\n\tThe Windows 8 Consumer Preview is out, along with a limited number of preview apps designed to showcase the new Metro style. Some apps, such as Mail, Messaging, Camera, Maps, People, Reader, Weather, and IE, come pre-installed. Nearly 100 free apps are available in the Windows Store, shown above.
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\n\tHere’s a look at my favorite preview apps out of the selection available, both pre-installed and downloadable from the Store.
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\n\tNote: If you’d prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.
\n\tThis is a lot like the People hub on Windows Phone; it connects to multiple social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, LinkedIn, Google) as well as to your Exchange account and lets you see what your friends are posting. It also serves as the source of contacts for the built-in Mail and Messenger apps and enables you to send email or an IM to someone directly from the app.
\n\tI’m an aviation buff, so maybe that colors my opinion, but I love this app. I hope they add more functionality to it in future iterations, but for now I just like the way it looks sitting there on my monitor. The Tower lets you check the status of flights, find out where a flight in the air is at the moment, and get the weather and gate postings for AA hub airports.
\n\tYou start by selecting your hub (in my case, DFW). Then you can see the AA flights scheduled for the different terminals. They’re color coded to indicate their status. You can see the number of departing and arriving flights, as well.
\n\tSelect a flight, and The Tower displays details such as the arrival and departure terminals and gates, flight duration, type of aircraft, and whether Wi-Fi is available on the flight.
\n\tYouCam provides a bit more functionality than the built-in Camera app. With YouCam, you can zoom in or out, adjust the brightness without going into menus, apply special effects (distortions, overlays, emoticons, frames), and switch from front to rear camera (if your device has both).
\n\tWindows 8 CP comes with a Finance app for keeping an eye on your favorite stocks, but SigFig does much more. With it, you can import the accounts from your brokerages (using bank-level security) and track your entire portfolio, with detailed analytics and investment recommendations.
DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER is a technology consultant, trainer and writer who has authored a number of books on computer operating systems, networking, and security. These include Scene of the Cybercrime: Computer Forensics Handbook, published by Syngress, and Computer Networking Essentials, published by Cisco Press. She is co-author, with her husband, Dr. Thomas Shinder, of Troubleshooting Windows 2000 TCP/IP and the best-selling Configuring ISA Server 2000, ISA Server and Beyond and Configuring ISA Server 2004. \ \ Deb is also a tech editor, developmental editor and writer to over twenty additional books on subjects such as the Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 MCSE exams, CompTIA Security+ exam and TruSecure?s ICSA certification. She formerly edited the Brainbuzz A+ Hardware News and currently edits Sunbelt Software?s WinXP News (www.winxpnews.com) and Element K's Inside Windows Server Security journal. Her articles are regularly published on TechRepublic?s TechProGuild site and Windowsecurity.com, and have appeared in print magazines such as Windows IT Pro (Windows & .NET) Magazine. She has authored training material, corporate whitepapers, marketing material, and product documentation for Microsoft Corporation, GFI Software, Hewlett-Packard, DigitalThink, Sunbelt Software, CNET and other technology companies. \ \ Deb currently specializes in security issues and Microsoft products; she has been an MCSE since 1998 and has been awarded Microsoft?s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status in Windows Server Security. A former police officer and police academy instructor, she lives and works in the Dallas-Ft Worth area and teaches computer networking and security and occasional criminal justice courses at Eastfield College in Mesquite, TX.
