Go to Battle in “Age of Empires: Castle Siege,” now ready for Windows 10

The medieval battles are thrilling in “Age of Empires: Castle Siege”, in which you choose your civilization, fortify your walls and prepare your troops.

The action is now even more exciting, with updates that enable the game for Xbox Live and make it ready for Windows 10, with support for touch, Keyboard and mouse features.

Install “Age of Empires: Castle Siege”, for free on your Windows PC. Also, keep up with what’s hot, new and trending in the Windows Store on Twitter and Facebook.

Download "Age of Empires: Castle Siege" from Microsoft Windows Store.

New advantages of ‘Lara Croft GO’ designed for smartphones and Tablets

New advantages of ‘Lara Croft GO’ designed for smartphones and Tablets

Globe-trotting explorer Lara Croft has investigated dangerous caves and tombs around the World and now, the free “Lara Croft GO” puts her in new adventures designed just for smartphones and Tablets.

She’s still navigating jungles and ancient ruins, but with turn-based puzzles. Help her discover deep secrets and face deadly challenges as you uncover the myth of the Queen of Venom.

Install game for Windows Phone, PC’s and Tablets.

Download "Lara Croft GO" from here.

How to shoot best ever video with your Microsoft Lumia

Whatever you have the new Microsoft Lumia 640 XL, the ever popular Lumia 520 or any other Windows Phone altogether, these tips will help you capture great video from your smartphone.

There are plenty of fantastic Windows Phone apps out there to help you record and edit video. Besides Lumia camera, of course, Microsoft Hyperlapse and Movie Moments are Just two Windows Phone apps we recommend.

But if you don’t follow some basic – but essential video-recording tips-the fanciest software and filters won’t help you create compelling video.

The next time you shoot video with a Lumia or other smartphone, follow these tips.

Storyboard your Video:

What’s the story, Morning Glory? Take a few minutes to envision your final video: What’s the story you want to tell? By mapping out exactly what you need to capture, you won’t miss any important moments.

For example, if you want to record your parents’ 40^thwedding anniversary celebration, you will want video snippets of your parents greeting their guests, cutting their anniversary cake, and taking a turn on the dance floor. You may also want to record your siblings and other relatives and friends as they give toasts or speeches to honor your mom and dad.

Let there be Light:

If you don’t want grainy streaky video, shoot in the best light possible. If you’re outside, shoot in mid-day or in golden hour (watch the angle of the sun so your object isn’t silhouetted).

Avoid low-light such as dusk or dawn and when shooting inside turn on the extra lights in the room.

Get close to the Action:

Don’t make your viewers squint to see what’s happening. If you’re shooting your kid’s piano recital or the fancy moves of a friend doing sick aerials on his skateboard, get up close.

What’s the expression on your child’s face as he played his piece? How many revolutions did your friend whip out on his board? Details matter.

Get Great Audio:

Crisp clear audio is just as important as crisp, clear video. Lumia smartphones such as the Lumia Icon, Lumia 930 and Lumia 1520feature four high-performance microphones.

But whatever or not you use these Lumia devices, make sure don’t covers the Microphones. Also get close (but not too close) to the full audio source for full distortion-free sound.

Keep it Steady:

While many Lumia smartphones features optical-image stabilization, make sure your video doesn’t judder or shake by resting your elbows on a table or other hand surface, bracing your arms, or investing in an inexpensive smartphone tripod.

And here’s one bonus tip.

Keep recording:

Shoot more footage than you may actually need. If you shoot 30 to 50 percent more than you’ll use, you can cherry-pick the best parts to create a compelling, edited video.

Do you find these tips helpful? Are these one or two essential video recording tips you would like to share? Let us know below?

14 reasons why you shouldn’t upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft has currently reported that Windows 10 is now running on over 75 million computers around the World, which signals a great jump start for the new operating system that will be part of our life for years to come.
Previously I have shared with you a number of good reasons why you should upgrade to Windows 10, which included new technologies under the hood, the return the start menu, Cortana, Action center, Settings app and many few new features and changes. However, with the good there is always the bad. Today we’re going to go through fourteen reasons you should consider to halt the upgrade until a later feature packed update gets released.
Top 14 reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10,

1. Upgrade problems

While the software giant has managed to fix many of the issues that cause the upgrade process to fail, many users have been reporting failures to upgrade to Windows 10 due to different number of reasons. Some people are finding compatibility issues with hardware and software and there are situations where the operating system can’t complete the upgrade process. One of the most common issues has been the problem activating Windows 10.

2. it’s not a finished product

Microsoft is changing the way it builds Windows, with the release of Windows 10, the company will no longer release major updates. Instead Microsoft is now offering “Windows as a service”. Technically Windows will never be considered complete, which means that the operating system will continue to be a work in progress. As a result, we are likely to see more bugs and other issues in the regular basis.

3. The user interface still a work in progress

While the new operating system offers an updated user interface, it fails short to be a complete design. For example, there is a big inconsistency around the context menus. Right-clicking on the desktop, using Start Menu, taskbar, Mail app, Microsoft Edge just to name a few scenarios, you will be presented with a different context menu style.

Read More Here:

14 Reasons why you shouldn't upgrade to Windows 10

Watch for Surface Pro 3 NFL Season

As the season kicks off this year, you’ll once again have the chance to see how our unique technology partnership with the NFL is continuing to change the game. Surface was, of course, part of the game last season. You likely saw players and coaches picking up the Surface Pro 2 devices in the bright blue rugged cases to review plays during games. While every Surface Pro device can run virtually any desktop application as well as any app from the Windows Store, they can also be managed and deployed for a single purpose. In the case of the NFL these devices ran one proprietary application – the Sideline Viewing system. This customized app allowed players and coaches to review and markup color still images rather than rely on the printed black and white photos used in the past, allowing them to make on-field adjustments much faster than they could with the paper system. It was a great step towards using technology to review plays and make decisions in real time.

This year, you’ll see new Surface Pro3s in action on the sidelines and they are bigger, lighter and brighter than ever before. They will of course still perform in all the rigors of the NFL environment Like heat, cold and rain, but we’ve added some new features to the application is response to feedback we received last year.

Surface Pro 3 with the Surface Sideline viewing system (SVS) will offer up the following new features;

*. The Surface Pen can now mark-up plays in four different colors.

*. Marked-up plays can be saved to individual profiles for easy reference allowing coaches and players to access their individual notes from any Surface.

*. Addition of a whiteboard for sketching players.

*. Increased daylight readability thanks to the amazing Surface Pro 3 screen which is brighter and has more contrast.

*. Access to the entire games play series for quick reference of the entire game.

In addition to the utilizing Surface on the Sidelines on the game day, NFL teams are also integrating Surface devices throughout many facets of their business and Football operations. The beneath the Surface video series which launched this morning takes a deeper look at how surface is impacting the game for NFL organizations – from players, to coaches, to front office, to scouts, to IT personnel and more.

Don’t let anything stop you in ‘On the Run’

“On the Run” has a simple goal: don’t stop until you’ve made it out of town. You start off going fast, and it only gets more frantic from there as you race along city streets and parks, through tunnels and more.

There’s a lot of action on this journey, as police are chasing you from checkpoint to checkpoint. But you can catch the slipstream from other cars to go faster and earn super-speed, or collect boosts to clear a path through traffic. Choose your car from a large fleet, then upgrade it.

Install "on the run" for free on Windows Phone

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New Windows Microsoft advertising SDK with support for video interstitials

Today Microsoft is releasing several important capabilities that allow you to increase ad revenue in your apps.

*. Microsoft Universal Ad client for Windows 10

*. Support for video interstitials on Windows 8.1, Windows phone 8.1, Windows 10, ideal for Games

*. Ad mediation for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 apps to manage multiple and SDKs and increase fill rate.

Read More Here: new windows Microsoft advertising

Digital Gift Cards: Treat Someone

A gift is something you remember for years to come. Use your Lumia and Digital Gift Cards to put a smile on someone’s face. For whatever reason you want to give a digital gift-your brother’s birthday or your son’s first day back at school-there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Much like a physical gift card that you load up with money, the Digital Gift card app on your Lumia sends an electronic card to a recipient. It can be used to purchase digital content like apps, Games, Music, films and TV shows on their Windows Phone, Tablet, PC or Xbox.

Facebook said to be working on a breaking news app

Facebook has reportedly started testing a breaking newa app that would recieve alters directly from publications followed by the users. In order to compete better with twitter, Facebook has been introducing new features that make it similar to the micro-blogging network.

A few years ago, company introduced trending topics similar to twitter but the feature is generally late in picking up the trends as compared with twitter. As a result, people's reliance on twitter for news as it happens has grown over time and facebook probably wants to change it, as the company is now working on an app that will allow news outlets to push directly notifications to followers about breaking news.

 Business insider managed to get its hands on a screen grab showing the said features and also talked to a person involved in its testing. It is expected that user will have to download a separate app that will recieve notifications from the publications followed by the user. The publishers will be provided a dashboard to send out the alerts with 100 characters of text and a link to their article which will probably be opened using an in-app browser.

Windows 10 encrypted: How to Bitlocker-encrypt and protect your whole Windows 10 system

Windows 10 has new fancy log-in options like fingerprint, facial and iris recognition. But anybody with a bootable USB-stick might just steal your files. Unless you encrypt it with Bitlocker or similar tools.

Per default, windows secure user account and data with a password. You need to log-in to access your files.

But unfortunately there is no default windows 10 encryption of your drive. This means anybody with a bootable USB-drive might gain access to your data by passing the Windows 10 login-mechanism. Just imagine you loose your Surface Pro 3 tablet or it gets stolen. Thieves and hackers might just copy your files and use your data. Even worse, they might also get access to passwords stored in Web browsers and login into your online accounts.

Why windows 10 does not advertise its great built-in BitLocker encryption when you install or upgrade? As our short tutorial shows, activating BitLocker on Windows 10 and encrypting your files is a no-brainer.

  Turning on BitLocker encryption for a Windows 10 System disk

Right click on your system drive symbol in Windows 10 file explorer. Then select turn on BitLocker.

A)     If you see the following error message, then continue with Step-2 –open windows ten group policy editor

Read More Here: Windows 10 encrypted: How to Bitlocker encrypt and protect your whole Windows 10 system

Five ways to keep your head up on a commute with Lumia

While we all love to use our smartphones, there’s no need to constantly have your face buried in it. We’ve found five ways you can still use your Lumia and look up at the same time.

If you’re on your daily commute, one thing you’ll notice almost daily is the sea of scalps-or the top of people’s heads.

That’s not because you may be taller than everybody else. Everybody is usually staring down at their phones, hiding away in their smartphone screen.

Lift that chin, re-join reality, and let the real world back into your life with these face-up activities.

Read More Here: Five ways to keep your head up on a commute with Lumia