Microsoft certifies more than 75,000 apps for Windows Phone 8 in 2012

Microsoft has certified more than 75,000 apps for its latest smartphone operating system, Windows Phone 8. On its official blog, Microsoft claims that on average, a Windows Phone user downloaded more than 54 apps per person. The Windows Blog says, “Over the last year we’ve certified and published over 75,000 new apps and games (more than doubling the catalog size) and over 300,000 app updates. In addition, this year we added the capability for customers to tell us if they have a concern about an app.”

Microsoft's senior director for Windows Marketplace, Todd Brix said, "As a direct result of our investments, Windows Phone customers now download, buy, and use more apps than at any time since we first launched Windows Phone 7 two years ago."

Based on customer feedback, Microsoft also found that 85 percent of Windows Phone 8 users indicate they would choose apps with Live Tile functionality over those without. The company said that it also worked to expand opportunities for developers this year. Microsoft has seen a 40 percent increase in month-over-month developer revenue in the 30 days since the current SDK release.

Windows Phone 8 was met with a mixed response when it was launched. The OS finally brought with it features that bring it at par with iOS and Android. Some of these features include expandable memory, support for multi-core processors and high resolution display, and more. The downside to the launch of the OS was that existing smartphones in the market that ran Windows Phone 7.5 were not eligible to receive the new OS but the 7.8 update that brought some features of the new OS to the existing devices.

We have seen some really good Windows Phone 8-based devices launch in the recent past, and we recently reviewed the HTC Windows Phone 8X (read our review here). We can’t wait to see the Nokia Lumia 920 and the Samsung Ativ S in action as well. We have also compared the top Windows Phone 8 devices available in the market. You can read about the devices here.


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Apps/Microsoft-certifies-more-than-75000-apps-for_12850.html

TRAI asks broadband service providers to meet the Quality of Service benchmarks

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has tightened the noose around the broadband service providers and asked them to meet the Quality of Service benchmarks failing which they will be facing fines.

The regulator earlier this week released the “Quality of Service of Broadband Service (Amendment) Regulations, 2012 (28 of 2012)” on financial disincentives. TRAI in its release says the “purpose of the regulations is to prescribe financial disincentives on the service providers for failure to meet the prescribed Quality of Service benchmarks of Broadband service.”

“These regulations prescribe financial disincentive on Broadband Service providers for noncompliance with the benchmark at a rate not exceeding Rs. 50,000 per parameter for the first noncompliance and Rs. 100,000 per parameter for subsequent non-compliance of the benchmarks.”

The TRAI says the regulations also provide for deterrent as financial disincentives against false reporting and delay in submission of report of the Quality of Service benchmarks. Read the full TRAI release here.


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/TRAI-asks-broadband-service-providers-to-meet_12827.html

Rumoured Sony Xperia Yuga phablet to be launched as Xperia Z: Reports

Sony's Xperia Yuga rumours are back. According to the latest rumours abuzz on the web, Sony's flagship smartphone will be called Xperia Z; a much more market-friendly name. Moreover, the device is now thought to be dust and water resistant, and bearing a low-reflectivity screen.

According to a GSMArena report, the device will come with IP57 certification for dust and water resistance, similar to the upcoming Xperia V or the HTC J Butterfly. Also, the smartphone will come with a compact slim body, measuring 139 x 71 x 7.9mm. There's no word on the weight yet, though.

Sony Xperia Z's one of the most notable features will be the 5-inch 1080p screen. The device reportedly uses Sony's OptiContrast technology (Xperia V and Xperia Tablet S also use the same feature).

Other rumoured features of the Sony device include quad-core Exynos 5 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 128GB of built-in memory and a 3000 mAh battery. The Xperia Z is most likely to be showcased at the CES 2013.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/Rumoured-Sony-Xperia-Yuga-phablet-to-be_11870.html

Nokia readying a 10.1 inch iPad competitor?

If rumours are to be believed (which they should only be with a pinch of salt), it would seem that Nokia is preparing a 10.1 inch tablet for a February 2013 reveal. It would seem that Nokia has been in talks with Qualcomm for their Snapdragon S4 processor to power the tablet.

The rumour around the supply-chain sector is that Nokia was preparing for a Q1-20122 launch for their 10.1 inch tablet, but were dissuaded by Microsoft’s push into the segment with the Surface. The testing of the tablets was assigned to ODM Compal, but then was called off in light of Microsoft focusing on its own slate coupled up with the uncertainty that surrounded the fate of Windows 8.

It would seem that Nokia is now convinced just enough to start work on their own iPad competitor again, as insiders suggest that talks between Nokia, Microsoft, Qualcomm and ODM Compal have resumed with the aim of having a working prototype ready for a reveal at Mobile World Congress in February 2013.

Up until now (and possibly till the tablet is official), Nokia maintains that it will continue to carefully monitor the tablet segment, and that a tablet from Nokia will only enter the market if it’s “uniquely Nokia.” Given Microsoft’s strict guidelines about not making any alterations to the Windows 8 OS, Nokia would probably only be left with the option of playing around with the hardware, and we have seen that Nokia has done a great job on that front with the Lumia phones. Nokia could also get an advantage over the Surface if it packs in 3G/4G radios along with offering higher storage options than Microsoft’s own.

Whether the rumours of a Nokia tablet coming out next year are real or not, one cannot deny that the lack of a tablet in the Nokia portfolio has left a gap in the company’s offering.


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Tablets/Nokia-readying-a-101-inch-iPad-competitor_11833.html

GSM operators lose over 9 million subscribers in November: COAI

GSM operators have lost more than 9 million subscribers in November, bringing the subscribers base down to 663.78 million, reveals the data released by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). At the end of October, subscriber base was 672.80 million.

Top operator Bharti Airtel lost 2.80 million subscribers to take its subscriber base to 183.61 million. Vodafone's user base slumped to 2.38 million, while Idea Cellular lost 1.56 million users. Aircel lost 1.46 million users in November with its user base slumping to 65.32 million at the end of November. Uninor lost 4,37,915 users, while Videocon lost 3,79,787 subscribers in November.

The COAI data reveal the state-run operator BSNL could not add a single subscriber in the said month, and its user base stood at 97.17 million subscribers (14.64 percent share). MTNL's user base slumped to 5.12 million at the end of November 2012, losing 741 users.

GSM operators have continued to lose subscribers over the past few months. One of the reasons for the slump is believed to be de-activations of inactive SIMs. Operators have been disconnecting the numbers inactive for 60 days. It's notable COAI data does not include stats from operators such as Reliance, Tata and MTS.

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India's telecom subscriber base registered a 2.5 million slump, at the month of October 2012. By October, the subscriber base stood 935.18 million, as against 937.70 million at the end of the month of September 2012.

“The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 935.18 million at the end of October, 2012 from 937.70 million at the end of September 2012, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of - 0.27%," said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in a statement. TRAI also stated that the decline was mostly due to the “large scale disconnection by some of the service providers”.

Check out TRAI's Telecom Subscription Data as on 31st October 2012 here.



Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/GSM-operators-lose-over-9-million-subscribers_11813.html

Resident Evil 6 coming to the PC on March 22, 2013

Capcom’s survival horror game, Resident Evil 6 will make its debut on the PC on March 22, 2013. The game has already been available for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 since October 2012.

Capcom has said that the game will be available as a download only in North America, while Europe will receive both digital and physical versions on the same date. The digital download of Resident Evil 6 will be available through Steam and will also come with Steamworks functionality. The game will also launch with all the downloadable content that was made available after the launch of the console version of the game.

Capcom also announced that Resident Evil 6 for the Xbox 360 will be available to download as a Games On Demand title this Christmas.

The system requirements for the game are as follows:

Minimum specs

• OS: Windows Vista/XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
• Processor: Intel CoreTM2 Duo 2.4 Ghz or better, AMD AthlonTM X2 2.8 Ghz or better
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 16 GB free hard drive space
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS or better
• DirectX: 9.0c or greater
• Sound: Standard audio device
  

Recommended specs

• OS: Windows Vista/XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
• Processor: Intel CoreTM 2 Quad 2.7 Ghz or better, AMD PhenomTM II X4 3 Ghz or better
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 16 GB free hard drive space
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 or better
• DirectX: 9.0c or greater
• Sound: Standard audio device
  
  
  
  Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Gaming/Resident-Evil-6-coming-to-the-PC_11803.html

Ray Kurzweil joins Google as director of engineering

Ray Kurzweil, the famed inventor and futurist, said today that he would join Google, starting Monday, to work on "some of the hardest problems in computer science."

Kurzweil's title will be director of engineering. In a long statement on his Web site, he said he would focus on machine learning and language processing:

"I've been interested in technology, and machine learning in particular, for a long time: when I was 14, I designed software that wrote original music, and later went on to invent the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, among other inventions. I've always worked to create practical systems that will make a difference in people's lives, which is what excites me as an inventor.

"In 1999, I said that in about a decade we would see technologies such as self-driving cars, and mobile phones that could answer your questions, and people criticized these predictions as unrealistic. Fast-forward a decade -- Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking questions of their Android phones. It's easy to shrug our collective shoulders as if these technologies have always been around, but we're really on a remarkable trajectory of quickening innovation, and Google is at the forefront of much of this development.

"I'm thrilled to be teaming up with Google to work on some of the hardest problems in computer science so we can turn the next decade's 'unrealistic' visions into reality."

Google confirmed the news and said Kurzweil's long history of invention would prove useful.

"Ray's contributions to science and technology, through research in character and speech recognition and machine learning, have led to technological achievements that have had an enormous impact on society," Peter Norvig, Google's director of research, said in a statement. Norvig cited the Kurzweil Reading Machine, used by Stevie Wonder and others for having words read aloud to them. "We appreciate his ambitious, long-term thinking, and we think his approach to problem-solving will be incredibly valuable to projects we're working on at Google."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57559346-93/ray-kurzweil-joins-google-as-director-of-engineering/

Apple updates iTunes to 11.0.1, fixes iCloud and Airplay issues, and more

Apple has released an update for iTunes, version 11.0.1. The update brings with it a bunch of bug fixes as well as the ability for a user to displaying duplicate songs.

Apart from recognizing duplicate songs, the update fixes an issue where new purchases in iCloud may not appear in users library if iTunes Match is turned on. The update also makes iTunes more responsive when searching a large library. It also fixes a problem where the AirPlay button may not appear as expected and important stability and performance improvements

Recently, we reported that in iTunes 11 lacked the ability to search for duplicate songs, a feature that was present in the previous iteration of the app.

After a very long wait, the iTunes store is finally active in India where users can purchase music and movies. The iTunes store is littered with a plethora of Bollywood content. You can read our launch story of the iTunes store here. If you are wondering what the new store feels like, you can take a look at our first impressions of the iTunes store here. We’ve also listed five cool features of the of Apple’s latest media app, iTunes 11. You can take a look at these cool features here.

If you haven’t checked out iTunes 11, you can download it for Mac and Windows here.


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/Apple-updates-iTunes-to-1101-fixes-iCloud_11771.html

Yahoo Mail finally gets a revamp and new apps

Yahoo on Tuesday rolled out an entire suite of email apps for every major relevant platform: all-new Apple iOS and Windows 8 apps, plus redesigned clients for Android and the Web.

Yes, Yahoo Mail still exists. The update is one of the first major product overhauls released by new CEO Marissa Mayer, who pledged to revamp Yahoo's languishing collection of Web sites and apps.

Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) once dominated search and email, and it was one of the earliest players in instant messaging and online news aggregation. Then, of course, it all went south. By the time Yahoo lured Mayer away from Google, it was barely even a shell of its former self.

With her hiring came promises to restructure the sprawling company, remake the products, and transform Yahoo into an innovator that can compete with the Googles, Facebooks, Microsofts, Apples and Twitters of the world.

Yahoo Mail general manager Vivek Sharma says Mayer was actively involved in the email revamp.

"She's played an unbelievably pivotal role in product direction and design," Sharma said. "She has an unbelievably intuitive understanding of what users want and need."

The new suite of email apps aren't life changing, but they at least offer a good experience for dedicated Yahoo users and show that the company is aware of what it needs to do to not only hang around, but actually make people care.

Following in the footsteps of Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Microsoft's recent redesigns of Gmail and Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo's apps now have a cleaner look, though Yahoo's overall use of color and texture in its user-interface design feels a few years behind what its competitors are doing. A big part of the company's goal was to make its products simpler (there are fewer visible elements and a more intuitive layout) and more consistent across platforms. All of the mobile apps and the Web client now have the same general features and layout.

Among Yahoo's new apps, the iOS app for Apple devices is probably the most modern in look and feel, though much of that comes from the baked-in iOS tools that Google, Twitter and Facebook already use in their apps (including the "pull" gesture to refresh and "swipe" for options). Most importantly: It's fast, renders emails properly, and works offline. One drawback is that it only allows one account at a time to be logged in.

The Web client is also an improvement, with less visual noise and an easier path to firing off emails, but it still looks a generation behind as far as design trends go. Yahoo's Windows 8 app can't help but feel modern since it follows the Windows 8 design language, but -- much like the default Metro email app -- the tragic flaw is that it lacks an expanded view for individual emails. That forces you to view messages in a single corner of the screen.

Merely being good might not cut it. Email is no longer a novel thing, and it's not hard to find better alternatives. Unlike Google and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Yahoo lacks a widely used instant messaging service, offers no cloud services, and doesn't have little perks like a "priority inbox" setting.

Sharma says that he hasn't dismissed the value of those features. In addition to looking into developing new clients for other iOS products (read: iPad), the company has its eye on ways to improve the utility of Yahoo Mail, he said.

These apps won't attract an army of converts, but if Yahoo follows through on its promise to treat this as a first step, there may be hope yet for the embattled company.


Source: http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/11/technology/mobile/yahoo-email-apps/index.html

Secretive X-37B space plane ready for next flight

It's round three for the mysterious X-37B space plane.

An Atlas V rocket carrying the unmanned craft, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, has gotten clearance for a planned liftoff tomorrow at just after 10 a.m. PT from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

If the previous two trips into space are any indication, don't expect the X-37B to come home anytime soon -- or for the U.S. Air Force to say much about what the vessel is up to. Is it spying? Might it eventually carry weapons? Is there extra cash lying around at the Pentagon for joy rides? Maybe it's a psychological operations ploy to mess with government types in Beijing or Tehran or Pyongyang! The speculation has risen to meet the near silence.

The one detail of any substance that the Air Force and X-37B maker Boeing have shared is that the previous X-37B trips into space went on and on and on. The first, which ended in December 2010, lasted 224 days, and the second, which ended last June, endured for 469 days, or a year and four months.

Like the space shuttle, the 29-foot-long X-37B can return to Earth for reuse, and is designed to do so autonomously. The Air Force does acknowledge that this return capability allows it to "test new technologies" with less of a risk -- and at a more reasonable cost, as aerospace missions go -- than other programs might allow. And this would account for the spacecraft's other name: the Orbital Test Vehicle.

A blurb on the Web site of the United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture responsible for the Atlas V liftoff, puts it this way:

The Air Force had hoped to get the spacecraft back into orbit in October, but unrelated problems with the separate ULA launch of a GPS satellite (aboard a Delta rocket) pushed the schedule back. "All credible crossover implication from the Delta anomaly for the OTV-3 Atlas vehicle have been thoroughly addressed and mitigated, culminating in the flight clearance decision for the OTV-3 launch," ULA said in a press release Friday.

There are two OTV craft in the X-37B fleet. The one scheduled for launch tomorrow is OTV-1, which carried out the first of the flights to date. Yes, confusingly the numbers in the the OT-x designations seem to be used loosely both for the spacecraft (-1 and -2) and for the missions (-1, -2, and now -3).

And who knows? Maybe the third time is the charm for getting a little more information out of the Pentagon about what the little spacecraft is up to.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57558309-76/secretive-x-37b-space-plane-ready-for-next-flight/

Apple and Google making joint bid for Kodak patents, report says

Apple and Google might be opponents competing for smartphone and tablet customers, but according to a Bloomberg report they have joined forces to acquire Eastman Kodak's 1,000 imaging patents for more than $500 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the possible alliance in August. Previously, the Journal reported that Apple and Google were each leading separate consortiums to purchase the patents in the range of $150 million to $250 million.

Eastman Kodak, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, needs to sell the patents to help pay down a $950 million loan from Citigroup. The company said that it expects to exit bankruptcy in 2013. Court documents earlier this year revealed that the company valued its patent portfolio in the range of $2.6 billion.

Read: Foss Patents: Rumors of Apple-Google alliance to buy Kodak patents show smartphone giants' auction fatigue

Apple and Google were on opposite sides in another contest for high-stakes technology patents. In July 2011, a consortium of technology companies comprising Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Sony bought some 6,000 patents and patent applications from Nortel Networks for $4.5 billion. Rivals Google and Intel reportedly began the bidding for the intellectual property, which included patents and patent applications for wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, and semiconductor technologies, at $900 million.

The digital imaging patents, which are relevant to cameras, smartphones, and other devices, could help both Apple and Google, who are engaged in numerous patent disputes. Apple has been embroiled in patent disputes with Samsung and other Google Android-based vendors. The joint effort to procure the patents could auger a less litigious atmosphere in the future.

CNET's Don Reisinger and Steven Musil contributed to this report.


Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57558033-92/apple-and-google-making-joint-bid-for-kodak-patents-report-says/

Apple iPad mini and 4th gen iPad now available in India

Apple latest generation of tablets – the iPad mini and the 4^th generation iPad – are up for grabs online in India today. An advertisement is doing the rounds in major newspapers in the country, signifying the release of the iPad mini tablet in India.

The information of the launch of the tablet however was not communicated to us via Apple’s PR. The advertisement shows the availability of the product in iWorld stores, which is a premium reseller of Apple products.

Users who wish to purchase the tablet can also do so from online retailers such as saholic.com or flipkart.com, which have listed the device as available. Both sites claim the tablets will be delivered in 4 to 6 business days.

The pricing of the iPad mini is as follows:

• Apple iPad mini (16GB Wi-Fi): Rs. 21,900
• Apple iPad mini (16GB Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 29,900
• Apple iPad mini (32GB Wi-Fi): Rs. 27,900
• Apple iPad mini (32GB Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 35,900
• Apple iPad mini (64GB Wi-Fi): Rs. 33,900
• Apple iPad mini (64GB Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 41,900

The pricing for the iPad 4th gen is as follows:

• Apple iPad 4th gen (16GB - Wi-Fi): Rs. 31,900
• Apple iPad 4th gen (16GB – Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 39,900
• Apple iPad 4th gen (32GB – Wi-Fi): Rs. 37,900
• Apple iPad 4th gen (32GB Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 45,900
• Apple iPad 4th gen (64GB Wi-Fi): Rs. 43,900
• Apple iPad 4th gen (64GB Wi-Fi +3G): Rs. 51,900

If you are interested in picking up the iPad mini, you can read our review of the device here.

If the 4^th gen iPad is your weapon of choice, then take a look at our review of the device here.

One thing that must be noted that we have four models of the iPad available in India - the iPad 2, iPad third generation, fourth generation and the mini available in India.

The pricing of the third generation iPad in India is as follows.

• Apple iPad 3rd gen (16GB - Wi-Fi): Rs. 28,900
• Apple iPad 3rd gen (16GB – Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 36,900
• Apple iPad 3rd gen (32GB – Wi-Fi): Rs. 34,800
• Apple iPad 3rd gen (32GB Wi-Fi + 3G): Rs. 42,900
• Apple iPad 3rd gen (64GB Wi-Fi): Rs. 40,900
• Apple iPad 3rd gen (64GB Wi-Fi +3G): Rs. 48,900
  
  

You can read our review of the third generation iPad here

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Tablets/Apple-iPad-mini-and-4th-gen-iPad_11672.html

Google+ rolls out Communities feature; grows to 135 mln active users

Google has ceaselessly worked to improve its social networking venture Google+ and increase the user engagement on the site. Google's latest effort to ramp up Google+ comes in the form a new 'Communities' feature. With Communities, Google+ users can join/create groups devoted a particular set of interest such as work project, photography, soccer team and so on.

"Today we're launching two new improvements that help bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software," Google's senior vice president, Vic Gundotra, said in a blog post. Communities allows Google+ users to create "permanent homes for all the stuff you love ... the wonderful, the weird, and yes, even the things that are waaay out there," Gundotra added.

Google+ Communities gives users public or private membership for people looking for a platform to share their opinions with other like-minded users. Discussion categories can be of any topic a user wants to create. Google has also integrated the option to start Hangouts, plan events with fellow users and share/recommend a favourite community by clicking the +1 button.

You can spot the new “Communities” icon as a green circle with three floating heads. The roll-out is in its initial stage right and if you are looking to be part of any network, you'll be glad to know there's already National Geographic's Exploration, Liverpool FC Fans, and the Star Wars group. Google will be making the feature available on mobile devices very soon.

Despite allegations of Google+ being a ghost town, Google says its social networking service has shown signs of sustained growth. The service has now more than 135 million monthly active users, up from 100 million registered in September.

“We have a momentum story,” says vice president Brad Horowitz. “We're absolutely thrilled by the adoption and uptake,” he said, adding that Google+ features—such as the “+1” button, which is similar to Facebook’s “Like” button—increasingly have been embedded in other parts of Google, including its search engine and business listings.

According to Google, such integrations have a huge impact with 235 million people per month now use Google+ features across all Google sites, up from 150 million in late June.

Launch of Google+ Communities comes along with roll-out of an Android version of the popular Snapseed photo app from Nik Software, which Google had taken over in September. The Android app comes with the ability to share your creations via Google+ and other services.

Also dubbed as Instagram-competitor, the Snapseed app is now also available for free on Apple's App Store. Read more about the launch of Snapseed photo app for Android here. In the meanwhile, check out video below where Google illustrates its new Communities feature.

 Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Google-rolls-out-Communities-feature-grows-to_11665.html

Google updates Translate for Android, adds slew of new features

Google has rolled out an updated Translate app for Android platform, adding a slew of new features such as camera-input support for new languages such as Chinese, Japenese and Korean. The update also includes handwriting support for 11 more languages.

The updated Google Translate for Android allows users to translate text between 65 languages. The handwriting recognition support now supports languages such as Afrikaans, Croatian, Czech, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Welsh. For Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages, the camera-input currently only supports horizontal text.

The updated app for Android comes shortly after rolled out an update for the Web version. The update for the Web version adds reverse translations and synonym clusters while prioritizing the most popular results. Download the updated Google Translate for Android from here.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Apps/Google-updates-Translate-for-Android-adds-slew_11654.html

Apple updates iWork for iOS and OSX

If you are one who uses iWork instead of Microsoft office to work on documents, presentations and more, then you may want to pay close attention - Apple's iWork has been updated to version 9.3, this allowing iWork for Mac to support iWork for iOS 1.7 apps.

If you have installed Apple iWork on your Mac via a disc, then you will be able to update the app in the traditional way of software updates – clicking on Software Updates under the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen. Just in case you have downloaded it from the Mac App Store, then you can get the update from the App Store.

With the Pages 1.7 update, users get a bunch of new features. This includes improved compatibility with Microsoft Word and Pages for Mac. Use Change Tracking to track changes to body text in a document. Accept and reject individual changes as you review a document. Import Pages and Microsoft Word documents with change tracking and continue to track changes to body text. Preserve tracked changes in documents exported in Microsoft Word or Pages format. Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Pages for Mac. Add reflections to shapes. Lock and unlock objects.

With Numbers 1.7, users get the following update. Improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel and Numbers for Mac. Hide and unhide rows and columns. Import and export Numbers for Mac spreadsheets with filters, and turn filters on and off. Preserve rich text in tables when importing and exporting. Add reflections to shapes. Lock and unlock objects.

With Keynote 1.7, users will get the following updates. Improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac. Import and export all Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac slide sizes. Import and export presentation themes, complete with master slides and preset styles. Play back all Keynote action builds including Move, Rotate, Scale, and Opacity. Add new slide transitions including Shimmer and Sparkle. Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Keynote for Mac. Add reflections to shapes. New print layouts include options to print with presenter notes, with builds, and without backgrounds. Lock and unlock objects.

Users who are interested can download Pages, Keynote and Numbers from the Mac App store for Rs. 1,100 each and for Rs. 550 each for your iOS device.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Apps/Apple-updates-iWork-for-iOS-and-OSX_11627.html

WhatsApp denies Facebook acquisition rumours

Popular messaging app, WhatsApp is denying rumours that it is in talks with social networking giant, Facebook for a buyout.

WhatsApp business head Neeraj Arora told Venture Beat, “The TechCrunch article is a rumor and not factually accurate. We have no further information to share at the moment.”

The response comes to a rumour that has been making the rounds which says that Facebook is in negotiations to acquire WhatsApp. The rumour made an appearance first on TechCrunch.

The TechCrunch report says, “WhatsApp, the multiplatform mobile messaging app that has been one of the runaway success stories for ad-free, paid services, has been in talks to be acquired by Facebook, according to sources close to the matter.

We’re still digging around on potential price and other details about how advanced the deal is. But as mobile becomes the most bloody battleground in the Internet’s game of thrones, you can see how such a deal could make sense.”

Even though WhatsApp has denied talks about the accusation, the deal kind of makes sense. WhatsApp is a very popular messaging app in India and it is free for all the mobile platforms except iOS. Facebook too has a messaging app that not only works on smartphones but on other devices such as tablets and you’re trusted old computer. Integration would see a more seamless conversation between friends.

As of today it gets a little difficult being a user of multiple messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, BBM, iMessage and the plethora more available for the mobile user. Not to mention the good old traditional SMS that just turned 20. Read all about that here.


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/WhatsApp-denies-Facebook-acquisition-rumours_11611.html

New character, city and screenshots revealed for Dead Island Riptide

For the fans of the Dead Island franchise, Techland has revealed four more screenshots from the upcoming Dead Island Riptide game. Along with the screenshots, we also get introduced to one new character, John Morgan.

Morgan is described by Deep Silver, the game’s distributor, as an ex-navy seal whose career in the US Navy did not take off as he had envisioned. SO instead, he spends his time as a cook on a military ship, and is a master of hand-to-hand combat. Interesting combination of skills and back-story for a character about to be introduced to a game that’s essentially packed with mayhem and action.

Along with Morgan Deep Silver also shed light on a new city called Henderson that will be a part of the game. The city, once a lay-over for the wealthiest of travelers, has now turned into a desolate land infested with the undead and ravaged by unforgiving monsoon.

Lastly, the four screenshots. If the images are to be believed, we should have some high expectations from the game as far as visuals go. The dynamic lighting and character detailing in the screenshots look absolutely amazing, almost next-gen. However, we’re not sure whether these screenshots came from a PC or a console. Generally PC screenshots tend to be of a much higher quality, given a desktop’s increased processing power over the consoles. While the game Crysis looked incredibly stellar on the PC, its console version did leave a little more to desire. We hope that that won’t be the case with dead Island Riptide.

 The game is set right after the events of the first Dead Island game, where our four protagonists have had their escape foiled by a tropical storm. Now they are trapped on the island of Panalai, where they must relive the entire Zombie apocalypse nightmare all over again, but only this time, the Zombies have been affected by an unknown mutation.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Gaming/New-character-city-and-screenshots-revealed-for_11599.html