Delta Airlines Updates Fly Delta App to Allow Tracking of Baggage

As most travelers will attest, one of the bigger fears of air travel is the loss of your luggage.  If you have seen any documentary on how airports work, it is a miracle that it doesn’t happen more often (unbelievably complex systems just under your feet as you walk in the terminal at a major airport) but when it does, it can be a frustrating experience. Delta Airlines has taken the proactive step on this with their latest update to the Fly Delta app for Windows Phone.  The app now has the ability to track your luggage and you can do so while you are on the actual flight!  It is a great new feature that hopefully other airline apps will follow.

In addition to the bag tracking, you can now pin your boarding pass to the Start screen, check in and pay for baggage fees within the app and open up airport maps in Bing Maps.

The update requires that your phone be running Mango on your Windows Phone.

Get the Fly Delta app in the Marketplace

Windows Phone Mango has been fully deployed – Dell Venue Pro finally gets the update

It is official!  Windows Phone 7.5 (AKA Windows Phone Mango) is now out there for everyone and every device.

Today the Dell Venue Pro started getting the update making it the last of the current Windows Phones to get updated.  The update does not include anything new but it should be noted that the compass function that is built into the Venue Pro will not function after the update which is somewhat of a bummer.  It is also unclear if tethering will be available either so if you find it is be sure to post a comment.

To get the update just plug your Dell Venue Pro into your PC and fire up Zune and it should be available for you.

MobilityMinded Ponders Why You Can’t See Friends Facebook Updates on Your People Tile

One of the frustrating things about the Windows Phone People Hub and Friends Live Tiles is that updates from Facebook for your contacts are not shown.  In principle, this should work on Windows Phone because of the tight integration the OS has to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Live.  If you have struggled with this you are not alone and it is not a problem with Windows Phone.  It is a problem with the social network.

The problem lies with the privacy setting in the service and in order for you to see your friends updates, they have to allow it in Facebook on their account.  So yes, you have to ask friends to change their privacy so you can see them.  Odd?  Yes.  Frustrating?  Absolutely.

Evernote for Windows Phone Gets a Major Update

Evernote released a major update to the popular note taking app for Windows Phone today.  The new 2.1 version brings full support for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and really makes this the must-have note taking app for the platform.

The biggest new feature is the ability to pin just about anything in Evernote to the Start screen.  Now you can pin folders in Evernote where you have stored notes including things like voice notes.  If you have a grocery list for example, you can pin that to your Start Menu.

Courtesy of Evernote

You can also pin a template to your Start screen.  If you make the same note type regularly, you can now create a template and pin that to your Start menu so you can quickly and easily access it.  It is a huge time saver for power users.

Along with a handful of other features, background syncing of your notes to your Windows Phone to Evernote so you can access them on any device – PC, Mac, Android phone or another Windows Phone.

Evernote is free in Marketplace.  There is a premium service available as well for $5 a month that brings improved sync features amongst other things.

Why Making Office for iPad is a Good Move for Microsoft [Opinion]

Yesterday there was been a lot of discussions around Microsoft reportedly building iPad versions of their Office suite of apps:  Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  The discussions stem from an article in The Daily that reports that the iPad apps are coming along with an update to the Office for Mac suite to better support OS X Lion.  If the rumors are true, I can only say that it is about time.

There are plenty of reasons for Microsoft to make the Office for iPad apps without admitting defeat, sacrificing their own table ambitions with the upcoming Windows 8 release and meeting the needs of likely millions of iPad owners.  And while pundits will suggest that these needs are covered with the iWorks suite from Apple, the install base for the Cupertino suite is only a fraction of that of Microsoft Office.  The opportunity is ripe for Microsoft and it is time to make the move.

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