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Official YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 back on the store

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You may remember Microsoft recently updated the YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 and made it into a proper app and not just a bookmark for launching the mobile version before. Then Google got upset because the app didn’t include ads and asked Microsoft to remove the app, which the latter complied with.

Well luckily, the app is now back on the Windows Phone Store. It seems Microsoft and Google have resolved their issues over the matter and the updated version of the app (it had previously rolled back to the bookmark version) is now available for download. Read more »

Google Glass now updated with more Google Now cards, voice commands and video player controls

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Google has issued a new update for its Glass smart eye-wear, which adds new Google Now cards as well as bringing updates for already existing ones. Furthermore, there are a bunch of new voice commands as well as the ability to fast forward/rewind videos you’re watching in order to get to a certain part that you’re interested in.

The new Google Now cards now include ones for restaurants, hotels and events that allow you to book and get reminded of already existing reservations. Another new card is in charge of movies and brings information for upcoming titles and their screening times in nearby theaters. The last newly added Google Now card to Glass is for emergency alerts – it’ll only show up when there’s a severe thunderstorm or flash flood warning in your area. Read more »

Skype for iOS updated to v4.1, brings HD video calls and better in-call quality

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Skype pushed out an update for its iOS app, which brings only a few improvements the most important of which is support for HD video calling. It only works on the iPad 4, though.

Owners of other iGadgets also have reason update – the Skype v4.1 brings improvements to the call quality and stability. Also, the country code picker has been redesigned. Read more »

World’s thinnest smartphone visits HQ, watch the Huawei Ascend P6 star in a hands-on

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Huawei Ascend P6 is widely advertised as the world’s slimmest smartphone to date. Indeed there is no thinner smartphone in our database so far and we just had to see it live. And here it is – the Ascend P6 knocking on our office doors.

Huawei Ascend P6 is powered by company’s home-brewed chipset – the K3V2 – featuring a quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 processor, a 16-core unnamed graphics unit and 2GB of RAM. We’ve already met this configuration within the Ascend Mate phablet and we know it performs very well on a 720p screen. Read more »

CyanogenMod ROM now supports Chromecast streaming for any video or audio file on your phone

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ClockworkMod Recovery developer Koushik Dutta has made some tweaks to the CyanogenMod ROM allowing you to play any video or audio file on your phone directly to your Chromecast connected TV.

Mr. Dutta has directly baked in the media playing functionality into the ROM’s framework. This means that even if the media app, be it video or audio, hasn’t yet utilized the Chromecast API, streaming would still work. Read more »

Instagram 4.1 brings video import and automatic straightening

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Instagram has started rolling out the 4.1 update for its popular social networking app for iOS and Android. One of the key new features in this update is the ability to import videos from your library. 4.0 brought the ability to post videos but the videos had to be shot on the spot before uploading. This new feature lets you import and edit any previously shot video from your phone’s gallery.

Another addition is automatic straightening of shots. What this feature does is analyzes your images and automatically straightens them if it detects a tilt in the horizon. It also lets you manually adjust the image till you think it is perfectly level. This is an excellent tool to level your images after shooting if you think they are slightly tilted. As of now, this feature is only available on iOS. Read more »

Sony updates its Walkman, Album and Movies app

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Sony is officially rolling out an update for its media applications – Walkman, Album and Movies. The most important change is these apps now have a better integration with all of your media in the cloud.

The Walkman media app now comes with Sony’s Music Unlimited integration, which allows you to search across local and the cloud contents. Read more »

Twitter for iOS and Android gets two-step authentication

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Twitter has updated their iOS and Android apps with a new form of two-step authentication. For those not aware, two-step authentication is where other than just using your password you have to approve a login request from another device before someone can log in to your account.

Twitter introduced two-step authentication a few months back for the web service but it is now available on the mobile apps as well. In this method, you no longer have to provide your mobile number for authorizing access to your account but the service instead sends push messages and in-app approval to authenticate a log in. Read more »

WhatsApp prioritizes voice messaging in latest update

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WhatsApp has started rolling out a new update across the various platforms that prioritizes the voice messaging feature of the service. This move probably comes after other messaging services have started incorporating and promoting their voice messaging feature.

To be clear, this is not a new feature even for WhatsApp as the functionality was always available. The only difference is that now it is prominently placed in the UI with the latest update. Now, you’ll see a microphone button instead of the Send button when no message is being typed in the message field. Press and hold this button and your message starts getting recorded. Slide left any time to cancel the recording. Read more »

LinkedIn is now available on Nokia S40 and Asha touch phones

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LinkedIn has officially brought its app to the Nokia S40 phones in an attempt to expand its user base even further. This means that if you own a Nokia Asha, you will now get a chance to connect to the largest professional network right from your handset.

The newest LinkedIn app is designed exclusively for Nokia S40 phones and the applications is said to works Asha smartphones like Nokia Asha 501, Asha 305, Asha 306, Asha 308, Asha 309, Asha 310 and Asha 311. Read more »

Skype for Windows Phone 8 updated with an improved home screen

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Skype, the popular instant messenger, has updated its Windows Phone 8 application and the latest version now comes with few new features and tweaks to improve its performance.

Skype for Windows Phone 8 now has a people list filter, which allows you to filter out your phone contacts and your Skype contacts. You can now have a list of all your contacts, just Skype contacts or only those that are online. Read more »

Google launches Play Store v4.3.10 update with minor tweaks

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Google has launched an update for the Google Play Store app bringing it to version 4.3.10. The update doesn’t bring major user interface changes, as most of the updates are under the hood.

Android Police has dug around the app’s inner workings and have found exactly what the fixes and improvements are. In the latest version of the Play Store Google introduces the “Recently updated” section. Its idea is simply to provide you an app list of the ones that have received an update most recently. Read more »

Sony Xperia Tablet Z gets Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, refreshed UI

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The Sony Xperia Tablet Z SGP321, which is the European LTE version, has started receiving its Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 update from Sony. The update brings centered soft buttons, a notification area on top instead of at the bottom and with quick settings in it.

The status bar is semi-transparent in the lockscreen and there are a number of optimizations and improvements under the hood. Read more »

Android 4.2.2 for Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 now seeding

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Samsung is pushing hard with the Android updates this week. First we saw the 4.2.2 Jelly Bean version rolling out for the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, then it hit the Galaxy S II Plus, and now the Galaxy Note 8.0 is following suit.

The update is no surprise since we already knew Samsung has scheduled the update process of its slates to complete by the end of September. Read more »

Facebook brings Cover Feed to Android app, makes Facebook Home seem even more pointless

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Facebook has released a new update for their Android app, which brings one of the key features of the ill-fated Facebook Home app. Now, through an option in the settings menu, you can enable the Cover Feed feature on your Android device, without having to install Facebook Home app.

If you are not aware, Cover Feed takes over the lockscreen on your Android device with a custom lockscreen that plays a slideshow of your friends’ Facebook photos in the background underneath the unlock button. While it sounds great in theory, actually having all your friends’ photos appear on your lockscreen isn’t such a great idea as most of the time the photos aren’t as good as you’d like them to be (not with my friends, at least). Read more »