In line with previous reports, Microsoft has officially announced the first update to its Windows Phone 8.1 operating system. The new update extends Cortana support to new markets, live folders, improved Xbox Music app, and enhanced privacy features, among others.
The update will be available next week for users already on the Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers version. Consumers who own Windows Phone 8.1 devices will receive the update in the coming months. Microsoft has not specified a fixed timeframe for it. It is worth pointing out that there are very few devices that have received the Windows Phone 8.1 software update, at this time.
The update brings Cortana, Microsoft's Siri- and Google Now-like voice assistant, to China and the UK as a 'beta' (test version) and to Canada, India, and Australia as an 'alpha'(early test version).
Cortana will offer a number of additional features in China including a different visual appearance, animations, and sounds, support for Chinese (Mandarin) in voice, text, and speech and specialized suggestions for people living in China, such as air quality information in weather cards, information about driving restrictions, and the ability to track local TV shows and celebrities. Cortana will also be able to look up English words in the Bing Dictionary. The US version will also get improvements including new natural language scenarios, and snooze times for reminders.
The alpha version, available in Canada, India, and Australia will be opt-in and give users the ability to try Cortana using English language models from the US and the UK. Full support for Cortana is expected to be extended to India by 2015. the delay in rolling out this feature is most likely due to the software's inability to efficiently recognize different accents as well as languages and perform tasks.
Cortana is powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine and notifies users of phone calls, emails and messages; lets them set appointments and reminders, perform searches and operate the music player etc hands-free. It is also able to track users' online searches as well as new calendar entries and also access third-party apps.
The update also offers the ability to organize apps into folders on the Start screen, natively. The folders are being called Live Folders as the live tiles of apps also appear in the tile of the folders. To create a Live Folder, users need to drag a tile over another tile and then name the folder. It will also offer Apps Corner, through which users can specify which apps are displayed in a special 'sandboxed' mode (like a protected Start screen) that restricts which apps are used. This is useful in scenarios where businesses want employees to access select apps, or for retail demos.
The Xbox Music app has also been updated to deliver better performance in areas like app load and list scrolling, and offer new features, as per Microsoft.
In addition to these, the Windows Phone 8.1 Update comes with Live Tile for the Store app, the ability to select multiple SMS messages for deletion and forwarding, and the ability to send and receive data through a virtual private network (VPN) when connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots.
