Microsoft Clarifies Windows 10 Store Search Algorithm

Today, Microsoft posted a blog post stating that Store listings and search algorithms have changed.

There’s a lot of info there. It really looks like they’ve fixed Windows Store search, which is a really good thing, considering how bad it was in Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.

Store listing and search algorithms

  • Search algorithms optimized for apps, games, movies, and music rather than the general web search used earlier. These algorithms take a more holistic approach when evaluating an app’s relevancy to the search terms, factoring in attributes such as click-through rates in the Store listings, ratings and reviews, keywords, and total downloads.
  • Apps that customers have previously acquired are not currently filtered out of searches or app lists. As a result, customers may see apps they already own in the Store lists and recommendations. We are planning to remove previously-owned apps from the recommendations in a future update.
  • Lists will not include ‘top grossing.’ The lists available today include ‘top free,’ ‘top paid,’ ‘best rated,’ and ‘new and rising.’ The ‘top grossing’ app list, which is currently available in the Store on Windows 8, will be temporarily unavailable, with plans to bring back this capability in a future update.
  • Store lists always show Apps first, then Games, then Music, then Movies. When users search for items, the order of the results might not be the ideal, and that is also a focus area for future improvement.

App listings and web Store

  • Windows Phone screenshot auto-rotation orientation no longer available. Windows Phone Dev Center enabled developers to submit vertical screenshots and Dev Center would rotate them. The new Dev Center does not have this ‘auto rotate’ filter. So you might see some Windows Phone screenshots appear vertical instead of horizontal in the Store. The fix is easy: re-submit the screenshots rotated with any image editor, then upload to Dev Center.

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  •  New web Store and URL redirects: The previous Store URLs windows.microsoft.com and www.windowsphone.com now redirect customers to the new web Store apps.microsoft.com. Existing URLs and links continue to work and automatically redirect customers to the new Store.
  • Installing apps from web Store not available. Installing apps to a Windows Phone when using the Store in a PC browser is not supported. Apps must be installed from the device itself.
  •  Logged out customers may see both Windows and Windows Phone apps. If a customer is not logged in to their Microsoft account on Windows 8.x or Windows 7, the web Store will show both the Windows and Windows Phone apps. This means the customer may see duplicate apps (for non-linked apps).
  • URL to show all apps from one publisher no longer available. The URLs that pointed to all apps from a single publisher in Windows Phone (e.g. https://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/store/publishers?publisherId=xxx) are no longer supported. Customers can select a publisher’s name in an app’s product description page to view a list of the publisher’s apps.

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  • You might need to adjust your app description. Existing Windows 8.x apps will also be available to all Windows 10 users, so make sure the description does not indicate that the app only ‘runs on Windows 8.x’ or similar description. The Store will try to detect the OS of a user, and will adjust which apps to show or indicate if an app is not compatible with a user’s device.
  • App version, last update date, and device compatibility not visible in the app page. The app description pages do not include which devices the app works on, nor does it show the app version and last update date. We are working to bring these popular features back in a future update. One recommendation is to add the app version in the app description when you update your apps.

Ratings and Reviews

  • Migration of all the Ratings and Reviews. Ratings and reviews in the Windows 8 and Windows Phone Stores were migrated and will be visible to Windows 10. Ratings and reviews provided by customers using Windows 10 will not appear to customers using a previous OS.
  • New Ratings and Reviews Algorithm. The Windows 10 Store uses new review sorting logic to improve the customer experience in a variety of ways:
    • The most recent reviews with most ‘helpful’ votes are bubbled to the top of the list, ensuring comments on are relevant and useful for customers looking at your app.
    • The profanity detection algorithm has been updated and improved. As customers change the way they use profanity in reviews, the algorithm will adapt and further refine the way it detects inappropriate language.
    • New spam detection will detect and remove more spam before customers see it.
  • Review filter: Customers will be able to search reviews in both the Store app and the web Store. Filters can be set for star ratings, most helpful, newest, highest-rated, and lowest-rated.

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  • Unified Ratings and Reviews for Linked Apps. The unified Dev Center dashboard treats linked Windows and Windows Phone apps as a single app with multiple packages. Ratings and reviews for any package in the linked app are applied to the app, regardless of whether the rating was provided on a Windows Phone app or a Windows 8.x app. In Windows 10, customers will see combined reviews and ratings for both apps in the new Store as well a unified star rating.  Customers accessing the Store on earlier OS versions (e.g., Windows Phone 8.1) will not see the new combined rating.  A device-specific filter is planned for a future update, enabling customers to see just reviews for their device type.
  • Ratings and reviews submitted in Windows 10 previous to July 15 were deleted. Ratings and reviews submitted by customers using the preview versions of Windows 10 were removed from the Store on July 15, 2015.  This action was taken to ensure an app’s rating and reviews are not based on customer experiences with preview versions of Windows 10.  Instead, apps will only show Windows 10 ratings and reviews generated after July 15. Depending on the ratings your app received in the Store preview, you may see your average star rating change.

One of the things that are bothersome is that users can no longer download apps from the web Store. Previously, with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, there was an install option which never worked. It would send an email to the user with instructions to download the app.

It’s disturbing because many users are stating that they can’t download MixRadio on Windows 10 Mobile. It’s not in the Store and they can’t download it from the web Store.

wp_ss_20150724_0001Personally, I think the new Store looks fantastic. I can find my app, which is all I ask for. It’s also a massive improvement from the Windows 8.1 Store.

Source: Windows Blog

Surface 3 LTE Now Available!

Earlier this week, we learned that AT&T would be selling the LTE Surface 3 in their stores starting today. Well, surprise! As it turns out, this is also the day that Microsoft is going to begin selling the unlocked models.

The Surface 3 will be $599 for the model with 2 GB RAM and 64 GB SSD and it will be $699 for the model with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. Also, at the end of this month, T-Mobile will also be selling the LTE model.

Source: Microsoft

Deal: Elephone P6000 Pro and Elephone P8000 for $119-$169

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Right now, there’s an event going on at Everbuying. They’ve got three phones on sale, the Elephone P6000 Pro with 2 GB of RAM for $119.99, the Elephone P6000 Pro with 3 GB of RAM for $139.99, and the Elephone P8000 for $169.99.

All three of these phones use a 1.3 GHz octa core MediaTek MT6753 processor. Other than the one phone that’s otherwise noted, they both have 3 GB of RAM. Right now, I would take the time to challenge you to find another phone with an octa core processor and 3 GB of RAM for that price.

I’ll wait…

OK, now that we’ve done our research and shown that there are no other comparable phones at that price, let’s see what else we have.

So probably the big difference with these two phones is that the P6000 Pro has a 5″ HD display that comes out to 294 ppi and the P8000 has a 5.5″ 1080p display, coming out to a whopping 401 ppi. They’re both IPS LCD and they’re both going to be stunning.

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Let’s get down to the camera, shall we? Both the P6000 Pro and the P8000 rock a 13 MP rear camera, but that’s not all. The P8000 has an f/2 aperture, so you’re guaranteed some awesome low light shots. The P6000 Pro has a 1600×1200 front facing camera, so it’s better than 1080p. The P8000 has a 5 MP front camera, so you have plenty of room to crop photos.

The Elephone P6000 Pro has a 2700 mAh battery, which is really great and it’s certain to provide a full day of battery life; however, it pales in comparison to the Elephone P8000, which rocks a whopping 4165 mAh battery, which is going to guarantee you just about two days of battery life. Ever forgot to charge your phone? Well, you don’t have to worry anymore with the Elephone P8000.

The real winner here is the Elephone P8000, but that’s not surprising. It’s the most expensive out of the three. The Elephone P6000 Pro is a solid phone at a solid price. They both have the same processor and the P6000 Pro is available with the same RAM.

Again, I’ll challenge you. Find a phone with an octa core processor, 3 GB RAM, a 13 MP rear camera with f/2 aperture, a 5 MP front camera, a 1080p 5.5″ IPS LCD, and a 4165 mAh battery for only $169.99. What are you going to find? A Moto E with a 0.3 MP front camera, 5 MP front camera, 1 GB RAM, a 540×960 display, and a 1.2 GHz quad core processor?

I’ll wait again…

Now that you haven’t found it, come on back here and buy one of those phones. You deserve it for all of that hard work you put in trying to see if you could find a better deal.

Again, the Elephone P6000 Pro with 2 GB RAM is $119.99, the Elephone P6000 Pro with 3 GB RAM is $139.99, and the Elephone P8000 is $169.99.

Act now! The deal on the Elephone P8000 ends on July 27 and the deals on the Elephone P6000 Pro end on August 25!

You can grab any of these phones from Everbuying right here.

Nexus 9 with Android M Video Review

For the second time, I am reviewing the Nexus 9. I reviewed the LTE model when it first came out. It was pretty bad. I had heard that the Wi-Fi only model was better. Now, I’ve finally got my hands on a Wi-Fi only Nexus 9.

Of course, I installed Android M Developer Preview on it. That was pretty bad. The actual review of the Nexus 9 running Android M will be at the bottom. First, I’ll add three walk through videos of Android M, which all used a Nexus 9. The first was about new features. The second was about performance improvements where I actually had two Nexus 9s, one with Lollipop and one with Android M. The third video is with Android M Developer Preview 2.

And finally, the fourth video will be the Nexus 9 with Android M review. The first three videos are there for a bit of backstory, but this is really about the actual Nexus 9 with Android M review. The final video is a little long, but I think it’s totally worth your time.

Continue reading Nexus 9 with Android M Video Review

Hands On with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4

On Tuesday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4. The next day, Apple released Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Public Beta 2. There isn’t a lot that’s new in this build; however, there are some really significant bug fixes that I’ll show in this video.

As we get closer to the public release of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, there will be more videos like this, showing off bug fixes rather than actual new features.

Continue reading Hands On with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4

Hands On with WatchOS 2 Beta 4

On Tuesday this week, Apple released WatchOS 2 Beta 4. There wasn’t a whole lot that was new; however, there was a hell of a lot that got fixed. As we get closer to the public release of WatchOS 2, iOS 9, and Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, there are going to be more and more videos like this, where there isn’t a lot of new features but there are bug fixes to show.

Have a look.

Continue reading Hands On with WatchOS 2 Beta 4

Windows 10 Universal Apps can be Submitted on July 29

I had a feeling this was the case. In fact, had I known it would be a story, I would have published this a few days ago. Microsoft will begin allowing developers to submit universal apps to the Windows 10 Store on July 29. I suppose it’s because they want to make sure there are absolutely no universal apps when Windows 10 launches.

It seemed obvious because when Microsoft released Visual Studio 2015 on Monday, they stated that developers wouldn’t even be able to work on universal apps until July 29, oddly enough, although the release candidates had and still have the capability to develop universal apps.

Continue reading Windows 10 Universal Apps can be Submitted on July 29

Calling it like I see it, not pulling any punches