Twitter’s Windows Phone app finally gets push notifications

Twitter released its official Windows Phone 7 app way back in 2010, but one of the niggling omissions was the lack of push notifications for @mentions or retweets. But this has now been corrected, as noticed by WPCentral.

The app seemingly went live yesterday, quietly introducing the much needed feature after almost two years. You can tweak the notification settings as follows:

• Mentions: Off, From People You Follow, From Anyone
• Favorited: Off, From People You Follow, From Anyone
• Retweets: Off, From People You Follow, From Anyone
• Direct Messages
• New Followers

Here’s the catch though. Based on our initial tinkerings, we weren’t actually able to get the notifications to work.

We tried two different handsets in two different locations, and neither @mentions or direct messages showed up on the respective devices. Though we are certain the push notifications are live and active, so we’re not sure why they’re not working for us.

What more to say? If you’re a Twitter and Windows Phone user, you’ll probably like this latest update, assuming you can get it to work, that is.

QuickShot: This iOS app helps you capture those Kodak Moments with literally one click

Now, I often talk about loving simple apps that offer only one or two features, but do them very well. Sometimes I feel like a broken record on this front, but an excessive number of features can often detract from the overall experience. However, this next app takes simplicity to a whole new level.

How many times have you spotted a golden Kodak Moment, only for your fumbly fingers to fail you as you reach to access the camera on your iPhone? Rather than capturing your newborn’s first smile, what you actually capture is a vomit-induced grimace from your young ‘un. Not pleasant. But QuickShot is one app that promises to help you avoid such situations.

Although there is a plethora of easy-to-use camera apps out there, they pretty much all at least require you to launch the app to use them. This is where QuickShot differentiates itself – you don’t launch it, and by clicking on it you can’t change any settings or tweak it to suit the light conditions. For all intents and purposes, it’s just a mystical icon on your screen, but we can assure you, it is an application and it does take photos.

QuickShot lets you snap a shot direct to your camera-roll by simply hitting the icon – think of it as nothing more than that little ‘shoot’ button on the top of your digital camera.

When you touch the icon, the app seemingly does launch, and the picture is taken instantly, but it closes before you’ve even had the chance to figure out that it has opened. It’s more like the shutter on a camera opening and closing.

To view the photos, you simply go to your main photo gallery. Now, you CAN change the configurations for the app, but you have to access it through the main Settings conduit on your device, where you can alter the photo size, shot count, sound and auto-focus settings.

We’re sure QuickShot will appeal to many folk out there, and it will perhaps work best when the app is placed on page one of your main homescreen. After all, every second counts…

Five Best Android Keyboards

The beauty of Android is that it's so customizable, and Android keyboards are no exception. There are keyboards available for every type of typist, whether you prefer to hunt and peck, turn your phone sideways and use both thumbs, or swipe across the screen with one finger. This week we're going to take a look at five of the best Android keyboards, based on your nominations.

Earlier in the week we asked

Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" is a solid refinement of what is now the world's most popular OS on new smartphones. While calling it 5.0 would have been a stretch, it's more significant than you'd expect for a point upgrade. For now, you can only get Android 4.1 on a few devices, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($199.99, 4 stars) and Samsung Nexus S (3.5 stars) phones, and the Google Nexus 7 ($199, 4.5 stars) and Motorola Xoom (3.5 stars) tablets. The upgrades will roll out sometime in the middle of July as over-the-air updates. There's nothing revolutionary about Android 4.1—the new Google Now feature comes close, but it doesn't work well enough just yet. Still, there are so many minor updates and overall performance improvements that Jelly Bean adds up to our new Editors' Choice for mobile smartphone OSes.

User Interface Improvements
For this review, I tested Android 4.1 on an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Right from the beginning, the setup process was smooth,