The Best Windows 8 Apps

48 BEST APPS SO FAR BEST OF THE BEST GAMES SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC & VIDEO BOOKS & REFERENCE NEWS & WEATHER HEALTH & FITNESS FOOD & DINING LIFESTYLE SHOPPING PRODUCTIVITY & TOOLS

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MetroTwit is one of the best Twitter clients I've ever used, and I've pretty much used them all on Windows, OSX, iOS, Android and Windows Phone. 

Sporting clean looks, easy to read tweets, the ability to pin topics to the app's home screen and the ability to read two topics at once (for example something you're interested AND your timeline), both updating in real time.

Like the official Twitter app and People for Windows 8 or Rowi, MeTweets or Mehdoh for Windows Phone, MetroTwit makes Twitter a fun, engaging, simple to use, easy-to-understand and clutter-free experience.

MetroTwit has also a gorgeous Desktop app for the desktop lovers. that works also with Windows 7. Of course the Desktop app works also with Windows 8.

MetroTwit in Windows Store

MetroTwit for Desktop

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MusicTube is another amazing YouTube based music player for Windows 8, sporting a super clean and easy to use design, nice looking bios for each artist, super quick searching and gorgeous full-HD enabled music player plus the ability to search for artists, albums, related artists and videos while one is already playing as a thumbnail on the upper right corner. MusicTube has also the ability to play music on the background while using other apps or Windows 8 on the Desktop, obviously.

MusicTube has a lot in common with Vinyle in a way that it makes YouTube work very similarly to Spotify, collecting albums, artists and related artists together for a pretty, fluid, easy to use and enjoyable listening experience, but adding the ability to view the music video to each song that have one. As every Windows 8 YouTube experience is, MusicTube is also completely ad free, so no silly Google-ads in between videos nor on top of the videos.

There's nothing like this on for Android or iOS, so enjoy.

MusicTube in Windows Store

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News 360

News 360 is a news app sporting completely customizable and searchable news feed along with a huge bunch of topic and search word suggestions plus a super easy interface to get just the news you really want to read about. The app has a nice, clean article wrapping as well as the fluid ability to read the articles quickly on the web from the app itself. 

News 360 also has a well working Live Tile with a nice layout. All in all, it's a good, relevant addition to the news section of your Start Screen.

News 360 in Windows Store

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Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a craazy one-man super education archive with topics ranging from math & science to history, finance & economics.

There's a dazzlingly vast amount to learn from just this one app and Mr Khan has an interesting technique: while explaining and tutoring on the topics, he draws and writes "on the screen" along to the pre-made visual presentations so you're getting a constant visual cue to follow and remember with.

The Windows 8 app has good looks and good usability to keep the learning process meaningful.

Khan Academy in Windows Store

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People

The People hub in both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is a fantastic invention and a fantastic app. You get your Facebook, Twitter etc feeds put together in one single gorgeous, streamlined and delightfully minimalistic, non-cluttered environment with big pictures and easy to read Twitter and Facebook news and status updates. 

Basically, People has become one of my absolute favorite news readers, as I use Facebook and Twitter mostly as feeds for the news and topics that I'm mostly interested in. 

But the nice thing about the People hub is that you get also Messages, which is basically a Facebook messenger, so you get a prettier and cleaner alternative to the boring Facebook chat. You also get all your notifications on a nice, clean page plus rolling on the Live Tile in a nice but non-disruptive way (hate when my Android tablets clutter my screen & life with the gazillions of notifications). You get also the ability to post Facebook and Twitter updates straight from the app plus the ability to share anything from any app, be it a web browser, a news reader or a YouTube app etc. You get also the ability to re-tweet stuff and to reply to Tweets, showing up as a really neat chat-like view. This is something I've desired to the official Twitter and on any Twitter rendition after getting used to the clear, streamlined approach of the People hub.

See, the thing is, People is so good, that it actually made me "get" Twitter. I had never really understood the point of Twitter before the easy to read and reply Tweets in People. That's a great power if something. And that to be imbedded straight to Windows 8 from the get-go, well that's just awesome.

People & Messaging (The People hub) is one of Windows 8's default apps.

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SnagFilms

SnagFilms is a free indie film and documentary service & app that sports a nice amount of independent filmography on vast topics ranging from action, comedy, drama and horror to documentaries, politics, gay & lesbian topics, sports, music and old classics.

What's awesome about the app is that you can pin the movies on your Start Screen so it allows you to make a whole wall of movies for wait to be seen one by one. You can also add the movies to favouries and continue watching each one from where you last left off. Also, multitasking elsewhere for a while doesn't throw you off from full-screen or from the video itself, so you can enjoyably just continue where you left off after checking emails etc.

Just watched a documentary called Reel Old School, about analogue tapes and other gear and their effect on music in the past, today and beyond. Really interesting stuff and some good guys talking there too like Steve Albini of Nirvana fame.

SnagFilms in Windows Store

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The Big Picture

The Big Picture describes itself as "News storis in pictures" and it's just that. Big, absolutely beautifully shot pictures of today's relevant big world news topics with descriptions of each photo's happenings. New entries are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

What a fantastic way of staying current and totally unique feat for Windows 8's app selection. 

The Big Picture in Windows Store

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GameTracker

GameTracker is a basically the most beautiful way of tracking and checking out upcoming games ever created. With big cover pictures, nice selections of in-game pictures and collected stories and descriptions about each game, GameTracker makes googling for upcoming games and their release dates kinda irrelevant.

GameTracker in Windows Store

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4 Elements II

4 Elements II is a highly polished, vast jewel game with a bit different view on the subject than most 3 or more jewels in a row games. Having similarities with The Path of Kara and Enchanted Kingdom on Windows Phone, the game is based on making selecting paths of 3 or more jewels. Between the jewel hunting are hidden object levels and other mini games.

What makes 4 Elements II so special though is the level of high quality polish that completely surrounds the game. Everything here is gorgeous, from fluid, sparkling animations and effects to beautiful music, pictures and landscapes. Playability is super smooth and enjoyable on mouse or touch and the overall package is just as relaxing casual gaming as it gets.

4 Elements II in Windows Store

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ReddHub

ReddHub is the best Reddit client for Windows 8 sporting the ability to read and view posts & content on browser and media players within the app, reading and writing comments and all the Reddit functionality you'd expect. What's fantastic about ReddHub is that you can pin the topics to your Start Screen along with rolling headlines on the Live Tiles, meaning your News section of the Start Screen will be more and more better giving you constant interesting stuff to read and baffle on.

ReddHub has also both a light and dark theme and good amount of customizability which is more to make the app clearly the best ReddHub experience on Windows 8 and on any platform. ReddHub made me "get" Reddit as I had always before found the site and the apps on Android way too complicated or messy.

ReddHub in Windows Store

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MetroTube

MetroTube joins the league of awesome Windows 8 YouTube experiences along with YouTube RT, YouTube+, Vinyle, PrimeTube, TubeTV, MusicTube, YouTube DJ.

What's remarkable about MetroTube is that along it's by far the best YouTube experience along with MyTube on Windows Phone -- and on any phone. 

MetroTube for Windows 8 has just arrived and while in my mind there's a bit to be improved in how the searches are laid out etc, these guys are big into development and I'm sure everything will be streamlined quite quickly. The app sports gorgeous use of typography but only a black theme and only that, so they'll hopefully also add the white theme that's so delicious on their Windows Phone version and on other YouTube apps for Windows 8. 

If you're big into black themes though, MetroTube is really the go-to choice for you.

MetroTube in Windows Store

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Pin-a-Note

Pin-a-Note is a nice note taking app that has the ability to pin the notes to your Start Screen as tiles. You can then drag the tiles around to the very beginning of your Start Screen to remind you to call mom on mothers day every day for an entire month, or make a true note-section of all your notes anywhere on the Start Screen. 

It's not by a long shot the most polished app in the world, but does the trick fairly well adding another layer of bad-assery and productivity to your Start Screen.

Pin-a-Note in Windows Store

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Forismatic

Forismatic is an extremely minimalistic wise-man quote app that basically shows rolling quotes changing either on selected intervals or with a swipe, tap or a click.

Within the minimalism lies full on focus for mind to wonder and relax and actually think about things for a while. It's like, want to inspire the mind for a quick relaxing while? Want a nice Live Tile on the Start Screen showing you constant feed of new quotes? Forismatic is there for you.

Forismatic in Windows Store

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UC Browser HD

UC Browser HD is a great alternative for those who want the touch experience but don't care so much for the Internet Explorer 10's full-screen experience. UC Browser rocks a stylish design, full on Flash support also for Windows 8 tablets, a nice home screen for big amount of favourites and suggested sites from the get-go, and the ability to sync your tabs and favorites between across your UC Browsers on other devices and platforms like Windows Phone or Android.

UC Browser HD in Windows Store

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SocialNV

SocialNV is a fantastic new Facebook client/app for Windows 8 to go along with MINE and Fliptoast, that rocks a beautiful design and the ability to open up links from your news feed within the app.

With SocialNV you can read the articles, check out the pictures, watch YouTube/Vimeo videos, listen to Soundcloud and do anything you'd normally have to wait and click around to open up new tabs in a browser, OR switch to the browser from another Facebook app on any given tablet with.

This and the gorgeous design makes the daily and nightly discovery experience within Facebook feeds so much more streamlined, quicker and more fresh and enjoyable. 

SocialNV in Windows Store

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How Stuff Works?

How Stuff Works is a huuge, huge app consisting of articles, quotes, podcasts, videos and everything in between about basically everything in life. How-to's and articles about movies, music, tech, fashion, beauty, geography, history, gardening, home appliances and everything beyond you could imagine in one app sprawling in such lengths that it's almost impossible get a grasp on.

Anyways, a really fun and adventurous app that actually makes you possibly a bit wiser and a bit better person overall, all wrapped in a nice, clean looks.

How Stuff Works in Windows Store

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Epicurious

Epicurious is another one of fantastic cooking apps for Windows 8. Gorgeous, sleek looks with countless delicious recipes along with mouth-watering pictures and really descriptive instructions in multiple categories that are added according to the time of the year.

Epicurious in Windows Store