Software : In Depth: 10 best Windows 8 social apps

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• In Depth: 10 best Windows 8 social apps
• Don't hold your breath for Sky Go on Windows Phone or Surface
• 4oD for iOS and Android to get Live TV and offline viewing
• Swiss clock design cost Apple £13 million, report claims

In Depth: 10 best Windows 8 social apps Posted: Windows 8 and Windows RT come with the built-in People app which shows you updates from and lets you post to Facebook and Twitter. It also shows you your entire address book from Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Skype and your email accounts. So while it's great for seeing what's going on, you can't Share to the People app from other apps like the browser to tweet or post things to Facebook. Of course you can always look at the website for your favourite social network, but if you want to get live tiles, notifications and sharing, you want an app. We know an official Twitter app is under development; not so for Facebook – Facebook says it has no plans and points at Microsoft, Microsoft points back at Facebook. In the meantime, here are our favourite Windows 8 social apps so far. 1. FlipToast FlipToast lets you see updates from Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and Instagram in the same app; you can see the most updates, notifications, photos, messages, birthdays and your first twenty or so friends as you scroll across the screen or tap each pane to get a longer list of each of those. If you want to see updates from just one service, pinch to semantic zoom out and you get tiles to pick from. The design is friendly and fun rather than sleek and stylish but this is like the People app on steroids. 2. MetroTwit Even without an official app, there are several good Twitter clients. Rowi doesn't have a live tile and its black and green interface only fits in one column of tweets and one of photos, leaving lots of space for seeing one tweet in a large font, with its replies. The fixed ad at the top of the timline is badly placed, especially in snapped view. Gleek has handy options like adding a hashtag to all your posts and choosing how to mark replies (RT or via or just quotes) and the tile view is great for photos but it's a little odd to see the same tweets in a column and as tiles. That makes the colourful MetroTwit our favourite app for running full screen; although you can only see two columns on screen at once, it has a big, clear bar for writing your tweets in, plus previews of weblinks open in a nice large pane. 3. Tweetro Also worth trying out, Tweetro has a comprehensive interface that sprawls across the screen to fit in your timeline, photos and the lists and searches you add (mentions, messages and favourites open in their own panes), with slightly confusing positioning but buttons like Reply and Retweet. If you don't mind scrolling you see more than with other Twitter apps full screen and Tweetro is definitely the best Twitter app to keep snapped into a side window so you can glance at your choice of tweets, mentions, messages, favourites or lists - and the conversation view when you reply fits neatly too. 4. Social Dribble Want to see the tweets in trending topics at a glance? tMetro picks up the latest trending hashtags and grabs tweets for all of them. EventWall lets you pick hashtags to search for so you can easily follow a popular topic like an Apple launch or an event. But if you want to turn Twitter into a screensaver, Social Dribble displays one tweet at a time for your chosen hashtag in a font large enough for you to see across the room. 5. Digital Dictator The interface is a bit of a joke, but this is a handy app for using snapped next to the People app to post updates to more than one network at a time; Digital Director posts to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare (with your location) and Yammer. 6. NGReader This isn't just the best Google Reader app we've found; it also has one of the nicest interfaces we've seen in a Windows 8 app. You can see your list of feeds, the stories in one or all your feeds and the selected story on screen all at once in a view that still manages not to look crowded (and tapping the story loads the original web page into the story pane very elegantly). Or you can flip into a tiled view with no interface, just headlines and pictures for a quick overview; tapping a tile brings up a half-screen pane showing the story in an interface that defines clean and clear. Plus it syncs well with your Google Reader account so you won't find yourself reading the same stories again on other devices. 7. ReddHub Ribbit and Narwhal are both worth a look, but the best Reddit app for Windows 8 so far is ReddHub; you can even use it without logging into Reddit if you want to see the cat pictures without joining the debates. You can pin subreddits to the Start screen, submit and reply to links (with decent quoting) and use the Share charm to send links to Reddit or share links from Reddit but perhaps the best feature is the way it automatically resizes pictures to fit on screen. We've never thought of Reddit as beautiful but that's what ReddHub is. Also, prepare to lose hours reading… 8. Tumbukun If you want to explore random Tumblrs or follow one in detail, Single Stream has a nice interface for doing that. But if you want to manage and update your own Tumblr as well as reading the Tumblrs you already follow, Tumbukun is a good – if rather primary coloured – app for that. You can like and reblog posts and write your own posts from scratch in the editor, although if you want to end an existing post you have to open it in the browser (annoying if you spot a typo right after you post). 9. IM+ The Messenger client for Windows 8 is very purple and uses a lot of space for just Messenger (and linked services like Yahoo and Facebook Chat). If you use other IM services, grab a copy of IM+ which covers all the main services including Google, Jabber and ICQ as well as the ubiquitous Messenger, AOL, Facebook, Skype and Yahoo plus international ones like RenRen and Yandex. The interface is fairly stark but there are plenty of handy options from blocking people you don't know to getting email alerts for messages you miss when you're offline. 10. Skype The Windows 8 Skype app merges Skype and Messenger (and your Skype and Microsoft account); you see recent calls and chats made on multiple Skype devices, your favourite contacts and people you've talked to recently – or you can see your full address book as tiles. Plus you get Skype as another way to contact friends from inside the People app. If you prefer Google Voice for calls, check out Freetalk.

Don't hold your breath for Sky Go on Windows Phone or Surface Posted: Don't hold our breath for a Windows Phone 8 or Surface Sky Go application, with Sky insisting that, despite monitoring the device world constantly, it is focused on scale. Sky has always prioritised Apple's iOS for its hugely popular suite of apps, including the Sky Go service for its customers. However, with Android tablets still waiting for an app the chances of a Windows Phone app, or one for the new Microsoft tablet Surface, appearing in the coming months are bordering on zilch. Under review Answering a query from TechRadar, Sky reiterated its stance on updates for Sky Go, although the company is surely aware that customers with non iOS tablets and many Android and Windows phones are growing disgruntled. "We're always keeping the smartphone and tablet market under review so that we can satisfy as many of our customers as possible," said the company. "While we aim to distribute our content as broadly as possible, we do need to prioritise our development activity in line with customer demand. "Therefore as and when devices reach scale within the Sky customer base, we focus our development work on them." For Windows Phone and Surface users the last quote is the salient one – in terms of scale there is no evidence that there is enough in the UK market to make Sky fork out for development. For Android tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD you would hope that this will work in its favour – with huge amounts sold already and many more expected to be shifted ahead of Christmas.

4oD for iOS and Android to get Live TV and offline viewing Posted: Channel 4 has announced a major upgrade to its 4oD application for iOS and Android. The new-and-improved 4oD app, coming in early 2013, will allow users to tune in to the whole range of channels through the Watch Live functionality. That means free, ad-supported, live streams of C4, 4+1, E4, More 4 over Wi-Fi and mobile internet, are coming directly to the iPhone, iPad and applicable Android devices. Score one for Channel 4 The second major addition is offline viewing. This will enable C4 fans to load their device with programming for when there's no connectivity or limited data allowances. That functionality is not yet available on the BBC iPlayer Android app (although it is on the iOS version), so score one for Channel 4. Finally, the 4oD refit will also enable Pause and Play. Sarah Rose, Channel 4's Commercial and Business Development Director, said: "We're very excited to be the first commercial public service broadcaster in the UK to offer mobile offline viewing, enabling our viewers to catch up with Channel 4 wherever they may be. "The introduction of 'Watch Live' on the move and cross-platform 'Pause and Play' is great news for our young-skewing audience who are increasingly watching our content on multiple mobile devices."

Swiss clock design cost Apple £13 million, report claims Posted: Apple has reportedly shelled out a whopping £13 million (USD$21, AUD$20) to license the clock design for iOS 6. The clock was designed by an employee of the Swiss Federal Railway service in 1944 and has been used in train stations around the country ever since. Following the launch of iOS in September, the network complained that Apple had used the identical design, once honoured by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, without permission. "We're rather proud that a brand as important as Apple is using our design," said a spokesperson for the service back in September. Time is money A month ago, it was revealed that Apple and the Swiss had come to terms on a licensing package, although the details remained confidential. Now a report from French news agency AFP claims that Apple coughed up a £13 million lump sum for permission to use the clock in iOS 6. Surely, that has to be the most expensive clock ever?

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