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Beats Music, Xbox SmartGlass, Xbox Video and Xbox Games get updated on Windows Phone Store

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May 14, 2014

Windows Phone Store is seeing some action these days and another bunch of high profile apps have been updated. You can find the following apps in the Store with updates ready to be downloaded.

Xbox Video

Xbox Video has been updated to version 2.5.3886.0. Unfortunately, the not so detailed changelog mentions only bug fixes and improvements. Although, it seems like Microsoft has dropped ‘Xbox’ from the name and going forward, will only be calling it Video.

Xbox One SmartGlass Beta

Xbox One SmartGlass Beta is a handy way to control your new console through your smartphone. It’s not shedding the beta moniker just yet, but has been updated to version 1.0.0.3, although going through the settings in the app reveals it’s at version 2.2.1405.7009. Among the changes, Activity Feed has moved to home page, with Featured content moving to the menu. Also, you can now sort Game clips by recent or those saved.

Xbox Games

Th last update to Xbox Games removed the app from the app list for many and today’s update fixes that issue. That is pretty much it, with no other noticeable change.

Beats Music

Beats version counts perhaps as the first significant update among the ones we’ve mentioned till now. Version 1.9 of the app focuses on optimizations more than ever. Here’s the changelog:

Decreased download size from 8MB to 4MB
App is 200% faster
Startup time is down by half
Recommendations have been added to the Live tile
Bug fixes

You can find the Store links to these apps below.

Xbox Video

Xbox One SmartGlass Beta

Xbox Games

Beats Music

Windows Store gets an overhaul, makes it easier to search for apps

News
Windows

Sharang Sharma

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May 14, 2014

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While Microsoft improved upon the Windows Store with the Windows 8.1 update, there’s always room for improvement. The team has pushed another big update for the Windows Store that refines it and makes it better to use.

Among several changes, the most noticeable is a new persistent navigation bar at the top with quick links to Home, Top charts, Categories, Collections, and Account. Until now, the only way to get to the Home page was by pressing the back button frustrating number of times. Clicking on these buttons opens up a drop down to take you even deeper into the store.

Tapping on Collections takes you to a new page that hosts similarly themed apps grouped together, that have been curated by Microsoft. We’ve seen it on Windows Phone before, and now it’s available here. The Spotlight section has also returned, now named as Featured. These featured apps will also be visible on Category pages.

It’ll also be easier to spot universal apps on the Store now with a new Windows/Windows Phone. Also, discounted apps will have their original price listed in a red strikethrough.

To get the new store on your Windows 8 machine, open Settings > Change PC Settings > Update & Recovery > Check Now.It can take a while before the update is available in your region, but it should be available eventually.

Office for iPad garners 27 million downloads in 46 days

Sharang Sharma

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May 14, 2014

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Office for iPad garners 27 million downloads in 46 days

It’s no secret that Microsoft Office was among the most demanded apps on the iPad. Microsoft finally delivered on that demand less than two months ago, when it launched Office for iPad. Since then the apps (Word, Powerpoint and Excel) have collectively been downloaded over 27 million times in a span of just 46 days. 15 million of those downloads came in the last month alone. That translates into 587,000 downloads a day on an average.

The sheer number of downloads show that even after the availability of alternative free options like the Google Docs, consumers continue to prefer Microsoft’s premium offering, which is an established name in this area and offers a slew of options that are simply not available anywhere else.

However, Microsoft hasn’t revealed how many of these downloads were translated in actual Office 365 subscriptions, which bring in the real money for the company. Microsoft specially launched an Office 365 subscription plan sometime ago that was designed for the iPad and was comparatively cheaper to the regular plan.

Still, we have no doubt that Office on iPad is a success, something it cannot simplt repeat with Windows based tablets due to their minimal market share.

The apps are available in the Store. They come as three separate apps for Powerpoint, Excel and Word.

[via]

Twitter adds the option to mute someone without unfollowing them

Sharang Sharma

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May 13, 2014

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Twitter is a great platform to express your opinions and emotions, but at times some people make it their sole method of doing so. As such, the huge number of Tweets from these accounts take control of your timeline. What’s worse, you can’t unfollow them, since you don’t wish to be rude.

Fret not, for Twitter has started rolling out the mute feature. Muting someone on Twitter makes sure that you do not get their Tweet or Retweets on your timeline, or receive SMS notifications, without them ever knowing about it. Of course, if you have a change of heart in the future, you can simply unmute them.

The feature is now rolling out to the Android and iOS versions of the official app, although, it’s been available on third party apps for quite a while now. Web users will also be able to access the future, while Windows Phone users are expected to get it in the near future.

[Source]

Spotify, Evernote and Amazon pick updates on Windows Phone

Sharang Sharma

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May 13, 2014

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Three high profile apps have picked recent updates on the Windows Phone Store. These include Spotify, Evernote and Amazon.

Spotify

Starting of with Spotify, the update brings a brand new UI for the app along with features that were missing from the Windows Phone version, but were present on the Android and iOS versions. Here’s the changelog for version 3.0 of Spotify:

Discover fires out recommendations based on in-house technologies and social tools with curated content from music experts
Spotify radio comes to Windows Phone! Pick a track, artist, or album and Spotify will find similar music – it’s like having your own personal radio station
Find and explore new music with personalised recommendations in Discover, or browse top playlists in Browse

The developers have acknowledged issues with the two step Facebook authentication, which they promise to fix in the future update. You can pick Spotify for free here.

Amazon

E-retailer Amazon has also updated its app on the Windows Phone Store, bringing it to version 2.3.80.25. Again this is a big update, given that the last one was made sometime in mid 2013. Here’s the changelog:

Explore and browse products by category with Shop by Department.
Enhanced search refinements including brand, author, price, Prime eligibility and more.
Bug fixes and performance improvements

You can pick the official app here.

Evernote

Lastly, note taking app Evernote has also received some love from the developers. As with the other two apps, this one also has been given a significant update. Here’s the changelog:

New* Document Camera
- Digitize single- and multi-page physical documents
Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine
- The notebook designed by Evernote and Moleskine
- Snap a photo with Evernote to create a permanent digital version of your notes
- Available from the Evernote Market (evernote.com/market)
Improved note layout with in-line titles
Numerous bug fixes and enhancements

You can pick the app here.

Nokia Camera and Camera Beta get updated

Sharang Sharma

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May 13, 2014

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It’s usually the beta apps that are more exciting, since they’re the first in line to get new features (which don’t always work as expected). Nokia Camera Beta has been updated this morning along with the main Nokia Camera app.

Nokia Camera

Talking about the main app first, the update takes Nokia Camera to version 4.5.2.2. There’s no changelog provided, but certainly the app must have gotten a few bug fixes and routine performance upgrades. The new UI that is seen on the Camera Beta app is still missing from the scene. You can pick Nokia Camera on the Windows Phone Store here.

Nokia Camera Beta

Nokia Camera Beta is certainly the more interesting of the two, with the update taking it to version 4.7.1.8. Here’s the changelog for the app provided by Nokia:

Living Images support*
Continuous Autofocus for faster focusing*
Surround sound capture in Video*
New Camera Roll with Full Resolution Zoom and inline playback of video, cinemagraph, smart sequences and refocus images
Nokia Camera integrates with Creative Studio and Video Trimmer for editing your photos and videos

As it turns out, Nokia has started taking advantage of the quad core Snapdragon processor on the newer flagships and the features marked with an asterisk are exclusive to Lumia 930, Lumia 1520 and the Lumia Icon. But then this is the beta version of the app, and we might see these changes getting incorporated for other phones as well (or would Nokia leave out the Lumia 1020 with some of its best camera features?)

You can pick Nokia Camera Beta on the Windows Phone Store for free over here.

Gmail passes one billion downloads on the Play Store

Android
News

Sharang Sharma

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May 12, 2014

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While there are close to a million apps on the Google Play Store, only a fraction of them actually land on more than a few hundred devices. But there’s one app that has beat all past record and managed to cross a staggering one billion downloads. And it’s none other than Google’s own Gmail app.

We have no doubt that Gmail is the most used email client out there. As such, Gmail has become the first app to cross the 1 billion downloads after Google Play Services package, which of course, comes with every certified Android device. And these downloads are unique installs, excluding duplicate installs on the same device. However, not all of these downloads will be active at the present moment, and many of the devices that the app was installed on might be resting in landfills or closed drawers.

Nonetheless, it shows the progress Google and Android have made in the last couple of years and the momentum seems to be carrying on going forward. In case you’re among the select few who haven’t downloaded the app on your Android device already, you can pick it up from here.

[Source]

Facebook Messenger climbs to version 5.0 on Android

Sharang Sharma

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May 11, 2014

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Facebook Messenger has been updated on Android, taking it to version 5.0. The update is more than just regular maintainance and adds a few handy feature to the messenger. Here’s the official changelog:

More ways to message: Now it’s easier to send photos, voice messages and more
Video: Send videos from your gallery and play them right in the app. (Works on Android 4.3 and up. We’ll continue to improve video and bring it to more phones.)
Instant photo sharing: Take a photo and send it in just one tap.
Stickers shortcuts: When someone sends you a sticker, press and hold down on it to get the pack.
Faster search: Just enter the names of people and groups

The app gets a new option to take photograph from within the app and share it with your Facebook Friends. A new camera icon is placed above the keyboard that triggers the camera. Users can still view the conversation while taking the photograph. Unfortunately, you can’t edit or discard a photo, once clicked. Sending photos from the phone’s memory is still an option, although it’s been made easier with the latest update. The app also allows users to send and play videos from within the app, something which was unavailable earlier.

You can pick the app for free on the Play Store here.

Facebook drops Poke and Camera apps from the App Store

Chetna Chauhan

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May 11, 2014

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While Facebook is ever growing and expanding, not all its endeavors are that successful. You cannot be blamed if you haven’t heard about some its less ambitious projects like the Facebook Poke app and the Camera app that were released on iOS. The apps never really found many takers and Facebook has finally decided to pull the curtains on both these apps.

Facebook Camera was released before the Blue giant acquired Instagram and allowed you to share and view photos faster than the main app. It also came with its own Instagram like 15 filters. Facebook Poke on the other hand allowed you to quickly poke your friends along with sending messages, pictures or videos to your Facebook friends, that expired after 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds, similar to what Snapchat offers.

Why these apps were pulled down isn’t known at the moment, but with the main app allowing you to do the same stuff as these standalone apps, they really never were needed to begin with. What’s more, we doubt developers at Facebook have ever taken Poke as a serious feature. Even with these apps gone, people will still be able to send and see pictures, or poke others using the main app that can be downloaded from over here.

[via]

Xbox Music picks an update on Windows Phone

Sharang Sharma

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May 11, 2014

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Just as promised, Microsoft is delivering regular updates to its Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps on Windows Phone 8.1 to make them better. Xbox Music is supposed to get bi-weekly updates and the latest one is here. First, here’s the changelog for version 2.5.3884.0:

General performance improvements
Bug Fixes
Background initial sync of local and cloud content
Slider to scrub now playing track

These are the general changes posted on the Store. However, here’s a more detailed changelog from a post on the Xbox Music User Voice Site:

Audio scrubbing is now supported! Slide the track progress indicator in the Now Playing screen to advance to the spot you like.
Smoother FFW and REW animations.
UI fixes to improve visibility of content.
Bug fixed where songs are incorrectly removed from playlists.
Fixes for unexpected app exits.

Those are some neat features added to the app. With promised changes every two weeks, we should see the app getting even better in the coming days. Here’s what Microsoft has promised for the next update:

Continued focus on stability and performance improvements.
Initial sync of local and cloud content happens in the background.
Usability improvements in Now Playing screen.
Support for greater than 100 songs in Now Playing queue.
Faster loading of long lists.
Swipe gesture to advance songs on Now Playing screen.
Transparent Tile support.
Live Tile support.
Design and layout changes to get you to your content faster.
Kid’s Corner support.
General UX improvements

You can pick the app on the Windows Phone Store here.