Windows 10 lets you get apps that run on differing device sizes from phones to high-powered desktop PCs. Here are the best of these apps we’ve found.
Though I prefer Yelp overall, Foursquare has it beat in the Universal Windows app race. And Foursquare has a legion of devout users. The app doesn’t even require an account, but if you do become a regular user, it can learn your tastes. You can save favorite places, leave tips about them, or just like or dislike them. The fun, large tile design is eminently touchable and swipe-able, and Bing Maps integration means you’ll never have trouble finding your next palate-pleasing venue. TeamViewer combines remote access and shared meeting features in a single secure app, and it hides most of its complexity under an elegant interface. It’s loaded with features and free for noncommercial use. TeamViewer is PCMag’s top pick for remote access software for enterprise and corporate use and it’s available on the Windows Store for PCs and mobiles, as well as for every other major platform.
TuneIn offers many kinds of listening experiences—get access to thousands of sources of music, talk, sports, and more audio goodness from everywhere on the globe. While the excellent Pandora is considered „radio“—we all know it’s not radio: just try finding talk or sports shows on it. The TuneIn Premium account level removes ads and adds live streaming of MLB, NBA, and NFL games, along with a large selection of audio books. TuneIn lets you tune into real radio, and there’s nothing that comes close to it in the Windows Store.
The Twitter Universal app supports everything you expect in a mobile app for the microblogging service, including multiple accounts, lists, video, pictures (with people tagging), and location. You can save drafts, edit your profiles, and choose between light and dark themes. The app will, of course, generate notifications, and you can set it up to display new tweets on the lock screen and Start menu tile. Account switching is nice, too, because who has just one Twitter account? Another excellent service in the communications genre, Viber offers Skype-like video calling and calling to standard telephones, but, unlike Skype and Facebook Messenger, it requires a mobile phone number and the app installed on that phone in order to work. You can also view public chats manned by celebrities or interest groups. And as with Facebook Messenger, there’s an extensive sticker market. Cool Windows 10 capability: the Viber app lets you reply to text messages right from the Action Center notification. The open-source multi-format video player comes to the Windows Store! VLC instantly finds and can play just about any kind of video or music on you PC or Windows Mobile device. Its interface is simple and clear. Just don’t expect all of the features of the traditional Windows VLC program, such as video effects and file conversion. It does let you add media folder locations, choose caption formats, and use hardware decoding, however. For music playback, VLC also offers 17 equalizer presets, from classical to techno. Vast amounts of scientific knowledge is embodied in this app, which is a must for students of not only mathematics, but also geology, astronomy, and biology. Compare areas, masses, and other dimensions using its massive store of data. There’s even information on music, words, health, nutrition, and transportation. You’d be amazed at some of the statistics available in the app, including movie ticket receipts for box-office hits and the probability of hitting it rich with your Mega Millions ticket.
