lockscreen apps

Map Wallpaper lets you get your location at a glance

Apps

By Sam Sabri, Friday, May 17, 2013 at 4:25 pm

Last Saturday I got the chance to check out a Hackathon down in San Diego. It was a great event and I’ll be telling you guys about that later on. But the app that won the overall hackathon is now in the Windows Phone Store. Map Wallpaper is a clever lockscreen app that gives you your current location at a glance. Let’s check it out.

Pic Stitch, a photo collage creator for Windows Phone 8

Apps

By George Ponder, Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 10:19 am

Pic Stitch is a relatively new Windows Phone collage builder with a built in photo editor. It's a fairly simple app that has a nice selection of collage templates that can be customized along with a photo editor powered by Aviary (much like you see in Instagraph and other Windows Phone photography apps).

Pic Stitch is a decent photo app for Windows Phone 8 with the only real downside being that it lacks a trial version.

Pic Stitch for Windows Phone 8 - Joe Belfiore recommended

Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, Apr 26, 2013 at 6:09 pm

Pic Stitch is a new Windows Phone 8 photography app that has seen a bit of success over on iOS. It is part photo editor, part collage maker, and part photo sharing app. It caught the eye of Microsoft's Joe Belfiore and we have to admit, it does make a nice first impression.

The Forecast, a uniquely simple Windows Phone weather app

Apps

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013 at 4:40 pm

The Forecast is a bare bones weather app for your Windows Phone 8 and 7.x devices. Not much flash with The Forecast but it does provide you with the basic weather information to help you plan you day or week.

The Forecast lays out the weather forecasts across three screen and has Live Tile and Lockscreen support. The app does support multiple locations or you can just let it present the weather based on your current location.

If you're looking for a simple weather app, The Forecast is worth considering.

LinkedIn updated, adds support for the big tiles and speech recognition

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Apr 16, 2013 at 4:58 pm

The official LinkedIn app for Windows Phone has been bumped to version 1.5 and introduces a number of new features. The social network is geared towards business and is a place for co-workers to gather and networks to prosper. If you're looking for a solution to keep in touch with the professional side of your life, LinkedIn is a solid option. So what's new in the latest release?

Quotr, insprirational quotes for Windows Phone 8

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Apr 10, 2013 at 7:48 pm

Looking for a really simple quote app? One that generates countless inspirational quotations from the likes of Confucius, Voltaire, and Grandma Moses? If so, Quotr is a new Windows Phone 8 that should fit the bill.

Quotr is as simple as it gets with an inspirational quote greeting you as the app is launched. If the quote doesn't do much for you, tap the screen and another quote is displayed. Repeat the process until you find what you're looking for.

Further customise your Windows Phone lockscreen with latest Lock Buster update

Apps

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Apr 2, 2013 at 10:05 am

The popular lockscreen app, Lock Buster has been bumped to version 3 to introduce yet more ways to customise the Windows Phone lockscreen. Following in the footsteps of Hello Friends, users will be able to add more unique personalised elements to the display. So what's new in the latest release?

Simply Weather brings minimalism to a whole new level for Windows Phone 8

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Mar 28, 2013 at 1:07 pm

If there is one thing we know of our audience it’s that you embrace minimalist design ethic especially that of the Metro UI school of Microsoft. Indeed, this is one of the selling points of Windows Phone with its focus on design language, even for third-party apps.

Simply Weather is a new, free weather app for Windows Phone 8 and while it doesn’t pack a lot in features, it does look very sharp and we expect many of you to swoon over it due to its unique design. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Haze for iOS, though it’s clearly not a copycat.

Peep our video hands on and screenshots after the break...

Windows Phone 8 version of Fhotoroom hits the Store

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 at 2:56 pm

Fhotoroom is a fantastic Windows Phone photography app that had it's Windows Phone 7.x version updated to version 3.0. When that update when live, the developers mentioned that a Windows Phone 8 version was in the works and today, that version went live. Fhotoroom (version 8.0) hit the Windows Phone Store today which brings many of the features the Windows Phone 7.x version reccieved plus Windows Phone 8 support.

As with the 7.x version, Fhotoroom for Windows Phone 8 has recieved a significant makeover with user interface updates throughout the app.

LockWidgets 8 rolls on the Windows Phone Store, keeps us informed with a glance

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Mar 26, 2013 at 1:26 pm

Jaxbot over at Windows Phone Hacker as released a new app onto the Windows Phone 8 Store and it’s worth the $0.99 for it. The app is called LockWidgets 8 and allows users to add up to three information areas to their lockscreens, including current temperature, tomorrow’s temp and battery life. Some detailed information is also included like estimated time left on the charge and if it is clear or rainy out.

Users can select the background image from Bing, NASA or their own images and include “weather effects”, which can add rain droplets and presumably other graphical changes to the background image.

Doubling down with Dual Lock Crop for Windows Phone 8

Apps

By George Ponder, Monday, Mar 25, 2013 at 6:37 pm

Looking for an easy way to create a panoramic lockscreen for your Windows Phone 8 device? Dual Lock Crop is a simple, easy way to crop an image in half to create a seamless panorama lockscreen when shifting from your main lockscreen to your Kid's Corner lockscreen.

Dual Lock Crop has a simple instructions page where you can crop a single image to your liking to create the dual lockscreens or have the app crop split a single image for you.

Amazing Weather HD updated with more beautiful live tiles

Apps

By Sam Sabri, Thursday, Mar 21, 2013 at 10:04 pm

One of the highest rated weather apps on Windows Phone just picked up another update. Amazing Weather HD is now packing a few new aesthetic changes to one of the most beautiful apps. Some bug fixes and new features await you after the break.

Weather Wallpaper for Windows Phone 8, lockscreen support using your images

Apps

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Feb 19, 2013 at 9:18 am

Weather Wallpaper is a Windows Phone 8 app that, as the title suggests, lets you integrate your local weather information into your lockscreen wallpaper.

While other weather apps are out there that offer lockscreen support, Amazing Weather HD comes to mind, Weather Wallpaper gives you the option as to which wallpapers to use. You can use weather related images provided by Bing, Bing's image of the day or your own photo.

The Quote makes the move to Windows Phone 8, adds lockscreen support

Apps

By George Ponder, Monday, Feb 18, 2013 at 9:03 am

The Quote is a popular Windows Phone app that has made the leap to Windows Phone 8 offering support not only for all the screen resolutions but also support for the various live tile sizes and lockscreen support.

It has been a while since we last looked at The Quote and with this recent update, we decided to revisit the entertainment/reference app.

Keeping your Windows Phone 8 wallpaper fresh with lockscreen apps

Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, Feb 1, 2013 at 8:51 am

One of the neat features on Windows Phone 8 is the flexibility with lockscreens. We've seen several apps take advantage of adding widgets to the lockscreen and rotate the wallpaper images.

This week's roundup focuses in on a selection of Windows Phone 8 apps that helps keep your lockscreen wallpaper fresh. All are either free or have a trial version to let you try things out first. The selection continues to grow and if we've missed your favorite lockscreen app, feel free to chime in below in the comments.

Ffffound will make your Windows Phone look like art. Now ready for Windows Phone 8

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Jan 22, 2013 at 1:10 pm

One of our favorite "visual" apps for Windows Phone has been Roguecode's Ffffound, which pulls down the image feed from the site of the same name (ffffound.com). And much like his other apps, Ffffound does it with minimalism and flare making it one of the most eye catching creations around. The app has now been updated for Windows Phone 8 and includes one of the useful functions for such a visually focused app: lockscreen support. Starting with version 1.4, users can now set the lockscreen to auto-update with either the latest Ffffound item or cycle through their Favorites. Either option is great and so far, we're really enjoying the look.

Counting down the days with At Countdown for Windows Phone 8

Apps

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Jan 15, 2013 at 2:15 pm

Looking for a reminder on how many days remain until a special event? At Countdown for Windows Phone 8 devices might be just what you're looking for.

At Countdown keeps track of daily or hourly countdowns to events such as the start of a vacation, retirement, wedding vows, anniversaries, a root canal or a birthday. At Countdown also adds Windows Phone 8 support for the different live tile sizes and lockscreen support.

Hello Friends gets bumped to version 3.0, adds Windows Phone 7.5 support

Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, Jan 11, 2013 at 5:32 pm

Hello Friends is a really nifty Windows Phone lockscreen app that generates a wallpaper based off your Windows Phone contact photos. While the original release had Hello Friends only compatible with Windows Phone 8 devices, the latest update brings the app to our Windows Phone 7 devices.

Version 3.0 of Hello Friends is now available for the Windows Phone 7 devices and while it won't automatically change your lockscreen wallpaper, it allows you to create the image collage, save it to your Pictures Hub and set it manually as your lockscreen wallpaper as you would any other photo.

AppoinTile for Windows Phone 8 updated, adds lockscreen support

Apps

By George Ponder, Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 at 2:50 pm

AppoinTile is a Windows Phone 8 app that you can use as an alternative to the native calendar tile and bring a little more information about your schedule to your Start Screen. AppoinTile's live tile can display up to four upcoming events with the backside of the tile displaying a 42 day calendar with markers on days with activity.

AppoinTile was recently updated to version 2.1 and brings lockscreen support to the table. AppoinTile's live tile will show up to four upcoming appoints and the new lockscreen support will display three upcoming appointments and the number of appointments left in the day.

Weather Smiles updated with Windows Phone 8 support

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 at 7:44 pm

Weather Smiles is a fairly simple weather app for your Windows Phone that has been recently updated to support Windows Phone 8. Version 2.0 adds multi-sized live tiles, support for all Windows Phone 8 resolutions, and lockscreen support to the mix.

Weather Smiles supports two locations for your weather forecasts, your current location and another that you choose. The app will display the current conditions and a five day forecast for each location. Live tiles will display current conditions (and forecast depending on the size) for each location as well.