Introducing Hidden Gems, our new series showcasing distinctive apps for Windows and Windows Phone!

Reporting and reviewing apps and games is part of our job at Windows Phone Central. Some of it is easy, like when a major app finally makes its way to our ecosystem, but if there's one thing we especially love, it's discovering an exceptional and unknown app. Often, it's you, our audience that brings them to our attention. Today, we're changing the tables around.

Starting tomorrow and running throughout the rest of June, we're partnering up with Microsoft to give away some great prizes and focusing on a select few apps and games that we think deserve some attention. They may for devices or services you are not aware of, they may be unique games, but they have all been handpicked.

The series is planned to run every day before noon Eastern Time, and they'll feature our cool little graphic (see below) so that you know it is part of the Hidden Gems program. We're also creating a main topic page, where you can view all the previous Hidden Gems articles in case you want to catch up. You can find that page here: www.wpcentral.com/hidden-gems, so make sure you bookmark it.

Contests

Besides bringing these apps to your attention, we figured we spice it up a bit too. So we're going to give away a prize.

Each. Day.

You read that correctly. Every day, you can enter the contest by simply leaving a comment on why you like (or don't like) the app or game we're highlighting. No need to pretend here folks, we and the respective developers, want your honest opinion. The only thing we do ask is for you to try and make your comments constructive. One-word comments are not going to cut it. If we're going to take the time to give away a phone or a tablet, the least you can do is write a sentence or two with an honest opinion, cool?

The contests are open worldwide.

At the end of the month, when everything is wrapped up, we'll do a massive winner's post, highlighting who won for each of the preceding days in one shot. That also means you can go back and enter the contest for previous Hidden Gems articles up until the end of the month, so don't fret about missing a day.

Hidden Gems is a big experiment for ourselves and Microsoft, though we're confident that we can deliver an exciting and unique campaign for you, our core audience. We're not expecting you to love everything we cover, but we're sure that you'll find something you like.

Helps us make this a fun series and join in!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.