Going dark: the AAWP (All About Windows Phone) app gets an update

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The first big update to the AAWP (All About Windows Phone) app, version 1.1, is now available from the Windows Phone Marketplace. The updated version adds support for a dark theme, improves comment integration, has a few minor styling improvements and includes a number of behind the scenes performance improvements and bug fixes. 

The AAWP app aims to make it easy to access all of our content directly on your Windows Phone device. You can view our latest content, browse or search for content by section, and stream episodes of the podcast. 

Following the release of the initial version of the AAWP app, the most requested feature was to add support for a dark theme. The updated version of the app now includes a dark theme. By default, the theme will follow that set in the phone's settings. However, if you prefer, you can override this in the app's settings and specify the dark or light theme.

AAWP app screenshotAAWP app screenshot

Comment integration for all stories has also been improved. Extraneous HTML tags (e.g. <p>) are now removed and replies to existing comments are indicated by indentation and the display of a blue bar. You can submit a new comment using the form at the bottom of each comment page, or follow the link at the top of the page to access the web-based version of the Disqus commenting interface.

AAWP app screenshotAAWP app screenshot

A small number of styling changes have also been made. For example, the 'sections' page of the main panorama now includes a brief description for each section.

Under the hood changes in the update include a new clean up routine that helps manage the image cache (preventing it from taking up too much space), a fix for the issue that caused the audio agent to crash when tracks were changed too quickly and a fix for a crash caused by missing link information in a story.

AAWP app screenshotAAWP app screenshot

The AAWP app, which uses the MVVM Light Toolkit, is developed by Geoff Webber-Cross (phone side) and Rafe Blandford (server side). You can read Geoff's blog here, which includes topics of interest to Windows Phone and Windows 8 developers, and follow him on Twitter here (@webbercross)
   

Key features of the AAWP app

  • Browse all the content from the All About Windows Phone website
  • Listen to episodes of the AAWP Insight Podcast
  • Search for previous content with optional section and date filters
  • Live tile notifications of new and updated content (hint: turn on Notifications in Settings, and pin the app to the start screen)
  • Offline support when no data connection is available
  • Share articles through Email, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
  • Read and post comments
  • Direct link to the Marketplace for apps and games referenced in the content
  • Direct link to YouTube videos mentioned in the content
  • Open web links mentioned in the content
       

Download and feedback

You can download the AAWP app from the Marketplace for free. If you are already using the app then you can manually download the new version, or wait for the update (downloads) notification to appear in the Marketplace app.

We would be delighted to hear your feedback on the new version and what features you would still like to see added to the app. You can contact us by email, or leave a comment below.

If you like the app, please consider rating and reviewing it in the Marketplace (long press on the AAWP icon in the Windows Phone launcher, and choose 'rate and review').