WhatsApp for PC : Hands on and the (im)possibility of UWP app

WhatsApp announced their desktop apps for PC and Mac, which is nothing more than a web wrap of WhatsApp Web but with notifications directly in your computer.

Opening the app presents you with the same UI that you find in WhatsApp Web. The login process is also similar, you open WhatsApp in your phone and scan the QR code, voila ! All your chats are synced to your desktop.

The application has a set of options in the menu bar. Under WhatsApp menu you have "new chat", "new group", "Profile status" and "Log out" which are pretty obvious and useful. The "+" sign also allows you to start a new chat with your contacts.

Nearly 700,000 apps in Windows Store !

Windows 10 is having a successful run across the globe despite the privacy problems. Softpedia reports that Microsoft has stated that there are 669,000 apps available for download in Windows Store. This includes mobiles,tablets and PC's combined and it is not clear on how many of them are Universal apps.

It is interesting to see the growth rate of Windows 10 and Apps, definitely there is a increase in interest from the developers to bring their apps to Windows Store as it has the potential to reach millions of people using Windows in devices with different form factors, all with a single code. Also the report states that the number of apps is rapidly growing as hundreds of apps are added each day. Even though it sounds quite positive, Microsoft should make sure that the quality of the apps is maintained as the numbers make no sense when the apps are just clones or fake. They have already faced this scenario with Windows 8.x and with Windows 10 in 75 million devices already and still rolling out to millions of people coming from Windows 7, Microsoft should take care of this issue seriously.

Keeping up with Cricket in Windows 8.1/10

If you are living in India  or any country where cricket is one popular sport that millions cheer along. You may not like miss the happenings but sometimes you'd have work or anything else that would not let you view the match directly. Apps in Windows 8.1 will keep you updated with your favorite sport. Here is one app which will help you to follow your cricket team.

ESPN Cricinfo 

As the name suggests, it is developed ESPN and is the app version of it's Cricinfo website. The app is complete and full featured. As you open the app, it presents Live matches, on-going series, Headlines, Features and News in a simple UI. You click/tap any one of those topics which shows the fixtures and news about the series. It's far simple than always opening your browser and navigating to the sites especially if you are using your Windows tablet. You can also pin any of your favorite series and the Live tile would show news and current score's of matches, which is really good as you don't even have to open the app.

Upper tile opens the app and second is a live tile of a pinned series

It is fast, simple and easy to use. Download it from the Store by following this link.

Microsoft File Manager is out for Windows Phone 8.1

Logo of Files App

Windows Phone 8 lacked a file manager and so did Windows Phone 8.1 till today. Yeah, I'm talking about the official file manager for WP from Microsoft. The Redmond giant said that File manager was slated for release on late May in Build 2014 and they have delivered it in the right time. 

Navigate through your files with ease in Windows Phone 8.1 with Files !

The new file manager is called Files and available as a separate download from Windows Phone Store but there is a restriction, only Windows Phone 8.1 users are allowed to download which means that WP 7.5 users won't be get hold of Microsoft's latest app offering and as the time passes, most of the people will switch from WP 8 to 8.1 as it is really worthy upgrade. Technically, the app is pretty good and has most of the features as you would expect from a File Manager. It's really small, just 1 MB. Thumbs up Microsoft !

Finally, it's all falling together to make Windows Phone a real big threat for Android and iOS,lately both of them have not been getting some radical updates as Windows Phone. WP used this time to cope with them and it's now sometimes way better than both of them. Want an example, go type Cortana in YouTube , I bet you will love it.Well let's not go deeper ! There is one more reason and one more most wanted feature in Windows Phone. Happy days for WP users it seems . Now I won't be surprised to see a touch first File Manager app in Windows 8.1 U2 or Windows 9.

Download the app for WP 8.1 - Files
Here is the description of the app :

Files is a free app for managing files on your Windows Phone.
By using this app you can:
• Access files stored on your phone and SD card
• Browse, search and launch files
• Easily share one file or multiple files
• Create folders to organise your files
• Copy, move, rename and delete files

WhatsApp is back to Windows Phone Store !

WhatsApp was pulled from Windows Phone Store intentionally by it's publisher,WhatsApp Inc on May 18 which caused a lot of cries from WP users as WhatsApp is one of the most used chatting app. They said that there were a lot of problems in the WP version and they needed to fix all those problems and give users a great experience.

"Unfortunately due to technical issues, we have chosen to un-publish WhatsApp Messenger on the Windows Phone platform. We are working closely with Microsoft to resolve the issues and hope to return to the store shortly. We apologize to our users for the temporary inconvenience."

Unfortunately, it took more time than they thought, 12 full days is what they did with the app under their roof. Microsoft also had joined hands to help to them. Now it's back to the Windows Phone Store and any user running WP 7.5 to WP 8.1 can download and install this app. The new version fixes most of the problems and bugs that was in the previous version. It adds some new features too.. Here is the full change log as published in the Store.

2.11.490:

* Chat backgrounds

* Broadcast lists

* Privacy settings (settings > account > privacy)

* Media auto-download settings (settings > chat settings > media autodownload)

* Custom notification tones (Windows Phone 8 Update 3 required)

* Various enhancements and bug fixes