The world of Internet services moves at a pace and it's not surprising that older platforms don't get on fully with the latest services and APIs. In this case it's the official Twitter client for Windows Phone 8.1 that has stopped working - we did know that this might happen at the start of June, according to Twitter's own announcements. You'll remember that they replaced their (also quite old) UWP application with an all-encompassing PWA in the Store a few months ago? Don't panic if you're on 8.1 though, third party clients come to the rescue.
As we approach April's Patch Tuesday updates (ok, they've been a day or two late in recent times, but...!), it's worth noting that this one will be the last ever patch for 'Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update'. Which is massive in theory, but it won't impact too many real world users, especially those clued up phone users who read AAWP, as I explain below.
Yes, yes, it's been almost a year since I posted here about testing the 'closed beta' of Podcast Lounge UWP, but I can exclusively reveal that it's finally now available here in the Store, as an 'open beta'. This was most people's favourite podcatcher for Windows Phone 8.1 and I'm delighted to report that it works very well, if a little belatedly, under Windows 10 Mobile.
With our re-jigged application directories (see the new Windows 10 UWP one), it's natural to also update the AAWP Universal app too, which offers quick access to our application and game directories, see the notes, links and screenshots below.
With the switch/focus at Microsoft away from Windows 10 Mobile 'Insiders' test builds, using these rings to try out advance versions of core UWP applications is also now outdated. Or so evidence from the Microsoft Store suggests.
You'll remember my unofficial way to post longer tweets in Tweetium last week? Well, this is now redundant as Tweetium UWP now supports 280 character tweets officially, in an update released just now. Notably, the official Twitter UWP client is still limited to 140 characters, so Tweetium is the way to go.
After a gap of six weeks, it's my latest update for AAWP's directories of general applications (8 new entries, 2 removed), media, imaging and reading apps (3 new entries), and games (12 new entries). Your guide to the best of Microsoft's on-phone Store, every item has been reviewed - or recommended by readers here.
One of the nice surprises arriving from the 'Fall Creators Update' arriving in the 'Release Preview' ring was discovering that Microsoft has allowed a number of classic Lumias, including the 735, 830, 930/Icon, and 1520, to stay on the Creators Update and essentially acquiring full 'production' status, in the manner of a Lumia 650 or 950. This is notable as it will keep such handsets going and supported for much longer, until Spring 2019 at least.
Hold on... News? NEWS? It's not really, and I'm in severe danger of abusing my position at AAWP just to rant at Microsoft. But in this case they deserve it. One of the central first party applications is broken and I've run out of other ways to bring this to the world's attention. [Update: we now have a workaround!]
There has been another significant update to AAWP's own (ahem) much praised UWP application for Windows 10 Mobile. AAWP Universal v1.6 adds full 'Read Later' and 'My articles' functions, plus searching is now all within the application. Thanks (a million) as always to Joe Blumenow..
