Articles about Windows Phone

For a long time, dedicated websites and apps have been able to separate the audio content in YouTube videos, in order for users to download it for offline playback. Even the full-blown YouTube app that was developed by Microsoft for Windows Phone offered a similar feature, which allowed users to grab the whole video instead and store it on their smartphone.

Ripping the audio from YouTube videos can come in handy for those who want to enjoy their favorite tracks, but may find themselves in areas without good-enough cellular coverage for YouTube streaming. I have experienced this scenario first-hand while traveling. For Windows Phone users, there are a couple of apps that can get this job done, with MusicTube being one of the most appealing choices.

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I have often wondered how many Windows Phone users are relying on Google Search, instead of Bing, to look things up on the InterWebs. The percentage should not be very high seeing as Microsoft deeply integrates Bing with the dedicated search button and makes it the default choice for processing queries from Internet Explorer. I can imagine the software giant saying "This time they will all bing it, not google it" and doing an evil laugh afterwards.

To use Google instead of Bing, Windows Phone users can change the default search engine in the Internet Explorer settings and/or navigate to its web page and look things up from there. Personally, I prefer the former route as it is more convenient and faster, though I would not be surprised to learn that there are people who are not familiar with this option. However, Microsoft does not allow users to change the default search engine when using the dedicated search button. As you can see, the odds favor Bing. It should, therefore, be the users' favorite by a long shot, shouldn't it? The answer is not so clear.

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BlackBerry's efforts to improve its sliding sales and consumer relevance with the BlackBerry 10 touch-friendly lineup have failed. In fact, the company's latest available handsets are actually selling less nowadays compared to the old, and dated, BlackBerry 7 OS devices. For anyone paying attention that means the writing is already on the wall, but BlackBerry is (still) planning and hoping to make a comeback.

After bringing BBM to Android and iOS, the Canadian maker will shift focus back to QWERTY keyboards, and away from all-touchscreen designs, and could also embrace more competing platforms in BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The company's CEO John Chen hinted that the enterprise-grade device management software might add support for Windows Phone, on top of Android and iOS.

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Mobile devices have completely transformed the way we connect with others. We can chat from anywhere these days, assuming there is an Internet connection available. What was once primarily aimed at browsers and traditional PCs has since fully embraced mobile computing, or vanished. There are also new, mobile-friendly apps and services that leverage features offered by smart devices to offer more personal and private ways to reach friends, family, coworkers and other folks.

For social butterflies Windows Phone has quite a lot to offer. The tiled smartphone operating system neatly integrates with popular services like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, allowing users to easily post updates from within their Me tile, see what others are doing and respond to their activity on said social networks in the People hub. But there are also dedicated apps available in Store that offer more, and we are going to take a look at the best of them in this article.

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Finnish maker Nokia has announced the Lumia Black update roll out for its Windows Phone 8 smartphone lineup. The latest software upgrade, which is set to first reach the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 925, is based on Windows Phone 8 Update 3, and adds a number of exclusive features.

Nokia's official announcement comes nearly three months after Microsoft took the wraps off Windows Phone 8 Update 3. The latest version of the tiled smartphone operating system brings an orientation lock, support for quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors and 1080p displays and an extra live tile column on phablet screens, as the most important changes. Now let's take a look at what Nokia adds on top of this.

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With the rise in popularity of Windows Phone, the Store has reached an important milestone as more than 200,000 apps are now available. That is good news and certainly impressive for the third-most popular smartphone platform, considering its track record. However, such numbers are actually meaningless as users do not install, or need, every available title. It is the quality, and not the quantity, that matters.

And, of all available Windows Phone apps, only a small part can be considered essential, or the best for most people. Those are the titles that can enrich the user experience, and add great value atop of what the tiled smartphone operating system offers. So without further ado, here are the must-have apps for your Windows Phone.

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It seems that these days it is not enough for a laptop to just be a laptop, or a tablet to be a tablet. I'm not talking about the strange new breed of devices that are capable of running Windows and Android, or the rumors that handsets running Windows Phone and Android might see the light of day (haha! Can you imagine?). I'm talking about the devices that seem to be trying to become best friends with Michael Bay, transforming between multiple modes.

It's not really a new concept. We've already looked at Lenovo's Yoga 11S which can be bent into four different positions. The same company also has the Flex range which has fewer Transformer-like capabilities, but is still more than just your average laptop. At CES 2014 Toshiba decided to up the ante, taking the wraps off a 5-in-1 device.

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Windows Phone may have managed to overtake Apple's iPhone in a small number of markets, based on sales, and become the third most popular smartphone operating system, but it -- and the devices that run it -- do not get much love from US consumers who are still buying Android smartphones and iPhones in droves.

Based on a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, in the US Windows Phone continues to struggle to gain considerable traction as the OS only had a paltry 4.7 percent market share, in the three months ending November 2013. This may represent a whopping 80.76 percent increase compared to the same period from 2012, but it is not large enough to even remotely threaten the local dominance of either Android or iOS. The results of the report are based on smartphone sales.

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A quick look at the Windows Phone market portrays an interesting picture, a landscape that is dominated by a single maker, Nokia. Competition is practically non-existent, as the Finnish company takes the lion's share for both sales and usage. How can other vendors challenge it?

Nokia's market share for Windows Phone usage exceeds 90 percent and dwarfs that of HTC, Samsung and Huawei which struggle to overcome their near-anonymity on the platform. Sales reveal a similar tale. And, as soon as Microsoft takes control of Nokia's phone-making arm, this problem will grow even larger. Consumers will suffer and so will Microsoft, which will find itself in a very difficult spot trying to convince manufacturers that it's OK to play and, despite its role as the sole developer and main vendor, there will be no backfire. That is a tough sell. So what can be done?

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In a new attempt to level the playing field between Windows Phone 8 and its main rivals, iOS and Android, Microsoft has launched the Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps for its tiled smartphone operating system. The two offerings complement the existing functionality and add more options to purchase and consume content.

Until now, Microsoft provided no option for Windows Phone 8 users to purchase or rent movies from their smartphones. Xbox Video adds these features, alongside content streaming and download. Users have access to both popular movies and TV shows, like Fast & Furious 6 and Family Guy. For the latter category, the app allows them to get a Season Pass, that will automatically add new episodes to the user's collection.

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Citrix has launched GoToMeeting for Windows Phone 8, an app which allows users to create or join online meetings from their smartphone. The popular solution arrives in Store following its release on Windows, OS X, iOS and Android, and is one of the latest high-profile releases on the platform alongside Instagram, Vine and others.

The Windows Phone 8 version of the app allows users to join a meeting or webinar either by entering the Meeting ID or tapping a link included in a calendar appointment or email. GoToMeeting can show "whatever the presenter shares on-screen", including presentations and reports, and supports gestures like pinch to zoom (for content).

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It's that time of year once again. Approaching the end of another 365 and a quarter days cycle puts us all in a reflective mood. It's not uncommon to look back at what has happened in the previous 12 months and pick out the highlights of the year. It's also quite common to look forward in anticipation of what the coming year might have to offer. But how about something a little different, something a little more downbeat? What have been your lowlights and disappointments? There's no need to end the year on a high, after all!

I am one of those people still devastated at the loss of Google Reader. Both as a journalist and as someone who simply devours news from all manner of sources, this was my go-to service for getting my daily -- well, hourly… oh, OK, five minutely -- fix of headlines from hundreds of websites. Double disappointment came when I thought an ideal solution was to be found in Feedly, but slow updates and a pricing structure I found objectionable meant that this soon fell by the wayside. Disappointment number two. Still, it helped me to discover InoReader -- every cloud, and all that.

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Nowadays, cloud services like Pandora and Spotify allow us to listen to our favorite tunes no matter where we are, without having to actually own a single song. But what happens to our music collections, which we have built up over the years? Some of us have thousands of tracks, stored locally on devices like PCs. Should we just abandon our beloved content and embrace alternative ways of enjoying it?

Luckily, answering this question does not involve making a compromise. Cloud service Style Jukebox aims for the middle road, by providing a convenient solution that allows users to upload the music they own to the cloud and play it on PCs, smartphones and tablets. It is designed to work both with and without an Internet connection (the content can also be downloaded for offline playback), which makes it a good fit for those who use devices which are not always connected to the cloud. As Style Jukebox's motto says, "Your music, anywhere, on all your devices".

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Let me get this out of the way first -- the "12 Days of Red Stripe" has absolutely nothing to do with Jamaican beer. Instead, it's Microsoft's latest holiday push (named after the Windows Phone weekly deal), going with the 12 Days of Geekmas and the 12 Days of Deals previously announced. This latest campaign is designed for Windows Phone customers.

"The Windows Phone Store just kicked off a big holiday sale on twelve apps, indie games, and Xbox titles", announces Microsoft's Michael Stroh.

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Finnish mobile maker Nokia has released a new app called Motion Monitor which allows Lumia 1520 users to track their physical activity, similar to some wristbands. The offering is currently undergoing beta testing and is available exclusively for the company's new Windows Phone 8 flagship.

For those wondering why Motion Monitor is not available for other Lumia smartphones, Nokia says this is because only its new flagships comes with the "specific" hardware which allows the app to offer this functionality. A reasonable assumption would be that the Lumia 1520 is the sole beneficiary of Motion Monitor because of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, which is not available in any other Nokia smartphones at the moment.

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