I have a Windows 8.1 laptop and I own an Xbox. When it came time to buy a new cell phone, it made sense to get a Windows Phone because it would work with what I already had at home. And so, a Nokia Lumia 1020 has become my latest tech toy. It has been a lot of fun figuring out all the bells and whistles on my new phone.
Downloading apps is one of the first things I do with any new smartphone. Adding apps is one of the easiest ways to customize your phone and it simply makes your phone a lot more useful. Without a music app or social media apps, I would hardly have a reason to use my phone. Adding Twitter and Netflix were my first two choices, but I figured there had to be more out there.
Nokia’s smartphones have something called App Social which helps you discover apps worth downloading on your Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 device. It relies heavily on peer recommendations to bring the best apps to the top of the pile. If you find someone who seems to make good recommendations, you can follow their list and receive notifications whenever they add a new recommendation.
I found that App Social was a good way to find new apps in the Windows store and it gave me some reassurance that I wasn’t going to download junk. Too often with other phones, I would find a free app that sounded nice, only to realize it was worthless after downloading it. App Social takes out some of the guess work because it ranks the apps based on recommendations. I found the system worked pretty well.
One of the apps I discovered through App Social is called DualShot. When you use the app to take a photo, it snaps an image from both your front facing and regular camera on the phone. I liked this app because it gives you a unique take on the traditional snapshot. It lets you capture the view ahead of you and also gets a nice photo of you at the location. I would not have normally looked for an app like this, but it was a pleasant discovery as I browsed App Social.
I have had my Nokia 1020 for a few weeks and have been enjoying the great camera and large screen on the phone. I occasionally make calls with my phone too. But I spend the majority of my time using the various apps. With Nokia App Social, I know that I will never run out of new apps to try and that I can feel confident when downloading because the apps have been highly recommended.
This post was written as part of a partnership with Nokia, however all of the thoughts and opinions are mine.
