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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Microsoft resumes publishing Windows Phone apps, all is right with the world

Nokia Lumia 900 at Windows Phone Marketplace

Everybody, you can stop panicking. Microsoft has solved the digital signing problem that prevented app installations on older Windows Phones, as promised, and the flow of new apps is back to a steady stream. It may take a day or two before new titles show up in earnest; developers whose work was in caught in submission stage limbo won't have to restart the process from scratch, however. The quick turnaround is no doubt good news for developers. We'd argue that it's equally good news for Microsoft, too -- there's no doubt that the crew in Redmond would rather not have to explain any lengthy publishing outages while it's onstage with Nokia next month.

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Microsoft resumes publishing Windows Phone apps, all is right with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft halts posting new Windows Phone apps after some refuse to install on older devices

Microsoft stops posting new Windows Phone apps after some titles refuse to install on older phones

Microsoft may face a few uncomfortable questions at Build this fall. A bug in digital signatures resulting from the Windows Phone Dev Center rollout is preventing a "small percentage" of apps in the Windows Phone Store, including not-so-insignificant titles like WhatsApp and Microsoft's own Translator, from installing on older phones that had to upgrade to Windows Phone 7.5 after the fact. While the company already has a fix in the works, it's performing some painful triage to keep the damage from spreading: it's putting the brakes on publishing any new apps until certificate signing is back under control. Microsoft doesn't yet know when it can open the taps once more, either. The momentary freeze won't stop downloads of already-published apps, but it's likely to leave a few customers jittery about resetting their phones -- and developers twiddling their thumbs.

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Microsoft halts posting new Windows Phone apps after some refuse to install on older devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 23:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia Maps for Windows Phone updated with route planner and Groupon integration

Nokia Maps for Windows Phone updated with route planner and Groupon integration

It feels like it was only yesterday that Nokia handed its Windows Phone Maps application a complete and quite hefty makeover, which, as we know, brought the addition of reviews and friends' photos to the app. Regardless, Nokia Maps appears to be ready to hit version 2.5, bringing with it an all-new Groupon integration to help US folks find nearby deals and a route planner service that, well, should be pretty self-explanatory. At any rate, WMPoweruser says the update should be hitting the Redmond Marketplace sometime "soon," but feel free to let us know if you happen to catch it a little bit earlier than others.

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Nokia Maps for Windows Phone updated with route planner and Groupon integration originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft lists 180 countries in Windows Phone 8 Marketplace, says apps can filter by screen size

microsoft-180-countries-in-windows-phone-8-marketplace

Now that the dust has settled on the big Windows Phone 8 hoedown, Redmond is filling in the details of all its announcements. To wit, it just released a list of the 180 countries that will get access to its WP marketplace and developer app hub. That number is a big jump from the 63 markets and 38 app hubs of today, and with in-app purchasing coming soon, Microsoft emphasized that point -- along with the 100,000 apps in stock -- to developers. The software giant also added that the marketplace will filter apps by phone screen resolution and "other key characteristics," allowing easier targeting of users. To see if your country made the cut, check the source for the very long list.

Microsoft lists 180 countries in Windows Phone 8 Marketplace, says apps can filter by screen size originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon Audible hits WP 7.5, brings gesture controlled audiobooks (update)

Amazon Audible hits WP 75, brings gesture control to audiobooks, lacks voice control

It didn't land in the Marketplace yesterday as announced, but Amazon's Audible audio book app for Windows Phone 7.5 is now available for download. This Metro-fied version of the app is free to install (including some short samples to get you started), and signing in with your Amazon account lets you purchase any books that the service has on offer. Media can be controlled using a swipe gesture interface, and there are even varying levels of badges to reward how much of a book-worm you become. That said, we haven't been able to use the voice control functionally shown off by Microsoft at its Developers Summit is naturally a WP 8-only affair, so you won't find that feature here. If you're eager to get your literary listening on, you'll find a download and more info about the app at the source link below.

Update: As many of you have pointed out in the comments, the voice control aspect is specific to Windows Phone 8. We've updated our language in the post to reflect this.

Amazon Audible hits WP 7.5, brings gesture controlled audiobooks (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone Marketplace has 100,000 published apps, counts Words with Friends and Draw Something among ’em

Windows Phone Marketplace now has 100,000 published apps, counts Words with Friends and Draw Something among 'em

It's not quite App Store numbers, but the Windows Phone Marketplace has finally managed to break the six-digit published apps barrier (making good on the promise of all those app submissions) as Microsoft just announced that its mobile users now have over 100,000 apps to choose from. And, while it may not be as big a deal as multi-core proccessor support, a new Start screen, or turn-by-turn navigation, Microsoft just told of two more apps that'll be popping up in the Marketplace soon. That's right, a duo of Zynga's most popular titles, Words with Friends and Draw Something, are coming to Windows Phone. Congratulations, all you Microsoft mobile aficionados, your time-wasting can now reach levels previously seen only by your iOS and Android-toting friends.

Windows Phone Marketplace has 100,000 published apps, counts Words with Friends and Draw Something among 'em originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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