Articles about Windows Phone

Crackle, the online streaming service from Sony, remains one of the competitors in today's growing and increasingly competitive market. Today the entertainment arm of Sony announced a new strategy. The company will partner with tech giant Microsoft for what both hope will be mutual benefit.

"Sony’s Crackle is the latest digital network to start producing its own original feature-length films, with next Thursday’s premiere of the martial arts flick Extraction. But antsy Windows Phone action junkies don’t have to wait: Crackle is giving us an exclusive early pass" reports Microsoft's Michael Stroh. Windows Phone customers are not the only one who will get this exclusive content -- Xbox Live and Windows 8 users will also benefit from the deal.

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On Friday, Finnish mobile maker Nokia announced HERE Connected Driving, a cloud-connected in-car navigation solution with offline mapping, real-time traffic information and mobile device app support. Labeled by the company as "the only end-to-end driving solution on the market", it will be officially demoed during the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany.

Nokia's in-car navigation solution is comprised of four parts -- HERE Auto, HERE Auto Cloud, HERE Auto Companion and HERE Traffic. HERE Auto takes care of navigation instructions, with or without a data connection, similar to the company's HERE Drive+ Windows Phone 8 app. It provides turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation in 95 countries, while supporting 2D, 3D and satellite map views (street imagery is also included). According to Nokia, Continental's Open Infotainment Platform already integrates HERE Auto and it is expected to arrive in cars in upcoming months.

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Last month, Microsoft released Halo: Spartan Assault for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. I declared that the game was "the best smartphone game I have ever played" -- a statement I stand by today. However, Microsoft has chosen not to rest on its laurels. Today, the company announces an update to the popular game called Operation Hydra.

Microsoft says it is a "free game update with five new missions to battle through". The company further says that the update "also adds support for phones with 512MB RAM, making the game available to even more Windows Phone models".

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It's no secret that most mobile users only install a tiny fraction of the total number of apps available in the relevant stores. There are hundreds of thousands of offerings for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, but the vast majority will never make it onto your smartphone or tablet -- some cater to a very specific audience (like root-only apps for Android), some are designed for certain local markets (Internet banking apps, for instance) and some are plain dreadful (half-baked third-party clients spring to mind). It comes as no surprise then that there are apps that users don't even know about or which developers have abandoned entirely. The question is: How many?

Well, according to a new infographic that was just released by StarDust, over 41 percent of all Android apps available in Google Play can be deemed as "dead" -- they have received less than 10 reviews and ratings and not a single update throughout their existence -- while a more significant 65 percent of all iOS apps in the Apple App Store and 69 percent of all Windows Phone apps in the Windows Phone Store share a similar fate. The numbers are staggering, and show that it's not easy to make an app popular. The low number of reviews indicate abysmal user awareness and interest, which may have lead to the developers ceasing to release updates (and vice-versa).

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Some of the most popular games for Android and iOS are slowly making their way onto the Windows Phone platform. Angry Birds have landed, and Temple Run has already arrived, paving the way for the latest release -- Temple Run Oz, a variant of the addictive jungle game.

In this version, you turn, jump, and slide down the Yellow Brick Road to escape an onslaught of ferocious flying baboons, combining elements from both the original game, as well as those from the hit movie "Oz the Great and Powerful".

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As some of you may know, Evernote is my favorite note-taking app. And, there is a very good reason for that -- the cloud-based service is available for all major mobile platforms through their respective app stores, making it easy to use, regardless of which operating system I may favor at the time. This makes it particularly handy when I'm jotting down ideas for upcoming stories on my Windows Phone 8 smartphone, but wish to look into them further on my laptop, which runs Windows 8, or straight on the web.

Another good reason as to why Evernote is at the top of my note-taking app list is the ongoing commitment for Windows Phone 8. New versions are rolled out regularly for the tiled handset OS, introducing new features and improvements at a steady pace. And the latest iteration that was released late-yesterday, brings yet another batch of goodies, including speech-to-text support.

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Nokia's Lumia line of Windows Phone handsets continues to spread -- this time it is the 925 that is making a jump, landing on AT&T in the United States. The 900 line, consisting of Lumia 920, 925 and 928, were the flagship devices before the launch of the 1020 with its 41-megapixel camera.

Now, the 925 has finally found the entrance at AT&T, with a rather sudden announcement that it will become available to customers tomorrow. "The Nokia Lumia 925 makes a great addition to our growing portfolio", AT&T senior vice president Jeff Bradley said in a statement, also calling it "a solid deal for anyone in the market for a new smartphone".

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Windows Phone has been struggling up the long road to success, recently surpassing Blackberry as the number three mobile operating system. Now the platform takes another major step forward, scoring a victory in signing up a large corporation to provide Windows Phone devices to its employees.

Microsoft and Delta have announced a partnership which will place Windows Phone in the hands of its flight attendants. "Windows Phone is about to rack up some serious frequent flier miles. Delta Air Lines today said that it’s equipped 19,000 flight attendants with Windows Phone 8-powered Nokia Lumia 820 smartphones", says Microsoft's Michael Stroh.

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Back in April, Microsoft released a Windows Phone 'wedding' ad that may have finally brought the tech giant out of the advertising dog house it has been in -- remember Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld? Now the company follows it up with a brand new offering, depicting a children's recital that takes a turn for the worse.

Without giving too much of a spoiler, and I honestly can't because this needs to be seen to be appreciated, the ad contains a scene of a recital that, in 30-seconds, goes from opening curtain to total destruction.

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I’ve played many a Gameloft game on my iPad (and other iOS devices), and although the company now likes to focus on Freemium titles packed with ridiculous in-app purchases, it is still a name synonymous with quality gaming.

Which is why it’s great news for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devotees that the company plans to bring 15 of its new games to both of those platforms over the next twelve months, starting with Asphalt 8: Airborne and Dungeon Hunter 4 this fall.

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Two weeks ago Microsoft released its Windows Phone App Studio to beta. The service is designed to encourage the development of new apps and help non-developers "code" their own cool creations. No, you will not be building the next million dollar hit game using this alone, but you can see a smaller project from concept to completion here. The company expects the service to be used by hobbyists and enthusiasts.

Today Microsoft is talking numbers about where the service stands at this point in its brief life. Emilio Salvatore Prieto claims that within the first 48 hours of the beta going live more than 20,000 people had signed up and over 30,000 projects were underway -- a number that now stands at 55,000.

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Looking at the the biggest stories on BetaNews from August, 11 - 17, 2013. This week there has been a lot of Microsoft related news setting tongues wagging -- and it's been something of a rollercoaster. Early on in the week we got a sneak peak at what to expect in the upcoming Windows 8.1 update after a new build leaked online. Build 9471 includes a number of changes from the official Preview, including new tutorials, extra personalization options, changes to a few of the built-in apps and integrated Skype.

Not long after the leak version was discovered, Microsoft went on to talk about creating a unified experience across different Microsoft and Windows devices and services. And for anyone who is sick of the Windows 8.1 hype there was some good news -- the official release date is only a couple of months away, after which things should start to quieten down.

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Microsoft may be continuing to celebrate with a "we're number three" chant, but the company also isn't resting on this minor victory over Blackberry. Instead it wishes to spread further and wider, and create its own apps when others fail to come through -- especially Google, which has been a major thorn in the side.

Fresh Paint, an art app that was only released last month, has a new update that is designed to support even more devices -- "Fresh Paint, Microsoft’s popular free art app first released on the phone last month, has just been updated to support Windows Phone 8 models with 512MB of RAM", says the company's Michael Stroh.

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Google forced a Microsoft fumble yesterday by blocking the new YouTube app for Windows Phone 8. While this was a major blow to users of Microsoft's mobile operating system, they may have scored a touchdown with the new and improved NFL Mobile app.

For readers living outside of the USA, NFL stands for "National Football League". This is American Football not the football as it is known around the rest of the world. In other words, helmets, tights and an oval ball; not short-shorts, high-socks and a round ball!

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When I first got my Nokia Lumia 928, the YouTube app was already unavailable at the request of Google, so I never got a chance to try it. However, the Windows Phone community was quick to tell me how great it was. Sadly, it was replaced with a different "app" that only served as a shortcut to the mobile YouTube site.

Yesterday, the full version of the app returned to the Windows Phone Store so I excitedly downloaded it. However, the app never worked for me. Coincidentally, this was during the Outlook.com outage so I assumed it might be related. Today, I learn that they were not related -- Google has actually disabled the video sharing app!

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