Best "live tile" apps?

Arsenic17

New member
May 19, 2012
218
0
0
Visit site
It still dumbfounds me that Live Tile support on Windows Phone is still so incredibly bad. It is one of the main selling points and coolest aspects of the OS IMO. I had so much trouble on my Lumia 900 with live tiles. I was literally only allowed to have 3. If I ever put a fourth on my start screen, they all would completely stop updating. I never really heard about anyone else having this issue.

Now with my 920, I dont have this issue anymore, but still many professional companies make apps with subpar live tiles that look like junks and never update properly. Literally if someone made an app with a large weather live tile. that had a whole bunch of current conditions on one side, and when it flips shows the 3 or 5 day forecast, they would prob be a millionaire. That is a shame.

Also, as mentioned above the Bloomberg app is trash. Is there specifically any apps that are better for stocks on your live tiles? I

As Nokias ESPN app does nothing on my live tile. Its live tile description is not very good, but it seems like any of the teams you set as "My Teams" scores should appear on your live tile. I have it enabled and choose a whole bunch of teams across many sports. And the live tile does nothing. It just says ESPN, doesnt flip, doesnt show any scores.

Back on topic for the OP though, I am kinda of a weather nerd (I do work for NOAA) and two weather apps which I have had good experiences with are Nokia Weather Channel app. Its current condition has updated 100% for me (about every hour) for a week now. Worked great on my Lumia 900 too. Thought it is lacking a large tile. But honestly I see most peoples start screens and they dont even use big tiles because they take up so much space. You can only fit 3-4 rows of medium/large tiles on your start screen. One large tile means you are sacrificing 16 small tiles.

Also, the app called "Weather Radar Tile" show an up to date live tile showing the radar image for your region (either a set location or it can follow you!). While I know other apps show radar images, this ones is better in a sense that it shows the NWS radar image. Other apps like the weather channel show a hybrid composite image which doesnt really tell you what is actually reaching the ground. Only works in usa though.

People tile is also decent large, but it doesnt seem that was the answer you were after.

Otherwise, havent found any great live tiles that work.
 

jhoff80

New member
Apr 27, 2003
1,415
0
0
Visit site
Also, as mentioned above the Bloomberg app is trash. Is there specifically any apps that are better for stocks on your live tiles?

Markets & Me looks pretty, but I frequently have issues with it updating, so I use MyStocks Portfolio, which can show up to 6 stocks on a tile.

As Nokias ESPN app does nothing on my live tile. Its live tile description is not very good, but it seems like any of the teams you set as "My Teams" scores should appear on your live tile. I have it enabled and choose a whole bunch of teams across many sports. And the live tile does nothing. It just says ESPN, doesnt flip, doesnt show any scores.

Try the ESPN Scorecenter (non-Nokia) app instead. It's updated for WP8, and it works much better.
 

Winfonejunkie

New member
Sep 8, 2012
85
0
0
Visit site
the mystock app has a fairly sweet live tile, with constant updates of your favorite stock tickers

Weather channel is awesome as well with fairly uptodate temp readings and various UI effects
Facebook livetile is kinda cool now
Nokia Music and cool
Xbox Music is probably THE BEST live tile implementation though. The graphical effects are awesome!
 

JezzaDB

New member
Mar 9, 2013
7
0
0
Visit site
Chronos Calendar is good. The live tile can be customised quite a bit. I have the wide tile showing the day, date and four calendar entries on the front tile and another six calendar entries on the back tile.
WorldTime shows a world map which shows which areas of the planet are currently in daylight and which are in night.
I like Australia Weather too, partly because other apps use the wrong weather station for my city (the one way out at the airport instead of the one in town) and also because it doesn't show the name of the app, just the temperature, weather conditions and the name of the city.
 

Kevin Rush

New member
Aug 11, 2010
1,039
0
0
Visit site
I agree that the idea of the Live Tiles are the very best. The tiles themselves differentiate WP, but the Live Tiles make it great.

I use mostly larger tiles and they get noticed when I'm out in public. The flipping draws attention. I wish there would be more tiles allowed to be active on the Start Screen and that they would update more often.

My favorite is WPCentral.
 

kgaouette72

New member
Nov 14, 2012
4
0
0
Visit site
Kevin Rush
Try using Skinery Themes. You could make your own live tile and can open nearly all of your Apps with their Task section. And if your App isn't supported leave a comment or contact developer and advise them which App you would like access to open with Skinery Themes. So far they have lived up to their word and within 5 days they had contacted the developer of the App I couldn't open with Skinery and permissions were provided - now it works like a charm.
You also have it flip up to 8 or 9 different tiles - each fully customizable. It's great.
 

Jason Drum

New member
May 28, 2013
211
0
0
Visit site
Most weather apps are pretty good.
I like the wide live tile for Chronos Calendar
MyStocks can do up to 10 stocks (6 front, 4 back, plus daily and overall holdings % change) and updates well.
The best I've found for news is NBCNews. It has picture and text on front and back, but most importantly changes throughout the day. CNN stays on one story for like 18 hours. At least it did for me before I switched.
And WPCentral wide tile is very good too.
 

david90531

New member
Aug 29, 2011
1,081
0
0
Visit site
What is the 3rd tile on the bottom row in your avatar?

I think you're referring to a search app called Search All, it searches with many search engines, neat little app. But I use a different one now called Unify. It searches your whole phone including pictures, music, settings, apps, and it can also search with engines, something that Ms should implement in WP
 

EchoOne30

New member
Sep 29, 2013
176
0
0
Visit site
MyFitnessPal has a great looking wide live tile.

Also InsiderPro has a cool one that gives battery percentage, estimated time remaining, etc. on it.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,910
Messages
2,242,883
Members
428,005
Latest member
COME ON WIN ANDROID (ADI)