Dropbox for Windows Phone 8.1 updated with quick search, commenting and Jump list.

Dropbox

Dropbox for Windows Phone is a Windows Universal app, meaning that it works on Windows for desktop and Windows 10 Mobile. The popular cloud storage app also works with Windows Phone 8.1. Today, Dropbox was updated to bring some of the Windows 10 features to Windows Phone 8.1.

With this update Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows users will be able to initiate a search by simply typing anywhere. They won't necessarily need to tap the search icon first. The app also allow users to comment on files, bringing collaboration with others by inviting them to a discussion with the use of @mentions. Finally, there's Jump list for access to recent files through a right click on the application icon and tile.

Grab the update in the Windows Store.

By: blendrang sayur On 10:27:00 PM

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WeChat for Windows Phone updated with content sharing from Cortana.

The Windows Store on my Lumia 1520 is showing an update is available for the popular messaging app WeChat. Like other apps of its kind, WeChat is a cross-platform app for texting, making video calls, voice messages. Tencent, the China-based company and owner of WeChat, claims the app currently has 400 million users, many of which are in China where WeChat is extremely popular.

According to the change log, the updated app improved on the user experience on Windows 10, but does not give details about those improvements. The second item in the change log is the ability for sharing content from Cortana. I have yet to figure out how that works though.

WeChat is a nice messaging platform with a great walkie talkie which supports real time conversation with up to 40 friends. If you haven't tried it yet, download WeChat for Windows 10 Mobile in the store for free.

By: blendrang sayur On 6:38:00 AM

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Dropbox is now a Universal Windows Platform app with a bunch of new features.

Dropbox

The more storage we have the better, no matter if we have to use different and several storage providers, especially that there are apps like CloudMesh that brings them all together for easier management. However, if Dropbox is one of your cloud storage, an update has been published to the store today for Windows 10 that makes it a Universal Windows Platform app. But the Windows 10 Mobile version of the app is not available yet. But I assume it shouldn't be long before it lands in the Windows store.

This update makes the app a lot faster, brings quick search, interactive device notifications, drag and drop functionality, Windows Hello integration, commenting and Jump List. See the change log below for details and head into the Windows store to download the update.

By: blendrang sayur On 9:45:00 PM

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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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Playcast for Windows 10 gets major update, 1 more free day trial and some fixes.

When Playcast was released, I purchased it without hesitation despite the fact that a few days trial was available. And that's because the developer behind this excellent app is also the one who made the best YouTube app for windows 10, Tubecast (Paid, free). The latter and Playcast have that thing in common in that you can cast media to Chromecast, or DLNA devices. 

However, after buying the app, I ran into issues as it failed to cast movies to my Chromecast while it handled songs well. I reached out to the developer and he very quickly contacted me to help solve the problem. After sending one of my movies, he found out that a particular format was not being handled properly and a fix was quickly released.

Today, I am enjoying my movies from my Lumia 1520 via Chromecast. The fix is part of the update that the developer released today, among other fixes and new features as shown in the change log below:

What's new in version 0.8.0.0:
Monetization:

• 1 more FREE day in trial per app update.

New drive sources:

• DLNA Media Server
• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Freebox

Technical:

• MP4 'FastStart' transcoding on the fly for Chromecast unreadable MP4.
• Miracast support.

There's also some UI improvements:

• Remove items in Recent/Queue
• Shortcut (desktop): F5 refresh - F11 fullscreen
• Progress bar preview in PIP
• Changelog popup at startup if it's a new version
• "My libraries" only shows right content type files
• List performance
• UI contrast improvements

Get the app in the Windows Store.

By: blendrang sayur On 8:40:00 AM

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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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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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