• by Erik Sass , June 15, 2012

The New York Times has released a redesigned version of its Windows Phone news app intended to keep pace with the evolving design of smartphones.  

The new app includes features like live tile integration, allowing users to pin sections and blogs as live tiles to see headlines at a glance on their phone’s start screen; pivot navigation to all The New York Times’ digital content, including videos, slide shows and blogs in each section.

It also allows cloud saving of content to enable access from multiple devices. Users can read content offline, as well as share content through social media and email. The app sports a new look and improved performance speed.

As with the NYT’s other digital channels, the Windows Phone app gives some content away for free, in the form of a “Top News” section on the app, but then requires users to pay for further access.

The launch of the new version of the Windows Phone app coincides with Nokia’s announcement of a new strategy aiming to take market share from Android with cheap, Windows-based smartphones. (This was overshadowed somewhat by the news that Nokia will also be laying off 10,000 employees worldwide.) The New York Times also reports that Microsoft itself is set to launch a new tablet computer that will use a revamped version of the Windows operating system, probably to be unveiled Monday.

The newspaper is devoting more attention to its mobile platforms, which require constant updates to stay abreast of the rapidly changing mobile scene. In late May, the NYT released revamped versions of its iPhone and iPad apps, which were updated to allow customized reading, automatic updates and reduced bandwidth requirements.