Easily share your photos with others using PhotoBeamer from Nokia

Nokia has released an interesting tool that enables the sharing of photos on a Lumia Windows Phone with a PC or other web-enabled device. Through the use of QR Codes, those with a Lumia smartphone can send a photo on the device over Internet tubes to a larger screen or to a friend's smartphone. All that's required is the Windows Phone app and a second screen, both with Internet access.
So how does it all work? The Windows Phone app opens up and browses the photo albums located on the handset (no Facebook integration here, folks) and said content can then be displayed on a supported / approved display that's connected to an Internet enabled device. Opening the app up will show the file chooser, and once a photo has been selected the app will then fire up the camera and will require the user to head to the PhotoBeamer website (www.photobeamer.com) on the hardware where the photo will be displayed.

The website will render a QR code, which will need to be scanned by the Windows Phone to initiate the connection. From then on the Windows Phone can be used to swipe through an album with the photos being generated on the connected display / device. It's basically a mobile projector which is available at any point should a WiFi or mobile connection be presently available. What's more is the service requires no registration and is free to use.

As mentioned above, PhotoBeamer does require a 3G / 4G network or WiFi to function. It saves plugging in cables, connecting to SkyDrive, copying and pasting albums and more. Unfortunately the Windows Phone app is limited to Lumia handsets, which is a shame as it would prove to be a handy tool for every owner to utilise.
You can download PhotoBeamer from the Windows Phone Store (Lumia handsets only).

Google Voice client MetroTalk for Windows Phone 8

For those of us stuck with multiple phone numbers or who like free SMS messaging, Google Voice is a pretty great service (we do wish Microsoft had their own version though). Google of course can’t be bothered with making a Windows Phone client so instead we have to rely on our cadre of great third party app developers.
MetroTalk is one of those apps for Google Voice and we managed to spend some time with the upcoming Windows Phone 8 version. Windows Phone 8 messaging apps will benefit the most from the new APIs offered to developers and consumers will get a much better experience—faster apps, better notifications and many more options.

MetroTalk for Windows Phone 8 does a nice job of taking advantage of these news as it includes the following new features:

Three tile sizes
Fast resume
Multi-size tile support
Lock-screen unread counter
Text-to-speech
Secondary tiles are working now on WP8
Added new icon for the Call/Text secondary tile

Fast resume is very useful as it allows you to reengage the Live Tile without having it re-launch the app (as now happens on Windows Phone 7.x). Instead, the app will resume where you last left it, which is ideal if you have an ongoing chat with someone.
The Lock screen notifications are obviously very welcomed. We rely on Google Voice a lot so being able to get a message counter on the Lock screen is extremely helpful. Throw in the other features like text-to-speech, more Tile options and the overall speed enchantments from Windows Phone 8, MetroTalk feels complete now both in features and performance.
Watch our video hands on above to get a preview of those new functions and we’ll let you know when the updated version lands in the Windows Phone Store, probably within the next two weeks.
MetroTalk comes with a free trial and the full version will run you $1.49, which you can find here in the Store. Current users will of course receive the Windows Phone 8 update free of charge.

Windows Phone reader Weave updated to version 4.0

Weave is a popular news reader for your Windows Phone and it was recently updated to version 4.0. The update gives the news reader a re-design and a respectable amount of customizability.
The update also brings a few under the hood tweaks that gives the app faster performance. Weave is pre-loaded with thirty three categories including world, financial, deals, fashion, videogames, technology and more. From there you can edit and add to the Weave feeds to better match your needs.

Additional features for Weave include:

Over 180 pre-loaded, high-quality news sources including CNN, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, WPCentral, USA Today, NY Times, IGN, Entertainment Weekly, and many more.
Feed search – you can search for new feeds by topic or website name
Easily manage your feeds and categories via the settings screen
View full articles at your leisure
Share articles with your friends, via email
Post an article to your Facebook wall
Tweet an article to your Twitter followers
Send an article to Instapaper!

Weave has always been an impressive news reader for our Windows Phones and the update simply makes it better. There is a free, ad supported version of Weave that you can find here at the Windows Phone Store. The ad free version will run you $9.99 and you can find that version of Weave here at theWindows Phone Store.

YouSendIt arrives as a Nokia exclusive for Windows Phone 8

Although the majority of us are loving Microsoft’s SkyDrive for hosting and sharing files, a lot of people in enterprise are tied to other services, such as YouSendIt (www.yousendit.com). Luckily if you own a Nokia Lumia 810, 820, 822 or 920 you can now download the official YouSendIt application from the Nokia Collection. The app was announced back in September as a Nokia exclusive.
The app allows you to send, share, sync and even sign your documents all on the phone. From photos to presentations to video, YouSendIt seems to handle it all. The service comes in three varieties including free (2GB), Pro (5GB, $9.99/mo) or Pro Plus (unlimited, $14.99/mo). The service is not as a good a deal as SkyDrive for our needs, but for a lot of people in enterprise and business, YouSendIt is the preferred service due to its emphasis on sending and sharing files, something for which SkyDrive does well but obviously YouSendIt may do a bit better on at the moment...

The app itself looks solid enough and even features a doublewide Tile for Windows Phone 8. Unfortunately, this is a strict Windows Phone 8 app as our Lumia 900 received an incompatibility error when we tried to download it.
Pick up YouSendIt here for Nokia Lumias running Windows Phone 8. Thanks, Mark T., for the link!