Category: Microsoft Windows

The New York Times Crossword app has been released for both Windows Phone and Surface, bringing perhaps the most well known and popular daily crossword to your devices.  It is the perfect way to take on the challenge of the crossword game, which began publishing in 1942, with you on-the-go and you can do it completely free.

The new app brings you both a daily mini puzzle (for Windows Phone) then the published crossword for the day.  You can play either one of these completely free without a subscription to The New York Times and in fact can play the previous 7 days of puzzles for free.  If you want to go back further, up to a year on the device and 20 years on the web, you will need a subscription to the service.

The New York Times Crossword for Windows Phone – Free – Download Now

On the Nokia YouTube channel, the company has posted two new Lumia 830 videos for your viewing enjoyment.  The two videos, both found after the break, highlight the features, style and design of the 830 which was announced today in Berlin.

Having watched both videos a couple of times, I have to say I’m quite excited about this new Lumia.

Jump past the break to see the two videos.

As I’ve continued the process of getting myself back into the swing of things in the Windows Phone world, there has been one aspect that has puzzled me.  WiFi Sense?  What is it?  What does it do exactly?  I asked around to some colleagues who use Windows Phone and generally got the answer “it’s what allows you to use WiFi networks”.

Well technically yes, that’s correct.  It does allow you to use wireless networks but it is not required for WiFi access.  In fact you can completely disable WiFi Sense and gain access to a wireless network.  The ability to turn WiFi on and off is wholly separate from WiFi Sense.

So what is it then?  Think of it as crowdsourcing for WiFi networks.  It allows your Windows Phone to collect wireless network information about a network you have joined, and share that information with your friends.  But it also allows you to quickly and easily enter credentials required to get onto a wireless network.  It is a handy little app and one that is built into Windows Phone.

For those in the Windows Phone Preview for Developer program, a new update to Windows Phone 8.1. Update 1 is now available for download.  The build number for this release is 8.10.14157.200 and is available to everyone in the program.  Remember that you can join the Preview for Developer program for free by downloading the app and registering your device.  More details at the end of this post.

All the interwebs are a flutter now that Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 has been released to those on Developer Preview.  It seems many of you upgraded your Nokia Lumia’s to the latest from Redmond yesterday so you could take advantage of things like Live Folders and Cortana if you live outside of the United States.

So my question for you:  Did you upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 yesterday?  If so, what do you think?  Take the site poll below and leave a comment on your thoughts about the update or why you didn’t update.  If you ran into troubles (or have found a bug) what were those issues?  Keep in mind that this is technically beta software so a bug here or there is entirely probable.

[yop_poll id=”2″ tr_id=”1″]

Be sure to leave a comment – good or bad – on your Update 1 experience.

Last week Microsoft stated that those who had been a part of the Developer Preview program would start seeing Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 roll out to their devices this week.  Here we are on Monday and the rollout has begun.  The update has been rolling out to DP members globally with several key improvements and enhancements now available on their devices.