.

Microsoft has a plan to stop people from ignoring Windows Store apps, and it involves putting recommendations in front of users’ faces. In Windows 10, Microsoft plans to look at how people are using the software, and figure out what kind of apps they might like. Over time, users may get app recommendations in different parts of the operating system. For instance, the Start menu might show a recommendation directly underneath the list of most used apps. If the user installs the app, it’ll then be available to launch from that same space. Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said he hopes this creates a cycle in which users discover new apps, pin them as Live Tiles in the Start menu, and free up the recommendation space for something new. The lock screen will be another opportunity for app promotion, with an occasional full-screen image of a Windows Store app replacing the usual random image from Bing. This is part of a larger plan to make lock screen more interactiv...

It’s true: Android apps are coming to Windows 10’s Windows Store. So are iPhone apps. Traditional desktop programs too. And even web apps! But not quite in the way you think. Windows 10’s enhanced compatibility has nothing in common with Blackberry’s half-assed Android kludge, and everything to do with pairing easy portability with Microsoft’s smarter, experience-enhancing universal app capabilities. Say what you want about the selection in the Windows Store, but some of Windows 8’s underlying technologies are actually pretty darn swell, from system-wide notifications to enhanced security to Xbox achievements to seamless in-app billing. Microsoft’s adding features to Visual Studio that will allow developers of existing apps to bring their apps into the Windows Store and tap into those features, with barely any tinkering required. Why this matters:  Microsoft’s existing Windows Store and Windows Phone store have been plagued by “abandoned” apps—software that...

Everyone was up in arms when Google rejiggered its privacy policies to allow its various services to talk to each other, but now Microsoft’s taking a page from the same playbook to bring more intelligence to its various Office products—and allow third-party developers to tap into your data to create seamless experiences inside of Office products. “We are moving from Office for us, to Office with others,” CEO Satya Nadella declared during Microsoft’s Build keynote on Wednesday. Now, third-party plugins are nothing new to Office—witness the (somewhat neglected and barren) Office app store. But Microsoft’s rolling out a new unified API that allows third-party apps to pull data from all the various Microsoft services you use, from Calendar to messages. That should make it much easier for the company to create seamless, helpful experiences for end users. Microsoft showed off some examples onstage. LinkedIn and Salesforce apps automatically displayed information about the r...