Windows Phone 7: A Sneak Peek at the Apps

Windows Phone 7 Series won't be out until the end of the year — meanwhile, whet your appetite with a look at some of the cool apps waiting in the wings.

By Jared Newman, PCWorld

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WinPho7 Series Apps Preview

Windows Phone 7 Series won't be released until the end of the year, but Microsoft is already teasing some of the phone's app possibilities. At its Mix10 conference for Web designers and developers, Microsoft showed off several prototype or in-development apps using either Silverlight or XNA Game Studio. Here's a preview of what to expect from Windows Phone 7 Series apps.

AP Mobile

The launching point for news from the Associated Press includes the ability to Digg and comment on stories. See? The AP isn't so Web-averse as long as it's controlling the content.

Hush Hush

Forget the old-school paper diary hidden under the bed. Hush Hush lets you pull photos, audio and video onto its digital pages and includes password protection from prying eyes.

Graphic.ly

Microsoft used Graphic.ly to show off Silverlight's Deep Zoom capability, which lets applications zoom in and out of an image without hindering performance. This app is a viewer for digital comic books.

Netflix

The prototype Netflix app lets subscribers watch streaming movies, complete with recommendations based on your past activity. Also, an icon for whatever you're watching gets displayed in the phone's central media hub, so you can pick up where you left off.

Colorizer

Here's a photo editor that creates cool color effects. Edited works can be uploaded to Facebook, Windows Live and other photo-sharing sites.

Shazam

Just like the iPhone app, Shazam for Windows phones can identify millions of songs just by listening to them. But if you're a Zune Pass subscriber, you can head right to the Zune Marketplace and download the song for no extra charge.

Marionette

Marionette creates little avatars with big heads, which can talk and get bounced around the screen using the phone's accelerometer. Silly, sure, but if people will buy iFart, this'll probably be a hit.

Goo Splat

This game's already available for the Zune HD. Microsoft was showing it just to illustrate how quickly Zune HD games made with XNA Game Studio can be ported to WinPho7 -- this port reportedly took an hour.

Major League Soccer

In Microsoft's MLS app demo, the user got a push notification that his favorite team scored a goal, then clicked on the notice to view more details about the game. Then he viewed a viewed a video steam of said goal. Dear Microsoft, do this for football or baseball, please.

Foursquare

Not much special here, but people bent on becoming the “mayor” of destinations the world over will be happy to know Microsoft's thinking of them. The Foursquare app includes a feed of friends at the bottom and a scrollable Bing map on top.

The Harvest

This 3D game is a proof-of-concept developed over a few weeks, but it supports Xbox Live achievements. Hopefully that means the game in its finished form will be playable across platforms as well.