Adobe Photoshop Express is an excellent photo editor app for Windows desktop and Windows 10 Mobile and one of my favorites because it's super simple to use and full of those automated tasks that makes my photos look good without much effort. I'm very lazy when it comes to photo editing plus my lack of artistic taste is evident. I always scored ZERO in arts class, no kidding.
That's why I like apps like Adobe Photoshop Express, to handle those tedious manipulations for me. The app has been updated today with one feature removed, Adobe Revel. The latter was Adobe's cloud storage solution to store your photos and sync them to your Windows computer/tablet and iPad. Adobe did not say the reason for removing Adobe Revel.
With the holidays almost upon us, Adobe is making its premium features free, meaning the Adobe Noise Reduction Pack which was sold at $4.99 and the Adobe Looks Pack which was at $2.99 are now free when you sign in with an Adobe ID. Adobe does say within the app that this offer is "for a limited time", so hurry to take advantage of it in the Windows store.
Correct me if I'm wrong when I say we all speak at least one language. But the real question is why stick to one when you can speak more thanks to apps like Duolingo, a Universal Windows app that is among the best in its kind in that it makes it fun and easy to learn a foreign language. Duolingo lets you learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Irish, Dutch, Danish and English; all of that totally free, with no in-app purchases. So no surprises.
Today the developers behind the learning app released an update that adds three new languages to the lot: Russian, Polish and Ukrainian. Three additional languages to learn at your own pace.
If you haven't tried Duolingo yet, visit the Windows store on your desktop or phone to download and have fun learning languages.
Pushbullet made it easy to send text messages from our Windows computer and Android tablets. Today, the amazing team behind Pushbullet published another update that brings group texting support to the app. Users of Windows and android on tablets will thus be able to reply to groups on their devices without reaching out to their phones. All that is needed to start using this new feature is to download this update in the link at the end of this post.
Group texting is supported in Chrome via the extension, the Windows desktop app and the Android app. The update will be available soon for Safari, Firefox and Opera extensions. Sending group text will be without limits until January 1st. Pass that date, the same individual text message limit will apply to free users of Pushbullet.
Whether you're a free or paid user of Pushbullet, download the update from Pushbullet and enjoy sending group text from your Windows computer.
Windows Maps for desktop and Windows 10 Mobile was updated today with features that I find very helpful. Not that I really need them in Mauritius, but they will come in very handy during my travels. Before we look into the update, I want to draw your attention on the availability of the update on Windows Desktop and Mobile at the same time. This is the power of Universal apps.
In this update, Microsoft introduces a feature I think they borrowed from Here Maps, recently owned by Nokia and sold to a German consortium, which lets users pin their Home and later tap on it to get directions back. In this update, Microsoft lets you do that by pinning your Home or Work to get guided directions from anywhere.
With Christmas right around the corner, every maps app has to have their own Santa tracking feature and Windows Maps will let you find Santa and "follow him as he travels around the world on December 24th". Microsoft says in the change log that this feature is not available in all countries or regions. In the case this feature doesn't work at your location, just sit back with your favorite drink with your family and do it the old way, by scrutinizing the sky, which is way better than looking at a screen.
The last item in the log, is lane guidance in turn-by-turn navigation. Every driver, no matter how good, has had to face this moment of not knowing which lane to use. This feature should help avoid these confusing moments for a safe ride.
This is pretty big update for Windows Maps. This app gives you voice navigation, turn-by-turn driving, transit, and walking directions for free and without the need of a live internet connection. Simply download the maps within the app, but before you can do that, make sure you download/upgrade Windows Maps app in the store.
It's the holidays season, just the perfect time to add new episodes to the ever popular Candy Crush Saga for Windows. This translates into 15 new levels of ice-cold Candy Crush Saga for your immoderate consumption.
"Do you like ice cream? Of course you do! Then you will love Siberian Sorbet, our latest episode! It comes filled with 15 NEW LEVELS and an extra slice of sugary fun on top!"
Candy Crush Saga is a completely free game, but some in-game items will require payment. That said, head over to the Windows Store to download the latest icy episode of Candy Crush Saga.
We all have a story to tell whether it's for work, school, family event and nowadays not a lot of tools allows us to do so easily. Sure there is PowerPoint, but that requires you own a version of Microsoft Office and not everyone can afford one. Thankfully, Microsoft came up with Sway, a free tool for Windows that makes it easy to create and share personal stories with interactive multimedia content including maps, tweets, Vines, graphics and GIFs. And you don't have to be a professional designer to use Sway.
Microsoft makes a great job adding features and improving the current experience. They recently published an update that adds the following features to Sway:
- Full screen - You can now view and present Sways in full screen mode.
- Insert Pictures - It's now easier to copy & paste and to drag & drop pictures from Windows File Explorer into Sway.
- Miscellaneous - We've made several performance improvements and bug fixes.
If you haven't tried Sway yet, give it a try and unleash your productivity across your devices. Sway is a free download on the Windows Store.
