Browse the best Windows Phone apps for your HTC HD7, LG Quantum, Samsung Focus and more, from basics like weather apps and task managers to the ultimate IM client and Foursquare app.
Windows Phone 7 is not yet a major player in the smartphone space, but we think it will be soon. With the release of Mango (version 7.5), the OS is finally beginning to mature. A few weeks back, Microsoft revealed that the platform now has 25,000 apps, so we decided to take a little tour and find some of the best apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. These apps represent the best we’ve seen so far, but this list will be periodically expanded and updated. If you have suggestions or want to share an app you love, please let us know in the comments below! We’ve only begun to dig into the store, so we’re sure there are plenty of other apps we haven’t yet tried out.
Be sure to check out our many other guides to the best iPhone apps, iPad apps, Android apps, Android games, iPhone games, and Android tablets.
4th and Mayor (Free)
It may have an odd name, but 4th and Mayor is an awesome Foursquare client, outdoing even Foursquare’s own official app. You can check in, add photos to places, and access a fun leaderboard. We really like the Windows Phone “Metro” look of the app and how easy it is to browse nearby locations and add pictures. If you’re a regular Foursquare user, this may get you hooked. You can’t find 4th and Mayor anywhere but in the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Netflix (Free, Netflix subscription required)
It’s still difficult to get Netflix on an Android phone, but the WP7 version works great across all devices. The setup process doesn’t even require you to use a confirmation code, as you usually have to do when setting up external devices on Netflix. Just log in with your email and password and you’re good to go. We found the interface to be fully featured and well-designed compared to other Netflix apps for devices like the Xbox and Wii. You can search up anything available on Netflix Instant Streaming, browse movies and shows by genre, add or remove programs from your Instant Queue, rate shows — the whole shebang. On a Wi-Fi connection, our video quality was extremely high for a mobile device too, and Netflix does a good job of detecting your connection speed and appropriately picking the right quality of video so it won’t skip and looks as good as it can.
Gmaps (Free)
Gmaps is a great Google Maps application made by a developer named Alexey Strakh. We wish it had directions, but it does let you look any location up in Google Maps and view it in a number of ways including traffic (though Google has canceled this service, supposedly), satellite, and a very cool Water view that turns everything black except for water, which is highlighted in bright blue. If you need a Google fix, these are your apps. We hope Google will develop a Google+ app for Windows Phone soon as well.
Cocktail Flow ($2.99)
There have been a lot of bartending apps over the years, but few have been worthwhile. It’s not hard to make a list of cocktails and mixed drinks, but that’s just not compelling. Cocktail Flow takes it to a new level. Using a beautiful graphical interface, you physically click on all the different liquors, juices, and drinks you have at home. Then, using the power of algorithms, the app shows you some possible mix drinks you can make right now. The app also suggests what ingredients you might want to buy to open up new cocktail possibilities as well and lets you mark drinks that are your favorites. Some basics on glassware, garnishes, and other tricks are also included. Cocktail Flow is one of the first bartending apps to truly grab our attention. Check it out.
Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (Free)
Cooking comes natural to some, but not everyone. If you’re like us, it’s hard enough to figure out what kind of food you want to eat, but to then try and find a recipe…well, it’s just a lot of work. The Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner is like Urbanspoon for eating in. Using a slot machine-like selector, it lets you choose what type of meal you want to eat (salad, drink, dessert, soup, etc), how long you have to make it (20 minutes, over an hour, etc.), and what the central ingredient should be (lamb, pasta, fruit, etc). Enter that and it will parse its 40,000+ recipe database and suggest a whole bunch of recipes, ranked by popularity and relevance. Pick a recipe and you can read reviews of it and check out nutrition facts.
IM+ (Free)
There are more chat services than ever before, but they’re still as walled off as ever. IM+ is an app that attempts to combine all of your different chat accounts into one big list of contacts, and it works better than a lot of desktop chat programs. Part of its appeal is how many chat clients it supports: Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, Google Talk, Skype, AIM, ICQ, MySpace, and Jabber. Logging into all the accounts takes a bit of time, but IM+ makes it a much faster process than it should be, allowing you to zip through logins and find out which ones failed after your done. Contacts are clearly marked with a little icon to indicate the service they’re on and you can turn any one of the chat clients on or off whenever you like. Lately, we’ve been wishing that Windows had a chat aggregator this nice.
MyThings ($2.99, lite version is free)
If you’re a list maker, MyThings is an app you’ll need. It lets you create task lists with due dates, levels of importance, and notifies you when they’re about due. It’s simple, but effective, and quite welcome as WP7 does not come with a good task manager. It could still use a couple features, like recurring tasks and Live Tile notifications, but we expect these enhancements will come in time.
Kindle (Free)
Amazon’s Kindle service has a lot of competition from the likes of Google eBooks and the Barnes & Noble Nook, but nobody is on as many platforms as Amazon. Taking a Netflix approach, Amazon is hard to pass up simply because it’s available in so many places. The Kindle library has quite a few free books and roughly a million different books, newspapers, and magazines to check out. Anything you buy in the Windows Phone app will become available on any other device with a Kindle app and on the Web, meaning you can continue reading from almost anywhere. Thanks to Amazon’s Whispersync, it even saves your page in the book. Very cool. We’re hoping that Windows Phone gets more e-book apps and an Audible.com app soon.
The Weather Channel (Free)
Yeah, it’s only a weather app, but you’re going to want a weather app. The cool thing about The Weather Channel is how clean its design is, showing all the info you might need to know in a nicer fashion than other apps like Weather Bug. It also has a live radar feed that shows incoming precipitation and live cams set up throughout many cities. Our favorite part is the Live Tile, which shows you some basic weather info right from the Windows Phone home screen. Very cool.
Apict: Instant Camera ($0.99)
Apict is not a productivity app, but it will make you remember why Polaroid pictures were so fun. The app lets you take a picture, crop that picture however you like, and then add a caption. Finish with that and it will virtually print out a Polaroid-like version of your picture, complete with aging, crappy Sharpie handwriting, and a big white border. It works on existing photos too. That’s about it. It has one function and does it well. If you’d like to retro-ify your digital picture collection, this is the app for you.
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