With the launch of Windows 8 just over a week away, we are seeing evidence that Microsoft is opening up the flood gates for adding new "Modern" UI apps to the Windows Store. Yesterday, an unofficial count of the apps in the store claimed that there are now 5,500 apps available to download.
The McAkins Online website has been a good resource for finding out about new Windows 8 apps before the OS becomes officially available to the general public. They have spotted a few interesting new additions to the store this week.
One of them is an official T-Mobile app called simply My T-Mobile. This app is made specifically for T-Mobile customers who want to check their mobile broadband use for their smartphones. The app description says:
The live-tile displays the current data usage information, billing cycle, and key notifications from T-Mobile. It intelligently determines the currently associated plan to show the appropriate experience in a simple and intuitive manner based on the status of the plan.
Another new and free app is for The Art of War. Developed by WinApp8, it's basically their adaptation of the classic piece of how to run a war by Sun Tzu. It's perfect for those of you who want to invade a country or two.
Another app comes from a Microsoft developer. Brandon Paddock has a day job on the Windows User Experience team but recently he launched a new app called 4th & Square in his spare time. It's basically an app that uses the interface from the popular social networking service Foursquare to allow people to check in to locations, search for friends and more.
So far Foursquare has yet to announce plans for their own Windows 8 app. 4th and Square comes with a free seven day trial and costs $1.99 for the full version.
Finally, in the "How did this app get approved?" category, we have JamPot's Steve Ballmer app. This very unofficial Windows 8 app is devoted to Microsoft's co-founder and current CEO, with information about the man, texts of his speeches, videos and more. Quite frankly, we are wondering why there are not Bill Gates or Steve Sinofsky apps out there.
Source: McAkins Online | Images via Microsoft
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