At Moscone Center in San Francisco Microsoft Launched it's new Awaited Update to Windows Phone as windows phone 8.1 . Windows Phone 8 was highly popular and yes should be because of the fluid performance and great feature it offered, in 8.1 update they just jumped to another level Windows Phone 8 Plus 1 , you can say it's just some addition to windows phone 8.
So What's new in windows phone 8.1 ?
Google Now and Siri is highly popular when it comes to Android and iOS But in Windows Phone 8 we don't have that much functionality. But wait is over Meet "Cortana" , windows phone shout to Android and iOS. It is the new personal voice assistant which is also very rich when it comes to functionality.
Cortana can do following things for you with just your voice :
- Setting Alarm/Reminders
- Sending Texts
- Calling some one
- Weather search
- Launch Applications
- Some common Questions for Web search (like Google Now)
- Navigate to a place
these are just few things there are lot of other things to check out.
Action Center
Boom! it's finally here, a common notification center for windows phone. With just a single swipe from the top and you can access your quick toggle setting for things like WiFi ,Bluetooth ,Airplane mode, Rotation lock, and just below them you will see all of your notifications from all sources weather it's text or email or even a miss call all at single place with just a single swipe from anywhere, so don't worry if you miss them in live tiles you can catch them up anytime :)
Personal Live Tiles
Don't like tiles color ? Want your own wallpaper or your photo for that matter ? yes! now you can do it so, in Windows Phone 8.1 you have the option to use your custom image for "Start Background". Your image only appear in tiles like sliced photo but hey! it's a good add on at least we have that customization option if anyone want to use.
Word Flow Keyboard
Sounds different but this is just Windows Phone's swipe like keyboard input method. It allows users to type with just one hand by moving there fingers from one letter to other, more or less like swipe on android. Not a great add on but a good one for those moments when you can not use your both hands.
Internet Explorer 11
The new Internet Explorer is an upgrade to IE 10 found on Windows Phone 8. It features HTML 5 video codecs for embedded YouTube videos so you can enjoy desktop like experience, you also have In Private browsing which is quite handy when you want to open a site and don't want it to left any cookies or open tabs, and there are some more improvements to its functionality and performance.
Skype Integration
Now you can make Skype call from your on going voice call, suppose you are talking to someone who is available on Skype as well so, from that voice call you can jump to Skype call with just a single tab on Skype logo next to call options.
Some More Add On
- Camera App Now feature Burst mode for continuous shooting options
- Windows common search, home and back keys now part of the interface
- Now it's easy to project content of your phone to PC and Xbox
- Data sense, WiFi sense , Storage sense and battery saver tools for a good control over each activity.
- New Calender which can sync across your PC and Xbox as well.
- 3rd Row for tiles as we seen on Phones like Lumia 1520, Now it's common for all Windows Phone 8.1
# Microsoft says it will be available with flagships like Lumia 930 in late April or starting of the May and Nokia announces that all of it's windows phone 8 devices will be updated to this version in late summers.
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