Items tagged with Windows-Phone-8.1
Now that Microsoft has finished acquiring what it wants of Nokia, the company is readying new smartphones for release. The first one slated for release may be a handset nicknamed “Superman” that will rock a 5MP front camera. According to The Verge’s sources “familiar with Microsoft’s plans”, Superman will be a 4.7-inch handset and, despite its intimidating name, will likely be a midrange affair. Other details are unclear, but we suppose making that front camera something to be proud of is a nice feature to have on your phone. Nokia Lumia 1520 The source also indicated that there will be two Windows Phone 8.1 updates this year, and both will roll out alongside...
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With Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft’s Siri-like personal digital assistant Cortana becomes a crucial part of the user experience. She’s powered by Bing, and between the two, the system is designed to learn about you in order to anticipate your needs and deliver pertinent information to you while filtering out the clutter. The video below gives a nice overview of how that works. In order to make the Bing experience even more personal, Microsoft has rolled out personalized “cards” on the Bing homepage that will give users a similar experience on the desktop as well as on Windows-powered tablets and smartphones. You set it up by logging in to your Microsoft account and clicking...
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New features in the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update are leaking all over the place, and the latest is a new Notification Center that will be renamed “Action Center” that looks to tidy up some aspects of the user experience. Windows Phone Central nabbed a screenshot (originally found by Winphollowers) of one page of a slide deck that came from an internal Microsoft email and also confirmed its validity. The slide shows two screens of the Action Center and some brief but descriptive text. Action Center serves as a clearinghouse for your notifications (with a handy “Clear All” option) and will let you enable/disable WiFi, Bluetooth, Driving Mode, or Airplane Mode connections...
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There’s a good bit of scuttlebutt circulating about the upcoming update to Microsoft’s operating systems--both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1--and all of it sounds juicy. For starters, there’s more evidence that Microsoft will roll out an AI assistant called Cortana (named after the Halo character) for Windows Phone. A person Bloomberg cited as “familiar with the matter” said that Microsoft has invested $15 million in Foursquare Labs in order to gain access to deeper Foursquare data that will allow Cortana to give users more location-based tips, suggestions, and more. “We’re building some contextually aware experiences to power some upcoming products...
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After a leaked screenshot of a Nokia Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8.1 showed, among other things, an app called “zCortana”, many speculated that Microsoft was developing a personal digital assistant in the vein of Siri. Nothing has happened since then to change that perception, and in fact whispers, rumors, and photos indicate that it’s coming along quite nicely and may be more than just Siri wannabe. Tom Warren posted a screenshot showing Cortana’s involvement with weather alerts, calendar synchronization, and an ability to pin others to your Start screen. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNET cited sources that say Cortana, though she will “interact” with users via voice...
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More leaks are emerging regarding the rumored Nokia Lumia 1520, codenamed “Bandit”, this time in the form of what purports to be the device’s home screen. Among the clues that this is a shot of the 1520 is the time in the upper right corner, which Nokia typically uses to indicate the model number. The image is from evleaks, which has scored some credibility in the past, and it’s worth noting that the original size is nearly 1920x1080. Specifically, it’s 1820x1023 (note that the bottom of the image is lopped off a bit), and that would corroborate the purported 1080p HD display and thus also indicate that GDR3, or Windows Phone 8.1, will ship on the device. (Source:...
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