Yesterday in Beijing China, Microsoft has revealed with details about the 1st update to Windows Phone 8.1 along with the Cortana being expanded to UK and China and other new features which include Live Folders, improved Xbox Music, Live Tile for Store, Enhancement in Messaging, Apps Corner along with the enhanced hardware support.
If you are active for your concerns on line, then you would know that update 1 to the Windows Phone 8.1 which is GDR1 (or General Distribution Release) internally at Microsoft is the first update to the platform this year. A second update which is already in rumors is due in coming months of the year 2014.
The update 1 is however a minor improvements update to refresh the platform with some more features and friendly user interface which will hit the devices enabled with Preview for Developers program and running Windows Phone 8.1. Checkout the in-depth details of about the software update that follows.
Live Folders
Live Tiles on Windows Phone 8 are of course impressive and useful, however a native support for folders on Windows Phone 8 was missing to arrange the live tiles into organised or categorized folders for easy access to the relevant apps.
That’s the feature most of the consumers wanted and the “Live Folders” is the name Microsoft brought it to you with. Simply drag a tile over another tile and name the folder. To change the folder name or to re-arrange the tiles in it, just open the folder and proceed as you normally do on the home screen to arrange tiles.
Xbox Music
Xbox Music app is update with the better performance and more features. Some features that were missing in the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview are also brought back. The Xbox Music app re-enhanced the features to recover from inabilities which appeared after when replaced for Music+Videos.
In the coming month, there will be a “quickplay” of recent playback activities, and support for Kids Corner. Some of these features/improvements are already there in the latest Xbox Music app with the Windows Phone 8.1 release, but some (Live Tile in particular) are specific to the Windows Phone 8.1 Update.
SMS Merge & Apps Corner
Messaging, Social Messaging and Instant Messaging are integrated already impressively in Windows Phone 8 but simple Messaging and specially managing with the multiple messages has never been an easy task on Windows Phone 8. With this update 1 to Windows Phone 8.1 will bring ability to select multiple SMS messages for deletion and forwarding.
Apps Corner on the other hand is to limit access to a select apps to people who want to use your phone. Apps Corner is best for users who use their phone more for productivity and usually have personal, important and protected data into their smartphones as it’s fine to hand your phone over to your friend, colleague or anyone with a limited access to a handful of apps.
With Apps Corner, you can specify which apps are displayed in a special “sandboxed” mode (like a protected Start screen) that restricts which apps are used. This feature is for businesses so they can allow access to select apps in cases where a full MDM solution isn’t required. Apps Corner can also be used to boot straight to an app. An example of where this scenario would come in handy might be with employees at a distribution center using Windows Phone devices that go straight into an inventory app they use to scan products in the warehouse when they turn on their phone. Apps Corner can also be used to setup retail demos. Retailers can export the profile of Apps Corner on one device and import it on to other devices. And developers can get data on usage from inside Apps Corner too.
Live Store Tile
Store’s tile now is also live with the update 1 to Windows Phone 8.1. The live tile of Store when pinned to Start screen will deliver information about the latest apps, games and news every 6 hours throughout the day.
Expansion of Cortana:
With the initial release of Windows Phone 8.1 the virtual voice assistant Cortana was available only in US. With this update 1 to the Windows Phone 8.1 the Cortana will be made available to China and UK as beta versions while in Canada, Australia and India will have Cortana as alpha release.
Other Improvements:
Enhanced privacy and security: There are improvements in the Windows Phone 8.1 Update to keep your data and identity more protected on public networks through a virtual private network (VPN).
Improved Internet Explorer: Better rendering of mobile websites on Internet Explorer. That works by changing the user-agent string of the browser to show as another browser. It’s to support features that worked best on webkit engines.
Qualcomm Quick Charge: Support of Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for Snapdragon 800 processor has been added to enable Windows Phone devices with the compatible chipsets to have Qualcomm’s rapid, high voltage USB charging – Charges up to 75% faster than conventional technology. Less charge time means more time being truly mobile.
Smart Covers: Support for smart covers has been added to allow OEMs make flip cases having interaction with the user interface of Windows Phone 8.1. e.g. activating an app when uncovered the phone or locking the device when flipped over the case.
Enhanced resolutions: Support for more resolutions has been added such as qHD (540 x 960), WXGA (1280 x 800), WXGA (1280 x 768).
Availability
This update will be rolled out next week to your devices if you are on Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers. The consumers with devices running Windows Phone 8.1 will start receiving the update in coming months.
Warning:
If you are not on the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview program and want to have these developer releases to get on your device as well as want to have Lumia Cyan update on your Lumia devices. You will not be able to update to Lumia Cyan after enabling your device with Preview for Developers program as the hold on OEM updates is still not fixed with the this update of Windows Phone 8.1.
via: WP Central
source: Windows Phone Blog
