WeChat Lets You Call Mobile Phones and Landlines, Takes on Skype and Others

n a rather significant move, WeChat has now added a feature to call mobile phones and landlines within the app, just like how one could do on Skype. The service is being branded as WeChat Out and the feature has already been rolled out in US, Hong Kong and India. The company behind WeChat, Tencent says that it will soon rollout the feature to other countries as well.

WeChat pitches the service as “super-low calling rates” and “excellent call quality”, and as rightly pointed out by VentureBeat it will help the company to link customers’ credit cards to their WeChat accounts.

So the feature can be accessed by tapping on the ‘+’ symbol at the top right and selecting WeChat out. The service will take some time to import your phonebook post which you can dial the number directly. The company says that it would be giving away 100 minutes of free calls (worth $0.99) to most of the users, but when I tried (from India), my account balance was nil and had to top-up to use the service. It would have been nicer if WeChat had included a free minute to sample the services before actually buying the talktime.

WeChat has been trying to match pace with Skype as it had earlier rolled out video chatting services for a group of up to nine people, but now it seems that Tencent is more keen on including the new features as it plans to scale up globally.

The mobile payment system has been opened to the non-Chinese users for the first time which means that users outside China would now be able to buy stuff on WeChat by directly using their credit cards.

While I was already rejoicing that I could finally call mobiles and landlines in India from the app it stuck to me that Ringo had tried doing so and was promptly blocked out by the Telecom operators citing regulations. I tried calling a local Indian number from the WeChat app and was instantly greeted with the message “Call restricted to India due to local regulations”. Thus we could only place calls outside India, nevertheless the calling rates to US and many other countries are highly affordable. WeChat has one of the largest growing user database which had peaked at 650-Million last November. It has been the most widely used IM app in China and is now gaining foothold globally. The WeChat Out feature will act as a bargaining chip for Tencent to acquire new customers.

Microsoft Builds Android App Store For Its Own Android Apps Inside Of The Android App Store

Microsoft has a new app out called ‘Microsoft Apps‘ on Android that contains a list of its Android apps that you can download on the Android app store.

There are two parts to this development. The first is that Microsoft’s cross-platform work continues, and that the company has yet to let up an inch on its work to bring its software and services to users on every rival operating system. And, the second point is that Microsoft has created an effective Android app store — catalog? — inside of the actual Android app store.

An early comment noted that fact. From the app’s page on Google Play:

That comment is almost correct. At the same time, it can be difficult to sort through tens, and hundreds of thousands of apps to find the precise one that you are perhaps looking for. Microsoft wants to make sure that if you want to use its stack on Android, you can do so without unnecessary sleuthing.

The app has racked up four review so far, giving it an average score of 4 stars.

The new app might not make sense until you realize just how many apps Microsoft has on Android — you can take a spin through the full list here. It’s extensive. It’s almost odd to recall how big a splash bringing Office to Android and iOS once was.

Microsoft fans have a new toy, and the company has a potential conduit for its apps on the Android platform. Not too bad a turn of events for the Redmond-based software company.

Lenovo K4 Note with 3GB RAM, fingerprint scanner to launch in India on January 5

As we reported earlier, Lenovo is planning to launch a successor to its popular K3 Note smartphone. The forthcoming device is named as the Lenovo K4 Note, and it is set to go official at an event that will be held in New Delhi on January 5. The company has already started sending media invites for the launch event.

The image used for the invitation is the same image that has been making rounds on the internet. The leaked specifications of the Lenovo K4 Note suggest that the device might feature 3GB of RAM, along with 32GB expandable internal storage. Furthermore, it is expected to sport a metal body with a fingerprint scanner. We hope that Lenovo prices the device under Rs. 10,000, if it is priced likewise then we can see much more demand for the forthcoming smartphone in the phablet segment.

Not to forget, the K3 Note was solely responsible for building a solid image of Lenovo in the Indian smartphone market. As a result, of which Lenovo emerged as one of the largest vendors with the LTE-enabled phone, and it also earned the company a good sales record. Lenovo had reportedly sold over a million units within four months K3 Note’s launch in India.

To remind you, the Lenovo K3 Note features a 5.5-inch 1080p LCD IPS display, a 64-bit 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, a 13-megapixel primary camera with 1080p video recording, a 5-megapixel secondary camera, Dolby Atmos sound, dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, and a 3,000mAh battery.