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1.
TV Blaze
With TV Blaze maintains track on the episodes you're watching and offers quick obtain to information about the latest must-watch shows.
Price: Free | Download TV Blaze app
2.
SofaScore LiveScore
Carry on with the World Cup on your Windows Phone with live scores directly from Brazil and a host of other international sporting events.
Price: Free | Download SofaScore LiveScore app
3.
CloudMesh
CloudMesh lets you manage all your cloud-based storage accounts including Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and of course, OneDrive in one place, as well as the files and photos stored on your handset.
4. Voice Translator
VoiceTranslator is prepared with voice recognition to translate speech in true time, which could be a lifesaver when travelling. An incredible way to practice your languages or just find a toilet in Japan.
Price: Free | Download Voice Translator app
5.
Wikipedia
It’s not official, but this is the best Wikipedia app for Windows Phone. It can find articles based on your location, it lets you search in over 100 languages, includes social media sharing tools, and even has an offline mode if you don’t have an internet connection.
Price: Free | Download Wikipedia Windows Phone app
What’s up?! Not much, just WhatsApp
returning to the Windows Phone Store. After going MIA, the popular
messaging app has returned. Not only has it returned, but it’s been updated. Earlier today, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said the app would be coming ‘quite soon’. This does qualify as fairly soon! Details after the break.
Head into the Windows Phone Store and you’ll find version 2.11.490.0
of WhatsApp sitting there. Here’s what’s new in this update:
- Chat backgrounds
- Broadcast lists
- Privacy settings (settings > account > privacy)
- Media auto-download settings (settings > chat settings > media auto-download)
- Custom notification tones (Windows Phone 8 Update 3 required)
- Various enhancements and bug fixes
Not only does the app return, but it surely comes with a couple of new features. Chat backgrounds have been added, shown to be privacy settings, control the auto-download of media, custom notifications are there and more!
Heads up, those on Windows Phone 8.1 will get a warning message saying some features will not work properly.
Grab the update for WhatsApp and let us know what you think!
Download WhatsApp for Windows Phone
If there is just one thing Lumia 920 owners are happy about, it’s their camera. So it’s finally nice to see some aftermarket-accessories develop off of what Nokia has began (although personally, we would like to check out Nokia get included in this area too).
We have covered some magnetic lens plugs in the previous, and while "cheap" they did offer users a new creative capacity with their phones. After all, if you are a good professional photographer, you can make "art" out of anything at all and those lenses enabled some awesome options.
Now we've a 12x telephoto lens that comes out of Guangdong, China and it goes for just slightly less than $20 (plus shipping). We purchased ours through Amazon.com and it took about 10 days or so for the products to appear.
So how is it? It’s surprisingly well built. It’s a strong, elegant machine made aluminum body with a durable tripod. Fact be told, we’re a bit stunned about how nicely it all works together—nothing feels "cheap" about it, which includes the box that it came in (it’s one of those nice ones with a magnetic flap).
Of course the big matter is, quality of the photos. The lens is a fixed 12x telephoto, which means you have to "frame the photo with your feet", so to speak. The lens can be manually targeted and it too excels beyond our expectations. Anyone who knows a quality lens knows it must have a smooth, slow and steady rotator and this lens actually has that, making it feel like you’re focusing an old-school prime lens for a DSLR.
Photos themselves are "ok". Let us be obvious: this is not Nikon, Canon or Carl Zeiss creating the glass and there is a purpose why some of us pay $1K+ for our lenses in the first place. Purple fringing, discolored sides and a filter focal area are all side effects of a $20 lens.
Having said that, it’s still pretty cool.
Hello, for $20, we can think of worse things to spend our money on. Will we use it often? Who knows. But the 920’s camera is a work of art and it’s fun to play all around with such add-ons, even if they are niche or unique.
You can order your 12x Zoom Lens through Amazon.com right here. Make sure you watch our video walk through for our impressions.
Microsoft is currently working on an "Update 1" for Windows 8.1, but the company has bigger plans for the future of Windows as part of a "Threshold" wave of updates. Windows watcher Paul Thurrott reports that the company’s Threshold plans will involve a release of Windows 9 around April 2015. Microsoft will allegedly unveil its vision for Windows 9 at the company’s Build 2014 developer conference in April, with a release planned for a year later
It appears that Microsoft is presently planning to use the Windows 9 branding and vision as a way to move away from some of the criticisms of the Windows 8 operating system. It’s not immediately clear what type of changes will be made to Windows 9, but "Metro 2.0" inside the new OS will evidently include a major focus on improving Microsoft’s new app world and tiles. Previous rumors have suggested Microsoft is planning to separate out its Windows 8-style "Metro" apps to allow them to float and run in separate windows on the traditional desktop. The Verge understands Microsoft is also planning a Start menu return for Windows 9, but that the company may deliver this early in a second "Update 2" for Windows 8.1 later this year.
Build 2014 will set the vision for Windows 9
Microsoft we will evidently use three major milestone development things for Windows 9, but it is just not crystal clear how many of them will be launched to the community during the development period of time. The software creator is currently in the ultimate planning stages for Windows 9 and work is anticipated to begin after the Build 2014 developer conference in April. It sounds like Microsoft will use Build 2014 as a launch point for its vision of Windows 9, detailing some of the planned changes in an attempt to develop excitement around the company’s future ideas.
Windows certainly needs excitement, Windows 8-style apps, and innovation if Microsoft is to succeed with its vision of a hybrid tablet and desktop operating system. If Microsoft manages to pull off a Windows 9 release with significant improvements over Windows 8 then that may relegate Windows 8 to a Vista-like launch in the minds of consumers. The company clearly isn’t confident with any continued use of the Windows 8 brand in the same way that Apple does with its OS X point releases. While there will be further tweaks to Windows 8.1 shortly, Windows 9 looks to be the next major launch.
