Microsoft has a slew of updates for its Facebook app for Windows Phone.

Facebook, the world's dominant social network, received a slew of updates on the Windows Phone 8, 8.1 and 10 platforms. The app is developed and maintained by Microsoft unlike other platforms where Facebook builds its own app. This update proves that Microsoft has been hard at work to bring some much needed features to the app and that will certainly please those who use Facebook exclusively on Windows Phone. Check out the full change log below and head over to the Windows Phone store to update Facebook.

Version Notes:
· Profile post editing 
· Cover photo management 
· Profile picture management 
· Threaded comments 
· Comment reply functionality 
· Album comment functionality 
· Create new albums via post composer 
· Share content to external sources 
· News Feed improvements 
· Interactive notification improvements 
· Contact sync improvements 
· Date & time localization improvements 
· Stability improvements 
· Improvements to Continuum experience 
· Bug fixes

By: blendrang sayur On 5:40:00 AM

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Microsoft OneNote gets Office Lens integration to capture document and whiteboard.

OneNote for Windows 10 picked up an interesting update today. The popular note-taking app gets support for scanning documents, photos and whiteboards. Sounds familiar? It should if you use Office Lens, Microsoft scanning app. I personally find this integration a great idea as I use Office Lens a lot to record my receipts in OneNote. With this integration, I get to do my record keeping all in OneNote. 

There's more to the update as listed in the change log below:

More organized notes

• Move/copy pages and sections to keep everything organized, just the way you like.
  
  Shape recognition.
• Automatically transform your drawings into shapes.
  
  Office Lens.
• Use Office Lens from inside OneNote to capture that document or whiteboard.
  
  Know who's here.
• See where others are working with you in a shared notebook.

Download: OneNote

By: blendrang sayur On 8:30:00 AM

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Microsoft updates Sway for Windows 10 with recycle bin, full screen mode, more textures and groups nesting.

Microsoft Sway

If you suffer from severe lack of arts talent like me, you will probably like Sway, a digital storytelling app made by Microsoft to give life to your photos. Put them all together with some text, videos and some other stuffs and you get a beautiful and professional presentation to show to your friends, family and colleagues. And again, you don't have to be a professional artist or be a PowerPoint specialist to use Sway. With that said, Microsoft has updated Sway for Windows 10 today that adds more styles and background textures, groups nesting and the usual performance improvements and bug fixes. Check the full change log below. Note that Sway is not a universal app yet, so, sadly, you won't find it in the Windows Phone store. 

We're all familiar with the Recycle Bin in Windows where all our deleted items are stored and I'm sure we all have stories of items deleted accidentally. Thanks to the Recycle Bin we're able to recover those items. Microsoft has ported the Recycle Bin feature to Sway. It work the same as on the PC in that sways that are deleted end up in the Recycle Bin for 30 days. Where it gets really interesting is that way that you delete on the web, Windows 10, iPhone and iPad will all go to the Recycle Bin. You can also choose to permanently delete them to empty the Recycle Bin, just make sure you really want to do that by checking what's in there before clicking that OK button.

Here's what's new:

• More Styles and Background Textures — Customize your Sways with additional styles featuring a variety of new background textures. 
• Groups in Groups – Nesting groups of content in other groups allows new format combinations, particularly in Sway’s presentation-oriented layout. 
•  Miscellaneous — We've made additional performance improvements and bug fixes.

Download Sway in the Windows Store.

By: blendrang sayur On 9:14:00 PM

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Adobe Photoshop Express makes Noise Reduction and Looks premium packs free for a limited time.

Adobe Photoshop Express is an excellent photo editor app for Windows desktop and Windows 10 Mobile and one of my favorites because it's super simple to use and full of those automated tasks that makes my photos look good without much effort. I'm very lazy when it comes to photo editing plus my lack of artistic taste is evident. I always scored ZERO in arts class, no kidding. 

That's why I like apps like Adobe Photoshop Express, to handle those tedious manipulations for me. The app has been updated today with one feature removed, Adobe Revel. The latter was Adobe's cloud storage solution to store your photos and sync them to your Windows computer/tablet and iPad. Adobe did not say the reason for removing Adobe Revel.

With the holidays almost upon us, Adobe is making its premium features free, meaning the Adobe Noise Reduction Pack which was sold at $4.99 and the Adobe Looks Pack which was at $2.99 are now free when you sign in with an Adobe ID. Adobe does say within the app that this offer is "for a limited time", so hurry to take advantage of it in the Windows store.

By: blendrang sayur On 9:20:00 PM

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Windows Maps for Windows desktop and Mobile gets lane guidance, Santa tracking and Home pinning.

Windows Maps for desktop and Windows 10 Mobile was updated today with features that I find very helpful. Not that I really need them in Mauritius, but they will come in very handy during my travels. Before we look into the update, I want to draw your attention on the availability of the update on Windows Desktop and Mobile at the same time. This is the power of Universal apps.

In this update, Microsoft introduces a feature I think they borrowed from Here Maps, recently owned by Nokia and sold to a German consortium, which lets users pin their Home and later tap on it to get directions back. In this update, Microsoft lets you do that by pinning your Home or Work to get guided directions from anywhere.

With Christmas right around the corner, every maps app has to have their own Santa tracking feature and Windows Maps will let you find Santa and "follow him as he travels around the world on December 24th". Microsoft says in the change log that this feature is not available in all countries or regions. In the case this feature doesn't work at your location, just sit back with your favorite drink with your family and do it the old way, by scrutinizing the sky, which is way better than looking at a screen.

The last item in the log, is lane guidance in turn-by-turn navigation. Every driver, no matter how good, has had to face this moment of not knowing which lane to use. This feature should help avoid these confusing moments for a safe ride. 

This is pretty big update for Windows Maps. This app gives you voice navigation, turn-by-turn driving, transit, and walking directions for free and without the need of a live internet connection. Simply download the maps within the app, but before you can do that, make sure you download/upgrade Windows Maps app in the store.

By: blendrang sayur On 8:50:00 PM

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Sway update makes it easy to drag & drop, copy & paste from Windows File Explorer.

We all have a story to tell whether it's for work, school, family event and nowadays not a lot of tools allows us to do so easily. Sure there is PowerPoint, but that requires you own a version of Microsoft Office and not everyone can afford one. Thankfully, Microsoft came up with Sway, a free tool for Windows that makes it easy to create and share personal stories with interactive multimedia content including maps, tweets, Vines, graphics and GIFs. And you don't have to be a professional designer to use Sway.

Microsoft makes a great job adding features and improving the current experience. They recently published an update that adds the following features to Sway:

• Full screen - You can now view and present Sways in full screen mode.
• Insert Pictures - It's now easier to copy & paste and to drag & drop pictures from Windows File Explorer into Sway.
• Miscellaneous - We've made several performance improvements and bug fixes.

If you haven't tried Sway yet, give it a try and unleash your productivity across your devices. Sway is a free download on the Windows Store.

By: blendrang sayur On 9:39:00 AM

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Game Troopers releases Equalicious, a fun brain teaser for Windows Phone.

Equalicious is a fun brain teaser brought to you by Game Troopers. The free game is a Windows Phone exclusive for a short time and will run on 512MB devices too.

Equalicious is a game that lets you "train your brain going through multiple levels, arranging the tiles to solve simple equations with basic operations...". You also earn Xbox achievements along the way and as you get better, you can challenge your friends. 

This game has really been designed to be simple and fun, so check it out in Windows store. 

By: blendrang sayur On 10:30:00 PM

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Microsoft OneNote for iPhone gets support for Touch 3D.

This is my second post about a Microsoft app receiving a cool update on another mobile platform, namely iOS, the Apple mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad. The Microsoft app getting updated is OneNote, the note taking and to-do app.

The update adds features that cater for both phone and tablet version of iOS, especially the iPad Pro where OneNote will now support Apple Pencil letting you draw and OneNote will take care of converting hand drawn shapes "into crisp, perfectly regular polygons and circles." Better yet, line thickness will be proportional to your stroke speed. The faster you draw, the thinner the line gets. Microsoft also improved the drawing palette.

With the recent release of the iPhone 6S/6+S and their new features, Microsoft was quick to update OneNote to take advantage of one of selling points of the 6S/6+S, the Touch 3D which, basically, allow users access to a contextual menu after a long press on the app icon. With this new feature, users will be able to create new notes and access recent notes by simply doing that long press on the icon without having to open the app first.

Microsoft OneNote for iOS is available free for download in the App Store.

By: blendrang sayur On 1:19:00 AM

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Vine for Windows Phone updated with double-tap to like and more.

Fans of short videos rejoice, the official Vine app for Windows Phone has been updated today to make your experience more enjoyable. Check out the full change log below:

• Now you can double-tap to like! Go give it a try:)
• Find more accounts to follow with a new list of suggested Viners. Tap to Find People icon in the the top left corner to see hand-picked suggestions.
• Video performance improvements and bug fixes.

Head over to the Windows Phone store to download Vine.

By: blendrang sayur On 10:43:00 PM

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Microsoft announces Windows 10 Mobile Build 10512.

Microsoft has unexpectedly made Build 10512 of the Windows 10 Mobile available to the Fast ring of the Windows Insider program. Gabe Aul, also known as the ring master, posted a list of improvements and fixes on the Windows blog:

• General improvement in overall stability and performance.
• You can now set the Lock screen and background image from within the Photos app.
• We fixed an issue where apps installed on SD cards weren’t working after a reboot.
• We have improved Latvian and Chinese inputs.
• We have made improvements to the Kid’s Corner tile layout.
• We have improved reliability of Data Sense notifications.
• Modified Shape Writing algorithm to be less aggressive in suggesting contact names over common words.
• Resolved an issue where Camera would not launch when the phone was locked.
• We fixed an issue where notifications for incoming text messages weren’t appearing.
• We fixed an issue where the touch screen wouldn’t be responsive after ending a phone call on some devices.
• And we fixed an issue where folder tiles have obviously overlapping text.

According to Gabe Aul, Windows 10 Mobile builds should be released more frequently now. He also posted a list of known issues that needs to be addressed:

• Mobile hotspot doesn’t work in this build. When sharing the Internet from your phone using Mobile Hotspot, devices will fail to get a valid IP address from your phone and will show no internet access.
• Two-factor authentication for your MSA with a phone number doesn’t work in this build. If you reset your phone and go through the first run experience, you won’t be able to input more than 2 characters for validating phone or text authentication. If you have a secondary email for two-factor authentication – you can choose that. As a workaround, add secondary email for two-factor authentication.
• Some phones might spend a long time in the post update migration experience – just let the phone sit and it should complete this migration.
• Apps that use background audio such as Groove, Podcast, Pandora, etc. will crash when launching after receiving an app update from the Store. Rebooting the device will resolve this issue.
• Some phones with a large number of tiles pinned to the Start screen may get stuck in a state where the device shows “Loading…”; the device will need to be reset or rolled back to Windows Phone 8.1 using Windows Phone Recovery Tool.
• Some apps may fail to update through the Store with the error code 0x80073cf9; uninstalling the application and reinstalling it will resolve this issue.
• The Movies & TV app will not work in this build (video playback is currently broken).

The most annoying issue for me is the 5th item in the list where the phone will remain stuck while loading the Start screen. There are two workarounds which are to hard reset or go back to Windows Phone 8.1 and I'm not willing to go through this again on my Lumia 1520. I had to roll my 920 back to 8.1 today, so I'll wait for the next build with hope that Microsoft will definitely fix the "loading" problem.

Source: Blogging Windows

By: blendrang sayur On 10:41:00 AM

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myTuner Radio for Windows Phone now supports installation to storage card.

If you like music and live in Mauritius, it can be quite frustrating not to be able to buy songs on Windows Phone and Android. But thanks to apps like myTuner Radio, we have access to 30,000 radio stations from more than 120 countries for free. This is great, but these type of apps/services require an internet connection and does not work offline. And not everyone has unlimited data or access to data everywhere. But until Microsoft opens up their vast song library to Mauritians, myTuner Radio is one of the many alternatives to listen to radios worldwide.

myTuner Radio was updated today which allow users to install the app to their storage card. An addition that will please owners of devices with low memory. The change log also states the database has been updated for fresh install with this between parentheses: Remember that the database is updated while the app is opened." I'm not sure what that means.

The update brings myTuner Radio to version 2015.615.843.4530 which is available free as a universal app in Windows and Windows Phone store.  

By: blendrang sayur On 8:21:00 AM

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Band Companion's remote shutter now includes video recording & four different battery positions.

If you happen to own a Microsoft Band, you should also consider getting Band Companion app. It's a third party app that will add new features to your Band through in-app purchases. Two of the features that are well worth the money are the battery status and remote shutter. These two features got better in an update published to the store.

Here's what is new in version 1.5.0.0:

• Choose between four different positions of battery status on Me tile of your Band.
• Remote shutter feature now includes video recording
• Remote shutter settings are now saved.

The developer also fixed some bugs reported by some users.

Download: Windows Phone Store

By: blendrang sayur On 9:09:00 PM

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Skype Translator preview now speaks Italian and Mandarin.

Back in December last year, Skype debuted the preview of a new service called Skype Translator that lets users connect to people around the world without worrying about the language. Back then, Skype Translator only supported Spanish and English. Four months later, Skype is now adding Italian and Mandarin to the list of languages.

The announcement was made on the Skype blog today. the blog post state how "Mandarin is challenging language to learn, even for Skype Translator. With approximately 10,000 characters and multiples tons, this is one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to master, along with arabic, Japanese, and Korean." Italian was added following popular demand when Skype rolled out the sign-up page for the preview.

Besides the addition of Italian and Mandarin, this new release also include some "key" changes:

Text to speech translation:

• You now have the option to hear the instant messages people send to you - in the language of your choice.
• Continuous recognition - Recognized text translation as your partner is speaking.

Automatic volume control:

• Your partner can speak while the translation is still happening. You will hear the translation at full volume, and your partner at a lower volume, so that you can follow the translation, which will help make conversations more fluid.

Mute option for translated voice:

• There is now an option to easily turn translated audio oe or off if you would prefer to only read the transcript.

Read the full post on Skype blog.

By: blendrang sayur On 10:09:00 AM

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Skype Qik now lets you move messages between conversation; special holiday surprised added.

I have never been a fan of Snapchat, so it's no surprise that Skype Qik is there on my devices and has never been used if not for a few tests when it was released. If, unlike me, you're a user or fan of Skype Qik, then head over to the store as there is an update waiting for you. Maybe the changes listed below will make sense to you and improve your Qik, say "Quick", experience.

As mentioned in the title, the Qik team included a special holiday surprise in this update. It consists of falling snow flakes  upon launching the app. Don't worry, the flakes go away after a few seconds.

Here's what is new in this version of Skype Qik:

• Qik Fliks are here. (Just in case you missed them in the last update).
• New menu lets you delete, save, or send your message to another conversation.
• PLUS, a special holiday surprise!

Source: Windows Phone store

By: blendrang sayur On 7:41:00 PM

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"Transfer my Data" updated with message transfer to/from SD card.

Switching to a Windows Phone is made very easy thanks to apps like "Transfer my Data", a Lumia exclusive app which provides a quick and easy way to copy contacts, SMSs and MMSs from supported Symbian, Android, iOS and Blackberry phones. So if you are moving from one of the afore-mentioned phones, make sure you get "Transfer my Data" if it is not already installed on your new Lumia.
 
"Transfer my Data" got updated today that adds transferring text and MMS messages to and from a storage card. As a community moderator on Microsoft Windows Phone forums, I see a lot of questions about carrying over messages. This update will only make switching to Windows Phones even smoother.
 
Again, "Transfer my Data" is a Lumia exclusive and can be downloaded free in the Windows Phone store.

By: blendrang sayur On 7:17:00 AM

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Microsoft updates Glance app to display Weather and Health data on lock screen in standby mode.

Not many smartphones out there have the capability to display useful data on the screen when the phone is in standby. Windows phones, specifically the Lumias are capable of doing that and my 920 is one of them. Before today, My Lumia displayed data such as the number of new emails, new messages, missed calls or data from whichever app I selected in the lock screen settings and in standby mode.

Today Microsoft has released an update that improves what Glance can display on the lock screen when the phone is standby, making it more visual. Glance is capable of showing weather data from the MSN Weather app and health data from MSN Health & fitness app. An excellent addition that reinforces the concept of Windows being a glance and go phone.

Again, this feature is not available on all Windows phones. Glance app is a Lumia exclusive and is available free in Windows phone store.

By: blendrang sayur On 5:45:00 AM

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Office Lens new algorithm generates cleaner document images.

Office Lens is a Microsoft developed app that puts a scanner into your pocket. Using your device camera, it is possible to digitize a document, business cards even notes on whiteboards and blackboards. A very useful app to also keep track of receipts and save them to OneNote. Today Office Lens was updated with an improved algorithm that generates cleaner document images. This update also lets you select the OneNote location where a new page is created. Finally the usual bug fixes that makes Office Lens more stable.

Office lens is available free in Windows Phone store.

By: blendrang sayur On 6:13:00 AM

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4Shared for Windows Phone updated.

Let it be said that neither Google, Amazon, Microsoft or Apple invented cloud computing. 4Shared is among the precursors in this area offering cloud storage services back in the early 2000 when Pocket PCs was dominating the mobile world. I started using 4Shared to store my data and it was awesome back then to access data everywhere where a data connection existed. Today we take all that for granted.

Today 4Shared is available in beta in the Windows Phone store. I did not use 4Shared for quite a long time with the advent of OneDrive and Google Drive. I installed it and it was with some emotions that I found some old files that was still stored up there. A lot of them are cab files of apps I had installed on my Pocket PCs and Smartphones. I even found old popular songs.

4Shared has published an update today that brings it to version 1.1.0.9 with the following features:

• Open a file in other apps from the file details view.
• Sort files in your account by size, date or alphabetically.
• Added thumbnails bar to the image preview screen for quick visual search.
• File list and music player tweaks.
• Other bug fixes and improvements.

Source: Windows Phone Store

By: blendrang sayur On 10:34:00 PM

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Microsoft Research updates Blink with new UI, dual modes and more.

Microsoft Research has released an important update for their Blink app today. If you are not among the 1 million users who downloaded Blink, you should definitely get it now. Blink is a cool app that lets you capture a burst of images before you even press the shutter. Even more, it continues to capture images even after you're done taking yours. And this can result into amazing pictures and experience. Obviously, like any modern apps, social networks is built into Blink so you can share your masterpiece with the world.

Among the features in the update is Dual mode. Users can easily switch between two modes. One to edit and share your animations and still mode to save and share the perfect shot. See the full change log below:

New! Version 2.4
- Fresh new look: New branding and refreshed UI elements throughout the app.
- Dual Modes: Switch easily between two modes - Blink mode to edit and share your animations, and still mode to save and share the perfect shot.
- Focus Lock: Tap on the screen to lock focus in that the region. That region will always remain in focus even across phone movements. Tap again to unlock.
- Improved stabilization: Even better video stabilization so that your Blinks play without any camera shake or jitter.
- Live Tile: Pin Blink to the start screen and see your perfect shots on the live Tile. (Note: might require a phone reboot or a unpin/re-pin for live tile to start showing.)
- My Blinks: A new gallery view in the Blink roll to quickly jump among captured Blinks.
- Tutorial: An interactive tutorial is included to quickly get you going.
- Orientation lock: Bug fix to orient Blinks correctly on sharing, under orientation lock.

Go to the Windows Phone store to download the update.

Source: Windows Phone Blog.

By: blendrang sayur On 10:32:00 AM

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SkyDrive renamed to OneDrive and gets new features.

Today Microsoft has released the re-branded SkyDrive app which is now known as OneDrive. The change in name was driven by the loss in court of a trademark claim by a British company. Microsoft did not appeal the verdict and decided instead to rename its cloud storage service. After the update is installed, the app will move from the "S" grouping to the "O" grouping in the app list. But that's not all.

Microsoft did not content itself with just a re-branding here. The app has also been updated with new features, including the ability to share multiple files at once. See the full change log below:

New in version 3.5:
• New thumbnail view
• Improved view of shared files 
• Share multiple items at once
• Pin folders to your Start screen
• Open your OneDrive files in other apps
• Bug fixes and performance improvements

Download the free update in the Windows Phone Store.

By: blendrang sayur On 7:29:00 AM

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