Standalone Xbox Music App and Xbox Video App Launched for Windows Phone 8


Ahead of the launch of Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft launches separate Xbox Music app. Windows Phone 8 devices already have built-in Xbox Music app. But today, Microsoft launches a standalone Xbox...
    






Microsoft Windows Phone Platform Supports 10 Million Transactions and 500 Apps per Day


Instagram and Waze just entered the fold of the Microsoft Windows Phone 8. This filled a gap that had long been present at Microsoft. Microsoft's Michael Stroh announced this addition officially on...

Nokia Xpress brings cloud-based compression to the Lumia line (video)

Nokia Xpress brings cloudbased compression to the Lumia line

Nokia refreshed its web browser for the Asha line with the outing of the 308 and 309 last week and now it's spreading the love to Lumia. Announced today via the company's Beta Labs site, Nokia Xpress leverages the cloud to compress internet data up to 85 percent, help users keep tabs on their consumption habits and even reformats favorited sites into a magazine-like layout. The Windows Phone app also enables users to make "smart searches" for content across Bing and YouTube with a simple tap of a selected term, as well as translate the contents of a foreign language page easily from the settings menu. Unfortunately, the app isn't yet available on the Marketplace, so for the time being, you'll have to download it direct from the source below.

Continue reading Nokia Xpress brings cloud-based compression to the Lumia line (video)

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Nokia Xpress brings cloud-based compression to the Lumia line (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNokia Beta Labs  | Email this | Comments

Nokia Xpress brings cloud-based compression to the Lumia line (video)

Nokia Xpress brings cloudbased compression to the Lumia line

Nokia refreshed its web browser for the Asha line with the outing of the 308 and 309 last week and now it's spreading the love to Lumia. Announced today via the company's Beta Labs site, Nokia Xpress leverages the cloud to compress internet data up to 85 percent, help users keep tabs on their consumption habits and even reformats favorited sites into a magazine-like layout. The Windows Phone app also enables users to make "smart searches" for content across Bing and YouTube with a simple tap of a selected term, as well as translate the contents of a foreign language page easily from the settings menu. Unfortunately, the app isn't yet available on the Marketplace, so for the time being, you'll have to download it direct from the source below.

Continue reading Nokia Xpress brings cloud-based compression to the Lumia line (video)

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Nokia Xpress brings cloud-based compression to the Lumia line (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNokia Beta Labs  | Email this | Comments

Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8 SDK preview program, Windows Phone Store replaces Marketplace

Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8 SDK preview program, Windows Phone Store to replace Marketplace

Naturally, there's a good amount of anticipation surrounding the release of Windows Phone 8 handsets, but before that day arrives, developers will need proper software to code apps. Microsoft stopped short of releasing the requisite tools, but today, the company announced the Windows Phone 8 SDK preview program -- essentially a way for developers to get in line for when the software becomes available. As is, all developers must submit an application to the Microsoft Connect website by Monday, September 17th, at which point, they'll be provided instructions "the following week" of how and where to download the SDK. As for why the company has stopped short of an immediate release, Microsoft blames it on the fact that not all Windows Phone 8 features have been announced -- which gives us reason to hope we'll see a full disclosure in the near term.

In related news, the Redmond giant has also revealed that the Marketplace will be renamed the Windows Phone Store, which is intended to harmonize the naming scheme with the Windows Store. It'll first rear its head in both Australia and New Zealand, but the company promises to roll out the new storefront to other countries in the weeks ahead. As for what you can expect, a cleaner design and new menu options are said to be in the mix, along with news and reviews from various technology blogs and journalists. Other improvements will include new search functionality to account for typos, along with suggestions for similar apps, regardless of what's in the title. Finally, Microsoft will also introduce new categories such as Best Rated, Top Free and Top Paid. We'll initially see these designations in the online store only, but the company promises to mirror the functionality on its phones later this year.

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Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8 SDK preview program, Windows Phone Store replaces Marketplace originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWindows Phone Developer Blog, Windows Phone Blog  | Email this | Comments

Gartner: Free apps dominate market, iOS App Store accounts for 25 percent of all content

Gartner Free apps dominate market, iOS App Store accounts for 25% of all downloads

If you'd just put down Angry Birds Space for a moment, maybe we could tell you that mobile apps are kind of a big deal. How big of a deal? How's about 45.6 billion downloads just this year -- that's a serious amount of birds lost in space! All of those downloads weren't just Angry Birds venturing into the final frontier, of course. Gartner, Inc's latest mobile report doesn't actually break down how much of that enormous number pertains to Rovio's hit franchise, but it does note that "free apps will account for nearly 90 percent of total mobile app store downloads in 2012." That means of the nearly 46 billion apps downloaded this year, approximately 40.6 billion were free. Additionally, an entire quarter of the apps downloaded in 2012 were via Apple's iOS app store -- but that isn't what's driving app growth, necessarily. "The number of apps available is driven by an increasing number of stores in the market today," Gartner research director Brian Blau notes. "These stores will see their combined share of total downloads increase, but demand for apps overall will still be dominated by Apple, Google, and Microsoft."

And the growth doesn't stop there. Blau predicts that 93 percent of all apps downloads will be of the free variety by 2016 -- also, we'll be downloading over 300 billion apps worldwide by the same year. Like we said, kind of a big deal.

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Gartner: Free apps dominate market, iOS App Store accounts for 25 percent of all content originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceGartner, Inc.  | Email this | Comments