Microsoft has officially unveiled Windows Phone 8.1, with the new version bringing many new features and improvements to the mobile operating system .
Windows Phone 8.1 comes with a new digital assistant with the characteristic name Cortana . Microsoft, after Apple 's Siri and Google 's Google Now , has also introduced a digital assistant to its mobile platform.
"Bing-Powered" Cortana will play a central role in Windows Phone 8.1, as it will update and add reminders to the calendar, call contacts, and provide information about the owner's next destinations through voice instructions.
It also knows about sports, the weather , and will generally respond to most of the things users ask for from a digital assistant. It will be accessible via the Search Key and will have advanced voice recognition while also offering web search via voice commands.
It has already been announced that Bing and Foursquare will provide information about places and events, with notifications quite reminiscent of Google Now. Cortana will initially be available in the US and later in the UK and China. Other countries will gradually follow.
Windows Phone 8.1 will get its own notification center called Action Center. It will be customizable and will have toggles for quick settings like brightness, location, screen rotation, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more. At the bottom there will be a list of notifications like email, SMS, calls and updates from Cortana.
Another change in Windows Phone 8.1 is the updated Lock Screen and customizable Tiles through applications, while the other important change is the ability to choose a custom background for the tiles.
Windows Phone 8.1 comes with the latest version of Internet Explorer, which brings new options such as reading view that will isolate text from websites for easy reading, as well as password management and synchronization with other devices, while it will also have InPrivate Mode for anonymous browsing, as noted by Microsoft.
Source: e-pcmag.gr
