I received an e-mail today from Skype that read:
“We are now retiring older versions of Skype and it appears that you’re currently using one of these. To continue signing into Skype on your mobile or tablet, you’ll need to download the latest version. The new version comes with improved performance, the latest features and security updates, so you’ll get the best possible Skype experience.”
I hadn’t ever received an e-mail like this before from Skype. And usually, when iOS apps are updated, the process is pretty much automatic thru the App Store. I decided to investigate further. I launched iTunes and looked at apps I’d already downloaded. I saw that the Skype for iPad app (the only version I’m currently using) didn’t indicate an update was available. I looked at the listing for the Skype iPhone app in the App Store and saw that there was a new version of that app released earlier this month. I’m assuming that I received the e-mail because I had downloaded Skype for iPhone in the past, but I no longer own an iPhone, and I guess Skype somehow knew that I hadn’t downloaded the latest version of the iPhone app, and that’s what triggered the e-mail.
The upcoming release of Windows Phone 8.1 looks to be a major rework of the OS that runs Windows-enabled mobile phones. While the release date for Windows Phone 8.1 has not yet been announced, developer previews of the operating system have been available for a couple months. Those with access to this preview version of Windows Phone 8.1 have noted that the OS comes with a podcast aggregator app as a standard feature. This is good news for podcast listeners and producers, as it’ll create an easy way for Windows Phone users to subscribe to podcasts. If you want to ensure that your podcast will be easy to add to this new aggregator, you’ll need to follow one simple guideline: Be sure your podcast’s RSS feed is discoverable by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.