updates

A while back, Babel Rising was pulled from Windows Phone 8 due to the tiny problem of crashing on start up. It briefly returned to Windows Phone 8 despite still being incompatible. Well, today seems like déjà vu because another partially delisted game is back in semi-working order: the Nokia exclusive tower iBomber Defense from Chillingo and Cobra Mobile.

Broken Xbox Achievements aren’t especially common in Windows Phone games these days … Mostly because new Xbox Windows Phone games have become so lamentably rare, not because the certification process has improved. One such game that has suffered from a less-than-working Achievement is Picnic Wars, a Nokia exclusive game from Chillingo that launched a short while ago on January 10^th.

In record time, Chillingo and Nokia have published an update to fix up Picnic Wars’ Achievement issue. Learn more after the break.

Trapster is a Windows Phone app designed to help you avoid speed traps, avoid traffic jams, and generally have a safer time on the road. The app was recently updated to version 1.2 to bring a handful of performance improvements as well as a new map and more language support.

For those not familiar Trapster is a social network app where users post alerts to speed traps, red light and speed cameras as well as accidents and other roadway hazards. These dangers are mapped out to allow you to worry less about getting a ticket and better concentrate on driving.

Microsoft has released a firmware update for the Surface RT tablets. The update addresses "limited Wi-Fi connection issues and contains driver updates to improve performance with Windows as well as the volume and power buttons".

We started off today with a number of apps updated for both Windows Phone 7 and 8, and it seems we'll be ending the evening that way too (depending on where you reside). Ragdoll Run, Access Point, Blink and Battery Level for WP8 have all been bumped. It's certainly been a busy day of publishing before the weekend hits Microsoft and developers.

So what's new in this collection of apps?

ProShot is an app for your Windows Phone 8 device that delivers a ton of features to your camera. The app was recently updated to version 2.2 that piles a few more features into the mix, including a new look.

Most notable is the addition of a burst mode that allows you to capture images at five frames per second. The burst mode interface is a little on the cumbersome side but after a while it becomes second nature.

Microsoft has posted the change log for the Windows Phone 7.10.8858.136, otherwise known as the Windows Phone 7.8 update.

While the hardware of our old Windows Phone 7.5 devices couldn't support a full-blown update to Windows Phone 8, the 7.8 update offers us a few performance tweaks but mostly cosmetic changes. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Another fine day for rumors, and today we have a fairly big one. Chinese tech site WPDang just announced that according to their resources, the Windows Phone 7.8 OS update will be pushed to all older generation devices (Windows Phone 7.5 and older) in every corner of this world at about 18:00 GMT, January 30, 2013. 

Considering you guys could be located anywhere, we'll not convert that into some other time zone. Instead let's just say that if this rumour is indeed true, your old Windows Phone will receive a welcomed update in 5 hours. Not every phone will get the push exactly on time though. Like each update before, Windows Phone 7.8 will roll out in 4 waves, with the whole process concluding in 3 weeks.

Beem Plus is a Windows Phone music app that allows users to tap into Digitally Imported music sites and stream various EDM radio stations to their Windows Phones. The DI.FM client was updated the other day to version 1.5 to address a handful of bugs, tweak performance and now supports Last.fm scrobbling.  

Scrobbling is basically the system building a profile based on the music you play regularly and makes recommendations based on that profile. With the update, you no longer need to have a specific track name written in your notebook, instead just have it listed in your "Recently Played" table. You can either perform manual scrobbling by tapping the sharing button above the heart (in the station player) or enable auto-scrobbling where, for each opened station, the current track details will be automatically sent to your Last.fm account.