Yahoo to Discontinue Several Mobile Apps

Written by Alan Friday, 27 January 2012 05:05

Yahoo has a surprisingly large amount of mobile app offerings.  However, just a little while ago they announced that those apps would become fewer very soon, as several of their mobile offerings are now on the chopping block.  In a blog post that is unceremoniously titled “The Times They Are a Changing…and These Apps They are A-Going” Yahoo dropped the axe on several services offered on various mobile platforms.

In fairness, Yahoo is getting rid what is probably the dead-weight of their mobile apps in favor of those with more appeal and higher usage.  It’s unlikely that any of the apps coming to the chopping block will be missed by many users.  The complete list they published consists of the following:

There are only a couple of surprises in that list – Yahoo News and Yahoo Movies.  The company does state that many of the features of these mobile applications are, or will be, built into current or future offerings.  They claim, “We’re moving forward with a “mobile first” mindset. You can expect to see more new Yahoo! mobile products in 2012″.

While the first big search leader has had their share of problems in recent times they are continuing to hang on and attempt to compete in the ever-changing world of modern technology.  Their most popular offering, Flickr, today announced more competitive pricing plans for Pro users and now this new list of mobile changes comes on those heels.

Source: Yahoo Blog

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts

Flickr Pro Announces Pro Price Changes

Written by Alan Friday, 27 January 2012 12:39

Flickr, the world’s most popular photo sharing website, has announced some changes to the pricing structure of their Pro plans.  While the vast majority of Flickr users only use the free services, there are many professional photographers who also use the service and require much more than a free account can do.  Flickr Pro provides unlimited uploads, unlimited storage, access to your super huge original files, stats on your account and no ads.

While the annual price for Flickr Pro will remain at $24.95 per year there will be a new 3 month plan which users can purchase for $6.95 and the the price for a two year plan is dropping to $44.95.  In addition to these changes, Flickr Pro will move to a subscription model which means your plan will automatically renew.  Like most subscription services on the web, they will send an email prior to your account being billed.  For current Flickr Pro users the auto renewal will not take effect until you have manually renewed your account under this new model.

This is great news for Flickr users because cheaper with more variety is always better.  For free users, the majority of people, there are no changes to your accounts.  You can read more on these changes over at the Flickr Blog.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts

Always Display the Full Context Menu in Windows 7

Written by Alan Friday, 27 January 2012 07:00

The right-click context menu in Windows 7 is handy, but it has obvious limitations.  It only displays a handful of the options that are actually available when you right-click an item, leaving out many options that users may actually want.  There are solutions that can fix this.  For instance you can hold down the Shift key while right-clicking or you can modify the menu displayed, which isn’t particularly complicated, but still a hassle and not something you want to explain to a computer novice.

Now an app for Windows 7 called “Full Context Menu” will enable all of the options in the right-click menu without need to hold down the Shift key or modify Windows 7.  Best of all it’s a portable app so you can stick it on a USB drive and take it with you wherever you go.  Full Context Menu enables the full context menu in Windows Explorer, and displays the extra items including the explorer window, Downloads, Favorites, Links, My Documents, My Pictures, Desktop and other options.

You can launch the app the from the system tray when your USB drive is plugged in and you can right-click the app to pause it if you have any reason to do so.  The first time you launch the app on a new system it will give you the option to always launch it on startup – of course, the drive needs to be plugged in for this to work.

The app has been fully tested to work on Windows 7 and Windows Vista.  You can download the app, and the source script if it interests you, from the programmer’s website.  It’s a free app, but if you like it you can make a donation.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts