App Review: easyTube

Who needs Google? The company decided not to bother with an official YouTube app for Windows Phone and was initially met with outrage, but now we don't need them. Windows Phone has already been blessed with two incredible 3rd-party YouTube apps--SuperTube and LazyTube--that have both grown in features and design thanks to good 'ol competition. Now we're getting another new YouTube app that could place the final nail in the official-Google-app coffin: wsoftvn's easyTube. The app promises to offer the feature-set of both its competitors--HD video, full YouTube user experience, video downloading and more--for the low, low price of free. Can the app fulfill its promise or does it fall flat on its face? Well, it's somewhere in between. For more on what we mean, click on past the break for our full review!



The Basics
If you've ever tried those previously mentioned YouTube apps, firing up easyTube for the first time will be a pretty familiar experience. The app opens to 'Search' and you can pivot within this first panorama to 'Browse' (which shows categories), 'Most Viewed', and 'User's Page' (which is the settings menu). Down below you have the appbar which gives you three buttons dedicated to the video downloading functionality (current downloads, offline clips, and a folder list) and one more button for 'My Account' which is used to see your Favorites, Uploads, and Subscription videos. Just beneath those buttons when you expand the appbar, you have options to sort videos by relevance, date, view count or rating. Tapping any of the three download buttons will take you to the same panorama, and will show you what's currently downloading, what's already saved, and folders in which they are organized into. With saved videos you also have the ability to tap on a speaker icon next to any in a list to listen to the audio only.

Once you tap to open a video, the experience once again is very similar to how other apps work. You're greeted with the video automatically playing in a small preview window, and all round it are the options to like or dislike, read the description, and share to Twitter or Facebook. Below all of that on the same page you have the video's comments and a link to contribute your own. Pivot over once to the right and you have a list of Related videos, and once more to see the author's videos. In the condensed appbar below, you have the playback controls for the video window as well as a button to open fullscreen. Swipe up and the appbar reveals its full options which offers to favorite the video, add the video to a playlist, subscribe, download the video, and finally to switch between all of the resolutions available. The video page fully supports landscape as well for those with slide-out QWERTY keyboards like the HTC Arrive.

There's no denying it: you get a lot for the buck you don't spend on easyTube.

The Good
There's no denying it: you get a lot for the buck you don't spend on easyTube. The app offers a well-rounded mix of the best features from its competitors, which is phenomenal for being free. The way subscriptions are formatted in the app isn't directly obvious, but having them organized by author in 'folders' and showing only the most recent video makes a lot more sense than having a list of videos thrown together. We also really enjoyed the video downloading feature and, even though a few here or there didn't work (usually HD clips), we've actually had more success with easyTube than other apps with this feature. Another thing we thought the app nailed was the fullscreen video player which offers the most controls of any (we particularly liked the next/previous video buttons). We also felt easyTube did a decent job with the layout of its dedicated video pages; having comments integrated below the video is completely intuitive and we also like how compact the video windows and options area was. Besides that, we really can't tell you just how feature rich this app is and the fact that it includes HD streaming and video downloading for free is the best one-two punch you could have against SuperTube Free and LazyWorm's YouTube. That being said, there are some glaring issues we saw in easyTube...

The UI needs an overhaul, the HD quality needs improvement, and the audio only feature is frustrating.

The Bad
When you have to press a button in the appbar to watch a video in fullscreen and can only press the hardware back button to quit it, you know you have a UI problem. That's exactly what the biggest issue with easyTube is: a very sloppy, unintuitive, and inconsistent interface. That was one example, but there's also the fact that you have three buttons in the appbar of the main panorama that take you to the exact same panorama, just different sections. While some may find that convenient, it would be much more economical to consolidate all three into a 'Downloads' section to avoid confusion. There are lots more examples of those kind of issues and we feel the developer really needs to tinker with a lot of these UI decisions. Besides that, there's also the fact that easyTube is noticeably uglier compared to the excellent LazyWorm's YouTube and the dramatically improved UI of SuperTube Free. Besides the UI there are more issues to be ironed out. For one, the audio only feature of downloaded videos is somewhat broken. You tap on the speaker to start listening to audio and you're supposed to tap on it again to stop it, but if you try to do that it fails to work nearly 100% of the time. That means the audio continues to play even if you don't want it to and the only way to stop it that we found was to open the full video and then quit back out of it. Then there's the second misstep and one that could prove the most difficult to fix: the HD streaming quality is worse compared to other apps. We don't know how this works, but watching the same The Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer in easyTube had much more artifacting and lacked detail compared to SuperTube's and LazyWorm's free offerings.

Conclusion
While easyTube packs a punch with its amazing feature set for the price, it's not perfect and needs some significant work. The UI needs an overhaul, the HD quality needs improvement, and the audio only feature is frustrating.  However, easyTube still offers a lot when compared to its free competitors (LazyWorm's YouTube lacks HD, SuperTube Free lacks unlimited downloads) and asks for nothing in return (except for a few ad clicks). If you can live with its mostly minor sacrifices, we don't think you'll regret picking it up.

easyTube wsoftvn FREE Version 1.4

Quick Impressions: VEVO

Thanks to the deep Zune integration, music is a pretty huge part of the Windows Phone equation. Unfortunately, the avenue to watch music videos (without paying for them) has been extremely constricted in the past with the only option being YouTube...which is pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to licensed videos. Enter the new VEVO app, which arrived in the Marketplace a little over a week ago. For those who don't know VEVO is a music video streaming site which offers an extensive collection of artists, high-definition videos, and all for absolutely free thanks to ad-support.

So how does the new Windows Phone app stack up? Extremely well actually. VEVO has a really great design that sticks to the panorama format of so many other apps but does the one thing every other one should: actually makes it look distinct. While Metro looks great on its own, the same can't be said if every single app looks near identical to one another and fortunately VEVO ditches this trend with a design that is similar to their site and their apps on other platforms. But the design isn't what we're concerned about, it's about the actual music videos and yet again it doesn't disappoint.

The selection of artists as we said is extensive and if they're on a major label you will definitely find them here. Plus the video quality is incredibly good, easily beating the HQ setting of any YouTube apps but it's still not quite as high as HD. The only really bad thing in our time with VEVO we noticed was that the background had severe banding on our Focus with its Super AMOLED screen, but since we know apps will support 32-bit color with Mango we're assuming this will all get sorted out in due time.

Go get your music video freak on with the free VEVO app by clicking on the tile below.

VEVO VEVO LLC FREE Version 1.1

Impressions: Facebook v2.0

Since its launch Windows Phone 7 has received the nickname of 'the Facebook phone' and honestly, it's not too far off the mark. While the service isn't totally integrated into Windows Phone as of now, Mango will be changing that and will include major features like support for Facebook notifications, check-in support, contact photos, video uploads, and more. So as Mango approaches closer by the day, we have become increasingly confused as to why the dedicated Facebook app still exists.

Now it appears that Facebook may actually be doing something about it: the popular social networking site released a major version 2.0 update to its official Windows Phone app and it brings along enough to justify the number bump. Toast notifications and live tile support are undeniably the biggest feature adds with this update, but 2.0 also brings along plenty of bug fixes.

To say Facebook sorely needed toast notifications would be an understatement. The app has felt entirely isolated from the rest of the operating system in the past and the People Hub didn't have enough features to use as a dedicated app. Now with version 2.0, toast notifications are here and they work well...really well. As long as you are consistently connected to an internet connection of some kind, you can expect to see your phone keep up to date and fire notifications your way pretty frequently. If you're worried those notifications may be a little too frequent don't fret -- the app lets you set what you want kind of actions you want to receive notice of. There's also a live tile (seen above) which mimics the red button number count in order to keep track of your notifications. In the settings of the app, you can choose either just a Live Tile, just toast notifications, or a combination of both and we really liked having the flexibility available.

So is version 2.0 enough to justify the app's existence? In short, no...but it's really close. Ironically, the one thing holding back Facebook v2.0 is in fact the new APIs that will become available in Mango. We love toast notifications in its current state, but we eagerly await the day when deep links will be included and will jump you directly into what you want to see (i.e. going directly to a photo comment from a toast). Besides push features, Facebook 2.0 includes notable improvements in video streaming and feels much faster and zippier in general. The pinch-to-zoom in the photo viewer still suffers severe lag and the app isn't nearly as fast as the People Hub is, but for now it's undeniable that you need the dedicated app if you plan to do some real social networking and 2.0 makes that pill a lot easier to swallow.

If you already have the app, you should have received an update notification in the Marketplace. If you haven't already tried the app, it's available for free and you can see it for yourself by clicking on the tile below.

Facebook for Windows Phone Microsoft Corporation FREE Version 2.0

Quick Impressions: SuperTube v1.5

We've talked at length about SuperTube and its claim as the first 720p YouTube player for Windows Phone. But since then LazyWorm's YouTube apps have caught up in most features and beat SuperTube in design. Well Fast Code, the developers behind the project, are firing back with their latest v1.5 update. Highlights include a redesigned player with new playback controls, the ability to run videos under the lock screen, and the ability to watch and comment on videos simultaneously. Here's the full changelog from Fast Code themselves:

• Web video player has been redone, and add small screens model that allows you to write comments while streaming videos.
• The performance of video player was optimized completely, the video in 720P can be played smoothly. And the buffering indicator was added.
• Users can switch to full screen mode in 16:9 or 4:3.
• The sounds of the videos will be run on the lock screen after you set to run under lock-screen.
• After adjusting the sound, saves your sound settings until you close the program.
• Local video player adds ‘play all’ option.
• After playing all downloaded videos once, the sounds of the videos will be run on the lock screen
• It can play next video automatically.

We just took the update for a quick spin and we have to admit that the 720p is smoother with less artifacting. It's far from perfect and nowhere near the fluid playback of native 720p videos, but it's a step in the right direction. Besides that, many areas of the app have been redesigned with nicer graphics and icons. The ability to comment and watch is good so far, but it's slower than LazyWorm's implementation as of right now. One advantage it has is by showing the video in the same window as comments so you can still watch and comment, which LazyWorm's apps currently cannot do.

Fast Code has also released SuperTube Lite which is ad-supported and seems to be fully functional. Fast Code appears to be taking LazyWorm's strategy head on by offering HD video in a free version while the only HD-streaming app of theirs, LazyTube, remains a paid app. We still feel LazyWorm has done a better job thus far, but Fast Code is quickly catching up. Check out the full and lite versions of the apps by clicking on the tiles below.

SuperTube Fast Code $1.29 + Trial Version 1.5

SuperTube Lite Fast Code FREE Version 1.5

Game Review: Ninjaboy

In our last review, we talked about arcade games with platforming and puzzle elements with the game Spectra. This time we're leaving the arcade but holding on to the puzzle platformer while talking about Ninjaboy by indie developer 2 Ton Studios. Similar to games like Exit but without the time limit, you play as the ninja Tadeo and your objective in each level is to reach the exit. However, the difficulty rises as you go with objectives, enemies, and lasers...yeah lasers. Find out after the jump if we thought Ninjaboy was worth the leap.

In order to control Tadeo, the game uses the phone's accelerometer so moving your character side-to-side is the same as tilting your phone right or left. He basically has two speed settings: slowly walking and walking. While this may sound rudimentary to some (according to 2 Ton Studios, those people have made their discontent known) in our experience we found the speed to be just right. However, in case your mileage varies 2 Ton is planning to add an optional speed setting in order to give everyone their own personal level of control over Tadeo. Besides moving, Tadeo usually has to jump onto and through platforms and this is done by simply tapping anywhere on the screen. The combination of tilting and tapping makes Ninjaboy's controls simple yet extremely intuitive as well as offering a fullscreen view of the game without your hands getting in the way. While you may find yourself making mistakes a bit more often by using an accelerometer, one can make the same argument for the game trying to be challenging so it's just a matter of personal preference, and in our case we quite enjoyed it.

So what kind of levels will you be tilting and tapping in order to complete? The game currently offers two Areas, Dojo and Hito's Yard. Each area consists of 25 levels, so as of right now you're getting 50 levels out-of-the-box, with more on the way in future updates. Each level is fairly brief but as you go on it absorbs more and more of your time. In order to unlock the next area, you must first gain a specific number of stars from beating levels; for example to unlock Hito's Yard you must first have 70 stars from the Dojo levels. In Dojo, the first few levels are introductory but don't be fooled -- over time the difficulty slowly but surely ramps up as the game introduces more gameplay mechanics like keys, robots and, yes, lasers. Once you get past Dojo's nicely paced levels, Hito's Yard is where the gloves come off and Ninjaboy really shines. All of the levels offer deep complexion thanks to new enemies with different actions, new objectives, and precise timing. The second area also unlocks a new ability for Tadeo, the Kung Fu Chop, which make him do exactly that when you approach an enemy and tap directly on them. Ninjaboy changes from simply getting to the exit to figuring out what you need to do in order to get there, and the result is an amazingly addictive experience.

Click to enlarge

Once you get a feel for the game, you step back and realize just how wonderful Ninjaboy looks. 2 Ton Studios has created some fantastic original art for the game as you can see in the splash page in our photo above. It's not just great art either--Ninjaboy's in-game graphics are excellent too. The game offers a very distinctive style similar to cell-shading animation but somehow different. The levels are all clean and easily visible, but contain plenty of small flourishes like lamps, stone patterns, etc. Plus it doesn't hurt that the game never fails to hesitate once, running perfectly smooth while we're jumping and kung fu chopping to our heart's content.

Now for some of the things we didn't especially like about Ninjaboy. For one, we would have really liked to see a Help section added to the game somewhere. When we first entered Hito's Yard we accidentally skipped past the Kung Fu Chop instructions page and for a few days we couldn't figure out how to do it before lucking upon it. So the benefit of adding some kind of quick 'How To Play' section would probably be worth the time. Another thing working against Ninjaboy is the option to run under the lock screen. When we reached the more complex levels of Hito's Yard, being able to quickly resume where we left off in a level would've been a nicely appreciated feature.

That's mostly it. Besides those minor qualms, Ninjaboy is an incredibly high quality game that would put many Xbox Live-certified games to shame. 2 Ton Studios has crafted a marvelous game that features a unique visual style, a challenging control layout, and addictive gameplay. In order to get Ninjaboy for yourself, you have two options: the paid version for $3.99 or the ad-supported Ninjaboy+ for free. When we asked 2 Ton Studios about the $3.99 price, they said the decision behind the price was mostly due to what other games like ilomilo and Fruit Ninja were asking from consumers. The reasoning behind their free version was a simple truth about the Windows Phone Marketplace today: ad-supported apps generate more money than paid ones. Whichever way you decide to get your platforming fix, Ninjaboy is definitely worth your while.

	Ninjaboy 2 Ton Studios $3.99 Version 1.2
	Ninjaboy+ 2 Ton Studios FREE Version 1.2

Click on the tiles to get the game!

App Review: LazyTube v2.2

Thor's winning smile, powered by LazyTube's HD streaming

We told you earlier this week that the excellent LazyWorm YouTube and LazyTube apps were simultaneously updated to v2.2 and it brings a ton of new features. SuperTube is no longer the exclusive HD YouTube app any longer, as LazyWorm has caught up with them to introduce the new feature. But it goes further than that: this is by far the best version of LazyTube yet. Find out why past the break.

For a full breakdown of the app since its v2.0 redesign, you can refer to our War of the 'Tubes feature as this review will focus mainly on the v2.2 update. Obviously the biggest of the new features is HD video streaming, a highly-requested feature that has catapulted SuperTube to the spotlight. Now in the upper-right corner of any video, you'll find a new 'HD' option next to the HQ button, and jumping between streams is as simple as you would expect. One thing to note is that while watching HD video the rotation is locked, meaning you can't jump out to the video page mode while the video is loading. This limitation makes sense, considering that HD video would likely impact performance of the rest of the app.

LazyTube does beat SuperTube in one very important area: it can actually play every HD video.

However, LazyTube isn't drastically better than SuperTube's playback of HD--when it came to performance, videos still were not as smooth as the native 720p videos played through the Music + Videos or Pictures Hub. Another issue we noticed was that HD videos were not given enough time to buffer before starting playback. This resulted in the video playing but the "blue dots" loading animation to appear in the middle of the screen, which was quite distracting. That being said, LazyTube does beat SuperTube in one very important area: it can actually play every HD video. SuperTube seems to be picky when it comes to streaming HD videos, and we noticed a pattern where it wouldn't play any videos that had a 1080p option. Not so with LazyTube: every single HD video we tried played and that alone makes LazyTube the more compelling option.

The next feature LazyWorm Apps is touting is its new LazyList, which is basically a playlist of videos the assign to a pivot in LazyTube. The pivot consists of videos they recommend and videos of updates to LazyTube in order to communicate with its users. While the benefit of such a feature is certainly present, at the same time we feel most would ignore the feature unless it were regularly updated with news from LazyWorm Apps, which it hasn't since the update's release on Sunday. Of course it may be too much to ask for daily new videos about LazyTube, but the fact that the rest of the content only seems to mimic other categories instead of offering unique videos make it seem pointless. The idea of LazyList is sound, but the execution isn't there. Fortunately LazyWorm has made the feature optional, but unfortunately we think more people will turn it off than actually use it.

The idea of LazyList is sound, but the execution isn't there.

Besides those headlining features, LazyTube has also seen a very nice performance boost. Videos seem to load faster and even HD videos which match up in load times with SuperTube, which is impressive for its first implementation. The entire app itself feels much tighter and faster, with reduced hesitation and buffering times. Another notable improvement can be found in the animations. We specifically noticed in the fullscreen playback mode that each button now has a nice 'bounce' effect to it that runs perfectly smooth, which makes a great impression in favor of the app's quality. LazyTube has also added a new pivot called 'Recently Played' which shows your video-watching history in the form of a list. One thing to note is that in version 2.2, the 'Share to Twitter' option for videos has become broken, but LazyWorm Apps has informed us they are working to fix it very soon.

Conclusion

LazyTube's HD streaming is a nice plus and performs more consistently than SuperTube but performance overall isn't where it needs to be. LazyList promises to put users in touch with developer but I could imagine most people turning it off without regular updates or more differentiated content. Despite those qualms, we still firmly believe that LazyTube itself holds up and with this latest updation is the best it's ever been. Version 2.2 brings along welcome speed improvements and animations are notably more fluid.  It gets held back by the only-decent HD and the questionable addition of the LazyList but still comes highly recommended.

LazyWorm Apps has a free YouTube app that includes all of the features we've discussed, but the only one that offers HD streaming right now is the $0.99 LazyTube. However, as a special promotion, the developer has given LazyTube an unrestricted free trial and has told us the offer should last for a while, so try it for free while it lasts!

LazyTube LazyWorm $0.99 + Trial Version 2.2

YouTube LazyWorm FREE Version 2.2

Click on the tiles to get the apps!

App Review: Prime TV

Alright, I just want to clear something up before going forward with this review: I love television. In this season alone, I am keeping up with seven different shows ranging from comedy to sci-fi to drama. I am the type of person who memorizes their TV schedule and builds their life around it. The condition is more of a curse than a blessing, but at least it's an enjoyable condition. So when I saw how slick Prime TV looked, I realized the app could really help me manage my hectic schedule and simultaneously keep me up with news about my favorite shows. Did it live up to the daunting task of managing my entertainment needs? Find out after the break.

Upon starting up Prime TV, you're greeted by a quick loading screen with a collage of show images in the background before the main panorama appears and your list of shows pop into view. Assuming you've already added a few shows to follow, the panorama is normally split up into four pivots: Shows, Upcoming, Aired, and News. Beginning with the former, the Shows pivot quickly displays all of the shows you're currently tracking and underneath the title presents how many episodes you've missed and what time it usually airs live. Swiping left shows the Upcoming panel, which takes all of your shows and creates a schedule for all of the new episodes in the next two weeks. Pivot once more and you'll get to the Aired panel, which looks very similar to the Upcoming panel but displays what shows aired in the past two weeks. Finally, the last pivot brings up the News screen which streams in TV news from sources like TVGuide and TV.com. Also, the main panorama's background is usually set to display an image from the show that airs next (you can see that in action above with the excellent How I Met Your Mother on our Focus).

From there you can navigate to a few different areas. You can visit a page dedicated to a series or an episode-specific page. The series screen brings up another panorama, offering a ton of information up front. The first panel is basic show information with the number of unwatched episodes, channel aired on, time, genres (which are customizable), cast, and show summary (seen above with the best show on television, Community, as an example). Pivot one over and you're at the Episodes which gives a full episode guide to the entire series, broken down per season. Swipe to the left and now you're at the News panel which is similar to the main screen's news except its dedicated entirely to whatever series you're looking at. Finally the last panel is the Gallery which shows several pictures in a grid collage. Going back to Episodes, once you tap on an episode a third, smaller panorama is shown broken down into three parts: General shows exactly such information, Videos is a beta feature which links to a YouTube video of the episode trailer, and Pictures brings up a scrollable list of images from the episode.

Prime TV does an excellent job with its design, keeping lots of different elements consistent. The app uses an excellent mix of whites and blues to emphasize different areas of the gorgeous Metro UI implementation. The use of slightly opaque background images of your shows is also extremely pleasant to the eye and make the app feel much more personalized than other TV show tracking apps. All of this is great, but did we mention it's also fast? The app packs a ton of content and features downloaded from the web, but in spite of that runs as smooth as butter and responds to every touch. Also, besides the Settings menu, Prime TV breaks down into basically three panoramas which makes the app intuitive and natural to use.

Speaking of the Settings, the app provides a ton of options to customize it even further including manually adjusting the air time of each series, changing the main panorama's wallpaper, organizing shows and episodes based on your own order, and options to tweak the great Live Tile of the app. One feature we really enjoyed in the Settings menu was the ability to pick between different performance options, as we could pick between the effects-less 'Almost None' mode, the 'Basic' mode, the strong mix of performance and visuals in the default 'Premium' mode, a or the animation-heavy 'Full' mode.

Prime TV is quite possibly my favorite new app. I may be biased since I love TV shows, but developer Renfred Law has outperformed most other show trackers in wealth of features, superbly executed design, and no-hesitation performance. The app also promises to include even more features in the future like social integration and a notification system. So if you're a television addict like I am, you'd be an utter fool to miss out on this incredible app.

Prime TV Renfred $0.99 + Trial Version 1.11

Quick Impressions: Spectra Gets A New Look With Latest Update

We recently reviewed the game Spectra here on WPD, calling it "a tricky game that hooks you in and doesn't let go". The game won a Great! rating from us for its challenging gameplay and strong replay value. There was only one thing holding Spectra back from greatness: it was ugly as sin.

Luckily Andrew Bunn, creator of the game, heard our prayers and decided to slap on a fresh new coat of paint with the recently released update to version 1.1. Trust us, it makes a huge difference. Spectra probably won't be the next The Harvest in terms of graphics, but making it less cringe-worthy than it was before is certainly worth noting.

Not much else has changed besides the graphics; Spectra is still a one-of-a-kind puzzle platformer. Couple the innovative gameplay with leaderboards and you'll be coming back for more and more. Check out Spectra in the Marketplace by clicking on the tile below.

	Rating: Great! Spectra Andrew Bunn FREE Version 1.1.0.0
Click on the tile to get the game!

Quick Impressions: SuperTube Receives Another Update

A little over a week ago we gave our impressions of version 1.2 of SuperTube, the popular HD streaming/downloading YouTube app. This past week SuperTube was once again updated, and the app is finally starting to slow down with adding features and instead making some much needed overall improvements.

Here's what's changed in version 1.3:

• Custom background
• Browse the videos with low quality
• Optimize the function of playing the video in HQ and HD by 3G connection
• Shortcut to SuperTube within the Zune Hub

We recently got our hands on the latest update and found the app was notably improved in some key areas. For one, the added option of low quality is great as I am sure many would settle for less data-consuming videos over 3G. SuperTube also links into the Music + Videos Hub now, which provides fast seamless access to previously viewed videos or the app itself. Finally, the app has included a nice aesthetic feature to load up custom backgrounds to the home panorama, which you can see in action above.

However, the same issues with HD playback randomly failing are still present in the latest version. As its headlining feature, SuperTube's HD still disappoints and we still find it difficult to recommend the full version for $1.29. Then again, the past few updates have been a testament to Fast Code's dedication to improving the app and it's not hard to say version 1.3 is the best yet. If you want to get your hands on the app yourself, check it out in the Marketplace by clicking on the tile below.

	SuperTube Fast Code $1.29 + Trial Version 1.3.0.0
Click on the tile to get the app!