The Music Deals app for Windows and Windows Phone has received a minor update this week, brining several new features including Share, Pin, Home and Help buttons.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Music Deals app, it is a relatively new app that brings deals to Xbox Music users weekly.
The Facebook Messenger app for Windows Phone has been updated with several new features including the ability to message non-friends on Facebook contacts. The update is available now in the Windows Phone Store and for those keeping score at home, it is version 9.0.
It took the better part of a year but Angry Bird fans rejoice. Angry Birds Seasons for Windows Phone has finally been updated, brining 24 new levels, a load of stability improvements and it is now free. The update hit the Windows Phone store yesterday and is available now to download.
Angry Birds as a whole remains one of the most popular games ever for mobile devices regardless of platform. Seemingly however, as is the case more than it should be, the Windows Phone versions of the games are woefully behind on updates. That’s changed with this release of Angry Birds Seasons and hopefully this is a trend we will start seeing for the entire franchise on Windows Phone.
Microsoft has released a minor update to the Remote Desktop app for Windows Phone, fixing a few issues but also bringing support for Azure RemoteApp to your device. For those who are not familiar with Azure RemoteApp, this is the cloud-based solution for applications for businesses so they can have them in a centralized location but be accessed remotely via devices running Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Your company’s applications run on Windows Server in the Azure cloud, where they’re easier to scale and update. Users can access their applications remotely from their Internet-connected laptop, tablet, or phone. While appearing to run on the users’ local device, the applications are centralized on Azure’s protected, reliable platform.
For those of you who have been around Windows business solutions for a while, think of this as a really advanced, highly stable, Windows Terminal-like solution. Just really, really big.
Microsoft has released a big update to the Battery Saver app for Windows Phone. The Battery Saver app allows you to quickly and easily identify those apps which are consuming the most of your battery power, manage them and manage how your Windows Phone performs when it is running low on battery. Frankly I’m not sure why this app isn’t named Battery Sense as it is installed on every new Microsoft Lumia Windows Phone and seems to stick out a bit naming wise from the other Sense apps.
But I digress.
The update has a lot of new features and information that can help you see which app is consuming the most of your battery either all time or over the past 24 hours. Perhaps the biggest has been the improved battery usage scale in the Battery Saver app. The usage data now scales to the actual device battery capacity with full width mapping to 100% capacity. What that means is that the 3200mAh hour battery in my Lumia 1320, the usage scale will be far more accurate than before and it will be a different formula for my Lumia 520 with its 1100mAh battery. In other words, it’s more accurate.
Age of Empires Castle Siege for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 got a hefty update today, bringing a significant number of stability and performance updates. Version 1.3 of the game is now available in the Windows Store on your Windows 8.1 PC and Windows Phone Store on your phone.
The update is 170MB in size for Windows Phone so it is a big update and will require you to have your phone connected to WiFi in order to download it.
You can read my review of the game here
Age of Empires Castle Siege for Windows Phone – Free – Download Now
The popular Vivino app for Windows phone has been updated this week with several new personalizing features including a new Personal Taste Profile. I reviewed Vivino Wine Scanner a few months back and it remains one of my favorite apps for rating wines I try and getting ratings for a bottle before I buy it. It is a gem of an app.
Vivino Wine Scanner for Windows Phone – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now
Overnight the MSN apps for Windows Phone were updated and you should see those notifications on your device now. What was updated? That’s a great question. It is a complete mystery as there are no release notes in the app notes for them. This isn’t the first time this has happened. If you remember back in October we got a similar update of mystery.