15 Windows 8 Apps for Staying Productive at Work and Play

As many know, Evernote is a cloud service for storing and organizing everything from photos to scanned documents to Web pages. Your content can be tagged for easy searching, and it can be synced across PCs, tablets and smartphones no matter what the operating system. Evernote for Windows 8 has a user-friendly UI designed for Windows RT tablets and Windows 8 touch-screen tablets, convertibles and ultrabooks. The app is free but you can upgrade to a premium version for $5 a month that removes ads and lets you upload 1GB of data per month.

[ 10 Must-Know Tips to Become an Evernote Power User ]

For staying in touch with friends and colleagues via videoconferencing, the Windows 8 Skype app takes full advantage of the Windows 8 UI and touch capability. Skype can be snapped to the side of the Windows 8 Start screen so you can multi-task while talking (if that’s appropriate) and the app is integrated with Windows Messenger so you can IM with your Messenger and Outlook.com contacts as well as your Skype contacts. Once you sign in, the Skype app is always on without draining the battery of your Windows 8 device, so you can always take calls.

[Videoconferencing in Action: From Skype to 3D Holograms]

Toolbox is designed to be a one-stop shop productivity platform for Windows 8. With this Swiss Army Knife-like app, you can quickly access six different tools at once, giving you the flexibility to view and use a lot of info in one shot (the same concept as the Windows 8 Start screen live tiles). The app currently has 11 tools, including Web Browser, Weather, Notifier, World Clock, Notes, Calculator and Facebook.