Apps

Although we have the stellar and frequently updated Beem Plus for Windows Phone to deliver your thumping Digitally Imported (www.di.fm) electronic music, having an official app always gives a nod of true authenticity and some legitimacy to the platform.

So it’s quite exciting to see DI.fm list Windows Phone as “Coming in 2013…” under their supported apps section. Hoorah!

Navitel has announced that its Windows Phone 7.5 app is now available on the store. As one would imagine, this restricts use to those who are running older software on previous generation hardware. So what's Navitel all about?

No sooner than we posted our hands-on video did the link go live, which means you can go ahead and experience high quality video of your favorite shows, streamed to your phone yourself.

There’s not much else to say about the app except that you do need a premium account but in our opinion, it’s totally worth it (especially if you have an Xbox 360 and/or Windows 8 machine).

There are numerous ways to enjoy music while on the go with your Windows Phone. Xbox Music and Nokia Music to name but a few. But what about finding out more about an individual artist? Microsoft's music service provides a biography for major artists, but consumers may wish to read more into the background of the individual (or group). Cue Music Scene.

Location Finder is a location finding/sharing app for your Windows Phone 8 device. The app goes beyond just telling you where you're at but also provides geocoding, reverse geocoding, live tile support and the ability to generate driving/walking directions to saved locations.

Location Finder was recently updated to version 2.4 and adds the ability to backup your saved locations to Skydrive and generate voice commands for saved locations.

Marketplace Dashboard for Windows Phone 8 is an app designed to help developers keep track of the apps and games they have in the Windows Phone Store. The app gives you a view of your apps including crash count, submission status and download counts.

Marketplace Dashboard has main pages that will list your published works and a page for those apps/games still in the certification process. The paid, version of Marketplace Dashboard, which is currently on sale, allows each app to be pinned to your Start Screen that will display app stats.

The team behind the new Facebook app for Windows Phone, which is currently in beta, has released a small update. Bumping the available version up to 5.0.1.1, we're looking at better support for special characters when entering text as well as a few other minor improvements.

Some good news for all the Metrotube fans out there! You can now head to the Windows Store and download a beta of the popular third party YouTube application for Winows 8/RT. It’s been a fan favorite since it first launched on Windows Phone what feels like eons ago.

Lighthouse Game Studio’s follow-up to Torchbear, the location-based game Greed City has been out on Windows Phone 8 for something like two months now. And in that time, the developer has released its fair share of updates. Each one of these makes the free game a little more rounded and more worthy of players’ time.

Today’s update, version 1.1.7 adds an exciting new feature: the ability to comment on other users’ actions, plus a few more minor features and bug fixes.

I’m having a hard time recalling any other apps in the Windows Phone Store that are aimed squarely at all the Trekkies out there. But you do have one now, Star Trek App for Windows Phone 8 is a promotional app for the upcoming film: Star Trek: Into Darkness.  Let’s check it out.