In today’s Windows Phone event, the main highlight was that the phone being highly personal unlike other monotonic smartphone operating systems. Look and feel of Windows Phone 8 apart from many other features make your smartphone experience much more personal.
Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 8 devices are being advertised as the most personal phones ever. Starting with Live Tiles which will make your phone completely different to others and each one of us who own a Windows Phone device will have a unique look unlike other phones where all the phones are almost similar to each other. We will have an overview of the new features in Windows Phone 8 and notable changes below.
The Lock Screen:
The lock screen in a Windows Phone device will be a unique and personal one where you can customize the lock screen and the live tiles will keep you updated. So each time you look at the lock screen of your phone, you will see a different screen rather than the same clock or calendar screen.
New Apps for Windows Phone 8:
Yes this is one of the most important aspect for someone to go for Windows Phone 8. Many pervious adapters of Windows Phone complained about the lesser Apps availability than iOS or Android. Microsoft promises to bring in more apps and they acknowledge that it is a key factor. The new apps in Windows Phone are termed as Live Apps which are specially built for Windows Phone 8. It seems these apps will fit perfectly to the live tiles feature. Currently, as per Microsoft, 46 out of 50 most popular apps are now available. The new inclusions include PayPal app and Pandora App among others. The SDK for Windows Phone 8 will be available tomorrow to developers around the world.
Data Sense:
This is a new feature where you will be able to keep track of your data usage if you have a billed limited data plan. This will be integrated to your service providers and notify you of the data usage. It will also lessen up the usage of data while browsing using compression. Microsoft claims that it uses up to 45% less data while browsing. This feature will be available with Verizon this fall.
Kids Corner:
This is the concept of a Guest User in a PC but as a feature to allow your kids use your mobile safely without causing loss of data or unwanted activities. Jessica Alba came to the stage and explained why she liked this feature as a working mom. It seems her daughter twitted gibberish to her 4 million followers while playing on her phone. Now she has complete control over the activities of her kids while playing on her phone with the new Kids corner.
New Skype:
The Skype app is built in to Windows Phone 8. This allows Skype to be running in the background with your phone and allows you to receive voice or video calls just like your phone. The in-built feature allows Skype to use low power in background run.
SkyDrive:
With SkyDrive, free storage of up to 7GB, you can Synch all your Windows devices like your phone, PC or X-Box at no time and live. Pictures taken on your phone will be uploaded directly to your SkyDrive in full size which can be seen in your PC simultaneously. It seems SkyDrive is key to the synchronization of your devices.
Other feature we want to point out includes the Rooms in People app where you can create rooms for your family and friends. Rooms can be used in a limited manner even in other non-Windows smartphones also.
The Windows Phone 8 devices will be available starting this weekend in Europe. In the US the devices will be available starting November. US carriers that will be offering the Windows Phone 8 devices are AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.