Apps

We've covered Photoplay in the past and more recently took a quick look at an upcoming update that was to introduce push notifications and Live Tile support. This new release is now available and has been pushed out to the store. If you're not familiar with the brand, Photoplay is an Instagram-like service that enables consumers to utilise smartphones for photography and share shots on social networks, as well as their own.

Feed Me is a fantastic RSS Reader for our Windows Phones. But recently the app ran into a few technical difficulties with the NewsBlur feed.

As we understand it, NewsBlur changed its API which has in turn caused a few headaches. The developer has let us know they are feverishly working on an update that will right the ship. They are hoping to have a fix in place by the end of the week.

The Nokia Storage Check app for Windows Phone has gotten a small update to version 1.2.1.2. Unlike the last bump, which added some significant features, this is just some bug fixes.

If there’s one thing you can say about Windows Phone developers—they know the community and what they want. After our post last night, Rudy Huyn, the man behind the upcoming 6Sec app for Vine on Windows Phone, seems to have set him into full gear. A big update was posted today for his private beta users and it should set Windows Phone apart from the competition.

First up, we have the big one: full Lens integration. That’s right, when this app goes live in the Store (expected in a few weeks), the app will come with direct Windows Phone 8 camera support, meaning users can quickly launch their camera and hop into 6Sec to directly record their Vine.

As you can see in our video below, it works flawlessly...

One of the big new features of the Lumia 925, which is now actually in people’s hands for purchase in the UK and a select few other territories, is the updated camera algorithms and new functionality. All of that is encompassed in the so-called ‘Amber update’, which is Nokia’s name for their inbound firmware change destined for all Windows Phone 8 Lumias later this summer.

One of those new features is the ability to run the Smart Cam app, which enables such cool camera tricks as motion blur, 10-frame action shots and more.

The good news is that app is now available in the Nokia Collection and yes, you can download it right now for your Lumia phone. The bad news is when launched, you’ll be greeted with a reminder that this app can’t quite run on your non-Lumia 925 just yet, because you don’t have that firmware update.

Microsoft keeps on keeping on with the fine tuning of their Facebook Beta app. It was just 8 days ago that an update to version 5.0.1.4 came out, and already version 5.0.1.5 has made its way to the Windows Phone Store. The lack of change log likely means that this is a mishmash of bug fixes and performance improvements, but hey, we'll take it.

The Windows Phone 8 version of the official Vimeo app has been updated to version 2.1 and add the ability to perform search or pause your video playback with voice commands.

Not familiar with Vimeo? It's an online video service where you can watch, share, and discover video content. Much along the lines of Youtube.

The Vimeo app lets you tap into the online video service and pull all the video fun to your Windows Phone. You can watch and manage your existing Vimeo videos, use NFC Tap-to-Share to share your videos, search for videos, upload footage in HD and more depending on your subscription level.