Nokia Trailers: View Movie Trailers, Cinema Details & More On Lumia WP7

The ultimate goal for Microsoft and Nokia is to make Windows Phone 7 a real match for iOS. While that scenario might not be on the horizon just yet, the Lumia series is doing pretty well in the market, and Nokia is making the user experience even better by coming up with more and more Lumia-exclusive apps. The latest among such is Nokia Trailers, an app that looks pretty similar to the iTunes Trailers app from Apple (reviewed here). Nokia Trailers can be used to view high-quality trailers from newly released or upcoming Hollywood movies, and lets you maintain a complete record of all the movies you have watched (or wish to watch). Nokia Trailers will provide you with reviews of movies along with a list of all the theaters near your current location. So, if you are a Nokia Lumia owner and like watching movies, head past the break for details of Nokia Trailers.

 

The first section to which the app takes new users is the highlights menu, showcasing all the featured content. The two best movies are displayed on the main page, while you can view more highlights by hitting the button at the bottom of the screen. Users can go to each title’s dedicated page by simply hitting its thumbnail. The page of each movie lists its genre, release date, user ratings and cast. The real fun starts when you move further down the page, where the teaser and trailers are available. It is possible to stream and download these clips, and you can also share them with your friends via email or over your social network. Hitting the eye icon from the bottom bar will add the movie to your personal watch list, so that Nokia Trailers can notify you when the flick is released or there is some other update related to it.

  

Apart from the highlights section, users can browse through movies via the just added, most popular andcoming soon menus. In case you are looking to filter titles based on movie genres or categories, go to the main menu of Nokia Trailers and take your pick. From this same section, it is possible to access and manage your past downloads. The movie theaters menu shows the cinemas near you on a map, and the description of each cinema includes its address and phone number.

Nokia Trailers is a pretty nice app, and is a must-have for all movie fans using Lumia devices. You can download it by searching through the Marketplace on your device, or by visiting the following link on your Nokia phone.

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Wikitude: Discover Places & People Near You In Augmented Reality [WP7]

Augmented reality is quite a promising field of app development for all smartphone platforms. There is, undoubtedly, a lot of room for improvement when it comes to Windows Phone 7 apps that deal with AR, but recently, some pretty good AR browsers have started making their way into the WP7 Marketplace. We covered Nokia’s City Lens (review) a while back, but that is not the first, or even the best, augmented realty browser out there for Mango phones. That honor falls to Wikitude, an app that has been around in the Marketplace for quite some time, but has become even more awesome thanks to a few really good updates. It is not focused on just letting users discover interesting places near them; you can even use it to find people that have recently tweeted in your vicinity. Read on for a complete list of features offered by this comprehensive Mango app.

 

When Wikitude is launched for the first time, it comes up with a step-by-step graphical tutorial, elaborating upon all the features of the app. Before we get to the augmented reality part of Wikitude, let us discuss its location-based features. For that purpose, go to the Favorites menu of the app, and choose the category you want to browse. Wikitude lists following categories by default.

• Sights
• Restaurants
• Cafes
• Pubs
• Events
• ATMs
• Tweets
• Accommodation

You can also search for a particular keyword from the same favorites menu. The Popular section of Wikitude lists different internet sources (YouTube, Wikipedia, Panoramio and Twitter) that users might go to for discovering interesting location-based stuff.

  

To get the maximum out of Wikitude, launch its camera whenever you go out, and just point it around. The app will label all landmarks detected via the camera view, and a radar at the top of the screen shows the density of places near your current location. There are matching Wikipedia entries for most of the places tagged by Wikitude, and you can switch to map view any time you want using the button provided in the bottom bar. For viewing a complete list of places near your current location, hit the list button. Wikitude will even plan a full route to a place from your current location if you are not sure how to get there.

One of the most interesting features of Wikitude is the Tweets section. It shows all the tweets that have been posted by people near you, or whose content is related to nearby places. Wikitude brings all these awesome features to your Windows Phone 7 device for free. You can give the app a try by heading to the following link.

Download Wikitude

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eBuddy XMS: A Simplistic Cross-Platform Messenger For WP7

eBuddy is a popular service for accessing multiple chat clients without having to install any application for them. Now, imagine a messenger app released by such a service, won’t it be cool? eBuddy XMS is everything you would expect from an official eBuddy app. With this app, Windows Phone 7 users can text anyone conveniently, and for free. eBuddy XMS might not come with too many bells and whistles attached, but it is a perfect option if you are looking for something that acts as a replacement for the Messaging hub in WP7, and that, too, in a more efficient way. eBuddy scans your Facebook friends and the People hub to import all the contacts that are already on eBuddy, and you can interact with them after signing up through your phone number.

 

To get started, you will have to create a new account for the eBuddy XMS app. To do that, enter you display name and phone number. The app sends an SMS to the entered number, which contains the activation code for eBuddy XMS. Enter that code in the app, and you are good to go. eBuddy XMS offers to scan the user’s address book and Facebook friends to populate its own contacts list. The contacts are listed just the way they are in the People hub. To manually add someone to your eBuddy XMS contacts list, hit the ‘+’ button in the bottom bar and enter your friend’s eBuddy code or phone number.

 

In order to strike up a conversation with anyone, just tap their name from the contact list. This will take you to the conversation thread for that person. Just like the stock Messaging app in WP7, eBuddy XMS maintains all interactions with a user in a single thread. A timestamp is added to each message, and the emoticons support is pretty good as well.

For now, eBuddy XMS does not support picture attachments, but that feature is expected to be added to the app through a future update. For many people, the app might be worthless until it gets the image and video attachment capability, but for a free app, eBuddy XMS has the potential to prove to be a pretty good addition to your device. You can download the app by searching through the Marketplace hub on your Mango phone, or by clicking web Marketplace the link provided below.

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AppVegas For WP7 Makes App Discovery Fun & Easy

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has finally started to grow at a reasonable pace, and is fast approaching the 100,000 mark. It is not always easy finding good apps when there are so many of them in an environment, and that is why there are a lot of app discovery tools available for WP7, like the previously covered App Flow (review). However, App Flow is not the only good app discovery tool out there for Mango users, and the newest sensation in this genre is AppVegas. Using this app, you can check out all the latest additions to the Marketplace with complete ease. You can browse through the app on the basis of categories, while it is also possible to define search perimeters of your own to find the perfect app. Details past the break.

 

The App Wheel section of AppVegas can be configured to view the apps that fulfill any desired criterion. The first segment of the wheel lets users select the genre of the app, the second one is there to let you define the perimeter that you want to use for sorting the search results, while the last part is related to pricing. You can lock one or all the of the segments of the wheel, and then shake your device to perform the search. The best match found by AppVegas is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and more can be viewed by tapping the button at the bottom right corner. The featured section of the app can be used to keep an eye out for all the new & trending apps in the market.

 

If you are looking to browse AppVegas according to categories, swipe to the right of the screen and select any category of your choice. The categories are further divided into several genres. Each app you discover via AppVegas has a page of its own within the app, listing its description, reviews and screenshots. You can download the app to your device by hitting the blue button in the top right corner of the page. Of course, you can’t download apps directly, and the button will only guide you to the discovered app’s Marketplace page.

AppVegas might not be as thorough as App Flow or some of the other apps out there, but it is certainly the prettiest. It comes with a fully-featured free (although ad-supported) version, while ad-free version fetches for $2.49.

Download AppVegas (Free)

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Photosynth Comes To WP7; Lets You Create & View Amazing 360 Degree Panoramas

Photosynth, the immensely popular photo app for iPhone, is an official Microsoft release, and that’s why its absence from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has been a source of constant annoyance for Mango users, especially given to the fact that the official client for the photo-stitching service has been around in the iOS App Store for a long time. Finally, the guys over in Redmond have paid attention to their own mobile platform, and Photosynth is now available in the WP7 Marketplace! The app can be used to view the gorgeous 360-degree panorama images that characterize Photosynth, and not only that; you can use the app to create your own panoramas, too! Of course, there are a few shortcomings and limitations when you compare the WP7 client with the iOS one, but overall, the app is everything users have always wished for. Read on for details and screenshots.

  

Before we discuss all the good features offered by Photosynth for WP7, let’s highlight the biggest drawback it suffers. The app is not fully compatible with most Windows Phone 7 devices (even our Lumia 800 didn’t qualify). Don’t get too disappointed though; even if your phone lacks a gyroscope or some other component important for the app, you will still be able to use all the features of Photosynth – just with minor performance degradations. I believe most people can live with that.

So, after you have gone through all the notifications and permissions in the Marketplace, you are ready to shoot some seriously awesome panoramas. If you want, it is possible to sign up for a Photosynth account before proceeding (requires nothing more than the linking of your Live ID with the app). However, you may shoot photos even without an account. Just go to the app’s main screen and tap the preview window provided there. Photosynth comes up with a lot of tips and tricks regarding shooting, but if your device is fully compatible, things shouldn’t be too difficult. Just stand in one position (in the middle of the room, if you are indoors), point the device’s camera towards one corner, and let the app capture the image (the frame will turn green, followed by the camera shutter sound). Just keep moving the camera in a circle until all the area has been captured. Make sure you shoot every area of the grid, and populate the checkered background completely. You can also prompt the Photosynth cam to capture a view manually by tapping the framed area. If you make a mistake, or a moving object comes into one of the frames, hit the undobutton. When all is done, hit the checkmark in the bottom bar.

Almost as good as the app’s camera is its viewer. The Featured section of Photosynth lists some of the most popular 360-degree panoramas that have been publicly shared by other Photosynth users. The sidebar in the viewer lets you jump to any particular frame of the image. If you want to manually probe the whole scene, tilt your device (if it sports a gyro) or just swipe across the screen to navigate around the image. The panoramas can be shared over Facebook and Twitter as well, thanks to the free Photosynth.net service.

Photosynth for WP7 might not be perfect yet (the interface looks quite unpolished), but it certainly gets the job done. So, if you own a Windows Phone, you just have to give it a try by heading to the following link, where it is available for free.

Download Photosynth

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ARTistic: A Photo-Sharing Platform For Serious Photographers [WP7]

A new photo-sharing service on any platform is no big news these days, as there are already many such apps on iOS, Android and even Windows Phone 7. The concept has become so commonplace that several subcategories and niches of photo-related social networks have come into being. ARTistic is a WP7 app that explores a new genre of photo sharing, as it is focused entirely on images that have been shot by serious photographers. If you are looking for photos of food or those in-front-of-the-mirror portraits, ARTistic is certainly not your type of app. You can download any image to your device using ARTistic, and use it as a wallpaper for your Mango phone. Read on to know more about this ARTisticphoto-sharing app.

  

If you intend to review photos or add to the app’s collection yourself, create a new profile for ARTistic. Doing so requires nothing more than a new nickname and a few other particulars. After that has been done, you are free to benefit from all the features offered by the app. The first section that comes up when you launch the app is the What’s Hot gallery, listing all the popular images shared by other users. Swiping to the right will bring you to most recent shares, while if you want to browse through ARTistic category-wise, navigate to explore. There are a limited number of categories in the app, and that helps users in finding relevant images quickly. If you have created an app account, it is possible to rate any picture, and leave your comments for it. You can also flag an image, or share it over your social network. To populate your personal collection, just add it to Favorites, and if the original poster of the photo has added the option, it is also possible to download an image to your camera roll.

  

If you start uploading your own images to ARTistic, this will be reflected in the statistics menu of your profile. That menu shows data related to your app usage and popularity. It is not possible to upload images directly from the camera to the app, and you have to choose one from the camera roll of your device. ARTistic presents users with the option to make their images downloadable or private. You also have to select a category for the photo before uploading it to your gallery.

ARTistic is a free app, and you can grab it for your Mango phone by heading to the following web Marketplace link.

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Mehdoh Is Arguably The Best Free Twitter & Instagram Client For WP7

Facebook might be the most popular social network in the world, but when it comes to Windows Phone 7, developers seem to favor Twitter more than Facebook. The best thing about most of the Twitter clients available for the Mango platform is the quality of these apps. Most of them are good enough to give the official Twitter app a run for its money, and some even surpass it. Mehdoh is one such app, which comes with some pretty distinguishing features. The app has been around in the Marketplace for a long time, but its latest update might have made it the most comprehensive Twitter app out there. Not only can you use Mehdoh to tweet, the app will also let you link your Instagram account with it! Doesn’t that sound amazing? Read on for more.

 

The welcome screen of Mehdoh prompts users to sign in to their Twitter account, and while your timeline is being populated after login, the app asks users to choose the service they want to employ for sharing images on Twitter. Once the setup is complete, you can add more Twitter accounts from the account management section of the app. If you want to link your Instagram account with any of the added Twitter profiles, go to the bottom menu of the accounts page and tap add instagram account. Your timeline integrates posts from all the linked accounts, and this section is pretty similar to the official WP7 Twitter client. Swiping to the right will bring you to the mentions section, while another swipe leads to messages. You can look for a user or keyword using the search button in the bottom bar. The small box at the top of each section acts as a notification area, and will display the number of new mentions or timeline updates (something that is missing in the official Twitter app).

 

The real changes become apparent in Mehdoh when you tap a tweet to open it. Instead of just a link, the app displays a preview of the attached images or webpages. To navigate to these previews just swipe to the left of the screen to the link section. Another cool feature offered by Mehdoh is its translate tweet with Bing option, which is available for all tweets, and taping it will convert the tweet’s contents to the default language of your WP7;  that, too, without leaving the current screen.

 

The Trends section in Mehdoh is the most comprehensive one we have ever seen in a WP7 app. You can apply a number of filters to view trending topics in various regions of the world, and during different times of the day. When composing a new tweet with the app, you can switch accounts with a single tap, andspecial character support is also available.

Mehdoh is available as a free download, and if you are a regular Twitter user who has an Instagram account as well, you should give the app a try by heading to the following web Marketplace link below.

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Remote Control your Android Phone using SMS

How do you locate your mobile phone if the ringer is off? Maybe you switched the phone to vibrate mode while you were in a meeting and the device is nowhere to be found.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could borrow your colleague’s phone and use it to turn on the ringer of your missing phone?

Meet Agastya, a new Android app that lets you “remotely” perform various tasks on your phone from any other phone via simple SMS commands. The other phone, that is sending the commands, need not be running Android – even the basic Nokia 1100 would do just fine – and either phones don’t require GPS or data plans (Internet).

The workflow is easy. You send an SMS command from a friend’s phone to your own phone in a given format and the app reacts accordingly. For instance, a command like “ringer” would turn on the ringer while “silent” would put the phone to silent mode.

The app can also help you retrieve your missed calls list or your incoming text messages via, you got it right, SMS. This feature should be handy for people who own multiple phones – you can easily check the call and SMS logs of your secondary phone from the one that’s in your pocket.

Here’s a complete list of SMS commands that you can try on your Android phone:

• SILENT – Turn off the phone’s ringer
• RINGER – Turn on the ringer
• IMEI – Get the IMEI number* of your phone
• LAST MESSAGES – Retrieve the last 5 text messages received on your phone
• LAST CALLS – Know the last 5 missed/received/dialed numbers
• <CONTACT> – Fetch the contact number of a person from the address book.

[*] The IMEI number can help you block a misplaced (or stolen) phone from accessing mobile networks (type *#06# to know the IMEI of your existing phone).

Agastay isn’t the first app that offers such features. The more popular Where’s My Droid app can not only turn on the ringer of your phone remotely but will also send you the phone’s current GPS location by SMS. There’s overlap but these apps are more inclined towards locating your lost phone while Agastay is like a command console – you can toggle between phone states or even fetch details of a contact remotely from the phone’s address book. The IMEI feature is also handy for blacklisting your misplaced phone.

In my tests, Agastya did work as advertised and the SMS based commands executed almost instantly though the app did crash in one instance. The company says that Agastay works on Android 2.2 and above.

On a related note, if you aren’t allowed to carry cell phones in your office, you should grab the SMS to Gmail app as it will auto-forward all your incoming text messages and missed calls list to your work email address.

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Photo Sharing Network SmugMug Releases Official App For Windows Phone 7

SmugMug might not be as popular as Instagram, but it is a service that is used by professional photographers and is not limited to just mobile platforms. The photos available on SmugMug are generally high in quality, because the user base of the service consists of people who don’t share photos just for fun. Rather than predefined, one-touch filters and photo effects, SmugMug allows its users to make adjustments they want to their photos. If you are a Windows Phone 7 user, and admire SmugMug, you’ll be delighted to know that the official mobile client of the service has just hit the Marketplace. The app lets you control every aspect of your SmugMug account, and even if you don’t have one, you can browse through public galleries and share photos from the app.

  
If you’re already a member of SmugMug, go to the bottom menu of the main page and tap the sign in option. For those who want to sign up, the option to do so is available on the login page. The accounts created via the app are valid for a limited trial period only, as signing up for a full account requires payment, which can only be done from the web interface. However, an account is not necessary to use the mobile client. You will still be able to browse through the beautiful SmugMug galleries, search for any photo, share images over your social networks and use the app as a photo editor. The only limitation is that you won’t be able to post photos to SmugMug without an account.
The app features the most popular images of the day on its main page. Within the Popular menu, you can view featured images from the past and the different categories that they’re sorted under. For SmugMug account holders, it is possible to create new galleries on their page and define new categories for the photos they share.
  
If you want to use the SmugMug app as a photo editor, just hit the camera button, snap a picture and tap the edit button in the bottom bar. The app has a neatly designed editing interface, including the following options:

• Black & White
• Brightness & Contrast
• Color
• Crop
• Rotate
• Sharpness

The options included in each of these menus are adjustable via sliders, and can be used to get pretty decent results. It is also possible to compare the result of each change with the original image using the before button next to the apply one.
Even if you don’t plan on spending all that money on a SmugMug account, the mobile client is a must-have if you’re a photography enthusiast. The app itself is available for free in the Marketplace.
Download SmugMug for Windows Phone 7

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The Caddie + For Nokia Lumia: View Stats Of Fellow Golfers In Augmented Reality!

Golf might appear to be a rather simple game if you are watching it on TV, but if you’ve ever been to the greens yourself, you probably know that it isn’t as simple as hitting the ball with the club. Plus, you have to find some golfing buddies, someone has to keep the scores, and, if the course is unfamiliar to you, finding your way across all 18 holes can be a real headache. This is the reason there are many apps in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace that can help you with all this, and leave you free to concentrate on your game. The best among such WP7 apps is The Caddie +, and although the app has been around for quite a while for Mango phones, a Lumia version of the app has recently been released. The Nokia app is pretty similar to the original one, but it has some really fantastic augmented reality features that make it a cut above the rest. With the app’s Golfscope feature, you just have to point your device at anyone playing against you, and the app with display their stats and score right on your screen! Intrigued? Read of past the jump for more.

  
If you are new to The Caddie +, create a new account from the app’s welcome page; otherwise, a simple login would suffice. On your profile page of the app, The Caddie + displays all your past stats and scores. This record is updated and maintained automatically, and you just have to check-in to a particular round to make the app start tracking. If you want to change your Avatar, or tinker with some other aspect of your profile, go to the Golfers section. From this menu, it is also possible to build your golfing network and invite friends to join The Caddie +. If any of your friends are already using the service, their complete stats and past record will automatically be imported. The app can prove to be a good tool for finding nearby golfers and golf courses, and you might be surprised at the depth of The Caddie’s database. Not only that, the app will keep you up to date with the latest happenings in the world of golf, and you can read the news in the Golf News section.
  
Whenever you are at a golf course and about to start a round, just go hit the Tee-It-Up button, let the app determine the course you are at, name all the buddies who are playing with you and you are good to go. Although the database of courses isn’t absolutely perfect, most of the venues have got detailed internal maps associated with them (you can request the app’s team to update their database if a course doesn’t have a hole-by-hole map). This means that it is easy to go from one hole to the next, as the app will provide you with detailed directions. For maintaining the round’s scores, enter the my stats section. During a game, if you are wondering what’s the score of any given player, just launch Golfscope, and point the camera at them. The scores will be calculated based on the scanned player’s position, and you can view the stats both on a map or in 3D.
The Caddie + is available as a free download, but you can only use it if you own a Nokia WP7 device (just search the Marketplace on your phone). For non-Lumia users, there is The Caddie, a variant of The Caddie + that recently went free from $29.99, but doesn’t have Golfscope.
Download The Caddie

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WSJ Live: Watch Video News From The Business World On Your WP7

The Wall Street Journal is one of the most important and popular news source of the world. No business-related news can possibly be big enough if it isn’t in Wall Street Journal. With the advent of technology, the financial tabloid had entered the cyber age as well. Now many people prefer watching the video content available via Wall Street Journal’s website and TV channel, instead of reading whole articles. A video can certainly enlighten you more on any topic as compared to a written story, and that’s why WSJ Live can prove to be the perfect app for all Windows Phone 7 users who are even remotely interested in financial matters and the stock market. The app presents users with news stories, but only as videos. You can also use WSJ Live to watch some of the most popular Wall Street Journal programs, right on your Mango phone’s screen!

  
The current headlines on WSJ Live are displayed in the Spotlight section of the app, and this is the same menu that houses breaking news items. As discussed above, the news stories are all in the form of videos, and you can begin streaming content with a single tap. It is also possible to search for a particular keyword, and the button for that is provided in the bottom bar (although the app froze every time I tried searching for anything). From the menu marked browse, users can sift through videos related to any of the listed topics, which include all that are currently popular among users.
  
If you are a fan of any WSJ show, WSJ Live is a must-have for you. The app has a separate section where users can pick any episode of the popular shows from Wall Street Journal. The listed shows include “The News Hub”, “WSJ Lunch Break” and about a dozen more. Inside each program’s dedicated page, all its recent episodes are listed, and you can watch any of them if you have a good internet connection.
The WSJ Live video player is pretty good, and you can skip to any part of the current video by double-tapping the streaming bar. The share button is also available in the player’s control menu. To navigate to the next episode of a show, you can either go back to the episode list, or there is the Next button available in the control bar.
WSJ Live is a free app, and if you want to stream lots of news videos conveniently on your WP7, head to the web Marketplace link provided below.
Download WSJ Live

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