Top New Features Of Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1

The latest WP update brings in a few aethetics and functionality enhancements.

Chandrakant 'CK' Isi
14th Aug 2014

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Top New Features Of Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1

Announced in April, the Windows Phone 8.1 update brought in plenty of improvements such as virtual assistant Cortana, more customisable Start Screen, Action Center (notification bar), Internet Explorer 11, swipey keyboard, and tighter Skype integration. It is yet to reach popular handsets such as the Lumia 520, 620, 720, and 920 in India, however, Microsoft has already baked the next version of the software called the WP 8.1 Update. In its testing phase, the WP 8.1 Update 1 Preview is available for developers. If you want to give it a shot, follow this link. Before that, have a look at the improvements and additions this update brings to the table:

Folders
Windows Phone 8.1 now lets you group Tiles in folders For instance, you can organise all your Messaging apps in one place. Creating a Start Screen Folder is simple — just drag an app tile on another to group them. Once created, you can rename, move, and resize it. Nothing new here, since iOS and many Android phones already have similar functionality. However, the flow and transition effects in Microsoft's implementation are quite impressive.

Accessory Apps
Accessory Apps can push notifications to your smart watch and fitness tracker etc. The nature of alerts include Phone call notifications, Messages, Reminders, Alarms, Third-party notification banners, Emails, and Media playback. This will probably be useful to owners of unwieldy Windows Phone handsets such as the Lumia 1520 where you can get the notifications without having to take the phone out of your pocket.

Apps Corner
Improving on Kids Corner, Microsoft has added this new feature Apps Corner to its mobile platform. It lets you set up a custom Start screen on your handset. Here you can choose what apps and files other users can access on your phone. So don't have to hide any conversation before giving the phone to your wife. Companies can also use this feature to control what apps your employees can access on their work phone. To make your IT guy's life easy, there's even an option to export your Apps Corner settings.

Improved Selection
You can now select multiple contacts and call logs. Earlier, you could delete a single entry or make use of 'Select All' option. This isn't actually an enhancement, but something that should have been available in Windows Phone platform from day one.

Support For Protected Word Files
Windows Phone handsets ship pre-loaded with fully functional Office Suite. It lets you view, edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files on the go. However, the ability to unlock password protected Office documents was missing, until now. We are sure many corporate users will be pleased by this development.

Bluetooth Internet Sharing
Almost every smartphone lets you share 3G connection with other devices via Wi-Fi hotspot. If you use a desktop PC, there's a better chance that you owning a Bluetooth dongle over a Wi-Fi add-on stick. In this case, Wi-Fi hotspot won't be of any help. Now to make its loyal PC users life easier, Microsoft has added an option to share Internet over Bluetooth. This is definitely a good move, but the software-giant has still not added USB Internet Tethering to its platform.