Get the Lumia 640 Wallpapers Today

If you can’t wait to get your hands on the Lumia 640, you can at least get the next best thing while you wait:  The wallpapers that ship on the 640.  Thanks to the team at WindowsMania.pl (and a follow up link from the team at Wmpoweruser) you can now get a .rar file that contains all of the wallpapers that will ship with the Lumia 640 when it is released.  As I posted Monday and Yesterday, it is expect that the Lumia 640 will start pre-orders this week or next with a mid-April ship date.

Xim Photo Sharing App Updated for Windows Phone

The social photo sharing app Xim from Microsoft Research has been updated today with several new features for the Windows Phone app.  If you aren’t familiar with Xim, don’t worry, most aren’t.  It is a photo sharing app that allows you to share photos from a variety of locations – Camera Roll, OneDrive, Facebook, Dropbox, Instagram – with others who are on the Xim app.  Think Snapchat in a way.  The good news is the Xim app is available not only for Windows Phone but also for iOS and Android and you can even share photos with Amazon Fire TV sets.  It’s a pretty cool service and like Snapchat, Xim’s die after a certain amount of time.

The update released today, version 1.5.1.0 for those keeping score at home, brings several key updates to the app as well as a host of bug fixes.

Xim for Windows Phone – Free – Download Now

Age of Empires Castle Siege Gets Another Massive Update

It has been a couple of months since the last Age of Empires Castle Siege update but today Microsoft Studios made up for lost time.  Today they have issued an update for the popular tower-defense style game for both Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.  The update, version 1.6.0.14 is available now in their respective Windows and Windows Phone Stores and both are a hefty update with a lot of new features and a boatload of bug fixes.

Age of Empires Castle Siege – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

Age of Empires Castle Siege for Windows Phone – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

The Best Windows Experience on Microsoft Hardware – Why It Should Happen

I will preface this post with a disclaimer to start in an effort to ward off the flaming emails.  The purpose of this post is not to suggest that Microsoft should get rid of their current ecosystem of partners.  It is too fast and far to important to the company and the success of their solutions.  All you have to do is look at the all new Dell XPS 13 laptop and read the raving reviews it is getting to understand just how important OEMs are in the mix for Microsoft.

But equally, you can look at the Microsoft built and branded devices and see where the company could and should be more actively involved in hardware manufacturing.  I’m not talking about mice and keyboards (although they do a pretty good job at that too) but rather things like the Microsoft Lumia lineup and the Surface Pro 3.  Arguably the best Windows experience for their form factor are on these devices because Microsoft has intimately been involved in the hardware design of them to get the most out of the Operating System.  Even with the Microsoft Band, a device that is near impossible to get because they can’t keep them in stock, produces a great experience for users.  And while user experience is important, there is also the matter of controlling their own destiny when it comes to updates and improvements along with security.  All of these are why I think Microsoft should look long and hard at the PC and Laptop market for their own branded devices.

6Tag for Windows Phone Brings the new Instagram API in The Latest Update

6Tag for Windows Phone has received another update today, the third in as many weeks, with several fixes and leveraging the new Instagram API.  The update, version 4.0.5.0 for those keeping score at home, builds on the mega update to version 4.0 a few weeks ago.  This update is a mix of technical updates to improve the app, a bug fix and some new features when it comes to Direct posts on Instagram.

6Tag for Windows Phone – Free – Download Now

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