Despite the fact that the Itsdagram welcome screen asks users to sign in with their Itsdagram account, you just have to enter your Instagram credentials to get started. The ‘Home’ section of the app displays an endless feed of updates from people you follow. You can like or leave comments on each post without having to navigate away from the main page, just like Instagram. Swiping to the right brings up the ‘Popular’ grid, and the section next to it displays the activity notifications related to your account.

Itsdagram supports notifications, but they might reach you with a delay of up to 30 minutes. In order to activate live tiles and notifications, you have to head to the app’s settings and enable ‘Background Updates’.

When it comes to uploads, which is the main feature of Itsdagram, you can only post one photo to test thing out, if you are using the app’s trial version. The filters available in the app are a bit different from the ones that come with Instagram, at least in terms of names. Each filter can be previewed by tapping it once, and the photo isn’t really altered until you hit the ‘next’ button, just the way it is in Instagram’s official apps. The upload screen allows users to add a description and mentions to the photo.

Itsdagram fetches for $1.49, but the trial version can be used indefinitely if you don’t intend to upload photos. WP8 has other Instagram clients, but there can be no doubting that Itsdagram resembles the official app most closely. Give the app a go by heading to link provided below.

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Those who have used Vyclone on other platforms can connect their existing account with the WP8 app. If you are new to Vyclone, you can register a new account using your email address or Facebook account. To make the service more social, Vyclone has a ‘My Feed’ section where collaborative videos from your friends show up. To see some of the best public works from Vyclone users, head to the ‘trending’ section of the app. From the bottom bar, it is even possible to search for videos associated with particular keywords. Vyclone links location with all videos shot using it, so you can browse through the public library if you only want to search for videos shot near your current location.

To start a shooting project of your own, hit the camera button located at the bottom of the screen. The recording view displays the number of Vyclone users near you, so that it becomes possible to collaborate with them easily. All users have to shoot simultaneously if they want to become a part of a session.

Apart from new videos, Vyclone also offers the option to create your own remixes of public videos shared on the network by others. The editing options aren’t too complex; the editor is meant to work as a one-tap tool. The seek bar can be used to navigate to different parts of the video, while the available views can be chosen for your personal cut simply by tapping them from the right-hand pane.

Vyclone for Windows Phone is available only for Windows Phone 8, and might not work with Non-Nokia devices. You can give the app a shot for free by heading to the following link.

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Ringtone Maker only allows its user to create tones out of DRM-free music, and a warning to that effect is shown clearly on the app’s welcome screen. Using the app is really easy; all you need are some songs of your choice in the phone’s music library. To get started, hit the ‘pick a song’ button, which takes users to a list of all the compatible songs available in their collection. The app is capable of creating ringtones out of MP3, MWA, M4A, WMA and ACC files.

Once a track has been selected, trimming it down is as easy as just flicking through the editing screen. The value on the left represents the start time for the tune, while the other one indicates the point where it ends. Ringtones can’t be any longer than 30 seconds, and that’s the editing frame you get. The length of the frame can be reduced though, by dragging the dots to a new position. To ensure that the right parts get included in the tone, users have the option to listen to the ringtone before actually hitting the save button.

The tones you want to save to the device can be renamed, and it is also possible to set one as your default ringtone right from within Ringtone Maker. The app offers to let you start a new editing session once you are done with creating one ringtone.

Ringtone Maker’s new version is still in its beta testing phase, and users have to sign up for a free Nokia account if they want access to it. To register, and get the app, head to the following link from your Lumia phone.

Download Ringtone Maker Beta For Windows Phone

Read Easily Convert MP3, WMV & M4A Songs To Ringtones On Nokia Lumia by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Although Juice for WP8 is great, one can’t help but feel that the app misses out on utilizing some of the features that make Windows Phone great. There is no functional live tile for the app, and the interface doesn’t seem to be any different from the app’s iPhone counterpart at all. Like the iOS app, Juice for WP8 starts by showing a login screen. If you are an existing Mindbloom user, there is no need to register for a new account. Once logged in, a graphical tutorial is shown to familiarize users with he app.

In order to log your overall energy for the day, head to the ‘Rate My Energy’ view of the bottle and swipe vertically to change the level of liquid shown inside the bottle. Juice also adjusts this rating automatically if you tinker with the ingredients. These ingredients include sleep, exercise and nutrition. More categories can be added to the mix as well.

The ingredients screen can be used to store the general state of your activities, while the ‘My Notes’ tab can come in handy if you want to save some additional information about your day. The ‘My Stats’ screen makes Juice really helpful for people who like to get a graphical view of their progress.

As a life tracker, Juice is pretty great, but the app also offers some handy tips on a variety of subjects. If a tip asks you do some physical activity, it is also possible to create a reminder out of it. These tips can be shared via Facebook and email as well.

Juice is a free app, and works only with Windows Phone 8 devices. Give it a go by going to the following link.

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The app now has a more Modern UI look, which suits it just fine. In fact, YouTube for WP8 might finally have become good enough to give the Android and iOS apps of the service a run for their money. In addition to looks, the updated app also takes full advantage of other WP8 features. It is possible to listen to videos even when you lock your device’s screen while a video is being played. This is perfect for those of you with elaborate playlists dealing just with music. Speaking of playlists, the layout of all playlists shown by YouTube for WP8 has changed dramatically. The official change log of the app describes it as a ‘touch-friendly filmstrip’. Users also get to manage and upload videos to playlists with YouTube 3.0.

Almost everything from the updated app can be pinned to the Start screen, including channels, playlists and profiles. Rather interestingly, it is even possible to create live tiles out of videos and search queries. All these live tiles are capable of flipping to reveal a thumbnail view of the latest video from the pinned category or list.

The video player in YouTube 3.0 offers sharing options that include social networks, email and SMS. You can also put the device in lock screen if you want to continue listening to a video without looking at it.

YouTube 3.0 has been released for WP8 only, at least for now, but Microsoft has revealed that a similar update is in works for Mango as well. So, if you haven’t done it already, head to the WP Store from your WP8 and grab the app right away!

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Baconography is among the most uncomplicated Reddit clients we have ever seen for any platform. You won’t need any instructions to get started with it, and the ‘front page’ shows up automatically as soon as the app is launched for the first time. To personalize the whole experience, head to the app’s bottom bar and log in to your Reddit account. Surprisingly, Baconography even comes with a  sign up option – something that is usually missing in Reddit apps for Windows Phone.

To search for a particular subreddit, swipe to the right of the screen and use the search box. Apart from searching, some of the most popular categories are pinned on the ‘new’ page as well. To add a subreddit to your Baconography screen, simply open it. To remove or reposition these threads, use the ‘manage subreddits’ option from the bottom bar.

In the app’s Windows 8 version, the feeds show up in a layout that is identical to the mobile one, but some of the controls are placed a bit differently. To switch to a new thread, right-click and choose the ‘subreddit’ option from the bottom app bar. The small arrow next to the current subreddit’s name can also be used to go to a new thread. The desktop client is also capable of loading some of the content for offline viewing.

While viewing a post, it is possible to go straight to the actual content, or read the associated description and comments first if you choose. From Baconography settings, you can define the number of comments that are loaded for each post by default. If you are logged in, you can vote on a post, submit a reply, or go to its parent subreddit. Like all good Reddit apps, Baconography for WP8 is capable of playing GIFs on your mobile devices screen.

Baconography is a free app. The Windows Phone version works only with WP8, while the desktop one is compatible with Windows 8 and RT.

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Download Baconography For Windows 8

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#trending doesn’t have account support, which is understandable since Twitter hasn’t opened the service for third-party apps to connect to via any official API. Though this means the app is ready to be used as soon as you launch it. The default page displays the ‘Popular’ chart from #music. The page is ranked exactly like its counterpart on #music (yes, we cross-checked) and displays the Twitter handle of the artists, song name and the actual name of the singer. To switch to the ‘Emerging’ chart, hit the graph icon located in the bottom bar. The layout of both charts is identical, and the difference lies in the content.

Whenever you tap a track on one of the charts in #trending, all the options dealing with the song show up at the bottom of the screen. If you want to listen to a sample of the song (generally half a minute in duration), hit ‘Play’. The ‘playing’ screen has a seek bar, along with other playback controls at the bottom. Album art and some extra information accompany the track as well. All songs played in #trending are part of a queue, so you can keep listening to samples from a particular chart after playing just one song from it. To listen to the entire song, there are two options. You can either purchase the track from the WP Store, or use the developer’s SKY MUSIC app to find a free copy of it.

A really interesting feature of #trending is that users can get free ringtones from it. Any song listed in the app’s chart can be saved to your device as a ringtone simply by hitting the appropriate button from the bottom bar.

#trending has both free and paid ($1.99) versions, with ads being the only difference between the two. Give it a go to find out what all the rage is about #music.

Download #trending For Windows Phone

Download #trending (free) For Windows Phone

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Some might compare Switch to Windows Phone to the previously covered Welcome Home desktop app, but the two tools have inherently different purposes. The newly released app isn’t about letting you migrating your data from Android to your new WP8 device. Switch to Windows Phone just tries to make sure that you get to discover the full potential of the WP Store.

To get started, grab the Android version of the app, and use your Microsoft ID to log in. For extra convenience, make sure that you use the ID that you later intend to associate with your WP8. Once you are signed in, Switch to Windows Phone starts scanning the list of all the apps installed on your Android device. The matching process doesn’t take too long, and you are soon presented with a list of all the apps for which alternatives have been found in the WP Store. To keep the generated list in cloud, hit the ‘Save my list’ button at the bottom of the screen. Now, your work on Android is done, and everything is in place to let you switch to your new Windows Phone in a smooth manner.

On WP8, log in using your Microsoft ID and hit the ‘Next’ button. Make sure the app gets all the permissions it requests, and then let it fetch the list generated on Android. The list is sorted in alphabetical order, and displays the name and price of each app. You can head to any app’s WP Store page simply by hitting its entry on the ‘all’ page. The apps recommended by Switch to Windows Phone might not be exactly the same as your Android apps, but many can be pretty close to them in terms of features and functionality.

Switch to Windows Phone has a few crashing issues on WP8, but re-installing the app solved this for us. It’s a nice effort by Microsoft, but judging by the app’s reviews on the Play Store, Android users aren’t exactly head-over-heels for it. In any case, you can give Switch to Windows Phone a shot on your Android device even if you don’t have a WP8 device yet, since it might give you a pretty good idea regarding Windows Phone’s current app environment.

Download Switch to Windows Phone For Android

Download Switch to Windows Phone For Windows Phone

Read Switch to Windows Phone Finds WP8 Alternatives For Your Android Apps by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Facebook Beta is completely different from the current Facebook app for Windows Phone, and resembles the iOS/Android versions to some extent. The new interface looks more at home on WP8, and you can perform gestures to navigate between different screens. On the app’s welcome screen, you’ll see a few basic instructions regarding the new features added to the mix.

Once you have logged in, it is possible to access the options menu simply by swiping from left to right, or by tapping the icon located in the top-left corner. Hit the gear icon next to ‘News Feed’ if you want to sort your stream by ‘Top Stories’ or ‘Most Recent’. The opposite edge of the News Feed reveals chat lists, while the search button stays accessible in most parts of the app at the bottom of the screen.

Apart from a fresh UI, Facebook Beta also offers some completely new features, like the ability to automatically shuffle through your albums on your phone’s lock screen. Users can even choose to use photos from particular albums, or the ones in which they have been tagged.

All profile pages in Facebook Beta now display cover photos, and if you are viewing one of your own photos in the app’s image viewer, there is a pretty prominent ‘Make Profile Picture’ option in the upper bar. The Nearby section of the app looks pretty neat as well.

Facebook Beta is a free app, and Microsoft has warned users that it isn’t very stable for now (we can confirm that). You can, however, make it better by reporting issues via the feedback button located inside the ‘About’ section of the app’s settings menu. We have been assured that the original Facebook app won’t be removed from the WP Store any time soon, and until then, you can grab Facebook Beta by opening the following link directly on your WP8 device.

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Read Hands-On With The Revamped Facebook Beta App For Windows Phone 8 by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Fidelity Investments is not the first app of its kind to be released in the WP Store. In fact, apps like Bloomberg and E*TRADE have long made the lives of WP8’s business community easier. This new release resembles E*TRADE, but the overall impression of Fidelity Investments is a little better than the older app. For one thing, Fidelity has a neater interface, and it also supports multiple live tiles. You can pin a particular section of the app or the home page of a company to your Start screen.

A Fidelity account is needed if you want to maintain your personalized news streams and watch lists, but almost all the other features of the app remains accessible even if you are not signed in. The main page shows the latest data from major U.S. markets in both graphical and statistical form. You get to see the progress of Dow Jones, NASDAQ, S&P 500 and Russell 3000. If you are looking for details regarding a particular stock, head to the ‘quote’ section and perform a search. The ‘Watch List’ section can help Fidelity Investments users in making sure that information regarding the shares they own is always within easy reach.

Fidelity Investments has a news section that can give Bloomberg a run for its money. By default, only top stories show up in the news list, but you can also choose to switch between different categories for more detailed coverage. The reading view in Fidelity Investments is pretty simple, and the only option you get there is for changing the font size.

Registered Fidelity users can employ the app in trading stocks right from their device. Even if you don’t want to trade, it is possible to closely monitor charts and news stories related to a particular stock.

Fidelity Investments is a free app and can be used on any Windows Phone 8 device. Give it a go by heading to the following link.

Download Fidelity Investments For WP8

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You need to sign up for Indigo in order to use it properly; the app comes with a ‘register’ button on the welcome screen for that purpose. Since Indigo is capable of doing a lot of stuff, it is better if you start by asking a question like “What can you do?”. Indigo supports two modes of input; voice and keyboard. Apart from telling Indigo what to do through these commands, you can perform some actions manually as well. The app has separate sections for reminders, alarms and notes, where Indigo intelligently stores these entities when you dictate to it, or you can make the additions using the ‘+’ icon in the bottom bar.

The ‘Favorites’ section of Indigo displays commands that have been bookmarked for future usage. Whenever you feel like you might need to use a certain query again, just tap the star icon next to it after Indigo has processed it.

Like Siri, Indigo can tap into Wolfram Alpha to get answers for some questions, but it can also let you search via Google, Bing or Wikipedia. No personal assistant is complete unless it has some knowledge of the weather, and Indigo is no exception. Apart from that, the app can tell you all about your horoscope, knows a fair few jokes, and can act like a talking Local Scout.

Another unique thing about Indigo is that the app can let you control your social networking accounts via voice. There are options for posting to Facebook, tweeting, reading the latest tweets from your timeline and even retweeting the ones you like.

Indigo is still in its beta testing phase, but we didn’t get that impression while testing the app. Everything works fine, and although there is a huge difference in terms of UI between the Android and WP8 variants, the features are the same. Grab the app for free by clicking the appropriate link for your smartphone platform.

Download Indigo For Android

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The welcome page of Tumblr for WP8 has options to let new users register for an account, or sign in using their existing credentials. The ‘Dashboard’ section of the app shows up as soon as you log in. This screen consists of a stream of updates from all users you are following on Tumblr. Full posts are shown on the main screen, and there is no need to open a post in a separate view unless you want to add a note to it.

The app offers full GIF support – a feature the iOS version of Tumblr only recently acquired. Animations show up in Dashboard, Explore, search results and even user profiles. If you are wondering where all these sections are located in the app, take a look at the bottom of the screen to find the search button. The remaining sections can be accessed simply by swiping across the screens.

To create a new post, tap the first icon at the bottom of the screen. There are six ways you can start composing a new post. The available options include text, photo, quote, link, chat and video. In chat mode, whatever you share is only visible to the chosen recipients. For media sharing, Tumblr supports attaching files from the camera roll or start shooting with your camera without having to exit the app. To help you keep your profile neat and well-organized, Tumblr for WP8 supports the service’s tagging system in its entirety. Publishing options include scheduling posts for a later time or saving them to drafts. If you associate multiple profiles with the app, you can post to any of them by selecting the one you want from the ‘Publish To’ section.

Tumblr only works with WP8 devices, since it offers features like resizable live tiles and placing latest images from your stream on the lock screen. The app is available for free, and can be found at the link given below.

Download Tumblr For Windows Phone

Read Discover Content & Create Posts With The Official Tumblr App For WP8 by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter