Items tagged with Windows-Phone
PayPal is making quite a few changes this June. Customers using older versions of the PayPal mobile app on Android and iOS will be required to upgrade to version 6.0 Starting on June 3rd through June 30th. They are also discontinuing PayPal app use for Windows Phone, Amazon Fire, and Blackberry. Joanna Lambert, PayPal Vice President of Global Consumer Product and Engineering, stated, “It was a difficult decision to no longer support the PayPal app on these mobile platforms, but we believe it’s the right thing to ensure we are investing our resources in creating the very best experiences for our customers. We remain committed to partnering with mobile device providers, and we apologize for...
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Back on March 28th hothardware.com alluded to the imminent release of a second Windows 10 for Phone technical preview, and yesterday Microsoft's Gabe Aul confirmed on Twit.tv's Windows Weekly podcast that the new build will be available as of this Friday, April 10th, at 10AM PST (1PM EST). Specific details of the new Windows 10 for Phone build are not yet available. What did come to light, though, is that the Lumia Icon and the 930 (the Icon's international variant) will not be supported in this update round due to a bug with device scaling (a bug that is expected to be addressed in time for the ensuing build). The other 35 Microsoft phones cited for update at the end of March, though, remain...
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At this point, it seems like we need another heart rate-monitoring smartwatch like we need a hole in head (seriously, when did knowing one’s heart rate become such a big deal?), but everyone is jumping in the smartwatch game, Microsoft included. We’ve known about a Microsoft smartwatch for a while, but according to a Forbes report, Redmond’s smartwatch could finally be coming as early as this summer. It doesn’t appear that the smartwatch will do a wide variety of different things, unlike for example the rumored standalone Samsung smartwatch, but one crucial feature it will have is compatibility across Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices. The software for the device...
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Microsoft successfully acquired Nokia’s mobile unit and thus brought the vast majority of Windows Phone handsets under one roof, but that doesn’t mean Redmond isn’t branching out to other manufacturers. Both U.S.-based Blu and China’s K-Touch will be developing Windows Phone handsets in the future. Credit: Livesino via All About Windows Phone Blu posted a photo on its Facebook page last month teasing the Windows Phone release. The image was of a handset that looked a lot like a Moto G (complete with a colorful shell) with a Windows logo on it, and Blu called it a “sneak peak”. All About Windows Phone tracked down a translated Chinese site (Livesino) wherein...
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Microsoft keeps pushing out updates by and by to improve the overall Windows 8.1 experience, and the latest update concerns the Windows Store. Microsoft announced that it has gussied up the look of the store and has made it easier to navigate and find the apps you’re looking for. The old store There is now a persistent navigation bar on top of the store that includes Home, Top charts, Categories, Collections, and Account links. This is a nice change, as it de-clutters the scrolling experience by putting several of those sections up in the menu bar, and it also gives users a quick way to access those areas. The new store Microsoft also put Collections on the store’s landing page so...
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There was a moment when Microsoft and Nokia were married; it was that time period starting when then-Nokia chief Stephen Elop went all-in with Microsoft’s new Windows Phone platform at the expense of Nokia’s homegrown options and ending when Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile business. As the dust settles, Elop is back at Microsoft at the Executive Vice President of Devices, the “Nokia” name will disappear from Microsoft’s smartphones, and Nokia names a new CEO; the two companies are suddenly far apart and moving in opposite directions. Elop answering questions In a Q&A session yesterday (Elop’s first day at the new gig), the first question was about...
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Some new smartphone sales numbers are available via Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, and they point to Android’s continued dominance, particularly in the U.S.; however, iOS is making up ground in a few areas. Blackberry is tanking almost across the board, and Windows Phone continues to flounder in many countries. From January through March in the U.S., Android has seen an 8.3% year-over-year increase in sales, giving it a hefty 57.6% market share. That gain came largely at the expense of iOS, which dipped 7.8% over the same time period. Black lost a bit of ground (down 0.2%) and Windows Phone did about the same (0.3%). Credit: Kantar Worldpanel The Android gain/iOS loss picture looks the same...
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The deal that will see Microsoft gobble up Nokia’s Devices and Services business was announced back in September and was expected to be finalized in Q1 2014. That hasn’t happened yet, but both Microsoft and Nokia have put out press releases pledging that the deal will be complete in April. The deal has cleared regulatory hurdles in 15 countries, including the green light from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, but there have been some delays in Asia--”The transaction is pending approvals from certain antitrust authorities in Asia which are still conducting their reviews,” reads the Nokia release. Nokia also stated the delay is not related the tax...
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It’s no secret that Microsoft has a competitor brewing for Apple’s Siri, and to a lesser extent Google Now, but Cortana is inching ever closer to becoming something you can actually use on your Windows Phone. According to “sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans”, The Verge outed some sneak peek pics of what Cortana will look like as well as some of her (“its”?) functionality. First, the digital assistant will appear as a circular animated icon, not as a tech version of a manic pixie dream girl (which is probably for the best), and Cortana will address users by name. Much of the information pertinent to the user experience will be saved in a “notebook”...
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Kaspersky released its Safe Browser for Windows Phone, months after putting out the same product for iOS and days after making a similar one for Android. The app does exactly what you think it does, by blocking access to potentially dangerous sites with a warning page to protect against phishing attacks. Designed for both personal and corporate use, Kaspersky Safe Browser also allows users (read: IT admins) to select certain app settings to make sure the device is in line with the company’s security requirements. It’s good to see more security measures for mobile devices. Too many users have this psychological block where they know that Windows PCs have security issues and therefore...
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Nokia famously went all in with Microsoft when it decided to ditch its own OS and sell smartphones running Windows Phone, but the company has opted to add Android handsets to its roster as well in an effort to capitalize on the growing and vast low end smartphone market. Referred to as the “next billion”customers, the developing world is ripe for the picking when it comes to smartphones, and Nokia wants to be a player with five new handsets. Nokia X “Our deliberate approach is to offer four tiers of products including our affordable entry-level devices like the new Nokia 220; our entry-level Asha touch phones like the new Nokia Asha 230; our new Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL...
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New features in the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update are leaking all over the place, and the latest is a new Notification Center that will be renamed “Action Center” that looks to tidy up some aspects of the user experience. Windows Phone Central nabbed a screenshot (originally found by Winphollowers) of one page of a slide deck that came from an internal Microsoft email and also confirmed its validity. The slide shows two screens of the Action Center and some brief but descriptive text. Action Center serves as a clearinghouse for your notifications (with a handy “Clear All” option) and will let you enable/disable WiFi, Bluetooth, Driving Mode, or Airplane Mode connections...
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One of the perks of jumping into the Windows Phone ecosystem is that Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service is built in, and the company gives you 7GB of free storage capacity to go with it. For a limited time, though, users can bump that capacity up by another 20GB. It’s notable that this extra capacity isn’t only accessible with your phone (although that’s more or less how Microsoft envisions it working)--it’s just there for you to use, however you like to access your SkyDrive account. The extra 20GB will only last for a year, and you have to claim the bounty before January 31st. We wonder, though, if Microsoft will actually pull back that 20GB when the time...
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The launch of the Jolla smartphone, the brainchild of former Nokia employees who wanted to see the Meego OS live on even after Nokia went all-in with Windows Phone, is nigh. The phone launches today in Helsinki, and although the initial launch is limited to the first 450 people who pre-ordered, it’s still a noteworthy event. This fate of the OS formerly known as Meego was in jeopardy when Nokia launched and then immediately discontinued the N9, which was the only phone to run the OS. Then, Intel and Samsung got together and created a new OS based on Meego called Tizen. In the meantime, a group of scrappy Fins based the Sailfish OS on Meego, as well. Jolla has a carrier, DNA, and it also...
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