Windows Phone 8.1 preview

Microsoft released the developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 today with some really big changes.

As one of the two engineers at Applico with a Windows Phone device, I’ve been waiting for this update for quite some time. Normally, I patiently wait for the update that AT&T feeds me several months after they are announced. The 8.1 update adds some of the most significant changes to the OS since its initial release and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Installation

Upgrading to 8.1 was fairly straightforward, just follow the instructions from the Microsoft Dev Center. This is not the actual 8.1 update, this only sets up your device for the update. In my case, this initiated an intermediate 8.0 update (maybe my device was still waiting on AT&T for this) that was then followed by the actual 8.1 update.

First Impressions

Here are my initial thoughts on two of the new features.

Action Center

Swipe down from the top of the screen to see your notifications. This was one of the features I was not overly excited about. I equated this to clutter, and conflicted with idea of having live tiles – which most developers always seem to ignore. So far it is working out well. I no longer have to pin the Settings app on my start screen and two of my biggest reasons for going into the Settings app, WI-FI and Airplane Mode, are now easily accessible. It also looks like we now have a bit more control over the types of notifications for each app which is really great since some apps only give you an option of ‘On’ or ‘Off’ for notifications. I’m not fully sold on it, but we’ll have to see how the final version turns out.

Cortana

As a huge Halo fan, I am extremely happy that they chose to name the ‘virtual assistant’, Cortana. For the most part, it has the features you’d expect from a personal assistant app that needs to compete with Siri and Google Now. To access Cortana, tap the search button. From there you can search for things as you normally do, and also have Cortana set reminders and automatically pull up relevant information such as weather and traffic. One of the best parts is Cortana’s notebook. In addition to learning things about you based on the things you search for and even where you live, you can also control what Cortana knows about you by customizing the details in the notebook. I’m looking forward to testing out Cortana more thoroughly and comparing it with Siri and Google Now.

It is great to see Microsoft continuing to invest in the Windows Phone platform and major updates like these are a big vote of confidence for Windows Phone users like me.

Filed under: Product Engineering | Topics: cortana, microsoft, mobile, mobile platforms, platforms, windows, windows phone, windows phone 8.1