One of my readers commented on this blog with a very valid point regarding the Windows Phone 7 marketplace – the “App Store” as it were for Windows Phone 7. I’m paraphrasing here, but in essence it is very difficult to find anything in it. I’m no user interface expert myself as you can tell by this blog layout, but I know when content is tricky to find. This article, therefore, lists the apps that I am currently using in the hope that any randoms who land on this page may find it useful. It must be noted that on principal I have yet to furnish my Zune account with a credit card number, so all of the following apps are either free or running in trial mode.

Adobe Reader
If someone emails you a .pdf file, you’ll need this to read it. Simples. I tend not to open it directly, it launches automatically when I tap a pdf attachment which is exactly what I want it to do. The usual pinch to zoom and rotate for landscape controls work – this app is nothing fancy, just very useful.

Amazon Kindle
Yeah, reading a book on a small screen is not ideal. So far I’ve just downloaded a few chapter trial reads and discovered that it wasn’t that tricky to read to be honest. I’m actually considering purchasing my next read in Kindle format to give it a real test. Sadly though most classics are labelled as ‘Not available for purchase in your country’ which sucks big time.

Dilbert Hub
Dilbert, the hero of every IT, engineering and technology office in the world has his own app. It delivers a daily Dilbert cartoon to the front page of the app as well as giving access to the FULL archive of Dilbert cartoons going right back to the beginning. I’ll let you work that date out for yourselves, I’ve tested it and they’re all there!

eBay
If you use eBay then you’ll need this app. It really utilises the whole WP7 active tile idea to the full. The main “my eBay” page gives you four tiles listing your watching, selling, buying and messages summaries. You can slide across to saved and recent searches or view your reminders. Personally, I disable the reminder warning which will alert you, regardless of whether the app is running, when an item you are watching / bidding on / selling is nearing the end or has been outbid. For keeping your eye on auctions it is great, bidding, buying, searching is also pretty good. You still need your PC if you want to sell things properly but for most things it is great.

Facebook
I’ve installed this app, but honestly don’t really use it. The Facebook integration with Windows Phone 7 is so good that this app is mostly superfluous. The main advantages it does have though are the events lists and access to your Facebook account settings. I have this installed more as a “just in case”.

Freda
An ebook reader which supports epub files. So far it seems the best of the bunch.

gMaps
Let’s be honest, the built in Maps application is pants at the moment. Basic directions and GPS location on Bing maps is all you get. gMaps gives you more or less the same functionality, but with Google Maps instead. Personally, I’m hoping for great things in the Mango update because all the mapping options at the moment suck.

Tesco Groceries
Do you shop at Tesco online? Well you need this in your life. It’s surprisingly easy to book a delivery slot and browse through the list of products to create your shopping basket. Tiles hold the categories of products and the interface is so clean and nicely laid out that shopping is a pleasure.

HTC YouTube
Much better than the official Microsoft YouTube app which just opens Internet Explorer on the mobile YouTube website, this HTC app is an actual YouTube app allowing searching and playing of content. You can choose the playback quality which is important for keeping within your download allowance.

Lottery Results
Displays the lottery results for the country of your choice. Very simple but a badly designed interface. It works though and that’s the important thing.

Turn by Turn Navigation
This isn’t a free app, but the trial allows you to navigate journeys up to 12 miles. It’s pretty much the only choice for turn by turn navigation on WP7 at the moment and it’s not brilliant. Only in the last couple of weeks has it given you the option to download maps offline. When I first tested it here in the depths of Wales, as soon as I went off route it failed due to lack of mobile phone signal.

Pic2shop
Wondering if that shiny new gadget on the shelves of Currys is cheaper online? Scan the barcode using your phone’s camera and this app will go online and check prices at a variety of popular retailers. It works reasonably well most of the time.

QuickMark
Have you seen those strange black and white square patterns on marketing posters? Scan them with this app and your phone will usually send you to a web page to give you more information. These QR marks as they are known are becoming ever more common, especially at exhibitions, so it is quite handy to have a scanner like this to keep a record of things you are interested in as you walk around.

Solitaire
This version of Solitaire by Jakepoz is the best I’ve found on the Marketplace. It supports 3-card and 1-card draw as well as Vegas scoring if you’re in to that sort of thing.

TopCashBack
What??? You don’t have a TopCashBack account yet? Click here to get yourself one straight away. You get cash back on most purchases you make online, and even quite a few reserve-to-collect-at-store purchases. If you don’t have a TopCashBack account, you are throwing money down the toilet.

Twitter
The official Twitter app is very handy, but will probably be pointless once the Mango update arrives with its alleged built-in Twitter support. Still, at the moment you need a separate app and this is as good as any other despite what all the other apps claim.

Wikipedia
The official Wikipedia app is great. Fast searches to wiki pages make for a very quick and simple lookup to prove your friends/spouse/siblings wrong as soon as possible after the inevitable disagreement.

WordPress
A very simple app which links to your WordPress blog and enables basic comment approvals, post writing etc.. There’s no way you could type an article like this on there, but it does let me post my drafts and approve comments on the go.

Coming soon… The “My Home Server” app links your phone to your Windows Home Server 2011 machine. I’m currently beta-testing the product and quite like it. I’ll do a full review once it is properly released but so far the highlights include a live tile displaying a server drive space pie chart and alert notifications, and my favourite thing of all – a ‘send to home server’ option for photos.