Google’s (GOOG) Play store doesn’t exactly have a good reputation when it comes to quality control since the company allows anyone to post their Android apps on the store without going through any sort of filtering process. However, TechCrunch reports that this may be changing since a record 60,000 were purged from the Play store in February. Although TechCrunch’s sources acknowledge that Google wasn’t responsible for removing all the purged apps, they also say that there’s no way that many apps could have been removed from the store without significant involvement from the company. Google has been working on overhauling Play to give it a cleaner, brighter look so it’s likely that Google has been doing some housekeeping in removing low-quality apps in preparation for the store’s upcoming refresh.
We still have no idea whether Apple’s (AAPL) next iPhone will have fingerprint-scanning technology but it’s a good bet that the company is at least working to put fingerprint scanners on some future devices. AppleInsider has spotted a new job posting showing that the company is looking for a new software engineer for its ”Melbourne Design Center” in Florida that just happens to be in the same location as AuthenTec, the mobile security firm that Apple acquired last summer. Since AuthenTec has a strong background in fingerprint scanning technology and since AppleInsider notes that the new engineer will “write low-level control firmware for ‘sensor ICs,’” it’s probably fair to assume that some sort of mobile scanning technology is in the works.
Everyone who just can’t wait to get their hands on Facebook Home can now download a pre-release version of the software that’s apparently “buggy and incomplete.” MoDaCo has got its hands on a pre-release build of Home APKs — ”the main Facebook (FB) app (‘katana’), the now-integrated-with-your-SMS Messenger app (orca) and the Home / Launcher ‘shell’ app (home)” — that will run a decent simulation of what the final build will look like once it’s released on April 12th. MoDaCo says that anyone interested in downloading the APKs needs to have a device with “a maximum resolution of 1280 x 768 and the ability to completely uninstall your existing Facebook app” and notes that anyone installing the APKs does so at their own risk. With the Facebook Home release just four days away, it’s hard to imagine too many people bothering with a bug-ridden early version of the software but it’s still interesting nonetheless.
We know that Windows 8 has failed to reignite demand in the PC market so far and now one formerly bullish analyst says that the platform “lacks momentum” and is “challenging” his earlier optimism. Benzinga notes that Bank of America analyst Kash Ragan downgraded Microsoft (MSFT) from “Buy” to “Neutral” on Thursday and expressed dismay that Windows 8 has still shown few signs of catching on “despite more available touch-based devices” more than six months since the platform’s initial launch. Microsoft has been taking feedback from early Windows 8 adopters and is planning to make changes to the operating system aimed at winning over more traditional Windows users with its “Windows Blue update” rumored to be released this summer.
We’ve long said that it’s unfair to slap Windows 8 with the dreaded Vista comparison and now we have some data to back it up. ZDNet’s Ed Bott this week took a look at Amazon (AMZN) customer ratings for several versions of Microsoft’s (MSFT) operating system and found that while Windows 8 has its share of haters, it also has even more people who enthusiastically support the platform. Overall, 50% of Windows 8 users gave the platform four or five-star reviews while 40% gave it a one or two-star rating. This contrasts very favorably with Vista, which received one and two-star ratings from 50% of users while receiving four and five-star ratings from just 37% of users. The ratings also show that dislike of Vista was remarkably intense, with 42% of users giving it a one-star rating that Bott describes as a “middle finger” to the platform. More →
It seems that Facebook (FB) has given a name to its new version of Android that will purportedly clog home screens with status updates. According to 9to5Google’s sources, Facebook is calling its new Android initiative “Facebook Home,” which fits in well with the notice the company sent out last week inviting people to “come see our new home on Android.” We still have no definitive word on precisely what this new “home” will entail, although The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Facebook is planning “new software for mobile devices powered by Google’s Android operating system that displays content from users’ Facebook accounts on a smartphone’s home screen.” Facebook’s event is scheduled to take place this coming Thursday.
Microsoft (MSFT) isn’t just working on refreshing Windows 8 for later this year — it’s also apparently working on a refresh for Office as well. ZDNet reports that an updated version of Office, currently codenamed Gemini, is slated for release this fall and will include updates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. ZDNet also reports that “Office is refocusing itself from being an organization that builds and sells Windows apps, to one that builds apps and services that run on multiple, heterogeneous platforms,” so it seems that the next version of Office could be the one that finally runs on iOS and Android.
One comfort for Windows 8 users has been the ability to switch out from the tiled interface to the standard desktop mode, but the recently leaked build of Windows Blue shows that Microsoft (MSFT) may be phasing out that security blanket in the future as well. Paul Thurrott’s Windows Super Site has found that the Windows Blue build adds “a ton of new settings” to its PC settings tile “that were previously only available in the desktop-based Control Panel interface.” Thurrott says that by moving desktop functionalities to the tiled interface, Microsoft is gradually trying to nudge users away from desktop mode and thus pave the way for a Windows 9 operating system that “potentially” comes with no desktop mode intact.
Apple (AAPL) is still plugging away in its efforts to improve its widely panned iOS Maps application and on Monday it paid an estimated $20 million to acquire indoor mapping company WifiSLAM. The Wall Street Journal reports that WifiSLAM “has developed ways for mobile apps to detect a phone user’s location in a building using Wi-Fi signals” and “has been offering the technology to application developers for indoor mapping and new types of retail and social networking apps.” An Apple spokesperson wouldn’t tell the Journal why Apple had acquired the company and only said that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.”
Microsoft’s (MSFT) next major Windows update will be crucial for the company because it will show how well it has listened to feedback provided by Windows 8 users who may have found the touch-centric operating system difficult to use at first. The Verge this week got the opportunity to do a hands-on preview with an early version of the upcoming Windows Blue operating system and found that Microsoft has made some important changes to the user interface that should help users make an easier transition from the more traditional desktop version of Windows. More →
Microsoft (MSFT) may be a bit behind Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) when it comes to creating a voice-enabled personal assistant for its mobile devices, but it seems the company does have plans to add better speech recognition capabilities to its Bing mobile app in the near future. MSFTKitchen has posted a video demonstration of a new prototype for voice recognition software on Windows Phone devices that’s intended to show how Microsoft has worked to reduce latency and word recognition errors while improving phones’ ability to accurately hear you in crowded, noisy areas. Unfortunately the demonstrators made no mention of when this software would roll out to Windows Phone users but MSFTKitchen speculates it could come as part of the Windows Blue software update coming later this year. A full video of the demonstration is posted below. More →
No recent Microsoft (MSFT) product has been hit with as much criticism as Windows RT over the past few months. Microsoft’s tablet operating system has been called a “lemon” that serves no purpose other than confusing consumers who don’t understand how it’s different from the full Windows 8 operating system. But in an interview with CNET, Microsoft corporate vice president Michael Angiulo said that Windows RT has a “bright future” and that Microsoft was working to make it better every day. In his defense of the OS, however, Angiulo didn’t really respond to a single one of the core criticisms that have been leveled at Windows RT. More →
