[sc:mobile-category ]Back when I first bought my Windows Phone I created an article with the first ten free applications I installed on it, now that Mango is out it’s time to revisit the apps on my phone and see what’s changed.
First off, this list will no longer be all free, some will be commercial apps. Secondly I’ll highlight with italics any app that appeared in the previous list.
7Pass
On my desktop system I use KeePass Password Safe to store my various passwords and generate new passwords. 7Pass can read the same password database as KeePass which means I can always have a copy of my passwords with me on my phone. The most complex part of this software is actually getting the password database on to the phone as MS has decided not to allow direct file access. 7Pass supports a couple of different options to transfer the database, including Dropbox, Webdav and a standard web server option.
Not wanting to place my password database outside of my infrastructure I opted for the web server option. Unfortunately 7Pass doesn’t give much detail on how it expects the web server to be configured, but after a couple of attempts I managed to get it setup and working.
AccuWeather.com
I’m having trouble finding a weather app that I actually like and works. In my original list of apps I had WeatherBug listed, but I found the Live Tile update to be really flaky (it stopped working for several weeks an that’s when I moved to another weather app). AccuWeather is ok so far, its most annoying feature is that selecting metric instead of imperial causes the app to first display the details in imperial and then after a few seconds show the metric values.
I’m still looking for the perfect weather app, maybe I’ll give WeatherBug a try again when they do their Mango update.
Adobe Reader
I still have this installed, but I don’t recall ever using it. Good to have though I guess.
Amazon Kindle
I haven’t yet really converted to ebooks, I just don’t read them that often to make it worth while, but I pulled down the Kindle app for WP and my TouchPad and played around a bit with it.
Birthdays (by Jesper Larsen-Ledet)
This is the app I have waited for since the release of WP7, a simple Live Tile that shows the next birthday from your contacts and also a complete list of birthdays. I know pre Mango there was no access for developers to the contacts list so it was nice to see several of these apps come up quickly after Mango’s release.
Connected Media (HTC)
This is a DLNA compatible media player and streamer from HTC, it works, but quite honestly with the limited format support for video in WP7 it’s pretty much useless as a player. I haven’t played with the streaming side as I already have my media library setup to stream from my server so there’s no real point on doing it from my phone.
Engadget
This is just the Engadget website presented as an app, which is cool, but I really don’t use it that much, I feed the RSS feed directly in to a folder on my Exchange server so I get all of the articles in my e-mail.
I had Facebook on my original list as well and I still use it once in a while, but with Mango’s support for more feeds from other sites and my general malaise towards Facebook these days it’s not too often I launch the Facebook app.
Flixster
Another app from the original list and I still use it when I’m checking movie times, a great app.
GolfLogix
This is a free golf course GPS app, I don’t play golf very often but I thought that this would be a cool app to have when I do. Unfortunately it turns out that trying to use your phone and play golf at the same time doesn’t work very well so the phone usually just stays in my golf bag.
Groupon
Everyone seems to be talking about Groupon, but I just don’t get it. I downloaded that app and it works quite well, but I guess I’m just not enough of an impulse shopper.
HTC Hub
When HTC updated their apps for Mango, it included support for weather no the Live Tile, and as noted above I’m looking for a better weather app. The HTC hub update is actually quite a significant one and is done well, but its best feature was that it lead me to AccuWeather. So while it’s still installed, it doesn’t get loaded very often.
IMDb
It’s IMDb, how else do you look what movies someone you have never heard of before has been in?
Metronome
Ok, so a Metronome doesn’t sound exciting and it isn’t, but I had a use for it and this was a nice free one and hey, it’s got Metro right in the title .
Netflix
Still installed, still don’t use it on my phone, but I do use Netflix.
Network Dashboard
One of the items I complained about in my original review of WP7 was that there was no way to pin the network config and other settings to the start menu for quick access. This nice little free app solves that.
OpenTable
I downloaded OpenTable primarily out of curiosity while I was on a road trip one weekend, it was help at that time and so it stays on my phone just in case.
Opera Link for WP7
As I’ve noted before on this blog, I use Opera as my web browser and this gives me access to all my bookmarks etc on my phone. It has had a few issues in the past with Opera changing the API or other issues, but the developer does eventually fix it when it breaks so no complaints from me.
Poynt
Poynt has had a lot of press in Canada as it’s a Canadian company with over 6 million users, but I don’t find I use it very often, but like OpenTable, it stays on my phone for when I do need it.
SkyMap Free
I downloaded this a few weeks ago and I have to say it’s cool, not all that useful, but cool.
SmartWhois
This is just a Whois lookup app, it probably won’t stay on my phone.
TouchDevelop
This is a scripting app from Microsoft, it’s quite impressive what you can do in it, but not very useful on a day-to-day basis.
TVShow Lite
This apps always you to track what shows you watch and lets you know when new episodes are going to air, I used it for a while, but I find that my DVR does just a good as job and, you know, actually records the shows .
Like the Facebook app, with Mango this one isn’t used very often. It’s there just in case.
The Weather Channel
Another one of the long list of weather apps I’ve tried and not been happy with, just haven’t deleted it yet.
WeatherBug
The original weather app I liked, if the Live Tile gets fixed in the Mango update I might very well go back to it.
Wikipedia
Much like IMDb, this is just too useful not to have on the phone.
WordPress
This is the official WordPress app so I can delete all those spam pingbacks on this blog .
Yellow Pages Canada
Another app from the original list it’s not used much, but useful when needed.