Make friends with Windows Phone 7

Cocktail Flow
DEVELOPER: Gergely Orosz; PRICE: $4.99
This should be the first item on any responsible, cocktail-drinking adult’s application wishlist. At its simplest, Cocktail Flow offers ingredient lists, recipes and example photographs for a wide range of mixed beverages both alcoholic and non. More useful however is its ‘Cabinet’ feature where you can mark the spirits, liqueurs and mixers you have available. From this, Cocktail Flow tells you exactly what you can make with what you have, and offers shopping tips to expand your bar.

Facebook
DEVELOPER: Microsoft; PRICE: Free
Despite WP7’s strong Facebook integration, there are things you just can’t do. To send and receive private messages, work with events and handle friend requests, the free Facebook app from Microsoft is a must-have. The interface is quite similar to the Facebook website; even as a complete Facebook newbie, I found it easy to navigate and use.

My Trips
DEVELOPER: Ace Widgets; PRICE: $3.49
If you travel and don’t use tripit.com, you need to start today. Sign up for free and forward all your travel-related emails to plans@tripit.com: flight bookings, hotel reservations, car rentals, whatever. Tripit automatically builds an itinerary for you, which you can refine and alter as necessary. My Trips gives you access to your tripit.com itineraries right from your phone, without requiring internet connectivity: you can keep track of your travel plans anywhere in the world, without incurring huge data roaming charges.

Need For Speed Undercover
DEVELOPER: Electronic Arts; PRICE: $8.49
I’m not a fan of racing games – primarily because no matter how much I play, I’m always terrible at them. Despite that, Need For Speed Undercover is my favourite game on WP7. Like previous Need For Speed games on the iPhone, your car automatically accelerates all the time. You tap the screen to brake, and tilt the phone left or right to steer. The controls work marvellously, the graphics are good, the tracks varied and the whole thing is just a good bit of fun.

TRADE MObile
DEVELOPER: Dr Develop; PRICE: $2.19
New Zealand’s own TradeMe in your pocket. View listings, complete with images and full descriptions. Log in and you’re able to place bids on the go – great if your ever-important auction closes in the middle of an unmissable meeting, lecture or dentist appointment. It can be a bit laggy at times and doesn’t look as close to the established WP7 theme as other apps, but it beats trying to wrangle the website in a tiny Internet Explorer window.

Twitter
DEVELOPER: Twitter Inc; PRICE: Free
A fully-functional Twitter client for WP7 with a shiny, simple interface. Miss the Old Twitter website, now that you’re stuck with the heavyweight look of New Twitter? Maybe it’s time to take your tweeting away from the desktop and onto your phone. TwitPic support is a nice touch when combined with WP7’s camera and media gallery features.

Unite
DEVELOPER: Microsoft; PRICE: Free
Ever played with one of those little plastic boxes where you roll it around in your hand to try to get a metal ball into a hole? Unite is the WP7 version of that – you tilt your phone and the ball on screen rolls around in the same direction. In this game, you have to solve puzzles to merge multiple balls together in the shortest time possible. It’s also very pretty, and free.

YouTube
DEVELOPER: Microsoft; PRICE: Free
Find and watch YouTube clips on your phone – simple as that. Many have mistakenly viewed this as a mere shortcut to the YouTube website. In fact, this app also handles the video playback. Without it, you can browse YouTube via Internet Explorer but you won’t be able to watch anything you find.