Articles about Mobile App

As someone blessed with the opportunity to try the Surface Pro 3 early, I can say it is truly a game changer. It is very light, has great battery life and a big beautiful display. The tablet/laptop hybrid is far beyond offerings by competitors, including Apple. If you even consider buying a Macbook Air over this, you are arguably making a huge mistake.

With that said, the Surface Pro 3 will begin hitting stores this Friday, June 20th. While the computer is great out of the box, it is not complete until you install useful apps and programs. But wait, aren't apps and programs the same thing? Yes and no. They are both pieces of software, but apps run in the Modern UI, and programs run in the classic UI. While Windows RT variants of Surface cannot install extra programs, the Pro 3 can, since it has an x86_64 Haswell processor. Below is a list of my suggested programs, apps, games and hardware accessories.

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Amazon has refreshed its entire collection of cloud music apps with the releases of Amazon Music for Windows 3.0, Amazon Music for Mac 3.0, Amazon Music  for iPad and iPhone 3.0 and Amazon Music for Android 3.0.

All four platforms share similar updates, and accompany Amazon’s foray into music streaming with the launch of Amazon Prime Music, which initially is only available to US customers.

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Eighty-fifth in a series. Welcome to this week's best apps and games for Windows 8. We take a look at FIFA World Cup 2014 apps this week to provide you with a selection that you can use to follow the football World Cup on your Windows 8 devices.

While there may not be an official World Cup app for Windows 8, you do have plenty of choice when it comes to following matches and news on systems running Windows 8.

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Microsoft has released Skype for iPhone 5.0, a major new update to its voice, video and chat messenger for iPhone and iPod touch users. Version 5.0 sports a major new redesign, more in-app options and drops support for iOS 7.

The update has been released separately to the iPad version, with Microsoft claiming to be "hard at work on a new version" for iPad users.

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It’s summer 2014, which means for fans of the beautiful game (football, in case you were wondering) it’s time to put away your domestic squabbles and unite under your national flag for the World Cup -- assuming your nation qualified, of course.

This year, it’s all happening in Brazil, so for those football (or "soccer") nuts who want to stay up to date wherever they are, world governing body FIFA has the solution. The non-profit organization has just released major updates to its official mobile apps with the release of FIFA for Android 2.0 and FIFA for iOS 2.1.

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Following the release of the Outlook Web App for iPhone, Microsoft has finally introduced OWA for Android on Google Play. The app, which is currently labeled as "pre-release", is compatible solely with small handsets, and requires Office 365 for business mailboxes.

As OWA for Android undergoes testing, Microsoft says that it collects feedback, squashes bugs and ensures that the app is ready for general availability. However, even as it is, the app allows users to do "everything" that its iPhone counterpart offers, with the only difference being the ability to update contact information directly from Android.

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When Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 8.1 in early-April, the company revealed that the latest iteration of its tiled smartphone operating system will allow users to change the default lockscreen with a custom one. This feature is not available in any of the builds Microsoft launched through the Preview for Developers program, as it will be accessible through an app.

Microsoft then said it is working with prolific platform developer Rudy Huyn, who is known for popular apps like 6tag and 6sec, to make the feature happen. Only hours ago, Windows Phone head Joe Belfiore shed some light as to when we can expect the app to launch.

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Among many third-party Android keyboards, SwiftKey is considered to be one of the best and most popular of the bunch. It has been available in Google Play as a paid app -- I purchased it myself a while back -- but the company behind it just decided to take the freemium route.

This means anyone with a compatible Android device can now take advantage of what SwiftKey has to offer, without having to worry about an expiring trial. Being a freemium app means that, while it may be available for naught, SwiftKey still has to generate revenue. And, it will do just that, through the new SwiftKey Store.

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It’s been well over a year since Piriform first announced plans to bring CCleaner to Android. At the time the company suggested the release would be "soon" but it took until April this year for the first Beta version to be made available.

Tens of thousands of users signed up to test the app, and Piriform has added some additional features along the way. Today, the company finally announces the full version is now available on Google Play, and as you’d expect from Piriform, it's totally free and without ads.

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Features are extremely important in mobile apps as they give users the ability to do all sorts of interesting things with their smartphones and tablets. But, a great design matters as well (just as much, probably, if not more), as it builds up the enjoyment of using those kind of offerings. And, yes, we can have both.

Apps that do not place an emphasis on design, relying on dull-looking interfaces, put me off, plain and simple. It is an unfortunate situation that plagues many capable offerings, especially on Android, but on Windows Phone too. My toolkit app of choice is mighty-powerful, but looks like it was designed by robots, which is why I find #1 ToolKit to be a refreshing alternative.

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Eighty-fourth in a series. Big news this week was China's ban of Windows 8 on government computer systems which Wayne covered yesterday. Country officials seem to believe that the NSA is using the operating system to gather data.

Microsoft has released Xbox One controller drivers for Windows that users of the operating system can use to connect the controller to a Windows PC for games that support controller input.

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As a regular Facebook Messenger user, I prefer my Google Nexus 7, instead of my Nokia Lumia 920, to chat with other people. It is not due to the larger screen size, but because the Android app feels so much better than the Windows Phone counterpart. The former is fast, totes all the greatest features Facebook Messenger offers, and comes with chat heads, which are both cool and useful.

Thankfully, Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone is delivering a better experience with each update it receives. It may not happen as often as I would like, but the popular social network is slowly improving its offering, with the latest version adding some much-needed changes.

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Bored with your iPhone’s camera? Fed up with taking dull, listless shots? Apalon Apps may have something for you, with its new Camera Fx8 Free app.

The app, a cut-down version of the existing Camera Fx8 (currently 99c in the App Store), allows users to apply filters and shapes to both live and previously taken photos. These can then be saved to the camera roll and shared via Twitter or email.

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Since his appointment as CEO in February of this year, Satya Nadella has made it clear that Microsoft needs to be more than a one-platform developer. Still, it may come as some surprise that the Android version of the latest touch-optimized Office suite will be released months before the Windows 8 variant.

Office's user base across PCs remains high, but in order to target mobile users, the majority of whom are on Android or iOS, the company is making a clear statement that it won't neglect these consumers.

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In late-April, Microsoft introduced the much-awaited Remote Desktop app on Windows Phone 8.1, giving a small subset of its Windows Phone users, who wish to beta-test the offering, the ability to connect remotely, from their smartphones, to Windows PCs.

The app launched with a powerful feature set, but it just received its first update which makes the experience even better. Microsoft details the first round of improvements in an MSDN blog post. The new iteration brings Remote Desktop even closer to its counterparts on Android, iOS, OS X and Windows 8.1, in terms of functionality, according to the software giant.

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