We told you earlier today that the fun was not going to stop with just a few Windows 8 apps made by some Microsoft BizSpark members. No, we said there would be more on the way. So, here continues our deluge of Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps that you can download and tinker around with as you end the year in holiday cheer.
You can also alert us to the apps you have worked on by tweeting links to them using the hashtag #bzapps. We've had quite a few today.
OFunnel
OFunnel is a BizSpark startup that went through the Seattle TechStars Accelerator in 2013. They have built what they call the "Google Alerts for Relationships." Douglas Crets also interviewed the founder, Kushal Shah, on The BizSpark Show. You can watch that interview below. You can download the app here.
Business networking tools are in abundance but this is an incredible all-in-one solution to help you find people that are relevant to your business goals using similar alerts to the ones you receive when you set up social network and news media notifications.
OFunnel is a professional relationship discovery tool that monitors all of the connections that are happening in your social networks. It is like Google Alerts for Relationships.
The OFunnel app for Windows 8.1 allows you to monitor connections being made in LinkedIn that are of interest to you. Use OFunnel to find new connections at target companies, hiring new candidates or track who your competitor is connecting to. For salespeople, recruiters and other roles that rely on relationships to be successful, OFunnel enables more effective lead generation.
Features
Setup and monitor connections happening within your network
Update your target accounts by company, person, or role
- View your OFunnel Alerts as they happen via Live Tiles and Daily Emails
POP – Prototyping on Paper
POP (aka known as Prototyping on Paper) is a product manager or creative guru’s dream. If you have ever tried to manage a project, especially an app prototype (aka shooting at clay pigeons from a moving van in the dead of night), you know that this problem definitely needs a solution. This is a hip new way to get your thoughts on “paper”.
Have an app idea? Draw it on paper and use POP to make it running on your tablet and PC!
You can download the app in the store here.
The workflow is ridiculously simple:
1. Design on Paper
2. Take Pictures
3. Link & Play
POP is good for showing someone your app ideas without design or coding skill and demonstrate user flow and concepts to colleagues and clients.
Happy prototyping :)
Qwilo
Who doesn't need to sell their furniture after a holiday spent with in-laws and children who aren't going to school? Kids burning presents with the fondue pot flame, and snowy boots getting tramped into the house? For some people, the holidays may get so raucous, you may need to find a new home. Get rid of that stuff. Start life anew, by using an app that makes Craigslist super simple.
Finding a place or selling your furniture couldn’t be easier with Qwilio, a gorgeous Windows 8 Style Craigslist app.
You can download Qwilo from the Windows Store today.
Qwilo is the first and only Officially Licensed Craigslist App for Windows 8.1.
Theneeds
The web has grown a lot more unruly since the days of delic.io.us, one of the social web's first attempts at building a browser and tab-oriented curation tool for making the discovery experience in the web simpler. We've moved on with that and started to use Theneeds, which, as the app indicates, sorts out what you want and what you need, and delivers you The Needs. Well, that's how we see it anyway.
You can download it here to see for yourself.
- Features
- Easily search and browse 8 main categories and 122 sub categories
- Available in over 715 Cities and Countries
- Quickly reply to postings with one click to open your preferred mail client
- Beautifully arranged fully rendered listings photos
- Advanced search filters like price, property type or job type
- Save your favorite listings and keep track of recently viewed items
Wheel of Fortune
A long time ago, we played Wheel of Fortune on an Apple II. That was a bit monochrome for us. Here's the Windows 8 version.
Celebrate over 30 years of Wheel of Fortune – it’s a new spin on America’s #1 Game show, more fun and easy to play than ever before! Step up to the wheel and take a spin through a rich Wheel of Fortune experience. With over 1,000 puzzles from show writers and a variety of gameplay modes, you will feel like a real contestant.
Wheel of Fortune is available for all Win 8 devices, and has been specially designed for All-in-One personal computers that support simultaneous multiple touch points on screen. Bonus: Challenge your friends in-person with a split-screen mode only available on Dell XPS 18, Sony Tap 20, Sony Tap 21, HP Rove, Lenovo Horizon and the Acer Rio.
In this video, the reviewer says that the Game is hard to find. Well, this should be fixed by now, and we have made it easier for you to find. It's right here!
And here are few new Windows Phone apps
CRICKit
Are you an analytical person buying or selling a house? This app helps you be as prepared financially as a commercial real estate broker. Crickit stands for a Commercial Real Estate Investment Calculation Kit.
This application might become a Commercial Real Estate Broker’s best friend. It will become a valued tool to use for your business.
You can input numbers on your tablet or Smartphone, while at a property with your client, then have the ability to e-mail your completed Annual Property Operating Data (APOD) or cash flow statement directly to your client before you even leave the property. The APOD allows you to control the categories you need and enter values based on a price per square foot amount, a percentage of Gross Operating Income or a percentage or a set amount. You can even decide to make changes in the middle of a 10 year cycle to see how that will affect the outcome.
Everything you input will then carry over into the cashflow section. This will tell you if a property is a cash flowing investment or you can maneuver the numbers to see what it would take to make the property a cash flowing property/investment.
Your kit comes with a basic calculator with a real estate twist. The memory section on this calculator can store up to 10 different series of calculations that can be easily recalled by pressing the stored memory slot and view, change or continue on with the calculation. It also has a convenient acre key that will automatically recall the square footage of an acre.
Let’s not forget the value of money. Right from the same application you can figure out a payment or what the value of money is in the past or present. Just input the values that you know and find out the missing value you are looking for.
GIF CHAT
Nobody knows how to pronounce .GIF, but who cares, when you can use GIFs to chat with your friend? GIF Chat is creating a new way to chat.
Join the GIF revolution that brings a new face to ephemeral messaging. GIF is super easy and fun to use.
Send hilarious looping videos like texts. GIF Chat is the first messenger app on Windows Phone that combines animated GIFs with texting. Quickly record videos, add captions and swap them privately with your friends. You determine how many times they can be viewed before they disappear forever. It’s the first app on Windows Phone from Pinger, makers of the #1 free texting and calling app, Textfree.
TEXTING + ANIMATED GIFS = TEXTASY
Live to text? Wish you could easily share videos with your friends? GIF Chat allows you to chat privately with your friends all over the world using a mash-up of animated GIF videos and texting.
PRIVATE VIDEO MESSAGES THAT ARE REALLY PRIVATE
Want to communicate something that you don’t want to post to a social network? Or forwarded to anyone else? GIF Chat allows you to swap private video messages that can only be seen by the receiver. GIF Chat videos can loop forever or disappear when you want them to.
MAKE YOUR GIFS SELF-DESTRUCT
You determine how many times someone can see your GIF video. Set the number of loops and after that… poof, it’s gone! Not shy about sharing it? You can allow it to loop forever.
BTW, WHAT’S A GIF?
GIFs are 6-second compressed videos that loop over and over. They’re also known as animated GIFs. Not sure how to pronounce it? We say GIF with a soft G, like “jif,” but if you prefer the hard G of “great,” that’s cool, too. They’re hilarious either way.
Motion Math: Hungry Fish
We showed you Motion Math in the last round of holiday season apps. They are back with this classic for kids who love to learn math and play games. If you have a finger you can easily play this game.
Feed your fish and play with numbers! Practice mental addition and subtraction with Motion Math: Hungry Fish, a delightful learning game that's fun for children and grownups. Your fish is hungry for numbers. Make delicious sums by pinching two numbers together – instant addition! Keep feeding your fish to win a level and unlock new colors and fins.
Nintex Mobile
A gorgeous new face to the Collaboration Workspace, Nintex makes it easy for your team to get things done without a version control problem!
Nintex Mobile is now available for Windows Phone.
Nintex Mobile apps help you get more from your business processes by allowing users to interact with them on-the-go. Nintex Mobile apps extend the promise of Workflow for Everyone to your Windows Phone device, improving the user-experience and enabling increased productivity for your whole organization quickly, easily and securely. You built the workflow, you built the form, now make it mobile!
With built-in mapping capability, you can add locations to your SharePoint forms, or add multiple repeating items to your forms, or select a person or a group from your SharePoint user base and bind it to a column in a SharePoint list. This functionality works also when you are not connected to a network, resolving entries against cached values.
Upside
The other day, we were wondering if geolocated discount sorting apps are making a comeback. It's possible, with the rise of the Windows Phone platform and this app, Upside.
The newest entrant in smart shopping with your mobile. Save a ton of money on everyday grocery items or even specialty items.
Like. Save. Share. Love.When you “like” your favorite brands on Facebook, Upside delivers discount offers for those products directly to your phone. Share these offers with your friends to unlock even better deals.Features:• SAVE. You tell us what you want by "liking" products and brands on Facebook. We send you deals for those products and nothing else. It's like coupons, only much, much better.• REDEEM. You scan the digital code right in the store; there's nothing to download or print out.• SHARE. When you see a deal that your Mom would love, you can send it to her -- or anyone else in your social network. All they need is the app.• WIN. Upside is also a game: redeem offers and share them with your friends to score points. Points unlock badges that give you access to deeper discounts and special promotions.