10 essential entertainment apps for Windows Phone

If you find a station you love you can pin it to your start screen, while stations, songs and shows can all be added to your favourites for easy access.

Whether you want to listen to some authentic Jamaican reggae or see what's on the radio in Tokyo you can and with the ability to drill down by location and genre it's easy to find what you're looking for.

It's not just music either, as TuneIn Radio also has access to stations that feature news, sports and current events.

7. Xbox SmartGlass (free)

Xbox SmartGlass

If you've got an Xbox 360 or Xbox One you'll likely be familiar with what a chore it can be to type with the controller. Whether you're sending a message or typing a code it takes ages.

One alternative is to use Xbox SmartGlass, which allows your phone to control the console.

Your Xbox 360 needs to be connected to the internet for it to work, but then you'll be able to type on your touch screen and use swipes and taps to navigate menus and play, pause, fast forward, rewind and stop videos and music.

You can even use SmartGlass to navigate the Xbox library on your phone or tablet itself and ditch the big screen altogether.

You can't use it to directly control games, but that's the one thing that your controller is suited to.

8. Shazam (free)

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Shazam

We've all been in a situation where a song's playing- maybe it's in a shop or in a movie or an advert, and you want to know what it is.

No longer do you need to remember the lyrics till you get home and put them into Google in the hope that it finds something, now you can just launch Shazam and let it do all the work.

It has a very high success rate for identifying songs and once it does it will give you links to buy the track or watch its music video on YouTube.

You can also learn more about tagged artists straight from the app and if you don't have a data connection Shazam will still tag the song and will give you a match once you have a connection again.

9. IMDB (free)

IMDB

If you've ever wondered who's in a film, what other people thought of it, or for that matter wanted to know just about anything else about it, from soundtrack listings to trivia, you've probably found your way to the IMDB website.

That's fine if you're on a computer, but from a smartphone the app is much easier to use.

It's small screen friendly and easy to navigate with a few taps.

It has all the key details of films and TV shows, so you'll never be left wondering who played 'security guard 3' again.

10. Metrotube (£0.79)

Metrotube

Windows Phone isn't particularly well served when it comes to YouTube.

There's no official app and while Microsoft has tried its hand at making one it simply doesn't work.

Metrotube has stepped up to the plate and filled the void, providing a YouTube app that not only works but also looks stylish too.

It also has advanced features such as being able to store videos to play them offline.

No smartphone user should go YouTube-less and with Metrotube they don't have to.

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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