I own a Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone, running Windows Phone 8. It features a rear-facing 8.7-megapixel camera equipped with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and is capable of 1080p HD video capture, with PureView technology. The front-facing camera, meanwhile, is 1.3 megapixel with video capture in 720p resolution. It’s all very nice, and the results are stunning when played back on a big screen TV, PC, tablet or on the phone itself.

It’s unusual for me to find a platform game that I would call fun (see my review of ilomilo for more on this), even more unusual that I should return to it again and again. But that is exactly what has been happening with Call of Carlos, a free Windows Phone game that features a jumping diamond miner, his versatile pickaxe and some fast-rising molten lava! Surely it can’t be the promise of virtual riches as Carlos collects the diamonds, so what is the attraction?

How do you use your Windows Phone? I know a lot of users who are purely addicted to a combination of WhatsApp and Xbox Live gaming. Others enjoy their Windows Phones purely due to the social networking options (which are admittedly impressive). Then there are also those of us who take advantage of the various productivity tools. Email is of course one of these (along with the mobile Microsoft Office).

Windows Phone has one or two frustrating omissions. One of these is an easy toggle button to enable and display wireless networking, mobile Internet, Bluetooth pretty much anything concerning communication. Rather than a simple on/off button on the Start screen, users must open the settings menu and flick the on/off switch. Surely there is an app-based solution to this?

One of the most important things about using a smartphone is the ease with which you can compose and send messages. These might be SMS/MMS messages, emails or even a social network. The important thing, of course, is that you are able to get in touch with the other person as easily and efficiently as possible. Certain mobile phone platforms prevent this. In the case of Windows Phone 8 there are many improvements over competitors.

The upgrade from Windows Phone 7/7.5 has brought with it several benefits, in particular increased integration between the camera and third party apps. We previously looked at taking photos with Windows Phone last year, but since then things have changed quite a bit. In addition, management of images has also been overhauled, with better synchronization [...]

Although it is not an actual movie tie-in, Dredd vs Zombies was released for several gaming platforms in 2012 and has recently become available for Windows Phone. While there are similarities between the game and the movie (the single-word reference to the character’s name, the “clean-up” of enemies and the persistent progress through locations), this isn’t a tie-in. It’s something else entirely!

Those pesky zombies – even when they’re not described as such, have become the de facto earthbound opponent in many video games, and that’s the case in Extraction: Project Outbreak for Windows Phone in which a bunch of “bio-engineered weapons” have gone rogue and escaped. The result is that you take charge of a military contractor who drops in to exterminate the zombies, in a sort of action/strategy game combo.

Photos are fun – the rise of successful snap-and-filter apps and services such as Instagram and its “fake Polaroid junkies” are proof of this – but sometimes it’s possible that we don’t fully realise the potential of the images we snap, particularly on digital cameras and smartphones. I stumbled across Morfo back in 2010, shortly after the release of Windows Phone 7.

Despite being considered a platform with “hardly any apps”, Windows Phone has a remarkable amount of good games available. Among these is Doodle God, a quirky little title that originally found life on the iPhone in June 2010 before quickly spreading to Windows Phone in November of that year. Sticking the word “god” into the title of a game adds a certain element of power, quality and all-round awesomeness, things that aren’t always well-deserved.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, home computers didn’t rely on dedicated monitors to display operating systems, applications and games. In those days, things were far simpler. Instead of paying extra for a monitor, the majority of home computer and console owners were happy to use their televisions. It might seem odd now, but 30 years ago people thought little of ignoring TV programs to play video games.

Over the past few months I’ve been getting to grips with Windows 8 in its most ideal format, on a touchscreen device. The experience has been largely favorable, although as far as the new Metro/Modern UI goes, I tend to restrict its use to the tablet display while enjoying traditional computing through an external monitor. This setup works for me, enabling me to get on with work while able to quickly check news, weather or listen to the radio.

I was made aware of a new app, Rowi, which has been attracting great reviews. It seemed sensible to check it out and compare with what I was already using. Initially I was skeptical After all, even if the native Twitter integration on Windows Phone wasn’t meeting my needs, I could still use the third party app, which has recently had a visual overhaul to bring it into line with the Android and iOS versions. What exactly could Rowi bring to the table?

With Windows 8 comes a whole host of new apps for Microsoft’s veteran operating system, but which of these new, tile-based “Metro-or-Modern” apps would you like to see on our list of the best? One lucky MakeUseOf reader will receive 150 MakeUseOf points (valued at $15) for the most useful suggestions, so if you’re using Windows 8 and have some favourite apps you wish to share, start by leaving your comments!

Whenever I’m at my favourite pub (admittedly not often) or at my mother-in-law’s (sadly more often than I would like) I find that I have considerable trouble making a phone call. How can mobile phone networks claim such high coverage when the majority of people can easily recall occasions when making a connection has been a trial? We’ve all stood on chairs with our phones held aloft, trying to “hook” onto a stray signal, but surely there is a better way?