Windows Phone Thoughts: Weekly App Round-Up: March 8th, 2011

This week's app round-up includes 4 apps that I think are really beginning to show the power of the Windows Phone 7 platform and the dynamic content that is starting to become available for the platform.

Included are a new Twitter client, a universal printing application, a contact sender for forwarding contact info directly from the people hub to other contacts, and finally a Groupon browser.

moTweets

First up is moTweets an application that has been around the Windows Mobile platform for awhile and has only gotten better with its addition to the Windows Phone marketplace. For Twitter users, this is the app for you on the Windows Phone platform. The application is clean, simple and easy to use. On first impression, the one feature that I think should be added is the ability to resize the text within the tweets.

Some of the interesting new features include the inclusion of location based info in your tweets and a ability to truly see what's going on around you. The "Near Me" thread enables you to not only see the tweets of those around you but their last mapped location. This could have some interesting uses in itself but for now it makes for a pretty cool visual.

I have a number of saved searches with twitter that I constantly refer to . moTweets enables you to save the search and include that on the ribbon tab for future access. This is a huge time saver for me as I like to look in on threads throughout the day and do a quick browse. Without it, my use of Twitter tends to fall dramatically. There is both a free version and a premier version. The only difference between the two versions appears to be that the free version is ad-supported vs. the Premier fee based version.

Robo Print

The second app in the roundup this week is a printer tool for your Windows Phone. The Robo Print product is available for multiple phone platforms at this point and its inclusion in the marketplace is a helpful addition for those that take a lot of pictures or need to bring emails, text, etc.

I've just starting working with the app and while its configuration is a little tricky it seems to work well. There is both a server and client portion of this application and the service does take some time to configure but does seem to work fairly easily.

Forward Contacts

I'm in a sales job and I find myself having to share contacts with partners and customers all day long. The core Windows Phone platform is without a simple method to send contact information directly out of the people hub. This application is the solution.

It simple and easy to use once you've used it once or twice. Its not the most intuitive UI, but once you use it's a breeze and most importantly it just works. Nice app!

Groupon Express

I'm a Groupon geek, I admit it. I love to save money where I can but it has to be easy for me to use, hence my love of Groupon. This app is a must for the Groupon lover . The application is simple, clean and easy to use. I really like the "NearBy" feature that enables you to use the geo based services of the Windows Phone platform to find Groupon deals based on present location.