What a difference a point release makes!
Windows 8 may only have gained a single point release, but it really is amazing how much is included. While some of the features have been in android and iOS for some time, there are brand new features such as WiFi sense and clever refinements of existing features like Cortana.
WiFi sense is a clever piece of software which shares out your WiFi hotspots with your friends. Of course sadly as most of your friends won't have a Windows phone this isn't very useful, but perhaps on the future it might save you from that annoying what's your WiFi password hunt and then entering a stupidly long code.
My favourite feature is the shape typing, which I am using now to write this. It is fast and accurate and for the first time I feel able to write a long piece of text on my Windows phone.
The notification pull down menu brings WP8.1 in line with android and iOS and even after just a day you can see it is better than live tiles on their own.
The sounds are now split further so that there is a media category separate from the phone ring tone volume. This did not really bother me, but I can understand this features absence could easily irritate a lot of people.
With 8.1 I can easily recommend the lie end Windows phones instead of android devices, however at the high end things start to get more complicated. WP 8.1 is not lacking in apps but some of the big apps are still missing some useful features. For example Deezer on Android is much better than the Windows version, youtube on both iOS and Android is the same but realistically on WP you need to use the browser instead. Gmail is just superior in every way to using the email app.
WP 8.1 is an amazing update, if Google and Microsoft could collaborate more then WP 8.1 would start to look like the best platform.
WiFi sense is a clever piece of software which shares out your WiFi hotspots with your friends. Of course sadly as most of your friends won't have a Windows phone this isn't very useful, but perhaps on the future it might save you from that annoying what's your WiFi password hunt and then entering a stupidly long code.
My favourite feature is the shape typing, which I am using now to write this. It is fast and accurate and for the first time I feel able to write a long piece of text on my Windows phone.
The notification pull down menu brings WP8.1 in line with android and iOS and even after just a day you can see it is better than live tiles on their own.
The sounds are now split further so that there is a media category separate from the phone ring tone volume. This did not really bother me, but I can understand this features absence could easily irritate a lot of people.
With 8.1 I can easily recommend the lie end Windows phones instead of android devices, however at the high end things start to get more complicated. WP 8.1 is not lacking in apps but some of the big apps are still missing some useful features. For example Deezer on Android is much better than the Windows version, youtube on both iOS and Android is the same but realistically on WP you need to use the browser instead. Gmail is just superior in every way to using the email app.
WP 8.1 is an amazing update, if Google and Microsoft could collaborate more then WP 8.1 would start to look like the best platform.
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