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Windows Phone 8.1 Update brings Live Folders and Cortana to India

Microsoft has just announced the next minor update to their mobile platform, called the Windows Phone 8.1 Update. The update brings the highly awaited Cortana personal assistant to markets like China, with extra localization, as a beta and countries like India, Australia and Canada, as an alpha. Apart from Cortana rolling out to other countries, the update also brings some extra user-facing additions like support for Live Folders on the start screen and better VPN support and so on. The update is rolling out next week for phones running on the developer preview and will eventually roll out later to Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the coming months.

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OneNote for Mac and iOS updated with better productivity features

Microsoft has updated OneNote for Mac, iPhone and iPad to make it more organized and productive. The note taking app from Microsoft allows users to insert documents, PDFs and audio and video files into their notes from Mac as well as iOS devices.

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Microsoft adds Foursquare integration to Cortana

Microsoft invested $15 million in location sharing app Foursquare in February this year. Today, the company has integrated Foursquare’s data into Cortana, its own digital voice assistant.

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Microsoft updates Outlook.com app for Android with offline access, themes and more

Microsoft has updated Outlook.com for Android with several features. The app now syncs email history and adds the ability to access them in the cloud. The update also adds unlimited syncing of emails and these can be checked even when a user is offline.

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Windows Phone 8.1 update GDR1 to add support for Interactive covers, new resolutions and more

Microsoft is ready with an update for Windows Phone 8.1 and it looks like it is inching closer for an official release. Details about the Update 1 aka GDR (General Distribution Release) have been spotted on Microsoft’s Developer Center. The update includes many improvements for OEM’s and a few new ones for consumers.

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Microsoft releases Live Lock Screen Beta app for Windows Phone 8.1

Live Lock Screen Beta for WP8.1

Microsoft has released Live Lock Screen Beta for Windows Phone 8.1 handsets. It was announced at the Build 2014 earlier this year. Since Microsoft has started rolling out Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Cyan for Windows Phone 8 handsets, more users can try out this new lockscreen app that lets you choose from 6 new lock screen layouts. Continue reading “Microsoft releases Live Lock Screen Beta app for Windows Phone 8.1”

Microsoft introduces Bang by Coloud portable speaker

Microsoft just announced 4-inch Lumia 530 and 530 Dual SIM, its latest budget smartphones. The company has also launched colourful Bang mini speakers (MD-1C) by Coloud. The rechargeable speakers are portable and compact can play upto 8 hours of music on a single charge with its 680 mAh battery.

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Microsoft just killed Nokia’s feature phones and X Android devices

Stephen Elop’s e-mail to Microsoft employees in the devices and services division and an internal e-mail from Jo Harlow, acquired by BGR, have officially made clear the future of Nokia’s feature phones and the recently launched X range of Android devices. Microsoft will no longer make the Android-based Nokia X devices, but “select designs” from that range will be running Windows Phone in the future. This is understandable, as the company had never been approving of this effort from the Elop-era Nokia, but the axing of the feature phone business, which Jo Harlow details as it being under “maintenance mode” is a tacit admission of the smartphone business completely taking over, and a failure of conversion that Nokia had wanted.

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Microsoft announces 18,000 job cuts next year, 12,500 are from Nokia

“Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture” reads Nadella’s latest mail to his employees which details Microsoft’s 18,000 job cuts next year. The Redmond based software giant has just announced that it wants to go lean and agile, in an effort to re-align with the company’s new vision, a product of the new leadership headed by Satya Nadella. Out of the 18,000 job cuts, 12,500 are from Nokia’s devices and services division the company acquired recently. This completely sends home the point that Microsoft is no longer interested in making phones, as the majority of Nokia’s full time working staff are from manufacturing facilities the company has, around the world.

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Skype for Windows 8.1 gets free group video calling

Microsoft has updated Skype for Windows 8.1 by adding support for free group video calling. The feature will let Windows 8.1 tablet or two-in-one device users enjoy free group video calls.

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Thought only China could do it? $99 Windows tablets coming this year

Cube, Pipo, Ramos… these are 3 of the most popular names in the Chinese tablet industry, ones that have managed to find a place on the world map thanks to the often very high VFM aspect that their devices bring along. If Chinese tablets aren’t your thing, its time for you to start celebrating, for budget tablets powered by the Windows OS are all set to go on sale later this year.

Microsoft had previously announced their relaxed policy for Windows licenses, which meant that any manufacturer wanting to produce devices with screens lesser in size than 9 inches could obtain a license free of cost. We believe that Microsoft’s latest announcement regarding $99 Windows tablets revolves around the same idea. Continue reading “Thought only China could do it? $99 Windows tablets coming this year”

Nokia Camera updated with few improvements, likely to be renamed as Lumia Camera

Nokia Camera app has been updated with few tweaks. The version 4.8.1.1. brings improved Inline Video Playback and living images playback in Camera Roll. In addition, the camera has got improved focus indicator on devices with continuous Autofocus. Other than this the app gets bug fixes and improvements.

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Category: Microsoft