Redmond is doing all it can to make as many apps available on its apps repositories as it can.

But like it or not, coding is not for everybody — what this means is that without learning and previous experience application development is darn near impossible. This is where IdeaNotion steps into the picture with its solution called IdeaPress.

It allows users to transform their WordPress blogs and sites into mobile apps for Windows 8, Windows Phone, iPhone and Android. All this without the hassle of writing a single line of code.

Beginning life as an open source project to convert WordPress sites into Windows 8 apps, the company soon partnered with Microsoft and is now offering multiple tiers of its services via monthly subscriptions for the three major mobile platforms.

However, creating an app is one thing, all good, but keeping it updated is another. And IdeaPress also allows published app to be instantly updated whenever a new entry is posted on the blog or website.

You can take a look at the official website here for complete details.

The mobile apps repository has also surpassed the 12 million transactions per day landmark.

It was back in June 2012 when Redmond made it official that the Windows Phone Store crossed the illustrious 100,000 apps landmark, and in another year and half, the app count is now doubled.

Microsoft casually stated this in a blog post meant to highlight the Holiday season app submission affair on the Windows Phone Developer blog:

“The current holiday shopping season and all the great promotions are just underway, and we’re already seeing momentum build with the Store surpassing 12 million transactions per day and Windows Phone Store surpassing 200,000 apps.

The best news is that we’re just getting started. In the new calendar year we’ll introduce creative new approaches to help you reach users in your app developing. Stay tuned.”

That’s 12 million in-app micro-transactions, by the way.

Redmond also puts up some dates for developers working on finishing up their Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps that they want published by the holidays. The blog post also goes over some hints and tips to help developers make their apps stand out.

he Eye On Windows app has just gone live on the Windows Phone Store.

Essentially just a basic news app (for now) that draws and displays news from the site, the premiere version (1.0.0.0) of the free app brings all the latest news stores in the palm of your hand.

More feature updates are on the cards, relating to comments, sharing and multimedia.

The quick and breezy 2MB download works with all Windows Phone 8 handsets. You can take a look at the app and download here on the Windows Phone Store website.

And make sure you comment below with your thoughts after installing it.

The former, actually, is slated for release in just a matter of days.

Anvid Erdian, the product manager of Nokia Indonesia, confirmed the upcoming availability of Path for Windows Phone during the launch event of the Lumia 1020 in Jakarta yesterday.

For those out of the loop, Path is a photo sharing and messaging social network.

Additionally, Erdian also indicated that Windows Phone users should soon be able to enjoy BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service on their devices. An official BBM client is already available for iOS and Android handsets, and development is reportedly underway for the Windows Phone version.

He further commented that Microsoft is very carefully assessing the release of some specific apps on its platform, and it seems a mobile client for BBM is one that users are asking for.

All in all, this is pretty neat news for the growing user base of Windows Phone.

With apps like Instagram, Vine, Waze and Flipboard being some of the more appealing applications that landed on the Windows Store these past few weeks, things have never looked brighter for Microsoft’s fledgling mobile platform.

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei has just made it official that Huawei is ready to exit the United States market because of all the snubbing it has been suffering recently.

Sure, no one is admitting anything yet, and concrete proofs are yet to be found, but that is not stopping some US official and technology heads from shunning ZTE and Huawei — both these companies are believed to have close ties to the Chinese government.

Ren Zhengfei made the announcement in a recent statement:

“If Huawei gets in the middle of U.S-China relations, it’s not worth it. Therefore, we have decided to exit the U.S. market, and not stay in the middle.”

Huawei is, obviously, one of the four primary Microsoft partners on the Windows Phone platform, along with Nokia, HTC and Samsung. And while the company is not exactly a world beater in terms of sales and shipments, the United States market still holds special significance.

The company is said to have faced some serious flak due to political pressure from Washington recently.

With the Windows Phone platform poised for major growth in the coming years, this could yet prove to be a bit of a minor setback in the overall scheme of things.

Anyway, we just learnt that Windows Phone 8.1 will bring a File Manager once it starts landing on compatible handsets in the second quarter of the year.

Now it appears that this flavor of Microsoft’s mobile OS will also come with a couple of new options. One is the ability to close apps by flicking on the screen — similar to how users are able to do this now on Windows 8 devices.

And the other is improved support for microSD cards that will provide the possibility of storing apps and files (including mail attachments) on these memory cards. The ability to store and run apps on external storage will surely be a big convenience for users.

As this report suggests these new enhancements will certainly improve the user experience on Windows Phone 8.1, when they arrive with the update next year.

Microsoft has not officially confirmed availability just yet. However, things are moving fast on the mobile front for the company, and hopefully an official confirmation is not that far away.

Now when it comes to the latter, one feature that fans of Windows Phone have been waiting for is a file manager — so far the mobile platform does not come with one. But Windows Phone Blue, it seems, could change this.

This actually was one feature that was very high up in public demand.

The Windows Phone page on the User Voice website has a request for this feature to be included in the platform with many users commenting and asking for its inclusion. And interestingly, the request for this feature to be included in the platform has now been marked as complete.

As noted on the above mentioned page:

“This feature is now available in Windows Phone 8. And as always, if you think this feature or any other feature needs improvement be sure to create new product suggestions so we can track them all and other users can vote on your ideas.”

No further details are provided, by the way.

And while there are voice that claim we might see this new enhancement in the Update 3 release of Windows Phone 8 that is set for a rollout in the coming weeks, there is more of a chance that it would be pushed to Windows Phone 8.1 — features like this need more fine tuning and testing.

But the good news here is that Microsoft is really listening to, and accommodating, user feedback.

And the good news is that it should hit the Windows Store any moment now. According to the developers most of the development work on the app is now complete.

Now the same can be said for the Windows Phone version of the app.

In a recent announcement, the team behind the app have confirmed that they managed to make some substantial progress with development in the Metro environment, meaning the app should be here in the coming weeks.

As WMPowerUser notes, the developers plainly confirmed that they are working on the Windows Phone 8 version of the app, without providing any further details on the matter.

Prior to this the Windows 8 and Windows RT versions of the apps were said to be in priority development, but now fans of the Windows Phone platform can also enjoy media (hopefully including the streaming options) on their device using VLC.

With things entering the final stage, chances are that we are looking at a release window between December and January, at least for the Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 flavors of the app.

And as the AdDuplex data for the month of November shows, both companies are on to something.

The low-end continues to be the absolute driving force behind the overall success of the Windows Phone platform, helping it in achieving and solidifying its position as the third largest mobile ecosystem., Redmond’s mobile platform has gained a significant amount of users in the process.

But one factor that has been rather constant these past few months in these AdDuplex reports is the absolute and unchallenged reign of the Lumia 520 (and Lumia 521 in the US).

This is the bestselling Windows Phone device by a large margin, and currently commands a notable 26.5 percent of the pie to its name. It is followed by another affordable handset, the Lumia 620, which finds itself powering some 8.6 percent of devices worldwide.

In terms of Windows Phone manufacturers, Nokia is the reigning king with a clear 90 percent of all devices carrying its logo. In fact, its recently released phablet, the Lumia 1520, has actually managed to break in at the 19th place just days after launch.

Maybe a promise of big things to come, who knows?

In any case, while not many would have envisioned such numbers towards the end of the year, and judging by how things are going, Microsoft’s mobile OS is well set to continue its ascent in 2014.

And all are well designed and well received by users on the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store.

Now it looks like Disney has teamed up with Microsoft once gain to bring some more amazing deals for Windows Phone fans — a whole bunch of the most popular Disney games are offered for free.

Dubbed ‘Disney’s Season of Giving’, this new app collection has just gone live.

A total of six different games are now available for free on the Windows Phone Store, including favorites like Where’s My Water?, Where’s My Water 2?, Where’s My Perry?, Where’s My Mickey?, Wreck-It Ralph and Monsters University.

Most of these games were offered as paid download prior to this promotion.

Speaking of which, this list of free games is missing two other hit titles, namely Temple Run: Brave and Temple Run: Oz. Both are currently priced at $0.99. But what is on offer is as amazing as it gets.

Do keep in mind that this is, in all probability, a limited time offer.

It surely will end after Black Friday, so stop reading and grab these games now. You can take a look at this collection of Disney games here at the Windows Store.