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Microsoft reportedly discussing support for Android apps on Windows Phone and Windows

Microsoft is in discussions to add support for Android apps in Windows and Windows Phone, according to a report from TheVerge. Sources have told TheVerge that Microsoft is serious about bringing Android apps to both its platforms, but the discussions are still ongoing and nothing is concrete yet. The ongoing talks currently point to adding Android apps in the Windows Phone and Windows Stores, according to the report, which will inadvertently boost the app numbers, something that Microsoft really needs. Windows Phone and Windows have been second thoughts for any new developer looking at developing an app, and at most of the times, there are not enough resources to dedicate for a third platform, so will Android apps support on Windows and Windows Phone make sense?

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Samsung reportedly toning down TouchWiz tweaks and apps due to pressure from Google

Samsung, the world’s biggest Android manufacturer, is reportedly toning down its TouchWiz UI tweaks and own custom apps due to pressure from Google, reports re/code. Not long before, the Korean Chaebol unveiled a range of new Android devices at the Consumer Electronics Show, all featuring the company’s latest and heavily modified Touchwiz “Magazine” UX, that looked nothing like Android. And then we saw a couple more leaks of its adaptation for the mobile form factor, and even that was a drastic departure from the previous version of TouchWiz, let alone stock Android. This might have set Google off and reportedly, the two companies have come to a compromise(among many other things) in which Samsung will tone down its UI tweaks and replacement apps for Google’s services, going forward.

The image above, taken from a Ars Technica opinion piece paints a clear picture of how Samsung had its own ecosystem around Android, replacing almost every little Google service possible. It is all set to change soon.

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The Wolf Among Us game now available for the iPhone and iPad

the-wolf-among-us

TellTale games, the developers of the “Game of the Year 2012 – The Walking Dead”, had released their next game based on the Fables short stories, “The Wolf Among Us”, for console and PC earlier. It is now also available for the iPhone and iPad on the app store. This is keeping up with the tradition of releasing their game on the most popular mobile platform(for games), as they had done the same with The Walking Dead. With cell shaded graphics and an amazingly immersive story line that changes based on the decisions you make, The Wolf Among Us seeks to continue the awesome story telling that TellTale is known for. It has received rave reviews from critics all around, and in the mobile form, the point and click game should be as good as how the Walking dead game was, or at least we hope.

Download The Wolf Among Us($4.99) from the app store

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Android 4.4 KitKat In-depth Walkthrough

Google announced the Nexus 5 a while back, and with it came the latest iteration of Android – 4.4 KitKat. Within a day, Nexus 5 made its way into the hands of talented developers and Google too helped along, with the AOSP builds instantly going live. We then rapidly saw ports and AOSP builds popping up, with one for the Nexus 4 claiming to be a direct port of the Nexus 5 ROM. That was intriguing enough for a flashing opportunity, and so we jumped on it, right away. It turned out to be exactly that, with the complete feature set, rather than the lacking AOSP builds. We used it long enough to discover and use all the user-facing features of Android 4.4 KitKat and hence, presenting you an in-depth overview of the same in a 26-minute video –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd_fYgWEnns

Read past the break for a walkthrough in text and photos.

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Nokia Story Teller, Beamer, Nokia Camera and more coming with Lumia Black Firmware update

The Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Nokia Lumia 1320 are the two new Lumia smartphones that have launched today at the Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi. Hardware differentiators like a massive screen and unibody build aside, Nokia has also announced that its own “Lumia Black” firmware will be running on top of the Windows Phone GDR3 update that started rolling out recently. This is the successor to the Amber update that is currently available for all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices and it brings all sorts of new app experiences and improvements to the new devices launched today and eventually to other phones too. The new apps shown off today, as a part of this update are – Nokia Story Teller, Nokia Beamer and Nokia camera amongst others.

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Jolla’s Sailfish OS now fully compatible with Android apps and Android hardware

Seen as a major move from a small, yet significant new player in the mobile industry, Finalnd’s Jolla(pronounced as yo-la) announced today that the Sailfish OS is now fully compatible with Android apps as well as Android hardware. It was already confirmed that Sailfish would run Android apps, but the question was when. Now we know.

Taking advantage of the already robust and immensely popular Android ecosystem is what Jolla have done, on top of the unique UX the Sailfish OS offers. Not only you can download popular Android apps on the Sailfish OS, which Jolla claims, is without any modifications, the operating system is also Android hardware compatible. Meaning Vendors can take Sailfish OS and make devices with their current Android-based hardware implementations. Or one day, you can possibly load Sailfish on your Android phone, if you wish.

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There Are Six Major Problems with Windows Phone, and Apps Isn’t One of Them

I keep running into this same sentence, over and over again “Windows Phone lacks apps”. Every single review of a Lumia for example ends with the same foregone conclusion: “it’s a great phone but there are no apps”. I usually shake my head at this statement, but the recent talks about Nokia blaming Microsoft and the lack of apps have me worried.

If anyone — at Nokia, or elsewhere — thinks that this is the culprit behind Windows Phone’s failure to gain market traction, then they’re clearly disillusioned. It’s not as if the release of Instagram will be the magical panacea to the platform’s issues.

While the app problem is partly true, it is in no way, shape or form, the sole reason why Windows Phone isn’t gaining traction. As a matter of fact, you will likely find 80-90% of the same or equivalent apps that you are used to on Android or iOS, and the community is very active — and creative — in trying to fill the remaining gap, so the app problem is only minor, if anything.

Windows Phone’s issues run way deeper than that. The apps are a symptom of the problem, an outward expression of it, if you will, but they are not the underlying cause. And while I don’t claim to be an expert on mobile phone markets and strategies, there are six problems I can see with Windows Phone that I will explain below.

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Leak reports Gtalk and Twitter to be integrated with BB10 O.S

Just a few weeks back we had reported that RIM is all set to launch BB10 with loads of applications, now as the time comes closer to the launch of RIM’s much awaited O.S rumors are coming in that Twitter and Gtalk will be integrated right into the O.S and will be included inside the Blackberry hub.

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Springpad for Android gets updated, brings tablet support

Springpad is one of the best note taking applications for Android, and it has become even better. The new updated version 3.2.6 brings tablet support and various other features and bug fixes which people were experiencing on Jellybean.

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Blackberry 10 to launch with 70,000 apps in App world

Apps have become important for every mobile operating system, thanks to Apple and iOS, both Andorid and iOS now have more than half a million applications and one of the places where Blackberry failed at their O.S and smartphones before was the category of apps available. Now, Frank Boulben, the CMO of RIM has stated that consumers can expect more than 70,000 apps for the Blackberry 10 at launch.

Now 70,000 applications is really good news, but it also matters whether these applications are actually useful or are just useless. The quality of this application also matters, as developers have already shifted to platforms which is more popular like Android and iOS, so it is important to know whether they will devote time to make the experience of users better or not. Blackberry 10 is set to launch on Jan 30 2013, and it is a very important launch for RIM which will decided their survival. Let us know what you guys think of the apps and Blackberry 10 in our comments section.

Google Currents gets updated to version 2.0

Google Currents has been on Android for quite some while now, but today it received a major update on the play store, it got bumped up to version 2.0 with loads of new features. Read on to know what has changed.

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Microsoft loses to Motorola on a patent case in Germany

Germany has become a battle ground when it comes to patent cases between top mobile device manufacturing companies. In a recent patent infringement case filed against Motorola by Microsoft which revolves around an application running on various devices, Microsoft lost to Motorola. This news made me a bit happy and surprised as this is Motorola’s first lawsuit they have won in the recent years.

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Google Play celebrates 25 billion downloads with $0.25 discounted apps for 5 days

With the ever burgeoning Android smartphone marketshare, it is inevitable that the Play Store will have some insane amounts of downloads too. Continuing with that upward trend of app count as well as app downloads, the Google Play Store has hit 25 billion downloads of about 675,000 apps and games. To celebrate this achievement, they have started to offer some discounts for the next five days.

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Bluetooth File Transfer, Cinemagraph and more coming to Nokia Lumia handsets

As part of their commitment to the Windows Phone platform, Nokia has been introducing a range of apps exclusive to their own Lumia line of phones. Ranging from enhancements to apps which make up features missing in the platform, Nokia aims to provide long term support to owners of Lumia devices. Last week Nokia launched its City Lens app which is an augmented reality app to provide real time information about your surroundings.

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Apple App Store crosses 650,000 apps, pays out $5.5 billion to developers

As part of its earnings call, Apple revealed that it now has over 650,000 applications on the App Store. These include approximately 250,000 applications specifically optimized for the iPad according to Peter Oppenheimer. Having sold over 17 million iPads in the last quarter, we can only expect the number of optimized apps to increase.

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