Category: App Update

The team over at WPCentral posted on this yesterday but I had to point it out as well.

One of the big complaints I’ve hard here at the site is the lack of functionality in the Bank of America app for Windows Phone.  Since the app was updated last month it has been, well, pretty much non-functional.  Seems that the update they did killed the ability for many customers to log in, especially those who had special characters in their username or password.  Bank of America finally got around to fixing this and all indications are that it is indeed fixed and you can once again log into your accounts.

Now we can go into a long laundry list of the whys and hows of this being completely unacceptable.  A month to update an app – an essential app for many – is completely ridiculous.  This should have been a 1 or 2 day fix at most.  Which leads me to two observations:

• Bank of America, if you want customers to actually use mobile banking you should keep your apps up-to-date and functional.
• Microsoft, if you are getting thousands of reports that an app isn’t working, it is time to step in.  Do you think Apple would have let something like this happen?  Seriously?  Really?

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

Without question the best flight simulator game for Windows Phone is Infinite Flight.  It provides an incredible flying experience and is beautifully designed.  Now the developer, Flying Development Studios, has released a major update to the game.

Infinite Flight Screenshot

The new 2.1 update, which is now available in the Marketplace, brings two new aircraft to the game (F/A-18 Hornet and 787-900 Dreamliner) along with a host of improvements, changes and fixes. Here is the complete 2.1 change log:

2.1:
– Added the F/A-18 Hornet
– Added the Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner
– Added more smaller airports in both regions (137 total airports)
– Reworked HUD readability
– Improved physics of jets at high altitude (flight up to FL400+ is now possible)
– Added airport beacon at night, visible from afar.
– Updated airport database (up to date frequencies, runways…)
– Runways surfaces now supported (asphalt, concrete, dirt, mud, dry lakebed…)
– Fixed aircraft shadow issues
– Cleaned up UI to select airport by region
– Tweaked physics of the B747, C17 and A380
– Added virtual cockpit camera for new airplanes

In all there are 11 aircraft you can fly in and around 137 different airports in the San Francisco and Southern California areas.  The game is $4.99 and is a healthy 38MB download so you will need to be on WiFi to download it.  If you are a flight sim fan (Clinton raises his hand) then you have to give Infinite Flight a try.  You won’t be disappointed.

Infinite Flight in the Marketplace

Amazon has just released a significant update to their Amazon Mobile app.  The new 1.5 version brings a new level of support for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and a new barcode scanner that can check pricing and availability of an item from Amazon.  You can pin that barcode scanner to the Start screen as a Live tile so you can instantly start scanning while you are shopping.

The update also brings support for task switching that is in the 7.5 release.

The update is free in Marketplace and does require Windows Phone 7.5 to be on your phone.

The wait is finally over!  Jeff Wilcox, the Microsoft employee who has developed the Foursquare app 4th & Mayor for Windows Phone has released version 3.0 of the popular app.  The new version supports all the fun things Mango brings to Windows Phone including Live Tiles and the ability to pin friends, yourself and even a quick check-in tile to your Start screen.

4th & Mayor requires that you have a Foursquare account, which is free.  The app itself is also free.

A full review of 4th & Mayor will be coming later this week.

Twitter has just updated their app for Windows Phone which now makes it compatible with Mango’s task switching (multitasking) functionality.  Unfortunately… that’s about it.  There is still no Live Tile support or Push update support which is a bit of a letdown honestly.  Still, the new version seems a good bit faster than the previous build but beyond that, not much has changed.

You can update Twitter on your Windows Phone by going to Marketplace on your device or by clicking this link.