The first Windows Phone 7 apps you should grab
Today is when the first Windows Phone 7 models go on sale — the Samsung Focus at AT&T and the HTC HD7 at T-Mobile. As we've discussed, they're powerhouse phones with gorgeous screens and Microsoft's surprisingly nice "glance and go" operating system designed in the age of Facebook. But what matters once you get the phone is what apps to download. There are currently about 1,600 apps in the Marketplace, most of them free or dirt cheap.
There's already a lot of cr'apps in there, the standard lineup of flashlights, tip calcs, stopwatches, unit converters, and of course fart emulators. And because you can read what system resources each app needs to access, you can spot some shady ones too. A "simple and fun finger drawing tool" that needs access to "owner identity" and "phone calls"? I'm sure there's a plausible explanation, but I am gonna pass!
There are also a lot of things still missing. There's no Pandora. There's no Kindle, Nook or Kobo e-book readers. (Update: Amazon stated about a week ago that it would be first to WP7, available "later this year.") There's just one instant messaging app, and it's for Windows Live Messenger. The cooking and wine categories are barren — no Epicurious or BigOven, and no wine reference databases. Kid entertainment — that is, edutainment — is totally missing. And I don't see Bank of America or any other leading American banks with apps, nor do I see Mint.com. (USAA and Geico have apps though.)
