But now, rugby fans, it’s time to show off your knowledge and take on each other. Sign into Live Challenge during any of this year’s Six Nations games, and you’ll be taking part in a worldwide live rugby quiz.

There’s the usual dose of rugby and Six Nations trivia of course, but also some predictive questions. The app will ask you, for example – where will the ball end up from this conversion? Who will score next? Points are accrued for genuine knowledge and insight into the game, as well as historical knowledge.

Anyone logged in and playing can tweet directly from the app, as well as checking out the punditry and predictions of a slew of rugby expects.

And the best part? Just taking part in the live quiz during the game puts you in a hat to win the match ball. A genuine, muddy egg from a Six Nations battle – who wouldn’t want that?

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It’s very similar to Spotify in a way, as it allows you to stream the music you want to listen to, but also allows you to ‘cache’ them for offline listening. However, with no apparent limits on how long you can have them offline, the notion of ownership is up for debate.

The interface is clean and well laid out – the developer may not speak perfect English, but you can easily work out what goes where without too much hassle. You can create playlists and listen to things as you want to, and while the tracks you cache won’t play in the main music player, you can access them from the volume controls.

There’s a large, large chance that the clear fact this may not be legal means the app will disappear from the charts soon, and you can’t do things like easily download albums all at once. Plus a lot of the interface doesn’t respond to touch, which is irritating for navigation.

In short, it’s free music on the go for those that don’t feel guilty about piracy. We don’t condone such use, so if you want to be safe of course steer clear from apps like this.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/amazing-music/8ede40f3-957a-4532-97d5-da5fd4d4b07e

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Which makes this application all the more perplexing: you can’t actually play the games; it’s a hub for all the Angry Birds fans. You get access to the blog, wallpapers, videos and ringtones, as well as links to actually buy and download the games too.

The main takeaway is the ability to take a picture and stick Angry Birds characters all over it – fun for about three to eight seconds, depending on your mindset.

If you’re a fan of Angry Birds, it’s a fun app. But you’ll need to REALLY love it to make it worthwhile.

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It’s designed to supercharge the onboard camera experience by bringing Smart Group Shot, Panorama, Self Timer and Action Shot to the menu settings, allowing you to take ever-more fun snaps on the go.

In truth, the range doesn’t really bring that much more to proceedings, despite an excellent user interface. For instance, Panorama  has a really easy to follow line, but gives some awful results as it can’t seem to work out what it’s seen. Similarly Action Shot, a burst mode of sorts, is so slow that you’ll probably miss the part you want.

As it’s free, there’s not really a reason NOT to download it if you own a Nokia phone, apart from the fact it will clutter up your camera menu. Lenses is the same sort of thing on Windows Phone 8, so at least it helps match up with that in some way.

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Counter is an excellent app for taking that worry away, thanks to the ability to monitor all three of the above. For instance, you can customise any level you want and the second you talk too long, send a message too many or get close to your data limit your Windows Phone will be on you like a shot.

Here’s the bad news: it’s Nokia only again, so the others will be left out… but with the extremely easy to use interface and the customisable limits, it’s a great app for peace of mind.

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Creative Studio is, to its credit, one of the better apps on the market for doing so, simply as it’s so customisable. You can choose from loads of effects, in the same way as other popular photo editing apps, but then you can hold a line across them to properly see a before and after effect.

And on top of that you can adjust key things like the shape, colour and exposure of the photo as well, meaning you get the control you need to, as well as being able to do ‘hilarious’ things like Face Warping and general merriment with your photos.

And then there’s the option to share it to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr; some may see these options as overly simple, but we think it’s enough.

There are literally hundreds of these apps out there of varying quality, but at least Creative Studio is free, without limits and does what you need it to fairly quickly.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/creative-studio/55a4097e-d65f-4a77-81a3-7fec8bacdedd

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Facebook Touch is basically a web interface that struggles through your FB account (you’re even encouraged to download the official app at the start) and tries to do things like integrating Chat, Uploads and more into the choice of things to do. However, not only is it a poor cousin but the free version also has highly interfering ads as well, rendering it particularly useless.

In fact, the only good thing it can do is only show you posts with photos on, but it’s so slow and ad heavy (when it’s free) that we can’t see who would use it.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/facebook-touch/289378e8-00a5-4de2-8dd0-d2aee305b4ff

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We like the ethos behind it: you can search by popularity or newest photos, and it seems the number of users is low enough to mean you’ll see new photos fairly regularly but recognise users. You’ll need to sign up properly to use it as a social network, to receive likes, uploads and messages for instance, but the non-user can play with the app happily.

Like Instagram, you can search via hashtag and apply a load of filters to your photos – there’s a fairly wide range to go through and offer a good-enough level of customisation to make it worthwhile – plus you can also set the photography app as a live tile, although you can’t map it to the photography key, obviously.

There’s not a lot else going on here, but if you like the idea of Instagram but have a Windows Phone (or you’re just THAT alternative) this is definitely an app that’s worth checking out to get your fix… we just can’t see it lasting all that long.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/fhotoroom/acad1eed-3149-4b6c-bc4b-8567f409e3e0

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There’s not a lot more to it beyond being a flashlight application, meaning you can turn the LED flash on the back of your phone on and off with ease. There’s also the standard SOS function for when you need to tell people you’re lost and can’t be bothered to do it manually (or you’ve lost the use of your arms in a terrible accident and can only press the phone with your nose… in which case, well done for navigating that far).

There’s the option to shake it to toggle the flash on and off, and with some sound effects too, but it’s simply this: a good flashlight app that has a few extras and is free. What more could you want in this situation?

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/flashlight-x/2638b778-5eab-45f1-a511-a08e1dbde751

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But enough of the what, as chances are you’ve already seen the video as you have an internet connection. What’s the next step? Getting some of those unforgettable Korean phrases or melodies on your phone to use as a ringtone.

There are around a dozen to choose from, with the famous chorus all the way down the bridge on offer. They’re a little long and you sadly can only set them as a ringtone, and not a message tone, but on the whole it’s a free app that gives you some funny sounds if you like the song. And we all do.

Of course, you’ll hate yourself the second your phone goes off in company, but then again that’s sort of what mobile phones are for.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/gangnam-style-ringtones/1826b11a-327f-4830-9c6e-4eaec619e4a7

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Well very little we guess, if you’re into this kind of application. You’re given very few choices at the start of the application, asking you whether you want to open the camera or choose a snap from the photo library – from there the world is really your (limited) oyster.

You’ve got around 25 effects to play with to make your photo look simply AMAZING (or pointlessly messy) from a slight hue change to some inexplicable patterns that make you look like you snapped it in a sandstorm.

But here’s the bit we really hate: you can then apply light effects to make it seem like some light leaked into the film during capture to ruin your photo. WHY WOULD THIS BE AN OPTION? If you know why it’s there, shame on you. It’s a bad thing and you’ll need to take a look at the reasons you’re trying to impress people in this way.

There are so many ways to share the photo beyond the normal Facebook/Twitter/Flickr options, and there’s also a highly usable choice to save the photo in high quality, rather than just the standard lo-res mode most of these filter apps offer.

And we like that it’s free – just not that ‘mess up my photo’ mode. WHY?

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/lomogram/eff2feae-cef3-42be-8bfc-f0d62b1d814e

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The numbers and design is meant to mimic the Nokia Lumia marketing style, which we’re not sure is properly legal, and they’re clear and easy to use when the ads aren’t covering the part that tells you what hour of the day it is. You can choose a number of colours, but can’t set your own either. We were excited when we saw the ‘mode’ toggle, but in truth this just makes the hours, minutes or seconds dial larger. Yawn.

In reality there’s very little reason to download this application when you’ll never use it as extended. The clock on the phone is all you’ll ever need, and the only way this is functional is if you get rid of the annoying ads, which just isn’t worth it as it cost the unimpressive price of £3.49…although you do get more colours.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/lumia-clock/fad8d7aa-8cd4-422b-b4a9-5f368920a634

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It starts by using photoroll to help you choose the photo you want to edit (although you can take one of your own snaps) which may confuse those thinking they’ve entered the wrong app. However, if you have half a brain cell you’ll be able to decide on the pic you want to manipulate, and then things get really impressive.

Firstly, the range of effects you’ve got to simply alter the photo is impressive, with nearly everything on offer, be it brightness, exposure, red-eye and more. You can dial up and down the effect in a number of them too, making it easy to see what you’re up to.

On top of that, there are a huge, huge number of filters, effects and transformations allowing you to do everything from adding a Polaroid-style frame complete with writing (which you can choose the style of) to ‘Infect mode’…which we’ll leave you to discover yourself.

It’s all done on the phone’s processor and you can easily share or save anything in a trice – plus it’s neat how you can look at before and after snaps while editing to check.

Many people think photo editing should be free, thanks to Instagram, but this is one of the apps we’d recommend to anyone who enjoys properly editing their snaps.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/thumba-photo-editor/308567f5-bee5-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

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Photofunia is one of those apps that offers so much, but struggles to deliver on occasion. Its biggest strength is its range of filters, manipulations and effects – for a free app, it really is impressive, and they’re being added to all the time.

You might get confused and lost trying to find the one you want, so it’s excellent that you can not only bookmark your favourites but also pin them as a live tile, should you be unwilling to dig in.

However, after that things take a turn for the worse: it’s a very slow app, and has to think about most things before managing it. And the processing is mostly done online, so you’ll need a connection and a bit of a wait to see what you’ve accomplished.

The results are cool, and being able to do things like take a photo and have it converted to a tattoo resulted in one of our top ever pranks when we sent a snap of us getting a picture of her mum tattooed on our arm to the lady friend.

It’s free and it does the job, but Photofunia will make you wait.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/photofunia/5edef6bd-47ac-4f4a-bfd1-77313426e650

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It’s a simple app that gets you straight into the watching and lets you simply while away the hours watching a mouse run away from a cat, who in turn is scared of his owner (who, watching it back, is ever-so-slightly stereotypical).

The interface is large, colourful and informative, giving you accurate information on your connection, the buffering and how far you are through the cartoon.

A range of wallpapers also add to the amazing fact this app is free – sure, it has ads at the side of the screen, but that disappears from your view when you get used to it.

In short, this is a brilliant app that we could only improve in one way: downloading the cartoons, but then we’d probably run into all kinds of legal issues, so sit back and get nostalgic… cartoons ain’t made like this any more.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/tom-and-jerry/c75581da-4606-49fd-bf79-12e4cad47040

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Now it’s as simple as typing any word into Google images and choosing from the millions on offer… the fun is in the chase people.

Which is what brings us to the only thing that’s any good about this app. Wallpapers promises loads of free pictures directly to your mobile phone so you can customise the lock screen but has one pretty large flaw: it doesn’t work. You can search and search, look for things in the featured section or just browse the categories, but all leads to the boring spinning wheel with no pics.

It’s a shame as the structure is good: search from loads of genres, choose a rating level to only see above and sizes too; but if it doesn’t work, then there’s no point downloading it, even if it is free.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/wallpapers/86694636-7e83-4fff-88cc-f275c0f462fa

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The good thing about this site is that it really allows developers to come up with some nifty ways of creating apps thanks to the ease of use of the APIs, and this app is just that. It takes inspiration from Windows Phone’s Live Tiles and makes choosing things like the featured article or a random nugget of info as easy as a quick tap, and the search bar is large and easy to use too.

We’ve used a number of apps like this, and while all offer pretty much the same functionality (we particularly like being able to look on the map and see what information is available near you) this is the best we’ve seen it done, with no lag, an easy to use history section and a place to save your favourites.

A free app that offers precisely what you’d ever want it to – stick it to you Start screen and never have to worry about tapping that bookmark to the main site in Internet Explorer again.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/wikipedia/fd40c569-2681-48df-9ff3-53ffd80aa9b5

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This app is pretty self explanatory: you can download YouTube videos and watch them again later when you’re not so busy. However, while this is better than ‘Wallpapers’ (which seems to be made by the same app house but simply doesn’t work) it does have limited functionality.

For instance, you can only download videos you search for, meaning any of the featured offerings are just frozen and unable to be tapped by your fair digit.

There’s also the issue that you can’t actually see the current top-trending vids. For instance, there was no sight of ‘Gangnam Style’ when searching the most viewed music videos… hello, a billion views people?

And there’s the actual viewing interface: you can’t look at it in the main media viewer of your phone, meaning it has to be done in the app… and you can’t scroll through the movie you’ve downloaded.

In fairness, when it works it’s an acceptable app – but YouTube downloaded doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of JetVD on Android.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/youtube-downloader/d71552fe-9076-4b71-8aa8-e9a52cd23cf6

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That’s because, despite the ability to edit your photos, Apict is actually one of the most one-dimensional apps we’ve seen in a while. That’s not a total criticism – what it does do, it does well – but there’s so much better on offer out there.

The premise is simple: take a photo or choose from your gallery and then select a square section within it, which is achieved by simply dragging the little blocks around the snap. After that you choose some text to write on the bottom and you’re away: all you need to get your own pretend Polaroid.

It comes with a fun developing sound that sounds like it’s directly from the cameras of old, but that’s about it. You can share it to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr, but would you really want to? This is a trick that came to the iPhone years ago, and given you have to spend 79p for the privilege with this app, we can’t see that many people being overly impressed with its ability.

It’s a slick app that does one thing – and while we don’t subscribe to the ‘all apps should be free’ theory, when something like Thumba does all this and more within a much, much larger ecosystem, we can’t recommend it.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/apict/34c6c38d-3dd6-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

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However, unless you like doing so with programming from the BBC radio list, this isn’t the app for you. It allows you to search and download the podcasts from the Beeb that you want, and it does a pretty good job of just that.

There’s a wealth of functionality contained within this well-built app, such as being able to search not just by station or show; instead you can also look through categories to see the stuff you really want.

It works well and the downloading ability is the most impressive: not only can you manage to get anything you want from recent BBC shows for offline listening, you can also batch download too, and it works in the background too.

It’s a little pricey for £1.49, and there are other options out there that carry a wider range of functionality that’s not limited to the BBC, but if you’re only really bothered with keeping up to date with what’s offered by Radio 4 then this is a decent app.

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/podcast-lounge/83bc0329-8e02-410e-b6d2-da3c0c1d971d

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