Free Regcast : Managing Multi-Vendor Devices with System Centre 2012
Image-flinging billion-dollar software giant upstart Instagram has agreed to port its photo-bothering app to Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.
Yesterday Redmond chairman Bill Gates choked back tears at a meeting with shareholders. We all assumed he was weeping over the retirement of CEO Steve Ballmer. Perhaps instead it was tears of joy that his Windows giant's mobile operating system is getting some more software popular with the yoof.
The Facebook-owned app, along with Google-owned real-time road traffic utility Waze, is available for free, as a beta, from Redmond's online shop.
"I’m happy to announce that Instagram and Waze are now available in the Store for Windows Phone 8," declared not someone from Instagram, but Microsoft senior blog writer Michael Stroh. It's a "great time to own a Windows Phone", he insisted.
But it also reminds everyone just how important, no, vital third-party software means to an operating system, especially for Windows Phone which is apparently holding onto 3.6 per cent of the world's smartmobe market. Luring some of Instagram's 150 million regular users will help nudge that up a notch.
When every new phone can more or less do the basics – calls, texts, web – well, manufacturers look for ways to differentiate themselves: Android handset makers know this, with bundled apps, and even smartwatch builders know this. And Microsoft knows this, as demonstrated when it has to big up an app port (although Instagram has also made a note of the launch).
There are some 190,000 programs in Microsoft's mobile shop, versus the 1,000,000-plus available from each of Apple's and Google's long-established online stores. The gap in available software is one thing. It's also worth noting that the Instagram application for WP 8 lacks the Vine-spoiling video upload feature in its iOS and Android counterparts.
And you cannot take snaps directly using the Windows Phone 8 'gram app; instead you're diverted to the OS-provided picture gallery, where you can use a stored photo or take a new one, apply a hipster distortion field using Instagram, and brag about it with your mates.
"Windows Phone users will be directed to their camera roll instead of a camera interface initially, where they have the option to either select an existing photo or take a new photo to apply filter to before sharing,” Stroh was quick to explain. ®
5 ways to prepare your advertising infrastructure for disaster
Image-flinging billion-dollar software giant upstart Instagram has agreed to port its photo-bothering app to Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.
Yesterday Redmond chairman Bill Gates choked back tears at a meeting with shareholders. We all assumed he was weeping over the retirement of CEO Steve Ballmer. Perhaps instead it was tears of joy that his Windows giant's mobile operating system is getting some more software popular with the yoof.
The Facebook-owned app, along with Google-owned real-time road traffic utility Waze, is available for free, as a beta, from Redmond's online shop.
"I’m happy to announce that Instagram and Waze are now available in the Store for Windows Phone 8," declared not someone from Instagram, but Microsoft senior blog writer Michael Stroh. It's a "great time to own a Windows Phone", he insisted.
But it also reminds everyone just how important, no, vital third-party software means to an operating system, especially for Windows Phone which is apparently holding onto 3.6 per cent of the world's smartmobe market. Luring some of Instagram's 150 million regular users will help nudge that up a notch.
When every new phone can more or less do the basics – calls, texts, web – well, manufacturers look for ways to differentiate themselves: Android handset makers know this, with bundled apps, and even smartwatch builders know this. And Microsoft knows this, as demonstrated when it has to big up an app port (although Instagram has also made a note of the launch).
There are some 190,000 programs in Microsoft's mobile shop, versus the 1,000,000-plus available from each of Apple's and Google's long-established online stores. The gap in available software is one thing. It's also worth noting that the Instagram application for WP 8 lacks the Vine-spoiling video upload feature in its iOS and Android counterparts.
And you cannot take snaps directly using the Windows Phone 8 'gram app; instead you're diverted to the OS-provided picture gallery, where you can use a stored photo or take a new one, apply a hipster distortion field using Instagram, and brag about it with your mates.
"Windows Phone users will be directed to their camera roll instead of a camera interface initially, where they have the option to either select an existing photo or take a new photo to apply filter to before sharing,” Stroh was quick to explain. ®
5 ways to prepare your advertising infrastructure for disaster