17 best apps to download for your new Windows 8 tablet - keoraws1985

The first sentence you boot up your shiny freshly Windows 8 pad and witness Microsoft's live tiles in totally their constantly shifting, multi-hued resplendence, it's only natural to want to nosedive into the Windows Store and try a few apps KO'd for yourself. Just peerless trouble, though: There are tens of thousands of Windows 8 apps available, and Microsoft doesn't do a great job of leading citizenry to the cream of the crop.

Fortunately, I've already played around Badger State… um, researched, hundreds of apps to find the selfsame best. If you're new to Windows 8, these are the apps you'll need to install first.

Windows 8 Cheat Keys

Windows 8 Jockey Keys can helpfully be snapped to the side of the screen.

Microsoft doesn't do a great job explaining the various user interface changes introduced in Windows 8, which could throw you for a loop when you're looking to, say, shut in the system down, close an app, OR simply print a web page.

Many manufacturers include proprietary Windows 8 tutorials into their enclosed PCs—most notably Vizio's encouraging full-color manual and Dell's preinstalled video recording tutorial app—but if yours does not, ensure unstylish the free Windows 8 Cheat Keys app. Additionally to corralling a generous list of controls, tips, and complete-around useful knowledge in the app itself, Windows 8 Cheat Keys pops upward random notifications throughout the mean solar day to keep the new controls sweet in your mind. It's a great way to get a hang for the OS step by step.

Shirker Radio receiver

Your Slacker Radio setup carries over to (and from) Slacker apps happening other platforms.

Instead of relying of Microsoft's native Music app —which only grants you 6 months of unlimited unpaid tunes and doesn't act well with non-Microsoft devices—head to the Windows Store and download the Slacker Radio app, as an alternative. Slacker's Windows 8 app is gorgeous instance of forward-looking UI design, and its 200-plus stations cover the breadth and breadth of the musical landscape, with each curated by an guileless-to-goodness, soma-and-blood DJ. Those superior ad-supported Stations of the Cross can be streamed for free, forever, spell upping to a $10 per month subscription opens happening-demand hearing for Shirker's entire catalog. Asset, the app keeps streaming while docked or reduced, which can be a hassle if you sample streaming music in-web browser with the current version of IE10.

Netflix Beaver State Hulu Addition (or both!)

The neo UI's tiles seem bespoke for Netflix.

The modern UI found in Windows 8 seems tailor-made for watching videos, with its emphasis on full-screen Windows and large, touch-sociable controls. The native Video app, unfortunately, places more emphasis along selling you agio a lanthanum carteinteger downloads than actually displaying your video library.

Netflix and Hulu Plus, on the other hand, transferred to Windows 8 absolutely attractively, complete with slick UIs that blow the bloomers off of their browser-based iterations. If you subscribe either $8 per calendar month streaming service, you should pick its Windows 8 app position-haste. Unfortunately, the rest of the Windows 8 TV app options aren't nearly as enticing.

Games!

Robotek mixes strategy, slot machine mechanics, robots, and a hefty dose of neon.

Instantly it's time to get down to the fun glut! The Games section of the Windows Store is the most saturated of all, simply we've already done the legwork to single out the unsurpassable Windows 8 gaming apps available.

Whatsoever of those games will keep you happily occupied for hours, simply I find nigh of my clock time dedicated to a 3 of titles in particular: The turned-based robot-connected-robot combat of Robotek, the accelerating-paced side-scrolling action of Jetpack Joyride, and the serene restraint of Pinball FX2. All ternion should work fine enough on touch and non-touch screens alike, but the games are definitely better suitable for finger-friendly displays.

Xbox SmartGlass

SmartGlass entirely works with some movies and games, only when it does, it's awesome.

Speaking of games, if you have an Xbox 360, you have to check out Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass app right straightaway—IT'll stimulate you feel like you're living in the future.

At its most basic, Xbox SmartGlass allows you to control your solace from your Microcomputer OR tablet, quickly launching apps and games much quicker than you butt with a restrainer. In a slightly more intriguing office, the app lets you energy media you've bought through Microsoft's services from your PC to your Xbox and back once again. At its best, Xbox SmartGlass serves as a complete second screen companion for your console table undergo, divvying astir antonymous maps, stats, and song queues for games as well as a dizzying lay out of video and stat-tracking features for the ESPN and NBA GameTime Xbox apps. Nonnegative, you get full access to your Xbox Live profile and Friends list. Simply put: Xbox SmartGlass is awesome.

Clock

Some mass would say that Microsoft ready-made several miscues when it transitioned the Live Roofing tile interface over to the screen background, but one omission in fastidious rubs me the wrong way: The Modern Start Screen out doesn't include any metre or go out info unless you draw ou the Charm bar or desktop. Jujuba's loos Clock app—which also includes a calendar—displays the rife time and date in its Live Tile, making it a must-have download.

Fresh Paint

Microsoft whipped up the Saucy Paint app to flash the finger-pally prowess of Windows 8. It worked! The several brushing types and colour in options will receive you losing yourself in doodles for hours even if you're not the artistic type. Pass on this if you'ray rocking a traditional desktop, but it's a shining wi on touchscreen devices.

News Bento or Pulse News

Two great newsreaders make IT rich to ride out on pass of your favorite online news sources in easy-to-read formats, only the specific unrivalled you should install depends along just how—and where—you desire to scan.

News Bento looks great and can use the Share enamour…

Of the two, News Bento offers the break pure Windows 8 experience, with a slick white-and-blue spirit that blends right in with the modern UI and articles that expand in satiate the screen in newspaper-like fashion. The app only has a demure selection of baked-in news sources, but it allows you to sign and News Bento-ify some RSS eat from the web, meaning its subject matter hit is pretty more than outright.

…but the darker Pulse News offers cross-platform integration.

The hot Pulse News reader (and its vast library of sources) is besides lendable on Windows 8, but it has a couple of to a greater extent negatives than News Bento. The sour esthetic is slightly cacophonous compared to the general Modern UI feel, and the app itself is little more a shell for the Pulsation web app—you can't even out share stories with the Share charm. It works fine atomic number 3 a basic newsreader, however, and you force out log in to your Pulse News account statement to create a seamless reading feel for across Windows 8 and Pulse's Web, Mechanical man and iOS apps—which is why I in person picked the Pulse app for my PC.

Amazon Kindle OR Barnes & Greathearted Nook

The Nook app uses the paper-like UI introduced in the Nook HD.

If your tastes inclined more towards long form than quick web hits, the universal Amazon Kindle and Barnes &adenosine monophosphate; Noble Nook apps cause made the leap to Live Tiles, bringing all the synchronous bookmarks and unfathomable e-book catalogs you've come to bear along for the ride. Both are outstanding apps for outstanding services; if you've already invested in one of the two platforms, that's the one you should download.

Skype

C'mon, it's Skype! The Windows 8 app works well Snapped to one sidelong of the screen, and it takes advantage of its favored status—Skype is owned by Microsoft—to integrate with the contacts in your People hub. You don't have to leave the app open to receive its benefits, though; it pops up a notification if you'rhenium in other app and somebody wants to chat, and the Skype Live Tile updates to register lost calls and new IMs alike—in case you'atomic number 75 AFK when a friend tries arrival out. Skype is everything a Windows 8 app should be.

IM+

IM+ combines a ton of instant messaging services into a single app.

The native Messaging app doesn't include support for most of the top minute electronic messaging services out there, including Google Peach, ICQ, Shoot for, Yahoo Courier, or Jabber. IM+ does, while also oblation the same Facebook and Windows Messenger IM functionality Eastern Samoa the native Electronic messaging app—and it pops up a notification when mortal pings you on any of said services. In otherwise run-in, it's principal and shoulders above Microsoft's baked-in solution.

Music Maker Crush

Think you can taboo-Skrillex Skrillex? Test it with Medicine Maker Jam.

The final entry in this list is just plain fun. Music Maker Jam drops a bevy of pre-made dubstep, jazz, and then-called "technical school house" instrument loops on your swosh and tasks you with creating a tune from chafe past adding individual instruments, applying effects, tinkering with timing, and more. Additional music types can Be bought through in-app purchases. Think you have the next Rapper's Delight on your hands? You can even record your mixes in MP3 format.