Thurrott Daily: January 18, 2017

Thurrott Daily: January 18, 2017
Office Lens for iPad

Tech tidbits from around the web.

1/18/2017 5:51:22 PM

Microsoft to stop updating Minecraft on Windows phones

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Peter Bright at Ars Technica reports on the latest bad news for Windows phone.

Microsoft will cease updating Minecraft Pocket Edition for its own Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile. Although the game will continue to be available in the store, it’s apparently no longer being maintained or updated.

The reason for this move is reported to be that so few people play the game on the platform that it’s not worth maintaining.

So it makes sense then.

Microsoft is bringing Cortana to the Android lock screen

MSPowerUser reports on a coming update to Cortana on Android. I don’t see this even though I’m on the beta though.

If you use Cortana on your Android phone, you might be glad to know that Microsoft is making it much easier to access Cortana by bringing it to the lock screen. That’s because Cortana will soon be accessible from your Android phone’s lock screen with just a single swipe thanks to an upcoming update.

Microsoft is already testing the new feature with users part of the beta program for Cortana on Android, so it should get a wider release in the coming weeks. Once you install the new update and open Cortana, it’ll ask you to enable “Cortana on lock screen” — and clicking on the “Add Cortana to my lock screen” button will enable this feature on your phone. After that, a simple Cortana logo will show up near the bottom of your lock screen and you can swipe the logo left or right to open up the Cortana panel — similar to how the camera shortcut works on most Android devices. From the Cortana panel on your lock screen you can get all the updates and even ask Cortana anything you want.

Microsoft finally releases Office Lens for iPad

And they buried the announcement in a post about OneNote improvements for education for some reason.

We are also announcing the availability of Office Lens for iPad. Shipping together with an improved version of Office Lens for iPhone, both apps have Learning Tools built right in. Scan documents and whiteboards with your iPad or iPhone camera. Launching the Immersive Reader lets you hear the text from the printed page read back to you. The words are highlighted as they’re read to make them accessible for all students.

With the bigger screen on the iPad, going from physical to accessible digital content is easier and more compelling than ever. And, as always, you can save the content into OneNote and OneDrive easily. You can get Office Lens today in the iPad Store.

Yes, Office Lens is also available on Windows, Android, and iPhone.

“The iPhone 8’s display design might be far superior to the Galaxy S8”

Anything is possible!

Learn to develop UWP apps on Windows 10

The other day, I wrote about how Microsoft was promoting two free video learning series that will help you learn the C# programming and UWP app development, respectively. At that time it linked only to the former, but now the second one is revealed. To be a two-year-old video series by the admittedly excellent Bob Tabor.

You’ll learn how to put your new (or re-sharpened) C# skills to use as we explore UWP (Universal Windows Platform) development in the Windows 10 Development for Absolute Beginners course from Bob Tabor. With little or no prior experience with XAML (pronounced “Zammal”), you’ll learn how to use XAML and C# to create amazing Windows 10 UWP applications, get those apps ready for publishing and see them run on UWP devices ranging from Xbox One and PC, to mobile and even Raspberry Pi.

Even if you’re an experienced UWP developer, just like in the last post, you may find that there are areas you’d like to brush up on. You can jump to any of the course’s 80 videos and also explore the companion sample code on GitHub.

The Ultimate Beginner Series course has two conceptual parts. In the first half, Bob Tabor explains the concepts, patterns and features of a UWP application. In the second half, you will build out four fleshed-out demo applications. From “File > New” to submitting your app to the Windows Store, these samples will get you ready to build and publish your first (or next) app!

 

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Conversation 16 comments

  • 8578

    18 January, 2017 - 7:08 pm

    <p>"get those apps ready for publishing and see them run on UWP devices ranging from Xbox One and PC, to mobile and even Raspberry Pi."</p>
    <p>"Mobile" in this context is exclusively Windows Phone. Saying the UWP apps can run on Raspberry Pi is like saying they run on ARM or Intel processors.&nbsp;</p>

  • 77

    18 January, 2017 - 7:53 pm

    <p><em>Cortana Lock&nbsp;Screen on Android. Yes it&nbsp;definitely locks your/my screen. Apparently the "Swipe to Unlock" function hasn’t made it&nbsp;to my copy yet. Long pressing the big blue bubble will launch Cortana, thus unlocking your screen…</em></p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p><em>So yes, "early Alpha"</em></p>

    • 5234

      18 January, 2017 - 8:12 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#37598">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/shortwb31417">shortwb31417</a><a href="#37598">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Yup. &nbsp;Just like everywhere else.</p>

  • 5234

    18 January, 2017 - 8:11 pm

    <p>"Microsoft will cease updating Minecraft Pocket Edition for its own Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile."</p>
    <p>Yup.</p>

    • 907

      18 January, 2017 - 9:33 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#37600">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/Waethorn">Waethorn</a><a href="#37600">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Yup pretty much sums it up. Just more confused messaging to developers by MS! You have to wonder about this united platform/UWP vision by MS. Honestly, at times MS are their own worst enemy.</p>

      • 1561

        Premium Member
        18 January, 2017 - 10:52 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#37608">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/anchovylover">anchovylover</a><a href="#37608">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>Sounds to me like they’re better aligning their Minecraft offerings to versions of Windows that have a future. The Windows 10 version of Minecraft will find its way to phones along with the OS.</p>

  • 1956

    Premium Member
    18 January, 2017 - 8:15 pm

    <p>C’mon Paul, how can you, as a Bostonian, use the phrase "Anything is possible" without linking Kevin Garnetts infamous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcz_kDCBTBk">ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!</a></p>

  • 217

    18 January, 2017 - 8:25 pm

    <p>&ldquo;The iPhone 8&rsquo;s display design might be far superior to the Galaxy S8&rdquo;</p>
    <p>Anything is possible!"</p>
    <p>Thanks for that, I literally laughed out loud.&nbsp;</p>

  • 5394

    18 January, 2017 - 10:28 pm

    <p>I certainly hope Apple and Samsung can solve their own battery issues.&nbsp;</p>

  • 2525

    Premium Member
    18 January, 2017 - 10:33 pm

    <p>For those who can’t get Cortona in the Play store, I get it from here:&nbsp;http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/microsoft-corporation/cortana/cortana-2-1-5-1654-release/cortana-2-1-5-1654-enus-lockscreen-android-apk-download/</p&gt;
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p>(the pushbullet subscription feature on there is very handy for staying up to date)</p>

  • 5553

    18 January, 2017 - 11:19 pm

    <h1 class="title" style="font-family: ‘Titillium Web’, sans-serif; margin: 0px; font-size: 23px; line-height: 1.258; color: #3e433e; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Microsoft is beta testing a feature that brings Cortana to Android&rsquo;s lock screen</h1>
    <div class="meta" style="font-family: ‘Titillium Web’, sans-serif; padding: 10px 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #3e433e; font-size: 12px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #e8e8e8; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
    <div class="byline" style="font-family: alright_sansmediumitalic, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.9375em; line-height: 0.9; color: #aab6aa; text-transform: uppercase;">BY&nbsp;<a style="color: #089e00; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Brian Heater" href="https://techcrunch.com/author/brian-heater/&quot; target="_top" rel="author">BRIAN HEATER</a></div>
    <div class="byline" style="font-family: alright_sansmediumitalic, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.9375em; line-height: 0.9; color: #aab6aa; text-transform: uppercase;">&nbsp;</div>
    <time class="timestamp" style="color: #aab6aa;" datetime="2017-01-18">8 hours ago</time></div>
    <div class="meta" style="font-family: ‘Titillium Web’, sans-serif; padding: 10px 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #3e433e; font-size: 12px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #e8e8e8; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">That Heater was 105 !</div>
    <div class="meta" style="font-family: ‘Titillium Web’, sans-serif; padding: 10px 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #3e433e; font-size: 12px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #e8e8e8; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">WOA dude.. that is cool.</div>

  • 5510

    19 January, 2017 - 10:06 am

    <p>Weird…really weird. Paul’s mentions about Cortana and Android and nothing…just NOTHING.</p>
    <p>Do people remember Paul’s August 10, 2015 post, entitled Microsoft Replaces Google Now on Android, where he even ends one sentence with the exclamatory "…Huzzah."</p>
    <p>About a year and a few months later, nothing? .</p>

  • 442

    19 January, 2017 - 10:07 am

    <p>&ldquo;The iPhone 8&rsquo;s display design might be far superior to the Galaxy S8&rdquo;</p>
    <p>Anything is possible!"</p>
    <p>Yeah, like another company besides these two&nbsp;make a far better phone…&nbsp; ;)</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 699

    19 January, 2017 - 10:25 am

    <p>Re: Minecraft no longer updated on W10M:</p>
    <p>Microsoft truly needs to drink it’s own Kool-Aid. What a shame.</p>
    <p>You’d think that Microsoft would put more effort/energy into promoting and updating their own services and software on their OWN hardware first.&nbsp;Instead they focus on iPad updates and Android.. Doesn’t make any sense, unless their main goal is a financial one.</p>
    <p>Oops. Think I just uncovered the truth. ;o</p>

  • 2371

    19 January, 2017 - 10:52 am

    <blockquote><em><a href="#37673">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/bbold">bbold</a><a href="#37673">:</a></em></blockquote>
    <p>My guess is Microsoft is expecting W10 ARM to replace W10M in the future.&nbsp; When that happens the Win10 Mincraft (UWP) will replace it the Minecraft Pocket Edition for Windows devices.</p>

    • 5539

      19 January, 2017 - 6:48 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#37677">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/RM">RM</a><a href="#37677">:</a>&nbsp;</em>So the Minecraft&nbsp;Pocket Edition is different than the Win 10 UWP version? So why doesn’t the Win 10 UWP version already work on Windows Mobile? Is it just too hard to make a Universal Windows Platform app that runs universally on Windows Platforms?</blockquote>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>

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