Windows Phone 8.1 update went official yesterday. And believe me this update is surely going to make Windows Phone platform more attractive and appealing to people. Now MS is doing some pretty good stuff to make the platform strong to rival against mighty Android and iOS.
A host of new features have made it to the WP 8.1 platform and don’t you worry all the features are listed below for your convenience, so let’s jump to the new features straight away.
v Cortana:
Here comes the Cortana, MS’s answer to Android’s Google Now and iOS’s Siri. You may have heard the name before if you played the Halo video game, and it’s your personal assistant, it is powered by Bing, and can do all the tings a virtual assistant can do, from surfing the web via bing search and give you latest feeds of stocks, flights, traffics, latest news etc. It will integrate to your alarms and calendar to schedule all your tasks and it can also able to compose a message, watch a TV show in Hulu Plus or make a video call in Skype and even tweet someone straight away via the twitter app and many more things.
Being a beta product Cortana is still developing, but it has some huge advantages compared to Google now and Siri, Based on your search queries, Cortana can quickly learn your interest, and learns your inner circle list, those are the most important people in your life and your relationship with them, and she will allow them to call even on the quiet hours so that they are able to catch you in emergency. Pretty smart huh?
v Action Center and Lock screen Customization:
Windows Phone 8.1 update adds action center, it’s like the notification center of Android, where you will see information on your battery level, unread messages, and notification from apps and with a swipe from here you can access the four basic yet important functions of phone like Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, GPS, and Bluetooth.
On the lock screen and also on the home screen you can customize a lot, Devs can create new designs for user’s lock screens and in the home screen you can add more live tiles and can choose a custom image to color the live tiles for your likeness.
v Data sense, Wi-Fi sense, Storage sense and battery saver:
With Data Sense you can track how much data you have used in a given month, and it will further give you information of data usage by apps, so you will know which app is using most of your precious data and it lets you set an data limit and when nearing the limit Data sense will more aggressively offload data to Wi-Fi and try to limit cellular usage.
Wi-Fi sense automatically can connect you to the free Wi-Fi hotspots it finds to help you make the most of your data. And if you opt-in, it can automatically and securely enable your friends and contacts to connect to your Wi-Fi network automatically.
Storage Senseis introduced in WP 8.1 update to help you measure your storage in your phone. It will manage content you have on an SD card, and it lets you move the contents like photos, music, apps between your device storage and SD card.
Battery Saver is as usual gives you information about the battery usage like which app has consumed how much battery, and if you enable ‘automatic mode’ it can really extend your battery life by a great margin.
v Word Flow Keyboard:
The Word Flow Keyboard is one of most exiting add-ons for sure, it is smart enough to learn your writing style and even knows the names of your contacts so that you can type faster. The keyboard lets you glide your fingers over the keys to ensure incredibly quick typing experience. It also dethrones the Samsung Galaxy Keyboard from the first place for fastest type spead.
v Internet Explorer 11:
Both the Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 include IE 11, that lets you access the latest HTML improvements across devices, will be able to see all the open tabs on all the windows devices and your bookmarks too, it also provides InPrivate Browsing, password caching, in-line video playback and adaptive bit rate streaming, reading mode. Cool isn’t it?
v Universal Apps:
Microsoft has announced it is providing universal apps, This means, a developer will write an app and it will run on Smartphones, Tablets, PCs and on Xbox. Users can download an app for once and for all. MS has provided libraries, tools and services to help developers make universal apps easy and clean.
v Miscellaneous:
Skype: The new Skype in WP 8.1 has been integrated with default dialer, so you can easily convert a phone call to a Skype video call with just a tap of a button. And it will work seamlessly with Cortana, so you can set up video calls in Skype with Cortana.
Calendar: The Calendar app now shows day view that lets you swipe horizontally to toggle between days and an improved week view, and the weather is integrated at the top.
And the latest update will also sport some great enterprise features like VPN support, MDM enrollment, LOB apps and certificate management, making Windows Phone more appealing to the Companies who seek for secure OS for business.
Also the new Windows Phone 8.1 OS will support Snapdragon 200 SoC to help manufacturer make Windows Phone Smartphones affordable and it will feature Dual SIM and the hardware keys are no longer necessary along with the camera keys.
If you carry a Windows Phone 8 device no need to worry as you will get this update via OTA, and will come pre-installed in upcoming new WP handsets including newly announced Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 930 (specs and pics are going to be post soon in my blog). And the update will roll out from April 14th.
So, guys are you going to ditch your Android and iOS Smartphones for Windows Phone, or the OS still needs modification for you? Please share your views in the comment section.
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