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Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Clock O Matic, a very simple time keeping solution for your Windows Phone


Clock O Matic


Clock O' Matic is a very clean and simple clock app that delivers a world clock, alarm, stopwatch and countdown timer to your Windows Phone. With its no-nonsense interface, Live Tile support and multiple alarm/timer abilities Clock O' Matic is an impressive Windows Phone app.
In using Clock O' Matic, it comes across as an app with a lot of potential. If the developer can address few issues causing stability issues, Clock O' Matic will be an attractive option for those looking for a complete time keeping solution.
Clock O Matic Clock
The layout for Clock O' Matic is somewhat minimalistic with your main page listing the current time and date. Four icons run across the top of the screen that will let you jump between the alarm, clock, timer and stopwatch functions.
At the bottom of the main screen is a World Time button where you can view the current time from all the time zones. There is a keyword search field where you can jump to a specific time zone but searching by city name is not available.
Clock O Matic Alarm
Along with tapping on the icons at the top of the screen to jump around the Clock O' Matic's features, you can also swipe left or right to navigate between the features. These features breakdown as follows:
  • Alarms: Clock O' Matic has support for an unlimited number of alarms. To set an alarm, just tap the + button, tap the time display and choose your alarm time. Once set you can tap on the alarm listing to set the tone and frequency of the alarm, name the alarm and delete it. A toggle switch sits next to the alarm listing to turn the alarm on or off.
  • Timer: As with the alarms, Clock O' Matic has support for an unlimited number of timers. Just tap the + button to add a timer and tap the countdown display to set the duration of the timer. You can label the timers and swipe up/down to move from timer to timer.
  • Stopwatch: Here you will find a basic stopwatch feature with a glowing ring that will pulse as the seconds tick by. Once started, you can tap the + symbol to generate and display a lap time. When you hit the stop button, your time can be shared, resumed or reset.
Tapping the clock display will open a Night Shade Clock, which is basically a full-screen clock with dimmer lights. This would be suited for a bedside table display or when you don't want or need the brighter colored clock display. Live Tile support will display just the time on the medium tile and both the time and date on the larger wide tile.
Timers are not saved once they expire and lack the ability to select a custom alarm tone. The ability to run unlimited timers is nice for multi-tasking such as when you are trying to managing several pots on the stove top.

Overall Impression

I liked the clean appearance of Clock O' Matic and all the features it holds. While it is an attractive clock app, there is room for a little fine-tuning that could add to its appeal.
For starters, the app needs to be able to save timers and offer Live Tile support for the timers. I also wouldn't mind seeing the ability to choose the timer alarms to help distinguish which timer is going off. As far as appearance is concerned, while I like the minimalistic approach, it would be nice to have the ability to change the background color. Lastly, I did encounter stability issues when setting or stopping alarms and timers. The instability doesn't render the app useless but does make it a little frustrating using Clock O' Matic.
Asides from the stability issues, Clock O' Matic can survive as is and has the potential of being an outstanding Windows Phone clock app. The Windows Phone Store listing does note that updates are in the works to bring more customization features that include an analog clock face and hopefully the stability issues will be addressed as well.
At last check, the app pulls in a 4.5 Star rating in the Windows Phone Store, which is where Clock O' Matic should be when it is hitting on all cylinders.
_Please Note:_The app is currently listed as free but the Store description notes that the free, ad-free offer is only for Christmas. Not sure how long this deal will last.
QR: Clock O Matic

Image & News Credits : Windows Central

WatchESPN app makes its Windows Phone debut for sports fanatics

WatchESPN for Windows Phone

Just ahead of ESPN's coverage of the NCAA college football playoffs on New Year's Day, the TV sports network has launched its official WatchESPN app for Windows Phone, after previously launching the app for Windows 8.1.

If your cable TV provider supports it, you can now watch ESPN's programs and live coverage of sports events on your Windows Phone device, along with news updates and more. Here's a breakdown of its features:
The WatchESPN app offers live streaming access to thousands of games and events on the ESPN networks, including:
  • NBA Regular Season and Playoffs
  • Major League Baseball
  • The Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship
  • College Football and Basketball
  • All four Grand Slam tennis events
Get up-to-the-minute news, highlights and analysis with live streaming of your favorite ESPN shows, including:
  • SportsCenter
  • PTI
  • College GameDay
  • Mike & Mike
  • SportsNation
  • Baseball Tonight
Remember, the app will only work if you are a paid subscriber to these cable and satellite TV providers:
  • AT&T U-verse
  • Bright House Networks
  • Charter
  • Comcast XFINITY
  • Cox
  • DISH
  • Google Fiber
  • Midcontinent Communications
  • Optimum
  • Time Warner Cable
  • Verizon FiOS TV
Let us know what you think about the app in the comments!
Access to live streaming video via the WatchESPN apps is available in the U.S. only and is determined by your TV provider.
QR: espn

Twitter has a new advertising channel: your following list

Twitter is now inserting ads into your following list

No matter your school of thought on how you use Twitter, the list of people you follow now includes advertising. The first customer: MasterCard. On the web, and in the official Twitter apps for iPhone andAndroid, you'll find that you, and everybody else, have MasterCard as a promoted entry in your Following list.
Now, this doesn't mean that you're actually following MasterCard — they have just 388,000 followers and not the quarter-million user base of Twitter. It just means that MasterCard has managed to get an ad inserted in every following list tempting you to follow them back (at least on the iOS and web interfaces it's clear that you're not actually following them, the Android app shows the same checkmark button for accounts you're actually following and the MasterCard promotional listing). The left-to-fallow official Twitter apps for BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone, however, aren't showing the sponsored listing, nor are third-party Twitter clients.
While for most of us that's not the worst thing in the world — you're not actually seeing all of MasterCard's tweets, it is an interesting concept for advertising, especially if you're the type that looks at the list of whom somebody else is following. MasterCard is there. Everywhere you look on Twitter's following lists, you'll find MasterCard. Even for Visa and American Express. We're sure they're utterly thrilled about that.
For public figures and companies that can create an interesting conundrum. Many are cognizant of what accounts they follow
Some of suggested blocking the offending account, and it's true that it will remove MasterCard from the sponsored slot in your following list. Problem is, it's simply replaced by another entry like IFC.com.
So yes, your Following list and every Following list you see now contains ads masquerading as follows. You're not actually following them, and Twitter isn't explicitly saying that you are, but MasterCard is there, holding down a spot in your top ten most recent follows.
Source: Windows Central

Microsoft to end sales of original Kinect for Windows sensor in 2015

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Kinect For Windows

Microsoft will begin to phase out sales of its first Kinect for Windows hardware sensor. based on the hardware first released for the Xbox 360 Kinect add-on, sometime in 2015, in favor of the recently launched Kinect for Windows v2, based on the Xbox One version of the hardware.
The company celebrated the original Kinect for Windows device in a blog post today:
"The original Kinect for Windows sensor was a milestone achievement in the world of natural human computing. It allowed developers to create solutions that broke through the old barriers of mouse and keyboard interactions, opening up entirely new commercial experiences in multiple industries, including retail, education, healthcare, education, and manufacturing. The original Kinect let preschoolers play educational games by simply moving their arms; it coached patients through physical rehabilitation; it gave shoppers new ways to engage with merchandise and even try on clothes. The list of innovative solutions powered by the original Kinect for Windows goes on and on."
Today's announcement did not give an exact date for when sales of the first Kinect for Windows sensor will end.
Image & News Source : Windows Central

Create your own animated movie with Stop Motion Studio for Windows Phone

Stop Motion Studio

Do you feel like being creative today? Stop Motion Studio lets you create animated movies directly from your Windows Phone device. You don't need your desktop or laptop at all. Stop Motion Studio also makes it easy to add themed titles, background music, voiceovers, sound effects, and text effects. When you're done, you can upload it to Youtube, share on Facebook, email to friends, or save it on your phone.
When it comes to stop motion movies, you need several consecutive images. Stop Motion Studio is here to make that process easy. To get started, tap the capture button on the top left corner. There's an overlay slider on the left that shows you the differences between frames. It is recommended to attach your Windows Phone device to a tripod, but the overlay mode helps tremendously if you don't have one nearby. Another helpful option available is grid mode, which can be found in the settings. It helps you align your subjects.
Stop motion Studio
The more images you capture, the smoother the animation will look. The workflow looks like this:
  1. Capture image.
  2. Move object.
  3. Repeat.
If you have your Windows Phone attached to a tripod, then you can automatic capture. Stop Motion Studio will automatically take a photo after every few seconds, giving you enough time to move your items.
There are several themes and effects you can add to make your movie even more interesting. This requires an in-app purchase of the Feature Pack. It costs $1.99. Our favorite feature is the ability to record your own sound. This can be a voiceover, which you can insert into any frame.
When you're finished with your movie, you can save it to your device or share it online. Stop Motion Studio gives you several options on how to export the movie. You can save it in 1080p video quality, square aspect ratio for Instagram, or even as an animated GIF
While Stop Motion Studio is a great app to show off your creative skills, we think there's room for improvement. In the future, we'd like to be able to adjust sound volume and add autofocus.
512MB RAM devices supported
QR: Stop Motion Studio
News & Image Credits : Windows Central

Microsoft offers some encouraging stats about 2014's Windows Store downloads and sales

Windows Store

Even as Microsoft gets ready to launch Windows 10 in 2015, the company is taking a quick look back at the improvements it has seen on its Windows Store in the past year.
In a blog post ,Todd Brix, Microsoft's General Manager of its Windows Apps and Store Team, stated:
"We began the year with a commitment to create opportunities for developers with Windows Store. We made good progress by both attracting over 30% more active users and by exceeding a 110% year-over-year increase in app downloads and gross sales. In addition the ecosystem has grown, with an 80% increase in registered developers and 60% increase in app selection year-over-year."
Brix also outlined five topics that Microsoft says it will concentrate on in 2015 as it prepares for the launch of Windows 10, which will have a unified storefront for both Windows and Windows Phone apps. One area is expanding the use of carrier billing for buying Windows apps, which Microsoft recently launched for China, India and Brazil. Another area of improvement will be to offer more app monitiaztion methods. Brix wrote, "We are increasing our focus on in-app advertising to help improve fill rates and grow developer revenue."
Microsoft will continue to improve the Windows app discovery experience, with Brix stating that it has already made changes to the Windows Store user interface to help in that effort, including a new Deals Hub and more promotion for Windows apps. Microsoft is also committed to improving its Windows App Studio tools so that more people can make apps. Finally, Brix says Microsoft will improve the developer publishing experience for Windows, saying, "We have much more work to do to simplify and unify the experience and you can expect the evolution to continue over the coming months."

Easily track your flights with flightHero on windowsphone and windows 8.1

Easily track your flights with FlightHero on Windows Phone and Windows 8.1

Tracking your flights on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new universal app called FlighHero. The app will present you with everything from weather conditions at a given airport to real-time updates on flight tracking information.



FlighHero comes in both a free and pro version, with FlightHero Pro fetching $4.99. If you decide to give the app a shot, here's what you can look forward to:
  • 1550 airlines: commercial, cargo, and charters
  • 17000 airports around the world
  • Real-time flight board with arrivals and departures
  • Flight tracking with actual aircraft position (including airspeed and altitude)
  • Airport weather and traffic delays
Hit up the links below to give FlighHero a shot and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thanks to Kyle S. for the tip!
512MB RAM devices supported
QR: FlightHero

Image & News Credits : Windows Central