An Arm and a Windows

Well the "real" March Madness has finally begun, but things aren't failing to be interesting over at the Windows RT Store. The Top 3 (Xbox Smartglass, Skype, and Google Search) all held serve, but the RT Twitter app jumped in from being unranked to claim the 4th spot from Netflix (which only dropped down to 5).

The oldest review for Twitter is from March 13 but the app has been rated 1745 times and is a solid 4 stars. We're looking at a genuine home run of an app here. I'd say download it immediately if you're a Twitter user, and if you're not, consider getting on board.

The 14th and 15th spots were also claimed from former outsiders, with 4 Pics 1 Word jumping onto the list out of nowhere to take 14, and Gmail Touch taking the spot right after it. Both have only been out for a few weeks, judging from the dates of the reviews. 4 Pics 1 Word is another absolute home run, with a 4.5 rating after 4462 ratings with nearly every reviewer commenting on how addicting the game is. Sounds like a black hole for all of your hard earned free time :)

Gmail Touch isn't rating quite as highly...likely folks downloaded it because there's been pent up demand for a gmail client. What's interesting to me is the fact that we finally have another alternative mail client out there (in addition to Yahoo! Mail)! Unfortunately from the reviews it seems like there are some serious bugs that need to be worked out. I'd say go ahead and wait on this one and see if the developer can work some of that out.

1 Xbox Smartglass
2 Skype
3 Google Search
4 Twitter
5 Netflix
6 Facebook Touch
7 Youtube Player
8 Fotor
9 Microsoft Solitaire Collection
10 Cut the Rope
11 Toolbox for Windows 8
12 Jetpack Joyride
13 Yahoo! Mail
14 4 Pics 1 Word
15 Gmail Touch
16 Adobe Reader Touch
17 The ESPN App
18 Youtube Player/Downloader
19 Solitaire HD
20 BubbleBreaker
21 Hulu Plus
22 iHeartRadio
23 Pinball FX2
24 Amazon
25 Flow Free

The Next 25 (26-50)

Not too much of note here except for LINE, a messaging app that's been out since January but has cracked the top 50.

26 Facebook Plus
27 Rat on a Snowboard
28 Next Issue Magazines
29 Backgrounds Wallpapers HD
30 Instagram Live
31 CNN App for Windows
32 Dropbox
33 Calculator
34 Microsoft Mahjong
35 Bible
36 Jewel Fever
37 Calculator Free
38 DealOrNoDeal
39 LINE
40 Taptitude Unlimited
41 eBay
42 Monsters Love Candy
43 MyRadar
44 Fhotoroom
45 Wikipedia
46 Kindle
47 3D Boat Race
48 Guns 4 Hire
49 Agent P Strikes Back
50 Tom and Jerry

So here at An Arm and a Windows we've been prepping for March Madness with our own Top 25 list: a list of the Top 25 Free RT Apps as ranked by the Windows App Store. This is our second week of keeping track of things, and we spotted some new apps on the list, and a few apps that have made significant jumps up the chart.

Here are a few highlights:

• The top 3 remain: Smartglass, Skype, and Google Search
• Toolbox for Windows 8 jumped all the way to Number 7 from being unranked the week before
• Fotor jumped up 35 spots, while Pinball FX2 and Word Twist both made big gains as well 
• Kindle and iHeartRadio both stumbled over 20 spots down. iHeartRadio won the battle of streaming radio apps, however, as TuneIn dropped out of the top 50 altogether.

Now, without further ado: The RT Top 25

1	Xbox Smartglass
2	Skype
3	Google Search
4	Netflix
5	Facebook Touch
6	Youtube Player
7	Toolbox for Windows 8
8	Cut the Rope
9	Microsoft Solitaire Collection
10	Fotor
11	Jetpack Joyride
12	Amazon
13	Pinball FX2
14	Solitaire HD
15	The ESPN App
16	Bubblebreaker
17	Adobe Reader Touch
18	Youtube Player/Downloader
19	Dropbox
20	Flow Free
21	Backgrounds Wallpapers HD
22	Monsters Love Candy
23	Adera
24	Word Twist
25	Cnn App for Windows

The Next 25:

25	Cnn App for Windows
26	Allrecipies
27	Instagram Live
28	Yahoo! Mail
29	Guns 4 Hire
30	Calculator Free
31	Microsoft Mahjong
32	eBay
33	Next Issue Magazines
34	DealOrNoDeal
35	One Note
36	Hulu Plus
37	Jewel Fever
38	Kindle
39	MyRadar
40	Wikipedia
41	Bible
42	3D Boat Race
43	iHeartRadio
44	Blocked In
45	Rat on a Snowboard
46	Unit Conversion
47	Khan Academy
48	Agent P Strikes Back
49	Windows 8 Cheat Keys
50	Archery Master

Dropped out: Youtube Downloader, to-dos, Shazam, TuneIn Radio, Dodo GoGo, Doodle God Free, Piano8, PhotoFunia, Parking Mania, Facebook Friends, Wordament