It won't have escaped any regular readers notice that Microsoft's central Store application has been getting some updates over the last two months, culminating in one in the last 24 hours that (ahem) broke even more in the interface. Admittedly, the Store still works, but the sheer amount that's now almost unusable in the UI shows how little care and attention is being paid to the OS by much of Microsoft now.
Fresh on the back of the Maps platform overhaul, today sees a brand new version of Windows 10 Maps, a UWP app for all devices, including phone/mobile. Highlights in v5.1808 include lots of 'Fluent Design' (transparency) effects and colour coded traffic summaries, along with total delay estimates. Maps is a great example of an app and a service getting big updates under Windows 10 Mobile even though the OS itself is at a 'security updates only' status.
This third party UWP client for the secure messaging service Telegram has just had a sequence of weekly updates, since our last coverage here, a month ago. The full summarised changelog is listed below, but there's quite a bit that's new in the UI.
Reviewed last summer (2017) and then featured again just over a year ago, Awesome Tube lives up to its name in this major new update. It's a YouTube client for all Windows 10 devices, including phones, of course. And now for Xbox too!
Back in July 2017, I reviewed Flights Radar UWP, aiming to show all the aircraft in the sky around you, and then I covered a new version here, back in November 2017, with lots of improvements. Well, almost a year on, today sees another big upgrade, to v1.0.20, bringing Fluent Design, a Favourites list, a much bigger Cockpit view, and more. Why am I making this a News item? Because this is a (potentially) very high profile UWP app, competing with the likes of FlightRadar24 on other platforms. It's not perfect yet, but we have some special giveaway codes below to help soften the blow if you fancy being an intensive tester!
Windows 10 Mobile build 15254.538 (from .530) for all phones currently running the 1709 branch ('Fall Creators Update') is fresh out today, so go grab it now. Similarly, build 15063.1390 (from .1324) is out for all phones running the 1703 branch ('Creators Update'). Rather surprising is an update for the Anniversary Update, even though it's now 'out of support'!
Last mentioned here in July, Podcast Lounge 2 has completed its latest huge round of beta testing (seriously, there's a lot of effort in each major update) and is now out as an update in the Microsoft Store. Go grab it, since it offers cross-device sync of favourites, play history, playlists and settings - oh, and Xbox compatibility for the first time.
NeoWin is reporting - seemingly reliably - that Microsoft is only putting new features into the iOS and Android version of Office Mobile, and that the Windows 10 UWP versions are 'legacy'. Which directly impacts Windows 10 Mobile, of course, though I should emphasise that the Office applications will continue to get maintenance/security updates and bug fixes - we're just talking about the feature sets now being frozen. So there's no need to panic.
As was expected, Microsoft's preparing to cut users on Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update loose in terms of security updates, with no 'Patch Tuesday' update available in October (this month's was the last one ever for this branch). More details below, though hopefully most AAWP readers have heeded my advice over the years (first Insiders, then using a registry hack) and have any affected older devices already on later branches.
People think of Windows 10 Mobile being dead. Not yet. We're still looking at over a year of support in terms of monthly patches and fixes for Windows 10 Mobile 'Fall Creators Update'. And build 15254.530 (from .527) is fresh out today, so go grab it for all phones currently on the 'Fall Creators Update'. And with similar patches and fixes for other Windows 10 Mobile branches.
