What apps should I be looking at?

[samuraiBSD]

Hey, everyone. I'm here because I'm moving to T-Mobile in a few days and since I can't buy a Nexus 4 right now, but I need a smartphone right away to replace my Verizon iPhone, I'm getting either a Nokia Lumia 810, or an HTC 8X. Even though neither of these are my first choice phone, they rank above any non-Nexus Android device for me. I'll buy it on contract and replace it (or maybe not if I like it enough) with an off contract Nexus later. So here's my question: what WP8 apps do I absolutely need? As an offshoot of that, what are good equivalents for apps or services I use now?

I listen to a ton of podcasts.
I use Dropbox a ton.
I like having a YouTube app.
All my music is stored on Google Music. As I understand, the web interface for Play Music is pretty bad on WP.
I'm pretty big on IRC from my phone.
Pandora is my savior on long walks.

Those are pretty much the things I use most. Are they all available on WP8 in some fashion? Thanks guys.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I also love RPGs. Are there any for WP8? The genre is lacking on all platforms, but I'm hoping for something at least.

 

[CamiKitti]

For a good YouTube app, take a look at Metrotube or SuperTube.
Both apps are currently being fixed right now for streaming HQ and HD. More details here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/marketplace-apps/208530-whats-going-metrotube.html
As for a Pandora app, users seem to like MetroRadio Pro (or just the lite version).
There are other alternative Pandora apps such has Graffiti Radio and wpRadioNet.

 

[david90531]

I listen to a ton of podcasts. Not sure about this one I don't listen to podcasts..
I use Dropbox a ton. tons of apps that are quite good for dropbox but no official one yet. Dropbox Viewer, BoxFiles for Dropbox, Easy File Hub 2, etc.
I like having a YouTube app. MetroTube, SuperTube, PrimeTube, in that order.
All my music is stored on Google Music. As I understand, the web interface for Play Music is pretty bad on WP. I'm not sure what you mean here. If you mean free live streaming music Nokia Music works nicely for me, and apps like Amazing Music also provides free music streaming and mixes.
I'm pretty big on IRC from my phone. Do you mean chatting apps here? Whatsapp, Line, Kik, WeChat, Kakao, TextMe are all available
Pandora is my savior on long walks. See above.

 

[samuraiBSD]

I use Google Play Music to stream my own collection to my phone. I'm given to understand that the web interface has some performance issues in the WP8 browser.

When I say IRC, I mean real old school Internet Relay Chat. I don't care much about other chat services, except Facebook chat. Maybe Google Talk.

For Pandora replacements, I'll look at those apps you listed.

 

[david90531]

Oh streaming music from PC to phone? I am unsure if such thing exist yet for WP, do you have that much music? I manage to put all the music I will listen to on my phone and still have sufficient space left. I think IE handles most things pretty well, if not you could try a few more browsers such as UC and Surfcube, but I doubt that would make a difference.

Sorry I'm not familiar with IRC at all.. just read about it on Wiki @@

 

[samuraiBSD]

IE displays the page wrong and won't give me the mobile site either. Tried it out in a store. That's certainly disappointing.

 

[chenhogi]

Re podcasts, I recommend both WPodder and Podcasts! Pro.

 

[jdhooghe]

Google play music is streamed from Google's servers of your collection. I think there might be, not sure

 

[inssane]

I'm still looking for a GMusic replacement myself. I sort my cloud music by genre tags, so it's difficult finding an alternative.

I have read Metrotube is great, I have yet to try, but it's on my phone.
Navigon is crap compared to google nav, trying Garmin today on a trip.
S-Tuner is a Pandora replacement, I'm so happy I came across this!

 

[Keith Wallace]

Podcasts: I never use these, so I'm not of much use here. I wanted to try one or two out and just used the Xbox Music application to get them going.

Dropbox: If you're willing, you could just switch to SkyDrive. I like it myself, and you get 7 GB of free storage, which I believe is the most of any of the "cloud" services. Otherwise, some other folks here have a batter idea than I do, it seems.

YouTube: MetroTube is basically the go-to app for this on Windows Phone, and people love it.

Google Music: Put the money into a 16GB microSD card. I think it's only about $15-20. You'll then have 24GB of storage on your Lumia, and that's likely enough to keep you happy for a few days (thwen swap stuff out as needed if you have a large library). The alternative would be an Xbox Music subscription, which is $10/month or $100/year.

IRC: No idea on that.

Pandora: I would personally go with Nokia Music (it's on the Lumia). You get ad-free streaming, and you can download up to 4 playlists to your phone for offline use. It's completely free, but you only get 6 skips per hour (I get around that by starting up a new playlist if I don't like a song, which does not count towards the 6 skips). You select up to 3 artists for a playlists, or you can choose a pre-selected genre. My only realy complaint is that with the offline playlists, the pool of songs is a LITTLE on the shallow side, but I still think it's awesome. This should at least tide you over until Pandora hits WP in 2013 with a year of ad-free streaming.

Definitely take the Lumia 810, though. You get the microSD slot and loads of Nokia-exclusive apps.