Microsoft bets on Facebook for Windows 10 apps
Microsoft and Facebook have always been strange bedfellows, but Windows 10 will fully embrace the social app. Redmond’s new SDK tool will help developers create universal apps with Facebook integration for Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 — including authorization, likes, dialogs, the Graph and other functionality. As a user, that means you’re more likely to see Facebook features turn up in Windows 10 apps as soon as they’re released, whether using a tablet, phone or PC.
The software giant said that if you’re a developer building apps with Facebook’s .NET SDK, “we recommend that you evaluate the new Windows SDK for Facebook for use in your app (instead).” Obviously, Microsoft wants tons of apps for Windows 10 when it arrives at the end of the month, especially on its beleaguered Windows Phone devices. Given Facebook’s omnipresence, helping developers get it into universal Windows 10 apps certainly can’t hurt.
Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Facebook
Source: Microsoft
Skype for Android takes the hassle out of signing back in
It might be safe to stay signed in to Skype these days, but that doesn’t mean you want to. Do you really want a video call from your parents when you’re out on the town? If not, you’ll be glad to hear that Skype is making it much easier to sign in and out. The Android app’s 5.5 update now remembers your login details after you log out, so hopping online again is just a matter of tapping a button. If you’re worried that someone will snoop on your conversations, you can still ask Skype to require your password whenever you back to business. Grab the new app today if you often find yourself eager for some quiet time.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Skype, Google Play
Nokia looking to partner with a manufacturer, license its brand for future smartphones
Nokia gave up its rights to make, sell and market smartphones when the company sold its mobile division to Microsoft. This was sad news to the industry, which saw Nokia ruling the world for 14 years. That moniker continues to have an impact in people’s minds, which makes it a valuable asset. On the bright side, it seems the Nokia brand won’t exactly go to waste.
The Finnish company has clearly expressed it’s not dismissing the possibility of licensing its brand name to other mobile device manufacturers. Today they make their stance much more solid by officially stating “the right path back to mobile phones for Nokia is through a brand-licensing model”, in which a phone maker could take care of the responsibilities the company is now limited to.
“If and when we find a world-class partner who can take on those responsibilities, we would work closely with them to guide the design and technology differentiation.”
Nokia is clearly stating they will continue to look for the right partner, “who can take on the heavy lifting” for them. The only caveat is this can’t happen earlier than Q4 2016, so it will be a while before any of this comes to fruition. This also means Nokia has enough time to plan its strategy and possibly even work on new designs for upcoming smartphones.
Any possible partners?
There’s a plethora of “world-class” manufacturers Nokia could pick from, and chances are many are interested. If I had to place my bets on a specific company, though, it would certainly be Foxconn.
Foxconn has already worked with Nokia to release the N1 tablet, which just so happens to run Google’s Android operating system (and not in that overly-modified way we saw other Nokia devices do so in the past). Furthermore, there’s some speculation rolling around that suggests Foxconn’s large investment into Cyanogen could be largely related to their plans to work with Nokia to make smartphones.
Android could finally help Nokia race back to the top
Nokia was unsuccessful at becoming relevant in the modern smartphone wars. iOS and Android gained too much traction for Symbian to compete. Sadly, Nokia also went all in with Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, which proved to be a flop for them. Now that the company is free to mend their ways, they could try adopting the biggest mobile platform in existence – Android. By the way, we can’t exactly count the Nokia X and company as true Android phones. The interface was completely revamped and those things didn’t even have Google Play Store access.
Surely, going with Android wouldn’t guarantee Nokia the #1 spot it once held, but we can assume they will do much better. I have heard many of you say: “I would so buy a Nokia phone… if it only ran Android”. Of course, it’s also unknown whether future Nokia phones will run Android or not (that is, if Nokia phones even make a come-back), but there are high chances of such being the case. And honestly, it would be the best decision; the Nokia N1 tablet did pretty well in our full review.
Would you buy a Nokia phone running Android now?
The real question is whether the general public feels the same way now. Would you guys buy a Nokia phone if it resembled previous Nokia design, build quality and specs, but ran Android (in its full glory) instead of Windows Phone? I believe I would.
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Microsoft’s 84-inch pen display isn’t going to ship on time
Looking forward to refreshing your office’s aging teleconference system with Microsoft’s 84-inch 4K collaborative pen display? You’ll have to wait: the company just announced that its $20,000 Surface Hub is going to miss its September 1st ship date.
According to a new blog post, the delay is a manufacturing issue. “We started taking pre-orders on July 1 and we’ve seen strong demand out of the gate,” wrote Microsoft Surface General Manager Brian Hall. “Based on the early interest we see, we’re tuning our manufacturing process to prepare for production at broader scale. To do this, we are adjusting our product roll-out schedule to ensure we deliver a great customer experience and set our partners up for success.” Microsoft hasn’t said exactly when it expects the oversized touch PC to ship, but plans to give customers an update early next month.
In the meantime, the company is still accepting pre-orders for both models: the $20,000 84-inch, 4K model with NVIDIA Quadro K2200 graphics as well as the $7,000 55-inch HD display, sporting a regular old Intel HD GPU.
Filed under: Displays, HD, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft is putting the Surface in more stores
Microsoft announced today that it is expanding the distribution channels for its Surface tablet line ahead of the upcoming Windows 10 global rollout. The Surface is currently sold through “a couple hundred” authorized Surface device distributors, as Gavriella Schuster, General Manager of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Program, explained in a statement, but will soon grow to a few thousand. Any partner distributor can reportedly sign up for the expanded program assuming they qualify on volume sold. “We expect to get a few thousand resellers to jump on this,” Schuster told ZDNet.
Take note, only the Intel-based Surfaces — Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 — will be getting Windows 10 proper. The ARM-based Surface RT and Surface 2 however will receive a borked Win10 “feature subset” and Microsoft has no timetable for when the subset will be made available.
Filed under: Tablets, Wireless, Internet, Microsoft
Via: ZDNet
Source: Microsoft (Surface Blog)
Microsoft is turning Windows 10’s launch into a global upgrade party
With Windows 10’s July 29 launch just a few weeks away, Microsoft is offering up more details on how it’ll celebrate the birth of its new baby. And one thing is clear: This is a far bigger deal than when Windows 8 hit the streets. Along with the usual festivities and a new marketing campaign, Microsoft is also promoting the idea of “upgrading the world” by offering consumers a bit of help with moving towards Windows 10, as well as celebrating inspirational non-profits all over the world. Microsoft stores, as well as retailers like Best Buy, Walmart and Staples, will offer in-store upgrade help and “experience stations” to let you try out Windows 10. The educational push makes sense, since Microsoft is making Windows 10 available for free to existing Windows 7 and 8 users for its first year. This time around getting people to upgrade means a lot more to Microsoft than making them pay retail price for a new OS.
As we’ve previously reported, Microsoft is making Windows 10 available to its five million beta testers first on July 29. Afterwards, there will be a staggered rollout for everyone else. That also means Windows 10 won’t be available for new computers sold on July 29, Bloomberg reports. Instead, you can either upgrade your new computer inside a store (we’ve love to see how smoothly that process goes), or get bumped ahead in the Windows 10 download queue if they want to upgrade later.
As for those non-profits, Microsoft is committing $10 million to supporting 10 global firms, as well as 100 smaller outfits in 10 countries. On top of the cash, it’s also offering help with organizing initiatives to “upgrade the world.” And of course, we’d imagine that Windows 10 will be a big part of Microsoft’s good-will initiative. Similarly, it’s giving employees an extra day off to upgrade their local communities to Windows 10 on launch day.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft wants you to teach computers how to learn
As clever as learning computers may be, they only have as much potential as their software. What if you don’t have the know-how to program one of these smart systems yourself? That’s where Microsoft Research thinks it can help: it’s developing a machine teaching tool that will let most anyone show computers how to learn. So long as you’re knowledgeable about your field, you’d just have to plug in the right parameters. A chef could tell a computer how to create tasty recipes, for example, while a doctor could get software to sift through medical records and find data relevant to a new patient.
The technology is still young, but it’s already being used in an invitation-only beta that helps apps understand what people are saying using natural language. Ultimately, Microsoft believes that it can “democratize” machine learning. It wants you to call on artificial intelligence to solve everyday problems, not just the sort you’d find at a technology giant.
Filed under: Science, Software, Microsoft
Source: Next at Microsoft
Microsoft killing its Photosynth 3D panorama apps
For better or worse, tech companies have to do a bit of product housekeeping every now and then. Today’s Microsoft’s turn to do exactly that. Most notably, the Redmond company announced it will be retiring its mobile apps for Photosynth, the platform it created to let people capture and view the world in 3D. While the applications, which had been available on Windows Phone 8 and iOS, are expected to continue to work for existing downloads, they won’t be officially supported moving forward.
“We are doing this because the new Photosynth Preview technology and its cloud processing is a more immersive way to capture a place than the spherical panoramas that our apps produce,” the Photosynth team said in a blog post. Microsoft also revealed that, later this year, it plans to discontinue a few of MSN’s lifestyle mobile apps.
Filed under: Cameras, Misc, Software, Mobile, Microsoft
Via: Thurrott
Source: Photosynth
Calendar app Sunrise starts integrating with Office 365
Now that it owns Sunrise, the sleek and social calendar app, it makes sense for Microsoft to integrate it with its other productivity tools. That’s why Sunrise now plugs directly into Office 365 on iOS, Android and the desktop, giving you access to all of your scheduled events under a single calendar. Microsoft says the added compatibility will help down the road as well, since there’s more flexibility to test features that’ll make Sunrise work better with Office 365 applications. If you use Exchange, however, the Sunrise support is only for iOS and Android at the moment, and there’s no word on whether that’s expected to change anytime soon. Either way, this is great news for those of you who rely on these services.
[Image credit: ~Prescott/Flickr]
Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Sunrise
5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! – Android Apps Weekly
Sponsored by: Tap n Flap
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
This week’s episode of Android Apps Weekly is brought to you by Tap n Flap. Yes, I know this is a Flappy Bird clone but this one is actually pretty decent. It comes with Google Play Games achievements and leaderboards and if you pay the reasonable $1.49 for the in-app purchase, you’ll have five levels to choose from, each with their own bird skin. Once you unlock all achievements, you can change birds and even obstacles to whatever you want. It’s a time waster, but a decent one and it’s kid friendly. Check it out and show your support for Android Apps Weekly!
Welcome back to Android Apps Weekly! Here are your headlines for this week:
- MasterCard is working on a new app that will let you take selfies for payments by verifying the identify the user before processing a payment. This would be among the precious few instances where selfies were actually useful.
- In an interesting twist, Shadowgun: Deadzone by Madfinger Games now has mods! The modding will allow people to change characters, weapons, levels, and even some of the game mechanics. All you have to do is download the Deadzone GM kit.
- Sony and Twitch have teamed up together to allow broadcasting game play from Sony Xperia devices. Right now, it’s limited to only the most recent Xperia lineup including Z3+ and Z4 but this gives mobile gamers more ways to stream on Twitch.
- Microsoft has rebranded their entertainment apps to lose the Xbox moniker. From now on, Xbox Music will be Groove while Xbox Video will be Movies & TV. This is likely in anticipation for the Windows 10 launch next month.
- Telltale Games has released the first trailer for the highly anticipated Minecraft: Story Mode game. It definitely looks like a Minecraft game except this will have a story line. In classic Tellate Games fashion, this will be an episodic adventure. It should be pretty good.
For even more Android apps and games news, don’t forget to check out this week’s newsletter! There we’ll have all the updates, new releases, and headlines that we didn’t have time for here. If you want, you can sign up for your email and we’ll send the newsletter to your inbox every Friday!
Check out our Android Apps Weekly newsletter!
Fleksy
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
The popular keyboard Fleksy made a huge announcement this last week. They have lowered the price of the app to free and it will now be supported with in-app purchases. Fleksy has a huge year in 2014 and it’s considered one of the best and most popular keyboards around. We anticipate it being free to use will help continue all of that. Along with going free, it will also soon be receiving an update that brings some new features.
Action Launcher
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Action Launcher got a fairly significant update this last week. A new feature called Quickbar was added that allows users to customize the search bar at the top. This allows fast access to applications along with a little more functionality. The update also included some minor tweaks and changes along with the boilerplate bug fixes and performance improvements. It’s a good launcher if you’re in the market for one.
Star Wars
[Price: Free]
Disney has released an official Star Wars app that is meant to be your one-stop shop for all things Star Wars. The app includes notifications for big announcements and releases, content from the Star Wars blog, and even find Star Wars gifs. The app can also be themed based on your preference of the Force. The app is experiencing some release day issues that Disney is working through, but it’s a good download for fans.
Ramboat
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Ramboat is a surprisingly intense game that is kind of a parody of the Rambo series. This is a 2D, side scrolling shooter where you must race up and down rivers and mow down bad guys. The graphics aren’t amazing but they’re definitely not bad. It even includes a poker game mechanic. It’s definitely a time-waster type of game but let’s face it, there’s gambling and guns, what else do you need?
Tossup
[Price: Free]
Tossup is a new application out of Microsoft Garage and it’s a fun little app. What it does is help you plan events and gather opinions about things. Using the app, you can ask people if they plan on attending an event and get answers back quickly. You can also use it to find things like restaurants or even individual opinions about something. It’s a bit simple and there are some release day bugs, but it’s worth a shot.
Wrap up
If we missed any great Android apps or games news, let us know about it in the comments!
AIVAnet 