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You scream, I scream, we all scream for updates. Well, we don’t really scream for updates and that wasn’t as funny as I thought. Either way, you and I both appreciate a good update when we see one, that’s why we are going to talk about Newser moving to version 2.2 today. What’s new in the latest version for Windows Phone? Glad you asked.

We've been busy bees at Windows Phone Central HQ getting everything set up with the new website design, along with literally hundreds of backend tweaks and improvements being made to make the browsing experience that much more awesome.

O iPlayer, Where Art Thou?

The on again, off again saga of iPlayer for the BBC and Windows Phone has been toying with anxious readers for months now. At first the Inquirer said it was coming and then Pocket-lint effectively squashed that rumor just three days later, leaving consumers with little hope for an effective media solution.

The hope was always that Nokia would some how come in and save the day for Windows Phone users but alas, that does not seem to be the case. One of our readers, Paul A., emailed the BBC asking for information as to their reasons for not supporting Windows Phone. Surprisingly, Daniel Danker who is the General Manager of Programmes & On Demand for the BBC gave a very thorough response to Paul’s question as to why there is no Windows Phone support.

The official Times newspaper app for Windows Phone

Good news for our UK friends as the Times official newspaper app for Windows Phone has just gone live in the Marketplace. The app is well designed and brings the daily paper and even the Sunday Times right to your favorite Windows Phone all for free.

Well, it’s free if you have a subscription. That’s right, much like the New York Times app for Windows Phone, the Times of London will allow you to test drive their services for 30 days but afterwards you will need a subscription to continue the service.

Zite for Windows Phone - now available

We haven’t heard much about Zite (zite.com), a news service that’s owned by CNN, but we should start paying attention to it. Zite is not just a news-app but rather a service that finds stories based on your likes and interests which gets you away from the “information overload” that many of us experience today.

The app has been on iOS since late last year and is also on Android too but now the service is coming to Windows Phone and the CEO is quite excited—mostly because he uses a Lumia 710.

Nokia is the first to bring Kaliki to a mobile platform

Nokia is back at it again, giving customers the most bang for their buck by releasing two more exclusive apps today in the Nokia Collection for Lumia Windows Phones. Today’s apps include the Batman Origins comic and the truly unique Kaliki.

Batman Origins is a straight up prequel comic to the new movie Batman: The Dark Knight Rises due in a few weeks. There’s not much to the app as it’s just a straight up digital comic featuring two sides—Batman or Bane—and you can just go through and read it. The gorgeous artwork is provided by DC Comics of course and it’s a fun little read, especially for you fans.

What’s more, under “Links” for the app there is evidently another app coming called “The Dark Knight Rises: Prologue”. That app is not yet available but we imagine it’s just a matter of time. This marks the third app from Nokia featuring Batman with the other being the TDKR App, now this origins-comic and soon a Prologue.

Next up is the even more interesting Kaliki app from Nokia. This was something we did not see coming and boy is it cool.  In essence, it’s a news app that reads the news to you but not in some mechanical robot voice. No, Kaliki takes highlight news stories from various sources like the NY Times, CNN, USA Today and has a professional voice actor narrate it to you, making all news sound much more epic.

If you like Audible and/or National Public Radio, this app is for you.

Kaliki includes various types of news including headlines, sports, celebrity, science & technology and more too, so you have a wide selection of headlines to choose from.  The app requires a data connection and you can’t save any of the recordings for offline use—heck, there are basically no options within the app. But for you commuters with constant data connections, Kaliki is killer.

Kaliki is actually a new service not exclusive to Nokia (but they have the app first). The company (http://www.kaliki.com/) wants to be “Pandora for magazines” and will be coming to other platforms. But as far as we can tell, Nokia and Windows Phone is the first mobile iteration of the new service which hasn’t officially launched, until today.

No doubt both apps will continue to cause consternation amongst those who don’t have a Nokia Lumia phone, but for those who do, you’ll be quite pleased with both offerings.

Pick up Batman Origins here and Kaliki for Lumia Windows Phones here in the Nokia Collection.

The NY Times official app version 2.0 for Windows Phone

If you're a fan of the "Old Gray Lady" aka the New York Times (www.nytimes.com), you'll want to make sure to grab version 2.0 of the app which should be hitting the Marketplace soon. The official NY Times app for Windows Phone came out last July 1st and hasn't had an update until now.

The app has had a nice revamp with the latest version, bringing it up to date with some of the latest functionality in Windows Phone. We've been running it a couple of days now and really like the added performance, new scrolling and video feature which lets you watch special clips of certain news events and cultural pieces. Here's the full changelog of what's new:

• Live Tile Integration - users can pin any of the sections and blogs as Live Tiles to quickly see the latest headlines at a glance
• Pivot Navigation – users can see articles, videos and blogs in each section
• Cloud Integration – users may save articles to the cloud for access from multiple devices
• Updated and refreshed design
• Improved performance and fast application switching

Of course the only downside is the "pay wall" for some articles--while you can get the latest headlines and videos for free the rest will require a NY Times membership. But even for free the app is worth taking a look at and a must-have if you already subscribe.

We'll have a more full-featured review coming up a bit later when the app hits the Marketplace.

Full press release after the break...

An official app for The Register has been released for Windows Phone this past week. The online publication is a reputable technology resource with millions of readers, and Windows Phone owners will be pleased to know that a seamless experience is now available while on the go.

Latest articles are pulled down with comments displayed for each article. Users can add their own opinion on the article, or share the article with integrated social networks. Favourite feeds can be configured in the settings, for a maximum of three subjects. This creates a more personalised experience with relevant stories being targeted for viewing with three panes dedicated to the chosen topics. All feeds can be viewed regardless of what's selected in the settings, thus it's not a limitation.

It's a basic and simple app, but the interface is great and fluid throughout. Unfortunately, there's no option to change font sizes and screen orientation is locked at portrait, but we expect future updates to be rolled out addressing said issues with new feature implementations.

You can download The Register from the Marketplace for free.

We saw an early release of it back at CES in January and now the official CNN application for Windows Phone is live on the Marketplace. Of course, only Nokia-branded devices need apply at this point as they have an exclusive on the app for a few months, so we've heard.

The app itself is fantastic with gorgeous transitions, breaking news alerts, built in video, plenty of sharing options and pinnable sub-sections. The iReport feature is also pretty impressive, reportedly allowing you to submit news stories through the application itself it could very well improve "breaking news" moments.

So for all of those with Nokia Windows Phones, here's your Marketplace link. Enjoy! Thanks, Benjamin C., for the link!