In line with their recent trend of developing for all platforms, Microsoft has quietly released a semi-private beta of a launcher app called Arrow. The early release sports an interface reminiscent of Aviate, but appears less devoted to contextual recommendations. While the current version is fairly basic, the big ideas may still be on the horizon.

There is one page to the left and one to the right, each which serve specialized functions. You can't add or remove pages at this point. Swipe right and you get a running to-do list, which is very simplistic but does offer the ability to add scheduled reminders. Let's hope Wunderlist integration is forthcoming.

To the left is a set of shortcuts to recent and frequent contacts, in case the swipe-up shortcut wasn't useful enough for you. Last but not least, the app drawer is similar to the Android M Google Now Launcher and many others with that style.

To repeat my earlier caveat, this is still in semi-private beta and it seems for good reason. There are probably more features to come and certainly some more smoothing out of rough edges. Things like custom icon support are not yet implemented and it's overall a fairly bare bones experience.

To join the beta, try joining the Google+ testing community. With that said, it isn't all that clear whether they are accepting outsiders at this point.

Alternately, you can just head to APK Mirror and try it out.

• Via:
• Microsoft News

Windows Central revealed details regarding Microsoft's two upcoming flagship Windows Phones codenamed Talkman and Cityman. Since then, the story has resonated around the internet so we figured we would provide a more detailed look at one of the phones. To be clear, these renders of Cityman aka the upcoming Lumia 950 XL are 100% created in-house by Windows Central. These are not official or leaked in any way, and we want to be very clear on that. However, we are basing them off of images, sketches, and first-hand reports from multiple sources.

Indeed, when we ran these new renders by one of our sources and this was their reply:

"This looks great! Holy crap... It is like the real thing" - Cityman Source

So we are quite confident in their accuracy. Having said that, please allow room for slight changes or minor details we might have missed. [Update: Although it is incorrectly represented here, we have it on good authority that these devices have on-screen keys and not capacitive. We will try to update the renders soon to reflect that difference.]

To recap on this phone's specs:

Cityman (Lumia 950 XL)

• Matte white, cyan or black polycarbonate body
• 5.7 inch WQHD (1440x2560) OLED display
• Snapdragon 810, 64-bit Octa core
• Iris scanner (infrared) for Windows Hello
• 3GB of RAM
• 32GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot
• 20MP PureView rear camera with triple LED flash
• 1mm silver ring inside the circumference of the black camera pod
• Aluminum side buttons
• 5MP Wide-angle front facing camera
• 3300 mAh removable battery
• Qi wireless charging integrated
• USB Type-C

Windows 10 is here. After nine months of public beta testing, the final version is rolling out to machines across the world. You can now upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge if you have Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on your existing PC. While not every single machine will get the upgrade instantly, Microsoft is rolling out the install to millions of devices. All you have to do is register for the upgrade from the taskbar, and Microsoft will alert you once it's ready to be installed. #Windows10

Tracey P