Shop At Amazon With The Official Windows 8 App

The story behind Amazon stretches back to the mid 90’s when only a select few used this electronic medium for their purchases. It’s an altogether different story now, as this E-commerce giant has become the world’s largest online retailer boasting a massive product portfolio in its arsenal. The latest offering from Amazon is the brand new Amazon Windows 8 app.

This Modern-UI app caters to Windows 8 and Windows RT users want to browse through Amazon’s huge product catalogue and shop the products without launching the Amazon website in a web browser. It allows you to sign in to your Amazon account, browse products, and make purchases right from the app itself, in a completely metro environment.

To download the application, simply open Store from Start Screen and enter its name in the Search Charm. On the app’s description page, click Install to begin the download process.

While the interface may not be as enticing as that of some other major Windows Store apps (Skype, anyone?), it’s intuitive and easy to use nonetheless. The main screen is accompanied by the company’s logo at the top-left corner, combined with a search bar. You’re also able to access the featured products currently listed on the store. And then there’s a recommendations section, which shows off the products currently popular among the customers. However, to be able to buy any item, you’ll obviously need to sign-in with your Amazon account first.

If you’re unable to find your desired product by simply browsing through the catalogues, you can always use the search bar for the purpose. Simply enter your desired item’s name, press enter and you’re done. If the entered keyword matches multiple queries, all the results are displayed akin to what you usually see on the Amazon website. Following Windows 8’s GUI design pattern, the app displays the results and listed items as tiles.

The product’s description section pops up as a separate pane. You can check reviews, specs, prices, and other product related details here, or click the Add to Cart button if you decide to add it to your shopping cart.

As you would expect from Amazon’s official app, it also enables you to manage your shopping cart. You can add or remove items any time you want before proceeding to the the checkout. That said, you may also move the item to your wishlist via clicking ‘Save for later’.

In terms of application-specific options, Amazon hasn’t thrown anything to tinker with. Though you can easily change your country by clicking Settings in the Charms Bar while you’re in the app interface.

Amazon for Windows 8 is one of the best Modern UI apps that we’ve seen, which is equally rewarding for those who make frequent purchases from the store and want to keep the experience consistent on their computer. It works on Windows 8 and Windows RT. Testing was carried out on Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit.

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Modern UI Image Viewer For Windows 8

Taking pictures of the important moments in your life is a great way to preserve those memories forever. With pictures, you can share the fun and happiness with your loved ones who weren’t lucky enough to be there with you at the occasion. For showing your picture albums to others or viewing them yourself, a good image viewer is quite indispensable. If you are using Windows 7, the default Windows Picture Viewer qualifies as a basic image viewing tool and there are a lot of third party utilities available like Picasa, FastStone Image Viewer, XnView, Windows Live Photo Gallery etc. that providing you with several extended options. However, if you have already upgraded to Windows 8, there haven’t been many Modern UI apps available for viewing your images.

Gallery HD aims to change that. It is an app for Windows 8 that provides you with a user friendly interface to view the images stored on your computer. The application shows the images stored in different folders, allows you to select your favorites ones, and display the pictures in a slideshow. Whenever needed, you can view the metadata information of each image without leaving the app. Keep reading to find out more.

In order to get the app, go to Windows Store, search for “gallery hd” and select the result titled Gallery HD.

From its main Windows Store page, hit the Install button in order to download and install the app to your Windows 8 or RT device.

The free version of the app is ad-supported. However, after installation, it will run as the full version (without any ads) for the first day. When you start the app, a notification will pop up informing you about this.

The main interface allows you to browse your computer for your image folders by clicking the Browse Folders button available at the top right. Once a folder is opened, you can choose it as a favorite, allowing you to instantly access it the next time you want to view the pictures stored in it.

All the images of the selected folder will be displayed in a grid. You can select any image to view it in full screen mode or enable the Slideshow option from the app bar by right-clicking (or long-pressing on tablets) anywhere inside the app.

Basic properties of a picture such as its name, size and date taken can be viewed at the top by clicking on it while it is open.

In order to view the complete EXIF data of an image, right-click to bring up the app bar and select Properties. All the stored information including its Name, Date, Dimensions, Camera, Focal Length, Aperture, Exposure Time, ISO etc. will be listed on the right side.

The Settings menu lets you tweak some basic settings and a few slideshow related options of the app.

Gallery HD works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8 and RT. Testing was done on Windows 8 Pro 64-bit.

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Source: Addictivetips

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EnhanceMy8 - A Powerful Windows 8 Maintenance Utility

Windows 8 has allowed Microsoft to pursue new frontiers beyond its decades old Windows model. The hybrid new OS has opened fresh opportunities for its maker, both in the desktop and tablet industry. The number of new features, settings, UI elements and other tidbits that it comes with is incredibly impressive. Not only is Windows 8 fast, but the beautiful transition animations in its Start Screen and Modern UI apps are simply gorgeous. If you’ve already made your jump to Windows 8 and want to tweak it to make it even faster, try taking EnhanceMy8 for a spin. The software hooks you up with some system maintenance tools such as Disk Cleaner, Disk Defragmenter, System Info and Registry Cleaner, along with several of other tweaking options in order to – as the name implies – enhance your Windows 8 experience.

A good interface of an application is a very worthy prospect and thankfully, EnhanceMy8 doesn’t disappoint in this regard with its Ribbon UI. It’s easy to navigate and you will find a multitude of options to play with. The main window comprises of six tabs at the top, each packing in additional buttons down the line. The tool opens in the Information tab when launched, which gives you a thorough review of your system’s hardware and software information. For instance, you can check details on your processor’s temperature (in both Fahrenheit and Celsius units), Windows 8 related OS information, Mainboard and Memory, SPD (memory timings and bus speed etc.), Display Adapter and so on.

The Tools tab lets you select different tweaking utilities like Registry or Disk cleaners. This tab also gives access to Processes and Services buttons, which are otherwise available within the Windows 8 Task Manager. Both aforementioned buttons list down existing foreground and background applications and system services and allow you to stop or kill a process or set its priority, should you so choose. The Registry Cleaner provides a sufficient way to quickly fix a number registry errors and remove unwanted entries. Disk Cleaner is not so different either, but is only available in the tool’s Pro variant. EnhanceMy8 also lets you disable startup items to speed up the system boot time. Furthermore, there is a ‘Most Used Tweaks’ tab but then again, it’s only available in the Pro variant. The app nicely bundles together the Pro Only tools so that they don’t get in the way for those who want to stick with the free version.

The System tab gives you access to system restore point creation, system tools, file, network and security tools, and move or copy system files operations. Only Restore Point Creation and System Tools are unlocked in the free version here, and the other tools require the Pro license. The System Tools section is particularly handy in providing quick access to tools like Character Map, Calculator, Magnifier, Command Prompt, Computer Management and Device Manager, just to name a few among several others. Since you would normally access these settings and options from different locations in Windows, it’s good to have them all available under one umbrella.

There’s one more area definitely worth checking out, and that’s the Optimization tab. Here, you can configure your CPU’s L2 and L3 cache, as well as IO Cache Memory, under the Memory, Cache section. A rather more interesting element here is the Startup, Shutdown button. This section lets you disable a few startup parameters for a decreased Windows boot time. Likewise, under Shutdown section, you can change the wait behavior for crashed programs, program hangs, and the time to kill a process automatically, in milliseconds.

The Customizations tab allows tweaking the Taskbar, Desktop, Icons, Folders, and Context Menu settings, though majority of these options are only available in the Pro variant.

Overall, EnhanceMy8 is a feature-rich application for sure. Even though many of the options are not unlocked in the Free version, the ones that are available definitely make it a worthwhile application. And if your wallet isn’t shy of shelling out $29.99, you can unlock its full capability by purchasing the Pro license. The utility works only on Windows 8.

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Source: Addictivetips

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Official ESPN App For Windows 8

All around the year, sports fans are kept engaged with their sports, leagues and clubs such as NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAAF, NCAAB etc. Each one of these has their own loyal fan following and attracts a considerable number of people. The more fortunate fans get the opportunity to witness the action live in the stadiums; however, those who miss the live action can get their fill either by watching the replays, or just checking out the scores and reading about the exciting moments in the game. You can turn on your television and wait for the news regarding your favorite sports to be broadcasted, or just log on to the internet and search for whatever you need. ESPN is a name every sports fan is sure to recognize. Its extensive coverage of all sports in different forms including television, podcasts, and website content make it one of the most popular sources for everything sports.

Today, ESPN has released its Windows 8 app that lets users browse through all the information available on the ESPN website in a Modern UI interface. You can read the leading articles, view latest scores, watch videos and photos related to different sports events, listen to podcasts and much more. The app also syncs with your myESPN account to offer you a completely personalized experience and allows you to share your favorite sports highlights with your friends.

In order to get the app, go to Windows Store and search for ‘the espn app’. Select the tile titled The ESPN App to access its main page.

Click the Install button to download and install the app to your Windows 8 or RT device.

The main interface displays all the main categories of the app including The Lead, Score Center, Videos, The Magazine, Photos, Pod Center, Sports and more on ESPN.com. Content related to each category can be easily accessed by clicking its respective tile.

The Sports Center displays the score of the latest games on live tiles updated in real-time. The games are grouped according to their sport and clicking one opens up a detailed score board, assisted by a news article (if the game is finished and the article is already out), making sure that you don’t miss out on any of the game action.

The video section lets you watch top plays and highlights of the previous games, news and player interviews.

The Photos gallery is also organized according to different sports. Inside the section for each sport, the pictures can be viewing according to each week of play.

Scrolling to the extreme right-side brings you the Pod Center where you can listen to all your favorite ESPN podcasts. Next to this section, you browse through the content only related to your favorite sport. You can choose from NFL, NBA, NCAAB, MLB, NHL, NCAAF, Golf, Auto Racing,and Tennis.

The ESPN app works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8, and Windows RT.

Get ESPN app from Windows Store

Source: Addictivetips

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