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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<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. </p>
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<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>