Microsoft has finally unveiled its long awaited update to
their smartphone OS offering, and they call it Windows Phone 8.1. The new
release brings a lot of new features and improvements to the OS. Most of those
you already know from the numerous leaks through the pre-release SDK, but
here's the full list.
Also to note, the first 3 new features are already present
in competing platforms and had been long awaited in Windows Phone.
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| Joe Belfiore, at Build 2014, introducing and demonstrating Windows Phone 8.1 |
Action Center
Firstly, Microsoft fixes the basic functionality gap in
Windows Phone 8 with a dedicated notification centre they call Action Centre.
It holds customizable quick setting toggles, which include brightness
adjustment, location settings, rotation locks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off
among others. Below that you get a notification drawer with a full list of
ongoing notifications such as email, text messages, missed calls and even
notifications from Cortana (we will get to more on that in a minute).
Meet Cortana – Windows Phone’s intelligent virtual assistant
To stay in the race with Apple’s Siri and Android’s Google
Now, Windows Phone 8.1 brings its own virtual personal assistant called
Cortana. Yes, it’s after the Halo character with the same name. The
Bing-powered Cortana plays an important role in WP 8.1 letting you set reminders,
calendar events, call people, give you information about places you have or
plan to visit. She also knows sports, gives weather info and basically
everything you would expect from a virtual assistant. She’s going to be
accessible through the Search key and features advanced voice recognition. This
allows you to ask Cortana to search the web as well.
Cortana is also able to feed you custom notifications based
on your personal information and usage data, should you allow it, much like
Google Now. At launch, Bing and Foursquare are going to be feeding Cortana with
information for places and events, but more online services will follow soon. But, Joe Belfiore confirmed Cortana will be available in the
US at first with the UK and China second. Other countries will follow later on.
Wordflow Keyboard
A new option in the Windows Phone 8.1 keyboard is called
Wordflow - a Swype-like input method allowing you to quickly input words by swiping through the letters.
Joe Belfiore says it's so good that in fact it has set the new Guinness World
Record for fastest writing on a smartphone, dethroning the Galaxy S4.
Updated lockscreen and custom tile backgrounds
The limited personalization in Windows Phone has been
heavily criticized. But now, thanks to new open APIs, Windows Phone 8.1 allows
applications to take control over the lockscreen and change the theme or alter
its functionality altogether.
Joe Belfiore, at Build 2014, demonstrated a bunch of cool
lockscreens, which displayed custom calendar entries with nice designs. The
other great customization feature is the option to set up custom backgrounds
for the Start screen tiles. This is a small, but totally needed feature to make
Windows Phone truly personal. Another UI change means that you will now be able
to select whether to have a third live tile column on the Start screen.
Previously, this was set only by the phone manufacturer, so it's cool Microsoft
lets the user make this decision in WP 8.1.
Internet Explorer 11
Windows Phone 8.1 includes the latest version of Internet
Explorer. IE 11 brings reading view, which grabs websites and extracts their
text for easier reading. It also comes with a tuned up password manager, which
will sync your passwords across multiple devices.
There’s also an InPrivate mode enabling incognito browsing.
It doesn’t make you invisible on the web, but rather disable history storing
and cookie information is deleted once an incognito tab is closed.
Users are now able to upload files through IE 11, with the
browser also supporting WebGL and YouTube’s HTML5 video player.
Enterprise and security
The latest instalment of Windows Phone comes with VPN
support. Now, you can punch in your VPN settings into the phone and surf the
way more securely. WP 8.1 also supports S/MIME, which allows you sign and
encrypt your email.
Sense apps
Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about its Sense apps and has
added a few cool features to them. Battery Power Sense is the familiar app that
tracks what software uses the phone’s resources most and gives you a handy
overview of how your phone’s battery gets drained. Naturally, you can do
something about it thanks to the Battery Saver option, which has app exclusion
list.
Data and Wi-Fi Sense will give you greater control over how
you use your network. Wi-Fi Sense is a cool new addition that gives you the
ability to share the internet connectivity of your secured Wi-Fi networks with
your Skype, Facebook and Outlook contacts without having to give the password.
It also allows you to find and connect to free open Wi-Fi networks
automatically.
On-screen keys
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| The Nokia Lumia 630 and 635 with on screen keys |
Just as a couple leaked screenshots suggested earlier,
Windows Phone 8.1 now features on-screen software keys – Search, Start and
Back. This means the requirement for hardware keys below the screen is a thing
of the past
Quiet hours
Now in Windows Phone 8.1 you can set any period of the day
when you want only a certain group of people to be able to reach you. This
feature is called Quiet hours and is accessible from the Settings.
Availability
The Windows Phone 8.1 update will be officially released in
a few months (that's as specific as Microsoft got), while new devices running
it will start shipping in late April/early May. It's not specified which WP8
handsets will be treated to the update at this point, but we guess the list
will be quite extensive.
And if you are registered Microsoft developer, you will be
able to get an early glimpse on the update as early as April 10.
And, in compliance with Microsoft's new pricing strategies, Windows Phone 8.1 will be free to OEMs!
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