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Instagram crosses 300 million users mark

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December 11, 2014

Back when Facebook acquired Instagram, the service had close to 30 million users. Fast forward to today, and the number has swelled ten times. Instagram has announced on its blog that the service has crosses 300 million monthly active users, sharing 70 million odd photos and videos everyday. Oh, and with this milestone, Instagram’s active user base has overtaken that of Twitter, so Facebook might have got the company for real cheap.

Along with making this announcement, the company also launched verified badges for celebrities, athletes and brands, making it easier for users to connect with the authentic accounts. You can expect these badges to roll in the coming days. The company is putting a lot of emphasis on authentic and is doing much to keep spammy accounts and users at bay by even deleting such accounts. As a result, some of you might see a reduction in the number of followers that you have on the service, but don’t worry, Instagram will notify you in case such a thing happens.

Instagram – Android

Instagram – iOS

Instagram – Windows Phone

[Source]

Minecraft Pocket Edition lands on Windows Phone

Sharang Sharma

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December 11, 2014

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While Mojang claims that it had started working on a Windows Phone version of Minecraft before Microsoft acquired the company, we can’t help but wonder if the acquisition actually helped speeding up the process. We’re saying so because Mnecraft Pocket Edition has finally landed on the Windows Phone Store and it looks great.

“Welcome to Minecraft: Pocket Edition! Minecraft is a game about placing blocks and going on adventures. Pocket Edition includes Survival and Creative modes, multiplayer over a local Wi-Fi network, infinite worlds, caves, new biomes, mobs, villages and lots more. Craft create and explore anywhere in the world so long as you have hands spare and battery to burn. There’s never been a better time to enjoy Minecraft on the move.”

The game is similar to its iOS and Android counterparts and offers tons of modes to play, including a local multiplayer over WiFi. What’s better, the game even works on devices with 512MB RAM, so no waiting for future updates for users with less memory phones.

Minecraft PE is available for $6.99 and comes without a trial. You can grab it from the store at the link below.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition – Windows Phone

Shazam gets a makeover on Android and iOS

Nityansh Seth

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December 10, 2014

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Shazam has received a major overhaul on Android and iOS in the new update that has hit both the platforms. In fact, the developers have made the app much more than just a music discovery app, adding multiple new features. The app gets a new integration with Spotify allowing you to play full songs in Shazam playlists, as well as add Shazam tracks to your Spotify playlists (granted you have the Spotify app as well). If not Spotify, there’s Rdio’s services at your disposal too.

Besides this, Shazam has a new homescreen that contains new music charts, videos and playlists. With Facebook integration, the app now shows what your friends are addicted to, as well as what’s hot in your area. It also shows what’s new from your favorite artists and musicians. The app can present curated recommendations based on users’ history. So there you have it, Shazam can predict which song is going to be a hit before it’s even released.

The new player also allows you to rate any song. Swiping to the right implies you enjoyed the song and it will go to My Shazam, while swiping to the right will skip it.

Grab the all new Shazam at the links below.

Shazam – Play Store

Shazam – App Store

Snapchat updated with iPhone 6, 6 Plus support and more

Sharang Sharma

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December 10, 2014

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Snapchat has been updated on iOS to version 8.1.0. The update brings support for the larger screens on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. We can’t say Snapchat was the quickest to add support to Apple’s latest phones which are over two months old now, but since the update is here, there’s nothing to complain.

Changelog:

* iPhone 6 and 6+ layouts!
* Improved Captions!
You can now change the color of Special Text, pinch to resize, and drag around the screen.
* Stacked Filters!
After adding a filter, press and hold with one finger and swipe with another to add a 2nd filter to your Snap!

The update also brings improved captions with the ability to change the colors of special text, change their size by pinch to zoom and drag them around the screen. Also, you’ll be able to stack multiple filters on your images now simply by holding a photo in place with one finger and swiping it to add another filter.

Before this, the app was updated back in November with Snapcash, that allows users to transfer cash among themselves, using services from Square.

Grab the latest version of the app from the app store below.

Snapchat – iOS

Telltale’s Game of Thrones lands on the Play Store

Sharang Sharma

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December 10, 2014

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It was only a matter of time before Telltale’s recently launched Game of Thrones made its way to the Play Store. And now it has. After a week of being available on iOS, Game of Thrones Episode 1 is now available to download from the Play Store.

Game of Thrones follows the story of House Forrester, a family loyal to the Starks of Winterfell. Caught up in the events surrounding the War of the Five Kings, they fight to survive in the war ravaged lands.

The game costs $4.99 on the Play Store, the same as the iOS version. Unfortunately, that’s not the only thing it shares with the iOS version, since early reports indicate that the game faces the same bugs and graphical issues as its iOS counterpart. Although, things aren’t as bad as those on the iPad version of the game.

We’re sure Telltale plans to address most of these issues with an update in the future. you can grab the game from the Play Store at the link below. Only the first episode is available, with subsequent episodes costing $4.99 each.

Game of Thrones – Play Store

HERE apps add 18 additional countries on Windows Phone

Sharang Sharma

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December 10, 2014

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Nokia has pushed updates for its HERE suite of apps on Windows Phone. The update allows transition of your account from your old Nokia account to HERE’s own services. All your data will get synced to the new account and while you can choose to not migrate for now, you’ll have to do it eventually.

Besides, Here Drive+ app now supports voice-guided navigation in 18 more countries.These are Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. With this addition, the total countries having voice-guided navigation has reached 118. Although, not all roads will be covered in these new countries. Also, Here Transit and Here Drive+ have now become free for those still on Windows Phone 8.0.

Grab the updates from the links below.

HERE Maps – Windows Phone

HERE Drive+ – Windows Phone

HERE City Lens – Windows Phone

HERE Transit – Windows Phone

[Source]

Kindle app updated on Android with X-Ray for books and more

Android
News

Sharang Sharma

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December 10, 2014

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Amazon has released a massive update for its Kindle app on Android. The update takes the app to version 4.8 and adds plenty of features to the app.

Changelog for version 4.8.0:

• Use X-Ray for Books and Textbooks to look up places, characters and terms
• Receive push notifications from Kindle – customize your experience in Settings
• Improved library search
• Make flashcard sets to review textbook material
• Control audiobook playback while reading the Kindle book
• Several experience improvements and bug fixes

The update brings something which Amazon calls as “X-Ray” for Books and Textbooks. The features information about the book itself as well as other information such as actors playing that role in any adaptation. It’s simply an encyclopedia of sorts for that book which is integrated into the user experience so that he/she doesn’t have to visit the internet time and again. X-Ray has been available on Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire tablets.

The update also adds other features like push notifications, improved library search, and the ability to make flashcard sets in textbooks. Users can also seamlessly switch between audiobook and textbook, with the audio starting from the page where the text book was left. There are other general improvements as well.

Kindle is available for free and can be picked from the store link below.

Kindle – Play Store

Google Search crosses 1 billion installs in the Play Store

Android
News

Sharang Sharma

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December 10, 2014

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You wouldn’t be surprised to know that the most popular apps on Google’s Android platforms are those crafted by Mountain View engineers themselves. There’s Gmail, which was the first app to hit the 1 billion installs mark, followed by Maps and YouTube. There’s Facebook of course, which is the only non Google list to feature in the elite club and now, another Google app, Google Search has become the latest app to join the list.

Given that the Google Search app does a lot more than just throw search results at users, it’s understandable why so many users have it on their devices. Google Search comes with Google Now and Voice Search. And of course, its preloaded on all new devices.

Despite all these factors, it’s still no small feat to achieve. We’re assuming the next billion app to be one of Google’s other apps that comes preinstalled on devices these days. As for non- Google apps, it’s going to be one of those messenger apps (probably from Facebook’s stables).

Google Search – Android

VLC for Android gets out of beta at last

Sharang Sharma

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December 10, 2014

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To be quite frank, after waiting for two years, we’d started loosing hope that VLC on Android will ever come out of beta. But the developers have finally made the shift after all this time and the app is finally out of beta. The app has finally made it to version 1.0 with the latest update, which indicates a stable release.

However, it seems like the update has been more of a formality than anything else. The changelog still mentions fixes for Android 5.0 and ARMv8 processors, the changes made in the previous update. More importantly, Chromecast support which was promised back in June is still missing.

VLC is free to download from the Play Store of course. Now, only if we could get that Windows Phone version of the app soon enough.

VLC – Play Store

Xbox Video gets native MKV support on Windows 8.1

News
Windows

Nityansh Seth

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December 9, 2014

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When it comes to the MKV file format, not a lot of companies support it natively. However, Microsoft seems to be changing its stance. The company has pushed an udpate for Xbox Video on Windows 8.1, adding welcomed support for MKV files. Microsoft hinted at supporting MKV with Windows 10 (as seen in the Preview build) but its decision to bring it to Windows 8 will allow greater adoption of Xbox Video on the platform. There are also other bug fixes in the update mentioned in the changelog below:

-Support for MKV videos. The update supports playback of most MKV files as long as they contain streams that use codecs supported by the app. For more information on MKV support on Windows, please check out the related article about support for MKV on Xbox One. The implementation is the same on both platforms except that V_MPEG2 is only supported on the console.
-A fix that makes our Spotlight section more robust
-A fix for an issue that caused the Rent button to appear when viewing TV series and shows
-A fix for an issue that was causing file metadata to appear in the video title in your collection
-Fixes for two issues in deeplinking to content within Xbox Video from other apps (the movie details page and playing trailers, specifically)

Grab the update from the Windows Store below.

Xbox Video – Windows Store