Apprtize

Age of Empire: Castle Siege lands on the Windows and Windows Phone Store

-

September 18, 2014

We’ve been hearing about a new Age of Empires game from Microsoft for tablets and smartphones for a while now and Microsoft has finally delivered on the promise today, releasing Age of Empires: Castle Siege on the Windows Store and the Windows Phone Store.

Store description:

“Age of Empires®: Castle Siege invites you to guide your empire through the Medieval Era on your Windows PC or touch screen device. Choose from one of several civilizations, including the Britons, Teutons, and Kievan Rus. Upgrade your keep, fortify your walls, and garrison defensive troops to protect yourself from marauders. Then, train an army to raid other cities, and command them in battle to dismantle your opponents’ defenses.”

Age of Empires: Castle Siege is a universal app and comes with Xbox Live certification. What’s more, it’s free to download on either platforms. Also, it runs on devices with 512MB RAM as well. The game weighs close to 169MB for mobile, while 320MB for Windows (with better resolution textures for the larger displays).

For now, the game is exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms. We might see a console release in the future, but till then, Windows Phone users seem to have at least some bragging rights.

Age of Empires: Castle Siege : Windows Phone Store

: Windows Store

Latest update to Office Lens allows saving pictures as Word and PowerPoint files

Sachin Sharma

-

September 17, 2014

0

Microsoft has pushed an update for Office Lens on Windows Phone. The update adds couple of features including the ability to save photos picked by your phones camera as Word and PowerPoint files. Earlier, Office Lens allowed to save pictures only to OneNote. Not only does it save files to Word and PowerPoint, but does a few important tweaks to. Yo’ll find more details about it in the changelog for version 1.1.3306.0 below:

Your pictures can be converted to Word or PowerPoint files and saved to OneDrive.
For Word files, the document layout is preserved and the text in your picture is converted into editable text.
For PowerPoint files, handwritten strokes are transformed into drawing objects that can be recolored and edited. You can also remove the background of drawings.
Bug fixes: Now Office Lens is more stable

Grab Office Lens on the Windows Phone Store for free.

Google Newsstand goes live in India, Netherlands, Russia, and Spain

Android
News

Chetna Chauhan

-

September 16, 2014

0

In case you haven’t head about Google Newsstand, it’s a section in the Play Store that serves subscriptions to magazines, web feeds and server-generated topical feeds. The service was available only in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and United States until now. However, today it has been rolled out in new regions, namely India, Netherlands, Russia, and Spain.

Until now, people in these countries could only access the free content through the Play Newsstand app, but now they can purchase premium content in the Play Store section too.

Users in these countries should see the new section highlighted in the Play Store.

[via]

You can record 4K videos on the iPhone 5s with a $999.99 app

iOS
News

Sharang Sharma

-

September 16, 2014

0

iPhone is seen as a premium brand of smartphones not made for well, everyone. Of course, you have to shell out a lot of cash to own one. But what if we told you that to have one of the features enjoyed by Android users on cheaper phones, you’ll have to shell out more cash than what the phone is worth for? We’re talking about 4K video recording and there’s an app available in the App Store that just does that on the iPhone 5s for $999.99.

Vizzywig 4K has been approved by Apple to launch in the App Store. It doesn’t capture 4K videos right away, but instead, captures 4K stills at 24fps and then stitches them together along with the synced audio. You can later edit these videos as well. The app eats around 72MB worth of data every second and as such, only works with the 32GB and 64GB version of the iPhone 5s.

Oh, and since you’d be generous enough to throw away your cash at the developer in case you buy it, he is also offering VIP email, phone or text message support directly from the founder and inventor on this particular app due to the “high price point”.

In case you’re looking for cheaper options, MoviePro costs $4.99 and allows up to 3K native video recording. We’re not judging, but in case you decide to get the app anyway, might we suggest some premium phones from Sony and Samsung that capture 4K videos and more for less.

Vizzywig 4K – App Store

Flipboard could arrive on Windows Phone anytime now

Sharang Sharma

-

September 14, 2014

0

We’ve been waiting for a quality Flipboard app on Windows Phone for a while now. Granted there’s a beta app available in the Windows Phone Store already, but it’s as good as launching the site from your browser on the phone. However, given we already saw the app at Microsoft’s unveiling of Lumia 730 and 830 at Berlin, we were only waiting for an official announcement.

Now, a link for the app has popped up on the Store. You cannot download the app just yet, but we’re assuming that should happen anytime now. For those who aren’t aware, Flipboard is a news aggregator that presents articles from across the web in a magazine style layout. You can check the app here and get it as soon as the app goes live.

Plants vs. Zombies, Plight of the Zombie and more are Red Stripe Deals for this week

Sharang Sharma

-

September 14, 2014

0

Here’s the list of six apps discounted on Windows Phone Store under the Red Stripe Deals for this week.

Plants vs. Zombies – $1.99

Get ready to soil your plants! A mob of fun-loving zombies… A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and the only defense is your arsenal of plants. Use peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they reach your front door.

Reading Trainer – $0.99

Reading Trainer improves your reading speed and retention rate with 12 challenging and fun exercises. The popular speed reading app is finally available on Windows Phone!

Plight of the Zombie – $0.99

We are tired of all of these zombie games designed for those apathetic people who just want to kill poor, innocent zombies all the time. They’re just hungry!

Dungeon Stalker 2 – $0.99

After many years since the death of the Dragon Queen, a new menace casts its dark shadow over the land. A mysterious evil tyrant, called Overlord, is now ruling trough bloodshed and fear. Once again, a hero is needed. An indomitable spirit, a master of swords, an arcane forces adept who can rise to be our savior. Will you be that hero?

Xtreme Joyride – $0.99

Rev up your engines! Xtreme Joyride puts you in the hot seat! Race against players across the world and step up to the challenge! Boost your ride with Nitro and take speed to a whole new level!

GPS Voice Navigation – $0.99

GPS Voice Navigation provides turn-by-turn voice driving navigation with a choice of three map and routing providers: Google®, Bing® and MapQuest®.

Plunder Pirates from Rovio Stars going global on September 18th

Sharang Sharma

-

September 12, 2014

0

Plunder Pirates that is published by Rovio Stars, a subsidiary or Angry Birds developer Rovio was launched on iOS for iPhone and iPad back in June. However, until now it was only available in Canada. Good news is that the game will be given an international platform by the publisher and will be made available across all markets on September 18th. However, it will still remain an iOS exclusive for the time being.

Plunder Pirates is an online multiplayer game that requires your to build your own island and pirate go and then go plundering into the sea against other pirate captains. Along the way you’ll discover all kinds of treasures and monsters, as well as new islands to capture. You can also join guilds and factions.

Plunder Pirates is free to download, but as you’d expect, comes with in-app purchases. You can grab the game from the iTunes Store here if you’re in Canada, or once the game has been launched elsewhere.

[via]

Skype for Windows Phone now allows you to share your location

Sharang Sharma

-

September 11, 2014

0

A new update to Skype for Windows Phone has been pushed by Microsoft, taking the version number to 2.22. The update adds a handful of new features including the ability to share your location with your friends. It’s not much different from the location sharing feature seen on WhatsApp. Here’s the full changelog for the update:

Location Sharing- Click the ‘+’ icon in a chat and select ‘share location’ to share your location with the people in your conversation
Save Picture – To save a photo: tap the image to enlarge it, then tap for more menu options and select ‘save photo’
Notification Controls for Individual Conversations – In a chat, tap for more options and select ‘notifications’. Here you can choose to turn notifications for that conversation on or off, so you’re only notified about incoming messages if you want to be.

Besides the ability to share location, the update also lets you store images sent over Skype to Camera Roll. Also, you can toggle notifications for each conversation.

With recent updates, Skype is trying to become more like the other instant messengers available in the market. And why shouldn’t it? They’re popular and can be sold for a lot of money.

Skype – Windows Phone Store

[via]

You’ll now have 2 hours to return a purchased app on the Play Store

Android
News

Sharang Sharma

-

September 11, 2014

0

Didn’t like something you paid for but can’t get a refund because it’s been over 15 minutes since your purchase? No more, since Google has relaxed the conditions a little and going forward, you’ll have two hours to decide whether your hard earned money was worth spending on that app. Although, it’s still nowhere near the 24 hour windows that Android users enjoyed in the past.

To apply for a refund, visit Play Store > My Apps> [The app you wish to return] and select Refund. The option will only be available if you’re making the refund in the given time frame of two hours. After that, you’ll simply be given an uninstall option instead. Also, if you decide to change your mind and buy the app a second time, you won’t be eligible for a refund that time at all.

[Source]

Google Hangouts adds free voice calling to the US and Canada in the latest update

News

Sharang Sharma

-

September 11, 2014

0

One of the most requested feature on Google Hangouts has perhaps been voice calling and Google has listened to the public demand. Starting now, Google is offering free voice calling to the US and Canada. Calling other Hangout users is also free similar to that on Skype and Viber , while international calling rates are also considerably cheap. The full rates can be checked here.

Users currently using Google Voice will find that it has also been integrated more closely with Hangouts. Calls made from Hangouts will show your Google Voice number. Hangouts will also support sending and receiving Google Voice SMS, appearing in Hangouts as conversations.

The new Google Voice features will work with Hangouts for Android, iOS and web app. They should start rolling out in the coming weeks. You will need the latest 2.3 version of Hangouts along with accompanying dialer to turn on voice calls. On iOS, voice calls will be available the next time you open the app.

With this move, Google has taken the competition over to Skype and other competitors. We’ll see what they have got to respond with hopefully in the coming days.