The first week of April saw Microsoft host its Build Developer Conference, where it announced various updates, amongst other things. One of these updates was Windows Phone 8.1. WP 8.1 isn’t officially out yet, but the “Release to Manufacturing” (RTM) version has been made available to registered developers.
This preview update includes the RTM version of the core OS, but the core apps are still very much in Beta. I’ve stuck to my Lumia 620 because it gets basic smartphone tasks done, and it was also too expensive to replace at a whim. WP 8.1 does address a lot of complaints that folks had with WP8, but it’s still the awkward middle ground between the finish of iOS and the enormous flexibility of Android. So, what’s changed?
First and foremost, we WP users will now (finally) get a notification center, which can be pulled down from the top. It’s fairly customisable; you can choose quick-access controls and open or dismiss notifications. It also tells you the remaining charge percentage of the phone’s battery. Apps will need to be updated to use the notification center properly, though.
Unfortunately, the notification bar doesn’t distinguish between types of notifications yet. Still, I don’t expect it to be fixed till GA (general availability) rolls around. The next functional addition is universal search; thank god. Pressing the search button brings up Bing as usual, but now it’ll return search results from your phone as well, be it a particular app, setting, song or contact.
Though it’s still quite slow. The core apps have received updates and the “settings” entries have been reorganised. By which I mean, there are now even more settings, and they still don’t have any particular order, which keeps everything as confusing as before, just slightly more so because now I have to re-learn what does what.
Some things like the battery saver setting has now become a separate app. Speaking of navigation, Internet Explorer finally has forward and back support via swiping gestures. Apps can shut by either clicking on the small “x” in the fast-app switching view (just like with the GDR3 update), or be swiped down and away to achieve the same effect.
The keyboard now has swype-like functionality, and it works really well. The camera UI has been refreshed, and you can use a cool background for your home/start screen. All in all, it’s good stuff, though it came very, very, late.
