t learned all the in’s and out’s yet but just like the Twitter app, I have already found an alternative that I like better, so I’m not too worried about it.
That alternative is the Facebook Touch Pro app. It looks just like the Facebook we know and love, plus it has all the functionality you’d expect. If I have one complaint, it’s that clicking the notifications doesn’t always work, but those instances are few and far between.
CAMERA APPS
It’s funny, 2 weeks ago I was sad that there was no Instagram option for the Windows Phone. Then Instagram lost a good chunk of their subscribers because of their cryptic new terms of service. That’s where Fhotoroom comes in. Fhotoroom is the Windows equivalent to Instagram and even has more editing options for your photos. It also allows you to share the photo with your favourite social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook & Flickr.
Another app I like is the Smart Shoot feature. This one snaps 5 pictures in succession and then allows you to edit the photos together to create the best one shot. It’s perfect for people with fidgety kids or for those who have blinky eye syndrome!
Just like every other smartphone on the market, there are hundreds of apps for your camera needs but these are just a couple of my favourites.
NOKIA CITY LENS
I’m going to close out my review with my favourite app on the Nokia Lumia 920. It’s called City Lens and I am in love with it’s capabilities. At first it felt like a novelty app but now that I have been using it, I am amazed at how useful it is. You simply go into the app and either choose from one of the options (Food, Lodging, etc) or type in a location and then hold the phone up and it geo-locates the nearest place.
From there, you simply click the option you want and it takes you to the GPS directions screen. It’s perfect for when you are in a city or area that you are not familiar with and I highly recommend it.
And that, my friends, are just a few of the apps I am using on a daily basis. As you may have noticed, it’s not all roses but for every downside, there seems to be a great alternative. Overall I am still enjoying the Nokia Lumia 920 and am loving the camera/video quality and features more and more each day.
Cheers!
Disclosure: The Nokia Lumia Windows phone was provided to me by Microsoft Canada in order to facilitate this review as part of the #HolidaySwap challenge. I will also be receiving compensation in exchange for my posts related to the review of this phone, however all opinions on this blog are my own.
