Post Valentines Day App Afterglow

Recently I polled my fellow writers here at Mobility Digest.  I wanted to know what apps & games the staff used most and would quickly recommend to other Windows Phone users.  The marketplace surpassed 8,000 apps total as announced at Mobile World Congress and is said to be the third most popular application market for developers quickly surpassing everyone but Apple and Android.  Its interesting to note that although Android continues its skyrocket ascension to number 1 and Apple recently touted the downloading of 10 billion apps since the App store inception I don’t feel the slightest sense of jealousy or envy.  Here are the results and some choice quotes to boot, enjoy.

DavidK: “It’s scary but the more I use WP7 the more I realize that the core apps do 90% of what you want. I spend most of my time in email or on IE. The only exception is Twitter. I go between the official app snad Birdsong. Birdsong is great for the subway ebcause it downloads everything but the initial download time is long…annoyingly so sometimes and that’s where the official Twitter app comes in. There’s also a lot of games. Weatherchannel is a classic and Pageonce is a lot better than I thought it would be. Great app. For photos I use Picturelabs and Thumba and some other colorizing apps for giggles.

Colby A: “100Pushups -make your valentine unable to resist you.”

Ramon: “Facebook. Change your status and make all the other whore jealous or simply upload pics of the bottle of wine you and your lady is about to diminish. Holler!”

Jim S:

Aside from the built-in apps, those I use every day:
-IMG News Reader – great way to see the news through pictures
-Twitt – loads fast, nice interface and can’t beat talking tweets
-WinMilk – there are almost 70 task apps in the Marketplace by now but IMO still the best, tying back to RTM and Outlook. And a live tile is almost ready.
-Sports Scores – just gotta have it, but if Pro Scores gets a live tile, end game

-My Bookie – technically a game (listed in Games). I like doing something real with make believe money.

Danny Lam: “I use PageOnce,facebook, and netflix, and are my most used after the core apps. i think of the games i play StarWar Hoth, Impossible Shoota, and 7Cave the most.”

Murani Lewis: I, like DavidK, tend to use the core apps to accomplish most things I want.

Apps:

(1) Spending Money-helps me keep track of daily transactions and show spending habits

(2) Amazon Kindle-I’m currently polishing off my bachelor’s degree and if all my textbooks were available in ebook format i’d have read every single page of all books because the app is that awesome.

(3) iheartradio-best of radio from around the country in whatever genre you’re feeling at the time.  With the coming ability to play while multitasking in the update the app will get even more usage from me.

(4) Netflix-its great to pick up where I leave off when i’m on the go.  Seamlessly switching between desktop, laptop and phone makes it such a joy.  Now i just need to add an Xbox to the mix and it’ll be complete.

(5) ScoreMobile-I was hoping for an ESPN app and I have the ESPN Sports Newsreader app but this is sooo much better.  Update as quickly as every 30 seconds and can designate which leagues to feature.  Nice!

(6) MusiXmatch Lyrics-The integration with Zune is fantastic and i haven’t come across a song yet it didn’t immediately pull in the lyrics for.  Just start a song in Zune playing then switch to the Lyrics app and it’ll automatically have the lyrics to the song currently playing plus give you the option to buy the song.

(7)TWiT-I love to listen to and see tech shows and this app flat out nails it!  Great picture quality.

(8) Shazam-With a wife that is a dancer and choreographer from ballet to hip hop there is a moment in every day where a song is played somewhere and the need arises to quickly find out who the artist is.  Shazam delivers in spades.

(9) Send to WP7-I love having the ability to be at the desktop and send a link instantly to my phone to view something later.  Much faster and cleaner than sending link by email.

(10) Seesmic/Twitter-I use Seesmic because of the visual art style and the fact its a great layout for saving multiple searches.  I like to stay informed on tons of areas and I can see what the buzz is quickly.  The official Twitter app allows me to quickly glance at my timeline.

Games:

Real quickly, I rock out Impossible Shoota (the dev is very active in releasing updates and taking care of bugs), Max & the Magic Marker, Bejeweled, Chicks n’ Vixens and AlphaJax rule my gaming time right now.  Still think Project Sunburst is super sweet!

Do any of you readers care to share your favorites, i’d love to hear them.  I’m sure the developers would love to see the popularity and word of mouth promoting stimulated from this too.  What say you?