Lumia 650, Tip of the ice berg ?

Microsoft's latest Lumia has been under the scanner from last week for its fantastic design and also for its lower than expected internals. So why ? Why has Microsoft kept the specifications of their Windows 10 mid ranger below expectations ? There is one answer, Windows 10!

Microsoft has been trying to boost the market share of Windows phone since it bought Nokia, they've been releasing low end phones back to back but the consumer interest remained the same. Even though the low end Lumias pack enough power to provide exceptional value for money, unfortunately they never took off. Of course devices like Lumia 640,535 & 540 were hit in the Asian and European markets.

Halting Android Windows Bridge (Astoria) makes sense!

I know most of the people who follow Microsoft closely were elated when they announced Project Astoria in BUILD conference, a Windows Bridge for porting Android apps. That meant that the app gap will finally be covered as developers would find it easy to bring their apps to Windows (Phone) Platform. Microsoft even went ahead and set core of Windows 10 Mobile to run Android apps via side-loading!

 

But then it happened, Microsoft slowly back tracked the progress of this specific bridge and remained tight lipped for what seemed to be a very long time until recently. They removed the core components of Android subsystems with newer builds and I think that was because it had significant impact on performance the OS. I had always wondered how Microsoft could bring Android apps without the well known problem of Android, performance!

Windows Update MiniTool lets you control Windows Updates in Windows 10

If there is one thing that most power users regret over upgrading to Windows 10 is, it will be the lack of controlling Windows Updates as they could do in the previous versions of Windows. Windows 10 Home is set to automatic updates while the Windows 10 Pro offers a little more control by deferring the updates for few months. Also I personally find the new Windows Update lacking a lot of information, importantly the size of updates is a big deal for me as it would help to calculate the required time for the process. This is where Windows Update MiniTool comes as a handy solution.

The tool provides the necessary details and goes beyond the basics by providing granular control over how Updates are installed in your PC. You can actually select any of the given modes such as Download only,Notification mode, Schedule or Disable it completely though it is not recommended to do so.

How to set a custom search Engine as default in Microsoft Edge Mobile

If you're using the latest build of Windows 10 Mobile preview ( Build 10581),then you all know that the default search engine in Microsoft Edge is Bing and there is no way to change it. But you can change it with a couple of changes.

Follow the steps to set the search engine of your choice. In the below example, I will set Google as the default one.

By default Bing is the only search engine in Edge

1) Navigate to www.google.com

2) Now Open settings in Edge browser and set the website preference to "Desktop".

Windows 10 event : Watch it live !

So the big day for Microsoft is here. Today's Windows 10 event will mark the official announcement of many new devices from Microsoft with Windows 10 Mobile being one of the important announcements and yes, we are getting the Windows flagships after a long time, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL.

What to expect : 

Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL 

Microsoft has already confirmed these devices. Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are bound to arrive with 5.2-inch and 5.7-inch display, respectively, both boasting QHD resolution. The larger model takes advantage of a Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, while the smaller one relies on a Snapdragon 808 processor with the same amount of RAM and storage. The Lumia 950 XL works with a 3,300mAh battery, while the Lumia 950 has a smaller 3,000mAh battery. Both the models will have expandable storage with a Micro SD card slot supporting upto 128GB.

Lumia 950

Lumia 950 XL

They share a 5MP front shooter with Iris scanner for Windows Hello and 20 MP PureView rear camera with triple LED flash.Both these devices will feature Continuum and have USB type C connectors for quick charging and wireless charging is included.

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.