Only a couple of days ago Microsoft had announced an official YouTube app for Windows Phone, it seems like this app is going to be short lived. TheVerge is reporting that Google has asked Microsoft to take down the app and halt all installs immediately, because of the lack of ads. Google terms this as a violation of API use.

Apparently, Microsoft made the app without Google’s permission with features that specifically prevent ads from playing. This would obviously hurt Google where is hurts the most as its main source of making revenue is advertising. And this way it is also unable to deliver revenue to content creators.

Microsoft for its part has responded and claims that it will be more than happy to provide ads on the app if Google provided access to the relevant APIs.

Clearly, Google is not happy with Microsoft. It has shown an unwillingness to develop for Windows Phone in particular and at Google I/O even CEO Larry Page was extremely critical of the software maker. He said that he was disappointed that Microsoft made use of Google’s open standards for IM on Outlook, but it did not reciprocate in kind.

He went on to say “You can’t have people milking off of just one company”.

In what is the first of its kind app, Jet Airways in association with Nokia launched its official mobile app for the Windows Phone platform. The app essentially allows users to books tickets, check flight status, and also manage their JetPrivilege account on their smartphones.

Users can book tickets on the app using their credit cards and can register for flight status updates, after which the app will keep users up-to-date on their flight through timely notifications. In addition to the above, users can pin their booked tickets on the phone’s homescreen using Live Tiles. Jet Airways also adds that it will notify users of any available offers or deals through the app.

The app is currently compatible Windows Phone 7.5, Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 and you can download the app for free from the Windows Phone Store.

Rovio Entertainment today re-launched Angry Birds on Windows Phone with 100 new levels, Xbox Live Achievement and Leaderboards and has also tweaked the game so it can work on entry-level Windows Phones with 256MB of RAM. The game developer also announced it will be offered for free till May 15.

Rovio says that the reason to launch a separate version instead of just updating the original game is because it is technically easier for the company to support the game in the future. Rovio also adds that downloading the newer version won’t affect one’s progress in the original game and you can directly start off from the last completed level.

You can head over to the Windows Phone Store to download Angry Birds for free.

Microsoft has cited findings of the IDC reports on its official blog, pointing out that Windows Phone has outsold Apple’s iPhone in seven countries, including India. Frank X. Shaw, corporate vice president for Corporate Communications at Microsoft has also highlighted in the blog that Windows Phone shipments have crossed BlackBerry shipments in 26 markets.

Shaw has iterated the fact that Windows Phone has been growing in terms of market share crossing the 10 percent mark in a number of countries, returning to the point Redmond made while launching the OS few years back. This is a good sign for the company, which has been fighting with Google and Apple to retain and regain its stakes in mobile market.

The blog also sheds light on the software front, stating that Windows Azure has doubled its customer base, witnessing a revenue growth three times than earlier. Windows Server 2012 Datacenter edition licenses have also increased by over 80 percent. Shaw has also highlighted that they have tripled the number of Office 365 paid seats year over year.

If this wasn’t enough, Shaw also confirmed that Microsoft is hard at work on advancing their devices and services, a project internally referred to as “Blue.” However it get a different launch name.

After recent updates to the Android and iOS versions, it is time for the Windows Phone version of Evernote to get a major update. The note-taking app now on version 3.0 gets new features like document search, shortcuts and a major upgrade to the app’s homescreen.

The Evernote homescreen now sports a more simplified look with buttons to create notes or search for existing ones. The tag’s list too has been given a nip and tuck to make it easier to navigate and also display more results. The app now also allows you to create shortcuts to make accessing frequently accessed notes easier and what’s more, these shortcuts can also be synced across various platforms like Mac, Windows Phone and Android.

In addition to the above, users can create notes with checkboxes and premium users can now store similar notebooks together in what is called ‘stacks’. Another new feature for premium users is ‘document search’, which indexes any attached Microsoft Word, iWork and OpenOffice documents so that they come up in your searches.

You can download the latest version of Evernote from the Windows Phone Store.

A leaked video from the Microsoft TechFest reveals advanced speech recognition capabilities that Microsoft is working on. The video was leaked by MSFT Kitchen and shows the research team demonstrating speech recognition with speed accuracy improvements and a new streaming mode that allows Windows Phone users to search while they speak.

While it has certain similarities with the new Android search, which was updated with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Microsoft’s new implementation has a slight edge as users can produce inline search queries while talking.

In its current form it may be a research project but considering Windows Blue is rumored to bring forth multiple Bing Search improvements, this could be part of the Windows Phone update stack that is expected to be rolled out in coming months.

A complaint that Skype users on Windows Phones had was that Microsoft had disabled People Hub integration, which would allow users to make calls or send messages to their Skype friends directly from the phone’s contacts. Microsoft has now updated WP-version of Skype where it has enabled People Hub integration and added new features.

Apart from enabling People Hub integration, Microsoft has also introduced added support for HD videos using the rear or the front camera and also added the ability to make a video call in portrait or landscape mode.

To update Skype to its latest version, you have to ensure that your Windows handset has the latest ‘Portico’ update installed. You can also download the latest version of Skype from the Windows Phone Store.

Among the things Windows Phone users miss out on, the absence of Instagram is what really hurts them. They have been requesting for an official app since day one and Nokia has seemed to have heard their pleas by releasing an app called #2instawithlove.

#2instawithlove replicates Instagram in allowing users take photos and add the popular polaroid filter to it. The app then automatically adds the #2InstaWithLove hashtag to those photos and lets you upload it on any of the social networks.

What Nokia hopes to do with the #2instawithlove is temporarily satisfy the needs of its users and more importantly show Instagram just how much they require an official version of the Instagram app on the Windows platform.

You can download #2instawithlove from the Windows Phone Store.

In what looks like an ironic twist, Nokia decided to shelve its rumored Meltemi platform last year, in a quest to scale up its Asha platform. MyNokiaBlog has revealed the proposed feature set for what was to be Meltemi. According to the report Nokia shelved the project as it decided that it would add most of the features of Meltemi to Asha.

The report also states that it has already started doing that. Reportedly Meltemi was supposed to feature the ‘Slam’ Sharing feature that Nokia has already added to Asha. And if one looks at the feature set comparison that MyNokiaBlog has posted then we can see that there was not much Nokia had in terms of differentiating Meltemi with Asha as both were pretty similarly pegged. Nokia was banking on differentiating Meltemi smartphones on the basis of its ‘craftsmanship’ of hardware and perhaps even in terms of UI, but nothing else.

In hindsight this could work out well for the company as it is able to scale down the price points of its Lumia Windows Phones that marry its iconic hardware skills with good software, while a beefed up Asha line takes care of the low-end of the market.

Nokia is expected to launch a few devices at MWC later next week, but the very reliable @evleaks has the jump on the Espoo-based company by leaking press shots of the rumored Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 Windows Phones on Twitter.

Design wise both the devices continue Nokia’s tryst with funky color pallets and removable back panels. The Lumia 720, actually looks very similar to the Lumia 820, save for the fact that it has a curved glass display. The back of the device according to the leaked image shows a Carl Zeiss branding for the camera and there are also three dock contact points which could point towards some wireless charging solution. The Lumia 520, looks similar to the Lumia 505 which was released in Mexico. It also retains Nokia’s signature design language.

Looks like these phones are set to be unveiled at MWC and we must admit @evleaks has a sterling record when it comes to leaks. Previously he has been bang on with the leaks of the Lumia 920, the HTC One and the Sony Xperia Z.

Nokia’s switch to Windows Phone is now two years old. It was back on February 11, 2011, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Nokia’s Stephen Elop signed the deal that allowed Nokia to switch to Windows Phone. Nokia has not exactly had a merry time during this transition and it has fallen from the pedestal of the top smartphone manufacturer in world as Symbian sales plummeted drastically. That said, Nokia managed a gargantuan shift of its core platform and soon started delivering Windows Phones with Nokia’s legendary hardware prowess. We take a look at the Nokia Windows Phone devices we have seen in the last two years chronologically.

October 2011 – It was Diwali day out here in India, but back in London at Nokia World, Stephen Elop took the stage to unveil the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710. The Lumia 800 was the flagship and it was essentially based on the one-off MeeGo based N9. It won design awards, it had some custom Nokia features but other than that it was overpriced and could not compete with Android and the iPhone in terms of features. The Lumia 710 was a lower-end model, but this was Nokia’s first foray in the Windows Phone ecosystem.

January 2012 – CES 2012 marked Nokia’s attack on the US market with the Lumia 900, which now became Nokia’s flagship phone. This phone however, did not reach India until the second half of 2012. It suffered largely because Microsoft announced that it will not be upgradable to Windows Phone 8 within five months of its launch.

February 2012 – With Nokia’s Symbian line up being hammered by low-cost Android smartphones, Nokia was desperate for a device that would make things tick in low-cost smartphone category. With the help of Nokia, Microsoft reduced the system requirements for Windows Phone with the Tango release. At MWC 2012, Nokia took the stage to announce the Lumia 610, which at the time was the cheapest Lumia smartphone and it has helped Nokia’s cause in developing market.

September 2012 – Nokia had wowed the world with the PureView 808 at MWC, but the world wanted the same camera in phone that ran Windows Phone. While that did not happen Nokia was the second company to announce Windows Phone 8 hardware – The Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820. The Lumia 920 had a 8.7-megapixel PureView camera with optical image stabilization and it combined this with a fast dual-core processor and a HD display and wireless charging. Nokia called it the most innovative smartphone in the world and ever since its release in November, Nokia managed to ship more Windows Phone then it ever had before and in January Nokia managed to post a profit owning due to the momentum created by the device.

October 2012 – Nokia launched the Lumia 510 in India. It was a global launch and Nokia called it a ‘diwali gift’ for India. This became the cheapest Windows Phone device in the world and also combined a large 4-inch display. This showed Nokia’s renewed focus to the low-end market.

February 2013 – Right now even after two years of Windows Phone, Nokia is a shadow of what it used to be. It’s showing signs of revival, and come March at MWC rumors suggest that Nokia might unveil a Windows RT tablet and a Windows Phone device with a PureView camera similar to the PureView 808 that ran on Symbian.

This is just the beginning as Nokia till date has only released seven smartphones running Windows Phone. The company has announced that the PureView 808 was the last device based on Symbian, so we can expect a lot more Windows Phones across multiple price-points from Nokia.

One of most appealing features in the iDevices and Android devices is the ability to seamlessly transfer apps from one device to another. Now, imagine if you could do the same on the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. According to a report on WMPoweruser Microsoft is in fact doing just that in working towards unifying the Windows phone and the Windows 8 Store.

A job posting on Microsoft (it’s taken down now) said that the company is looking for someone ‘to help our team bring together the Windows Store and Phone development platforms’ so that in the future ‘the code you write for Windows Store apps would just work on the Windows Phone and vice versa.’

Currently developers need to modify the code of a Windows Phone app to convert it to a Metro style WinRT app for Windows 8 or RT.

What this unification essentially means is that you could download an app on your Surface tablet and then sync it to your laptop or PC running Windows 8 and also run it on your Windows Phone. It would also attract more developers towards this platform and help Microsoft catch up with iOS and Android.

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Nokia has confirmed that the PureView 808 was the last smartphone to be powered by the Symbian OS. Over the last year Nokia has been making a transition to Windows Phone, with its Lumia line of smartphones. Nevertheless it had released the 41-megapixel behemoth, the PureView 808 at MWC 2012 to showcase its hardware leadership and hardware innovation.

“During our transition to Windows Phone through 2012, we continued to ship devices based on Symbian. The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia,” Nokia revealed in its full-year 2012 earnings result.

For long it was rumored that the PureView 808 would be the last Symbian powered smartphone, but it’s only now that the company has confirmed the fact. Symbian’s sudden decline in the smartphone OS has been largely cited as the reason behind Nokia’s descent from its leadership position.

The fourth quarter of 2012 marked the first quarter ever when Lumia smartphone shipments exceeded Symbian smartphones. Nokia shipped 4.4 million Lumia smartphones as opposed to just 2.2 million Symbian devices in the quarter.

Photo Credit: Rohit Sharma

Airtel and Idea have increased their voice call tariffs and other carrier are expected to follow suit. In some cases the tariff has gone up by 100 percent while in others carriers are reducing free minutes and other benefits. This could offset most users’ monthly bills, especially for those who prefer making voice calls rather than relying on text messaging or IM. However, there are many free options available to replace traditional voice calling with apps that let you do the same over an Internet connection. We have compiled a list of five apps that could help you cut your monthly cellphone bill drastically if you have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot or have a good 3G data plan. Read on…

Skype: Frankly, you cannot have such a list without mentioning Skype. After all it was THE app that started it all. Skype it is available on a multiple platforms – iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. You can buy Skype credit and directly call your contacts on their phone numbers, but if you have friends on Skype, then you can experience the best video calling service in the world for free.

Viber: Viber is a mobile phenomenon. It’s the type of service that makes executives from telecom operators squirm. The app itself replicates a dialer that syncs to social networks and picks up contacts who are also on Viber. Then you can use it to call your friends on Viber for video or plain voice calls. The best part it works purely on data, but if you have a contact who is not on Viber then you can also make a normal cellular call from the app itself.

WeChat: On the face it, WeChat comes off as a What’s App rival, but there is more to the app than the messaging element. It has some cool voice messaging features built-in so you can either hold on to talk button and send voice message to your friends or even use the new video chat feature for real Skype-like video chats. You can even shut off the video bit so it can be a pure voice call.

Tango: For the longest time the biggest paradox on Windows Phone was the absence of the Skype app, which was owned by Microsoft. Tango was the de facto solution, and it was always a very good solution. Heck, it’s still a solution for video and voice calls on Windows Phone, Android and iPhone. And it’s free.

Voxer: Voxer is not your average calling app. Actually, it is not a calling app, its a walkie-talkie of sorts. It’s not very efficient all the time because one has to record a message and then wait for a the message but the user experience is fantastic. It’s really fun app and works over Wi-Fi and 3G. Like most of the others, it too is free.

Microsoft has been extremely coy about the Windows Phone 7.8 launch for the current Windows Phone 7.5 hardware. Ever since the launch of the Nokia Lumia 510, we’ve known pretty much everything about the OS as it has been powering some of the newer lower-end Windows Phones. The features per say don’t dazzle the users of the current Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices, but honestly something is better than nothing. It looks like someone from Windows Phone Columbia has jumped the gun on Facebook and announced that the update roll out for existing devices will begin on January 31.

Microsoft had early said that it will launch the OS in Q1 and it looks like the company is making good on its promise. The big deal with Windows Phone 7.8 is the resizable ‘Live Tiles’ that brings in a user interface commonality between the Windows Phone 7.8 and the Windows Phone 8 hardware. Microsoft has stated that many devices running Windows Phone 7.8 will be launched this year, as the OS will power a number of lower-end smartphones

The entire feature set of Windows Phone 7.8 is as follows:

• Resizable Live Tiles
• Bluetooth File transfer
• Bing Picture for Lockscreen wallpaper
• New theme colors
• Wi-Fi tethering
• You can set Google as default search provider in Internet Explorer
• New boot screen
• Office 14.5
• Updated system and Nokia exclusive apps
• Ringtone maker (also available in the Marketplace)
• Counters app (also available in the Marketplace)

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