In this weeks edition of What’s on Your Windows Phone 7? let me introduce you to Marques Lyons who has been a Microsoft Zune MVP since 2008.
He is the founder and lead writer for Inside the Circle, a Zune and Music centric blog, runs his own personal blog and is very active in the social space making sure that people get the most out of their Zunes.
He has also dedicated time to creating a series of community meet-ups with the various Microsoft stores. These meet-ups, called MSMVP, allow community members to get some real-time advice and opinions from Microsoft MVPs. There have been three events already with more to come in 2011 including one at the Microsoft Store in Bellevue, WA.
Although he has only had his Windows Phone 7 for a couple of weeks he said that he has enough apps to make it look like it has been around much longer.
Here’s are some of the apps that have found their way onto his Samsung Focus and his own reasons why he grabbed them:
- News360 – It’s a wonderfully made news application that aggregates information from a variety of sources. It’s also fantastic with sharing that information via the user’s Twitter or Facebook accounts. The layout is really well done and I’m able to see what multiple news sources are writing about the same story without having to go through a bunch of sites or applications.
- WeatherBug – I love the live tile. Having that quick glance at my local weather (I live in Anaheim) is wonderful and kept up very well. I also like the video weather update that I can watch when I want to know what’s going on around the country.
- Foursquare – I honestly thought I would give this up, but this application makes it very easy to let my friends know of cool or relevant places I’m visiting at any given time. I do try to narrow it down to 3 maximum check ins so friend’s don’t ban me from their lists.
- Human Japanese – I know that sounds like an odd choice, but I’ve always been fascinated with the Japanese language and I’ve had the chance to visit there twice. This application is basically an enhanced textbook with an awesome layout and vocal demonstrations of the various Japanese words and sounds. In a sea of attempts to learn Japanese I believe this app will be the breakthrough.
- Opentable – I’ve occasionally used the OpenTable service on my PC, but I really like what they’ve done for the mobile device. I like that it finds where I am and then tells me good places to go (or at least places nearby that accept reservations straight from the phone).
- Bejeweled – I’ll end with a game because a lot of my app wandering has been in the games section. I liked Bejeweled on the PC and I think that this is a great version for the phone. Given my phone’s size it’s a great quick puzzle game to enjoy when I’m in line or relaxing on a lunch break.
Curious why there are no music apps on his handset for a music enthusiast? Well the Windows Phone 7 OS has Zune functionality built into it so there is no need for an extra app to play your music!
So will you be next to show What’s on Your Windows Phone 7?
Just contact me here or give me a shout on Twitter (@WinObs) if you want to share about your Windows Phone 7 apps in a future edition of What’s On Your Windows Phone 7?
