Dynamic Download

This past Sunday the guys over at McAkins Online discovered that Microsoft had posted their Project Spark Windows 8.1 app to the Windows Store but it was only available in Kazakhstan.

However, the description was in English and we posted about McAkins find here at WindowsObserver.com since it was a great discovery.

Well now the app has gone live to a broader audience and is now available in the Windows Store for almost everyone to download but there are a couple of things that will slow you down from using it.

The first is a need for a beta key. You can sign up at https://joinprojectspark.com/ but according to Microsoft they are sending out the codes in a slow and methodical manner.

The second item is that the Project Spark app is only compiled to run on x86/x64 platforms so if you are running Surface or Surface 2 you will get an error when you try to download the app.

Let us know when you get your beta keys and how the rest of the app is. I am waiting on mine so I hope to be able to get you more details on the app soon.

via WindowsObserver.com http://www.windowsobserver.com/2013/12/05/project-spark-app-goes-live-in-windows-store-but-still-needs-a-beta-key/

In the increasing competitive world of music streaming services, one feature of streaming giant Spotify has been glaringly absent since the service’s launch. That feature, of course, is free access to the mobile app; in Spotify’s current revenue model, only subscribers to their premium service are able to access and use their mobile app on Android, iOS and a whole host of other mobile platforms. Well, that looks like its about to change as the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Spotify is looking to bring a free, ad-supported app to mobile, finally rounding out Spotify’s line-up of features.

This new access is said to be going live on December 11th and brings Spotify in line with sizable competitors like Pandora who have been providing a free mobile app for quite some time now. It will be interesting to see how this actually affects to Spotify; I know I for one, as a Spotify subscriber, only subscribed to the premium service so I could get access to the mobile app. Living with the extra ads may be an acceptable sacrifice for some subscribers who will then switch over to the free service, though the converse is also possible.

Who’s been waiting for this feature to be added to Spotify’s service? Is it too little too late? Let us know what you think.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this posts poll.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch

by Stephen Yuen via AndroidSPIN