Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan
Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan
Mostly Windows Phone 8.1 OS is for every smartphone running Windows Phone 8. In fact it has already hit the devices already. Lumia 930, along with the Lumia 630, is the first smartphone came with the Windows Phone 8.1 pre-loaded as well as Lumia Cyan software update is built-in. We have seen Dual SIM support in Windows Phone 8.1 on the Lumia 630 but as Lumia 930 is not a Dual SIM phone, hence the this functionality will not be available in the device. Another newly introduced feature in Windows Phone 8.1 was the software rendered navigation bar (back, start, search buttons) which will also be not present on Lumia 930 as you have seen the dedicated hardware capacitive touch keys on the screen.
Customization is also enhanced in the new OS from Microsoft, if you have read the list of features in the Windows Phone 8.1. Background customization and the start screen customization are two of them. Lock screen can be customized with desired notification items as well as notes from various supported apps like calendar. On the other hand the start screen can be customized with the background behind the tiles that floats as you scroll up and down on the screen.
Windows Phone 8.1 first brought more column support to the bigger screen devices and later added to all devices. However the new 3rd column is more useful and brilliant on the high resolution devices unlike on lower resolution devices such as Lumia 630 as smaller tiles were not so sharp.
Coming to the dial screen of Windows Phone 8.1, I am still disappointed to not see the smart dialing option – that is when you use T9 to type a contact name on the dialer and the name with a valid number just comes up. This is the feature Nokia had for years on its feature and Symbian phones but Windows Phone, till 8.1 GDR1, has not equipped with this option. You need to flick through the contact list and search your desire contact name to call. The history page presents the full call and messaging log classified by the contact name or number.
Note: However the smart dial option is not available on Windows Phone dialer, you can still use Cortana – the virtual assistant to say a name you want to call. You will have to activate the Cortana first to command something. Cortana features are listed after the break.
You can block contact name or number right from the history screen – for that you need to update your phone to have call+SMS filter in settings. You can also install it manually from the Windows Phone store.
When you call a number, the next screen provides you with a few options including the new one introduced in Windows Phone 8.1, “Skype” which enables only once the call is connected. The Skype option is only available if the contact you are calling is linked to a Skype ID.
Official: You can switch from a voice call to a video call if you and the person you’re talking to are both signed in to a compatible video-calling app, such a Skype, and both have the app installed on your phones. When you do this, your cellular voice call will end and a new video call will start right from there. This feature isn’t available on Windows Phone 8.
Action Center and Notifications
The drop-down from status bar of the phone brings a lot more and user interactive features to Windows Phone 8.1. The Action Center and Notifications are presented in the drop-down screen where you can tap on the individual notification to go straight to the app. The shortcuts to the apps/switches are presented in a row on top. Those shortcuts are not only switches, they are multipurpose. e.g. the WiFi shortcut enables the the WiFi adapter on the phone if it’s disabled in the settings, or otherwise takes you to the settings to choose another WiFi connections.
You can change the presentation of this section in Settings > Notifications+actions. You can change the quick actions to be presented on the shortcuts row. You can add/remove apps you want to get notifications on/off the drop-down screen.
Cortana – Personal Voice Assistant
Cortana was actually the biggest one of the features in Windows Phone 8.1. It’s a personal voice assistant in Windows Phone more like Siri in iOS. Otherwise its alternatives on Android are Google Now or S Voice on Samsung’s devices.
Cortana takes commands by voice and actually respond in the same way. Where needed, it questions you in order to ask your permission, that also by natural female voice. To me, Cortana responds in more natural way than Siri as well as Cortana is more intelligent in understanding non-native English speakers (of course like me). I mostly struggled with Siri to get me understood.
Cortana can initiate anything on your Windows Phone on your voice command. It can open an app, take you to the settings, can initiate a voice or video call, text message to some contact in your phone, give you the driving directions from your current location to your destination, can bring you the weather report of a specific location. It listens to you as you speak naturally in your language before it responds accordingly. You ask her to do something as you ask your buddy in person.
Cortana is actually limited to the US and a few other countries. Officially it’s not yet supported in Pakistan – You must read our tutorial to enable Cortana in Pakistan or in any other country which is not yet officially supported.
I always mention that that Nokia Maps and GPS/Navigation is still not available for Pakistan. Hence any third party Maps/Navigation with Google Maps or Open Street Maps can work as your primary GPS/Navigation app on Windows Phone. e.g. Waze.
Productivity
Productivity in Windows Phone is just out of the box as before. Improvements always are made and added to the smartphones by software updates via OTA. Lumia 930 as come pre-loaded with Windows Phone 8.1, it brings improvements to the built-in apps like Office products such as MS Word, Excel. One Note is also built-in.
As long as productivity goes on hand held devices, Microsoft suites are much better in comparison. With Windows Phone it of course is a plus point for those who prefer these productivity apps over anything else.
Word Flow keyboard
Windows Phone 8.1 has a new Word Flow keyboard that suggests words and corrects misspellings. You just swipe your finger through the letters on the keyboard and the Word Flow keyboard knows what you want to type.
Windows Phone 8.1 update 1 or GDR 1
Lumia 930 comes out of the box with Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan software update pre-loaded. However Microsoft lately announced the update 1 to Windows Phone 8.1 which has not yet been shipped to consumers but have been rolled out to developers for preview.
The update brought a number of fixes, improvements and features to the system. We also tried Lumia 930 with the Windows Phone 8.1 update 1 and tried to notice the differences. Let’s have a look on some as these are somethings you will want to go with if you decide to own a Lumia 930 as your next smartphone.
Live Folders
There was no folders support on Windows Phone up until the update 1 to Windows Phone 8.1. But it’s appreciable that Microsoft listens to its customers and brings features accordingly. The Live Folders support Windows Phone 8.1 is actually appealing for those who want to categorize their apps in sections. You just need to pick an app tile and drag it over another app. They system will know that you want to combine both of the apps in a section and it will create a folder for that, place both app tiles in it and leave you to edit the name of the folder.
Folder will be placed on the start screen just like an app tile does but it will give the glimpse of the app tiles which are currently in it and that also with the notifications if they have.
Browser: Internet Explorer 11
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. We tried a few websites on Windows Phone 8.1 before and after updating to the GDR1(update 1).
A select websites were tried because they used to render on Windows Phone 8.1 with a degraded experience as some feature full mobile browser and not a smartphone.
Left (WP8.1) Right(WP8.1 GDR1)
You can easily see a user agent string that changed after the update showing some webkit references as well as iPhone OS 7 and Mac. Microsoft here wanted its Internet Explorer to show up as some other rendering engine to the websites which for some reason do not want to facilitate IE users. This reminds me of an article I wrote three years back to bring some issues related to the approach websites usually use to present an experience. Instead of testing a feature on the client browser, they check only the browser identity and decide which experience is to be presented.
I think Microsoft did good changing the user agent string of the IE 11 browser to proxy as some different one. Which insanely changed the user experience of most of the popular websites. However there are some improvements in the IE where they implemented legacy webkit-prefixed features.
Screens on the left are before applying the update. Screens on the right are after the update.
The New York Times
You can see more at an article published by MSDN.
There is no doubt that Windows Phone app ecosystem is not close to either of Android or iOS. If you prefer apps on your smartphone and count them first before the actual OS features, UI and UX then of course Windows Phone has less apps in store for you which sure include most of the popular titles. Many of them also have come to Windows Phone as well in a mater of time. It all based on your preferences. But Windows Phone itself is really something I always like using as my primary device on daily basis.
We’ll cover a few words in our final conclusion. For now let’s move on and check the performance benchmarks of Lumia 930 with the Windows Phone 8.1 OS.
