Welcome back to our weekly “Windows 10 Mobile news recap” series where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s mobile operating system. Let’s get started.
According to a survey by Applause, only 6 percent of app developers are women and developers make more money on Windows Phone than on Android or iOS. You can read this story here.
Last Summer the NYPD announced plans to equip its 35,000 officers with Windows Phones. At the time, uses for the phones included: accessing a new domain awareness system, viewing 911 calls, accessing several New York databases, and using voice translation services. Since this initial announcement, the department has gone on to use the phones with more than 25,000 officers and is now announcing that within weeks all NYPD officers will be carrying the device.
Last month, Microsoft announced the acquisition of predictive keyboard developer Swiftkey. As of March 1st, Microsoft has now completed this acquisition.
We wrote a “second impressions” piece on the Lumia 950 XL, taking another look at the device after our initial review. Was this device worth the purchase after continuous use for several months? Find out here.
Cortana is set to receive a few new additions in the upcoming builds of Windows 10 Redstone, with latest internal builds including a new option to enable additional push notifications for your other Windows 10 devices. Cortana will soon be able to alert you when your phone battery is low, a phone call is missed, and when you receive a text or app notification.
Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build 10586.122 this past week, fixing a plethora of issues in the operating system. Here’s what’s fixed:
- Improved Kanji input experience while using Continuum.
- Improved the speed in which thumbnails appear for portrait videos.
- Improved Internet Sharing on select mobile network configurations.
- Fixed an issue in Microsoft Edge that prevented Word Flow input on some sites.
- Fixed an issue that previously prevented the option to “Close all Tabs” in Microsoft Edge from closing all open tabs.
- Improved IMS registration on select mobile network configurations.
- Fixed an issue where adding your MSA during OOBE would fail and prevent the account from being re-added after the failure.
- Improved the email sync experiences when connecting to Wi-Fi networks with a captive portal.
- Improved data connection profiles for dual SIM devices.
- Updated background processing of multiple changes to improve battery life of devices.
- Improved quality of video record to SD memory cards.
- Improved video recording audio in some cases.
- Improved overall OS reliability, including reliability of the Start screen, app updates, and the Windows Feedback app
- Improved Alarm reliability.
We unboxed the Alcatel Onetouch Fierce XL this past week, and this phone features decent specs with a decent design. Watch the unboxing video below.
We also gave the Lumia 650 the review treatment too. The phone is absolutely beautiful but features mediocre specs. You can read our full Lumia 650 review here.
Last but not least, we learned that a new Universal Windows 10 Instagram app is currently in private beta. No word on when it will be released, but the app was demonstrated on video alongside the old Instagram (still in Beta) app for Windows Phone. Looks like this new app is a port from iOS, thanks to Microsoft’s Project Islandwood. You can watch the video here.
Stay tuned for another exciting week of Windows 10 Mobile news.
