Blackberry Messenger for Windows Phone is now available for all to download.

The app in still officially in beta and features:

Chat with friends on Windows Phone, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry:
• Know when messages have been delivered (D’s) and read (R’s)
• Quickly share photos, voice notes, BBM contacts and your location
• See when contacts are responding to your message
• Emoticons for every mood and emotion let you express yourself

BBM, now specially designed for Windows Phone
• BBM picks up the modern look & feel of Windows Phone
• Pin BBM Groups and 1:1 chats to the Start screen for easy access to your most important chats

Chat and Share with many at once:
• Groups – BBM groups help you share pictures, lists, and appointments with group members. You can even be in a group with people who aren’t part of your own BBM contact list.
• Multi-person chats – Invite multiple contacts to have a chat together.
• Broadcast messages – Send a message to multiple BBM contacts at one time.

BBM lets you protect your privacy. You control it:
• You chose how to share your information – BBM uses PINs instead of phone numbers or email addresses so that it’s more private, and you always control who can contact you
• You chose your contacts – 2-way opt-in means you have control over who is able to message you

Create your own BBM profile:
• Post a profile picture using images or pictures
• Update your status to let people know what you’re up to or how you feel

Blackberry promises to continue adding features and move to the BBM version 2 soon.

Download the app from the Windows Phone Store here.

Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru reports that Russian OEM Fly is about to release the cheapest Windows Phone yet in Russia.

The Fly Era will only cost 3990 rubles ($112), even cheaper than the Nokia Lumia 530 (4990 rubles) and Prestigio MultiPhone DUO 8400  (4290 rubles).

The handset is a dual SIM design with a 4 inch WVGA IPS screen and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 clocked at 1.2 GHz (Adreno 302 GPU), 512 MB RAM and 4 GB of internal memory, expandable using microSD.

Unlike the 530 the handset also features a VGA front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear camera. Like the 530 the camera does not have autofocus.

The Windows Phone 8.1 smartphone has a 125,5 x 65 x 10,7 mm plastic case with a metal finish and has a 1500 mAh battery.

The handset is expected to go on sale soon.

Indian retailer Croma has partnered with Intel to announce two new Windows 8.1 tablets in India. One is Croma 1179 8-inch tablet and the second one is Croma 1177 10.1-inch 2-in-1 device. The main selling point of these devices will be their pricing. Croma 1179 will go on sale at Rs 13,990 and while Croma 1177 will go on sale for Rs 21,990. Both these tablets will be available through Croma’s retail stores and Croma online store. Find the detailed specs of these tablets below,

Croma 1179 Tablet:

-8-inch 1280x800p display

-1.33GHz Intel Atom Processor Z3735D

-2GB RAM

-2MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera

-32GB Internal memory with microSD card support

-5000mAh lithium polymer battery

-Support for 3G dongle

-Windows 8.1 OS

Croma 1177 Tablet:

-10.1-inch 1280x800p display

-1.33GHz Intel Atom Processor Z3735D

-2GB RAM

-2MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera

-32GB Internal memory with microSD card support

-5000mAh lithium polymer battery

-3G ready and WiFi

-Windows 8.1 OS

A vast number of our users are on the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview.

The good news is that next week you should automatically be prompted to update to the next version of Windows Phone 8.1, Update 1, which brings numerous new features, including new folders, SMS improvements and much more.

Of course you would still be lacking some hardware features such as Bluetooth LE support, and it may make a lot more sense to actually downgrade and next week install the new developer preview.

Thomas Nigro, designer and developer for Videolan, has posted some screen shots of VLC for Windows Phone.

As we posted last night, the gorgeous-looking app is now a universal app with 90% code share between the desktop and mobile version.

This includes the XAML UI of the app, which is designed to be responsive, meaning the app fits itself to the shape and size of the window, making it ideal not just for full screen tablets and phones, but also for future windowed metro apps strongly rumoured for Windows Threshold.

Thomas also writes that the current version is somewhat slow, but that the VLC wrapper was recently upgraded from DirectX2D to DirectX3D, which should offer performance improvements. The current version also lacks DLNA support on Windows Phone, but this may change in the future.

Unfortunately he also writes that there are still some remaining issues with the ARM compiler which is delaying the Windows Phone app, but as soon as this is resolved they are ready to publish the app.

The screen shots certainly make it look like it is worth the wait.  See more at Thomas’s blog here.

PushUps Pro:

Your personal push-up trainer that helps you reach your exercise and strength training goals with an efficient, easy-to-follow plan. Think it can’t be that easy? Let Runtastic show you otherwise! With the Runtastic Push-Ups PRO App, you can achieve your fitness goals with the guidance of trained professionals. You will be motivated to workout harder, strengthen your muscles, and you will have fun in the process!  Unique recognition of your push ups: The recognition of your push ups is done automatically by touching the screen with your nose.

Features:

• Three levels of sport science training plans with a goal of 100 push-ups
• Count of completed push ups by touching the screen with the nose
• Automatic countdown timer for your break between sets
• Voice Coach
• Personal records and exercise statistics recorded and saved (i.e. monthly training statistics)
• Upload workout activities to Runtastic.com for future review, analysis, and comparison
• Social media sharing: Share your strength and personal records with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and E-mail.

Download Runtastic PushUps PRO here from Windows Store for free.

SitUps Pro:
Flatten your stomach, build muscle, and get those abs to start showing with the Runtastic Sit-Ups PRO App!
With the Runtastic Sit-Ups PRO App, you can now achieve your core strength and midsection fitness goals. The app is your personal sit up trainer, which implements an easy-to-follow, scientific sports training plan. The progressive plan will help you build strength and see constant improvement in your overall fitness and your overall strength training capacity. Unique recognition of your sit-ups: Sit-ups are counted automatically using the accelerometer.

Features:

• Three levels of sports science training plans with a goal of 100 sit-ups completed in one session
• Accurate count of sit-ups using accelerometer
• Automatic countdown timer for your break between sets
• Voice Coach
• Personal records and exercise statistics recorded and saved (i.e. monthly training statistics)
• Upload workout activities to Runtastic.com for future review, analysis, and comparison
• Social media sharing: Share your strength and personal records with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and E-mail.

Download Runtastic SitUps PRO here from Windows Store for free.

Squats Pro:

Do you want to shape and strengthen your legs and glutes? With the Runtastic Squats PRO App as your personal trainer, you can now improve your leg strength and reach new fitness goals. The app is your personal squat trainer that implements an easy-to-follow, scientific sports training plan. The progressive workout plan will help you build strength in your quads and glutes, and you’ll see continuous improvement in your overall fitness and strength training capacity as you work towards completion of the training plan. Unique recognition of your squats: Squats are counted automatically using the accelerometer.

Download Runtastic Squats PRO here from Windows Store for free.

?Roku-en (“Six yen”) from Beautiful Mind Games is an adaptation of the traditional Japanese game where the object is to stack the required number of cards so that every disk fits into a circle of the same color, and to do it as fast as possible.

• Learn instantly how to play with interactive and entertaining instructions.
• Chose from a variety of stack sizes. 
• Track your progress over time and post your grades to online leaderboards.
• Pause and resume the game at any time, or leave it and come back later to complete it.
• Stuck? Let the computer show you a possible solution.
• Never play the same game twice – each game is randomly generated and unique.

Great simple yet challenging game for all ages. Brought to you by the developers of Triangula, Pairanoia, Triomino, Symbolica, and many other popular logic games for Windows and Windows Phone.

?Roku-en is FREE and can be found in the Windows Phone Store.

The visuals for this game look absolutely insane. Shoggoth Rising has originally launched on iOS and Android last December, but now it's on Windows Phone, too. You play as Ned, who has survived a shipwreck. You found a lighthouse, but you're far from being safe. Waves of sea creatures are going after you and you need to kill them before they kill you.

Head past the break to watch our gameplay video on the Nokia Lumia 930.

Immediately after launching the game, you'll be impressed with how it looks. The background on the main menu has lightning, rain, waves, and it's moving around like you're on a boat. Before you even start playing, we suggest heading over to the settings and tinker with the five graphics quality options: lowest, low, medium, high, and ultra. We've selected ultra on our Nokia Lumia 930.

You are positioned on top of the lighthouse. Use your weapons to prevent the creatures from climbing up to harm you. You start out with a gun called Blunderbuss, but eventually unlock other weapons such as a Rumgun and Cannon. They each have different damage points as well as ammunition. When the creatures get too close, you need a plank to hit them. It can also be upgraded to increase damage.

When things get overwhelming, you have special weapons that can help. The first one gets unlocked at level 7. It's called St. Elmo's Fire, which is a bolt of lightning that causes a lot of damage to all the creatures currently climbing up. There's a countdown after using the special weapon until you can use it again.

You can move the camera around for a better view of the creatures climbing up. It'll make it easier to shoot them. You can swipe up, down, left, right, and even pinch to zoom. The top of the screen displays your health. This decreases when the creatures get close and hit you. The round ends if the health meter reaches zero.

Surviving a round gives you money, which you can use to upgrade your weapons. It's necessary to upgrade because the creatures become stronger and harder to kill. They become faster, stronger, and even get bigger. The upgrade menu shows the weapons you currently have and displays the amount of damage you can cause if you upgrade. The prices increase as you go up a level.

There are currently 20 levels in the game grouped as the first episode. The second episode is listed in the menu, but it is currently locked with a message that says, "coming soon."

Shoggoth Rising costs 99 cents at the Windows Phone Store. Since it is a universal app, you can buy it once and install the game on both Windows Phone and Windows devices. There's also a free trial available. It's interesting that there are no in-app purchases available to get more credits. You actually have to play the game to earn the upgrades.

Check out Shoggoth Rising and let us know what you think in the comments!

• Download Shoggoth Rising from the Windows Phone Store
• Download Shoggoth Rising from the Windows Store

Bank of Brazil has just given their official Windows Phone app a much needed refresh. Head to the Windows Phone Store and you'll find Bank of Brazil at version 2.0. It's a huge update with plenty of new features.

Bank of Brazil (Banco do Brasil) is the largest Brazilian and Latin American bank. They've had an app out for Windows Phone for nearly three years, but it's been a little neglected. That changes with today's update.

Here's what's new in this version:

• Payment via barcode reader
• BB code to perform transactions over the internet with increased safety, tripling the limits for payments and transfers
• BB payment account
• Loan confirmation
• Mobile withdrawals
• Visa TravelMoney (balances, statements and recharging)
• Various improvements

Anyone in Brazil bank here? Let us know what you think of the updated app!

• Download Banco do Brasil for Windows Phone

Microsoft officially announced that Xbox One will go on sale in China on September 23rd. The launch lineup of games was also revealed. The console is priced at ¥3,699 RMB. At the Xbox One media briefing, Microsoft and BesTV revealed that more than 25 developers are building more than 70 games for Xbox One including exclusive content, free to play games, and blockbuster titles.

In partnership with BesTV, Xbox One will bring hundreds of thousands of hours of entertainment content including blockbuster movies, sports, documentaries and on-demand TV programs, fitness and exclusive, locally developed applications. Finally, Xbox One is bringing unique value to the Chinese market including innovative pricing models for games, compelling console bundles, local customer support and two year warranty.

Xbox One unveils gaming portfolio roadmap for China:

Recognized for the best games lineup of 2014 at the E3 trade show, Xbox will bring its long history of delivering blockbuster titles from Microsoft Studios and the industry’s most visionary creators to deliver a rich lineup of games to Xbox One in China. Xbox One will launch in China with an innovative pricing model including free to play games, and blockbuster games such as Forza Motorsport 5: Racing Game of the Year available at suggested retail prices of ¥99 RMB to ¥249 RMB. Xbox One will offer fans unique cinematic-like experiences with sports, action and adventure, shooter, dance, karaoke and racing games not available on any other device in China, including:

•Exclusive titles from Microsoft Studios: Expected to launch on Day One are popular titles from Microsoft Studios including, Forza Motorsport 5: Racing Game of the Year – the highest-rated racing franchise of this console generation, Kinect Sports Rivals, Powerstar Golf, Zoo Tycoon, and Max: The Curse of Brotherhood among others. Beyond launch, the Xbox One games portfolio will continue to grow with titles like Sunset Overdrive and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which will bring the complete story of Halo’s legendary hero, the Master Chief, to life on one console for the very first time.
•Games from the world’s leading developers: Twelve of the world’s largest developers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and 2K are working to bring their gaming favorites to China.
•Premium content from Chinese developers: Thirteen of China’s best developers are already working to bring new IP and fan-favorite games to Xbox One, starting with Neverwinter Online from Perfect World and games from Gamebar and Yingpei Games. Additional games and experiences are in development from Snail Games, NetEase and Tencent to name a few.

At launch, along with the above listed games, Xbox One will also offer a suite of entertainment experiences all on one box, including:

•TV and Movies: BesTV will bring hundreds of thousands of hours of entertainment content including blockbuster movies, sports, documentaries and on-demand TV programs – all in high definition. Owners of Xbox One in China will receive access to this content in addition to two free movies per month.
•Sports: BesTV will unlock access to premium sports games such as English Premiere League (EPL) – free for the first year.
•Xbox Live: Access to Xbox Live’s advanced multiplayer gaming experience, which opens up a pipeline of content that is always being updated and refreshed and connects users with a network of gamers.
•Fitness: Xbox will bring the full Xbox Fitness library to China including a new fitness experience, Tai Chi, which is coming first to China.
•Apps: Exclusive locally-developed apps will bolster a growing catalog of entertainment and other experiences on Xbox One, led by Tencent’s QQ Music, Douban FM, GameFY and Karaoke Master.

Microsoft also revealed that every Xbox One console in China will include:

•Powerstar Golf and Neverwinter Online with a Special Edition Pack
•The BesTV entertainment experience
•Free access to Xbox Live Gold through March 2015
•A localized Chinese interface, translated content and local payment methods
•A two-year warranty and local customer service support from Microsoft and BesTV.

As expected, Microsoft also announced a special Day One limited edition console which includes Kinect for Xbox One, more games and exclusive offers such as:

•A limited-edition commemorative China Day One controller;
•Day One Achievement for your Xbox Live profile;
•Kinect Sports Rivals, Forza Motorsport 5: Racing Game of the Year as well as the Neverwinter Online Commemorative Edition Pack, and Powerstar Golf with in-game credit

Starting today, Chinese gamers can pre-order special edition Day One Xbox One with Kinect, for ¥4,299 RMB while supplies last.

Microsoft announced the enhancements to the Bing Webmaster Portal with an improved malware reporting and re-evaluation pipeline which allowed webmasters to know more about compromises on their sites, and it also streamlined their re-evaluation request workflow. Recently, Microsoft has launched the new Bing Site Safety Page, a portal allowing all Bing users to understand why their favorite site is being flagged, how long the warning has been there, and when the last scan took place.

In the past, a customer would click on a potentially dangerous search result and be presented with a warning cautioning them that visiting this site could be dangerous, but with no real context or background information. With the rollout of the Bing Site Safety Page, Bing users can now understand in more depth the reasons for the warning, and more technically savvy users can potentially make better informed decisions (e.g. disabling javascript and plugins before visiting the site, or providing the site owner a link to the BSSPpage as a point of reference when they encounter the warning.) To enable this expanded visibility, in addition to the BSSP, we rolled out a complementary update to the UX warning in the Bing search results, adding a new link to the pop-up that our customers see, inviting them to “learn more about why this URL was marked as malicious” – when a searcher follows this link, they will end up at our new Bing Site Safety page.

Read more from the source link below.

Source: bing

We already know that Microsoft Surface Pro 3 has one of the best displays available on any consumer product. If you need any scientific proof for that, the new report from DisplayMate should be enough. In fact, based on their extensive lab tests and measurements, the Surface Pro 3 has one of the very best and most accurate displays available on any mobile platform and OS. The display shoot-out comparison table summarizes the Lab measurements in the following categories:  screen reflections,  brightness and contrast,  colors and intensities,  viewing angles,  lcd spectra,  display power.

Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements on the display for the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft has produced an excellent professional grade high performance display for Windows. In fact, the Surface Pro 3 has one of the very best and most accurate displays available on any mobile platform and OS. It joins near the top of a small set of Tablets that have excellent Top Tier displays – ideal for professionals that need a very accurate high performance display for their work, and for consumers that want and appreciate a really nice and beautiful display.

The Surface Pro 3 delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier display performance: it is only the second display to ever to get all Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in all test and measurement categories (except for Brightness variation with Viewing Angle, which is the case for all LCDs) since we started the Display Technology Shoot-Out article Series in 2006, an impressive achievement for a display.

Read the full report here.

order surface pro 3 from microsoft store today.

Nokia today announced an update for HERE Maps for Nokia X devices with new usability improvements. Another key update is the support for global navigation which was earlier supplied only on premium Lumia devices.

New improvements in this version,

• The first time app experience was improved. Instead of lots of wizards for performing various tasks, they have now simplified it and also you can skip them in few taps.
• They have updated the app when there is slow internet and poor GPS connections. The app will now display appropriate messages instead of going blank.
• They have improved satellite imagery.
• Changed the HERE user registration page.

Source: nokia

Microsoft is staying committed to a promise made by their chief counsel Brad Smith a few months ago. Smith said the company would fight legal demands from U.S. authorities to turn over data stored in Microsoft computing hubs outside the country. The promise was made after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents that claimed Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others were complicit in helping the U.S. government spy on its citizens.

Brad Smith today posted on WSJ that Microsoft will oppose the U.S. government at a hearing in federal court tomorrow in New York, arguing that it can’t force American tech companies to turn over customer emails stored exclusively in company data centers in other countries.

Microsoft believes you own emails stored in the cloud, and that they have the same privacy protection as paper letters sent by mail. This means, in our view, that the U.S. government can obtain emails only subject to the full legal protections of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. It means, in this case, that the U.S. government must have a warrant. But under well-established case law, a search warrant cannot reach beyond U.S. shores.

The government seeks to sidestep these rules, asserting that emails you store in the cloud cease to belong exclusively to you. In court filings, it argues that your emails become the business records of a cloud provider. Because business records have a lower level of legal protection, the government claims that it can use its broader authority to reach emails stored anywhere in the world.

Read more about it from the link below.

Source: wsj

Microsoft today highlighted the amazing line up of games coming to Xbox One platform this holiday season. Totally nine exclusive blockbuster games coming to Xbox One in addition to other DLC on first on Xbox titles. In fact, Xbox One’s 2014 exclusive games lineup got more than 60 nominations and 25 award wins to date, including seven nominations for the prestigious Game Critics Best of E3 2014 Awards, leading the industry for 2014 games. With the best exclusives, spectacular new franchises and the best multiplayer community, it’s more fun on Xbox One.

Find the lineup of games for Xbox below,

• “Halo: The Master Chief Collection” (343 Industries, Microsoft Studios).
• “Assassin’s Creed Unity” (Ubisoft, Ubisoft).
• “Phantom Dust” (Microsoft Studios).
• “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” (Sledgehammer Games, Activision).
• “D4:Dark Dreams Don’t Die” (Access Games, Microsoft Studios).
• “Dance Central Spotlight” (Harmonix Music Systems, Microsoft Studios).
• “Dragon Age: Inquisition” (BioWare, Electronic Arts).
• “Evolve” (Turtle Rock Studios, 2K).
• “Fable Legends” (Lionhead Studios, Microsoft Studios).
• “Forza Horizon 2” (Playground Games, Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft Studios).
• “Forza Motorsport 5” (Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft Studios).
• “Halo 5: Guardians” Multiplayer Beta (343 Industries, Microsoft Studios).
• “Happy Wars” for Xbox One (Toylogic, Microsoft Studios).
• “Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition” (Capcom Vancouver, Microsoft).
• “Killer Instinct” (Iron Galaxy, Microsoft Studios).
• “Scalebound” (Platinum Games, Microsoft Studios).
• “Crackdown” (Dave Jones, Microsoft Studios).
• “Project Spark” (Team Dakota, Microsoft Studios).
• “Rise of the Tomb Raider” (Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix).
• “Ori and the Blind Forest” (Moon Studios, Microsoft Studios).
• “Sunset Overdrive” (Insomniac Games, Microsoft Studios).
• “Tom Clancy’s The Division” (Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft).
• “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” (CD Projekt RED).

You can Order the xbox one console – standard edition without kinect  for $399 from amazon.

You can Order the xbox one console – standard edition without kinect for $399 from microsoft store.