space

If you're a fan of space exploration and NASA, check out the NASA Image of the Day lockscreen wallpaper app for Windows Phone 8.

NASA Image of the Day will rotate your Windows Phone 8 lockscreen wallpaper daily with a different photo from the NASA library. Everything from launch day photos to photos of the cosmos. Toast notifications are in place to alert you when the image changes.

Mars Attacks!

With NASA’s successful landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars late Sunday night (it was streamed live on the Xbox 360) we figured we would mention a couple Mars tie-ins for your Windows Phone and even your Xbox in case you wanted to get in on all the action.

While there aren’t an overwhelming amount of Mars-specific apps for Windows Phone there are a couple that stand out to get you in the mood...

A few weeks ago we mentioned the results of a recent Windows Phone hackathon, where devs get together, dream up and code apps and games within a fixed time period.

One of the noteworthy games that came out of that workshop was SpaceShooterz by Cubeslam. A retro arcade space shooter, the game needed some music and some finishing touches before it headed to the Marketplace. Luckily for you, it's now live and it's a fun little number.

The game is free with no ads (for now), has excellent controls, smooth gameply with a high framerate and the music is just badass sounding. It's certainly falls into the quick-gaming category as you only have one life and no continues, but it's a lot of fun and done very well. For that, we have to recommend it.

Pick up SpaceShooterz here in the Marketplace for free. In addition, the French-only home automation app that was also coded during the same hackathon is now available too. You can grab that app, called ZibaseWP, right here.

There has been a lot of talk today about Angry Birds Space and whether or not it will find it's way to the Windows Phone platform (see our earlier post). First we had reports from Bloomberg that Rovio were not bringing the new fowl-flinging iteration of the game to Microsoft's platform, information received from Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio's chief marketing officer. Analyst Richard Windsor speculated this meant that Rovio may not have confidence in Windows Phone looking into the future, more on that shortly.

However, the story has since been contradicted by Rovio's CEO, Mikael Hed as quoted on Reuters:

"We are working towards getting Angry Birds Space to WP7"

Whilst Mr. Hed's statement is somewhat lacking in detail one would be inclined to believe that the CEO's position on the company's intentions would be the more reliable source. No release date or expected time of arrival has been communicated.

Here at WPCentral we've been discussing this story in some detail, particularly around suggestions from the Bloomberg article that the lack of Angry Birds on Windows Phone would make it difficult for Nokia to "attract gaming-oriented users and persuade developers that [Windows Phone] is growing".

It's an interesting point, can one app make or break Windows Phone alone? The answer of course is no, but it is a very important game which will be seen as important to the average phone owner. Whether you're a fan of Angry Birds or not, the game is huge, successful and a marked influence in the rise of Smartphone popularity. Just look at what Rovio can afford to do for publicity:

Angry Birds Space is the first major innovation the game has seen since the original version found it's way on to mobile screens everywhere. The game is superb, new gravity mechanics genuinely do create a completely different experience to the game, this time it's not just some new textures or types of bird, it's an almost entirely new way to play.

Help Software has released a collection of free sound files from various historical space missions and they have been conveniently converted to ringtones for your Windows Phone. NASA Ringtones is a collection of 24 ringtones from various Shuttle missions, Apollo and Mercury Space missions, Beeps and Bytes, and sound bits from current missions that including the Cassini Saturn mission and the Atlas V launch.

Each set of ringtones has an mission appropriate wallpaper backdrop (i.e. the moon for Apollo and Mercury) that gives the app an impressive appearance (shame the pics can't be used as device wallpapers). Each ringtone can be previewed and saved to your Windows Phone.

Ringtones range from the Apollo 11 "The Eagle has landed" quote to the Sputnik beep. Growing up watching Neil Armstong land on the moon, these ringtones definitely bring back memories. If your a fan of NASA and space exploration, this is a must have collection for your Windows Phone. According to the developer this is just the start and look for more space sounds to be added with future updates.

There is a free trial available for NASA Ringtones and the full version runs $.99. You can download NASA Ringtones here at the Windows Phone Marketplace. It is a mango app so you'll need to make sure your Windows Phone is updated before hand.

Not gonna lie, we have no need for Space Weather by TechnoTim. But some of us here are science geeks and we're in awe of how cool it is---come on, it's called Space Weather! So what is it, you ask?

"Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space or the space from the Sun's atmosphere to the Earth's atmosphere. Space weather affects our planet, our technology, and all living things in many different ways. Solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and solar radiation are a few ways space weather can wreak havoc on the earth. It can also create beautiful auroras can that be seen near the poles and sometimes much further."

In other words, it's great for folks into astronomy, atmospheric science or anyone who's just interested in cool "stuff". It's also pretty nice looking and has a lot of features, many of which we have no idea what they mean but darn it, we want to know, which is a step in the right direction, no? The app fetches for $1.99 (here in the Marketplace) and our one complaint: no trial. We'll keep an eye on this one though as it has certainly piqued our curiosity.

Update: The developer let us know he'll be adding a "Trial" in a later version. We'll keep you posted.

Attention space geeks! Astronomy Tile of the Day may be something you want to take for a spin. The new app basically brings down new photos of the cosmos everyday to your phone for your viewing pleasure, which is something we know hobby astronomers are definitely in to. But probably one of the cooler things is this has a Live Tile meaning everyday it will show the latest pic right on your Today screen, which we think spices up the phone just nicely.

The app is both free and pay, meaning it has a fully-functional trial but the developer would appreciate the $0.99 if you want him to continue development. We think that's a fair bargain and look forward to any improvements in the future (like downloading images inline, instead of hopping to Mobile IE, something that is planned for the next update).

Grab it here in the Marketplace.