Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore kicked off the Windows Phone 8 launch by showing off some of the features from the Windows Phone Summit, such as the new and improved live tiles. He also touted the 120,000 apps and doubled language support for the OS.
Unlike other platforms, Windows Phone is about people. And the live apps allow you to stay up-t0-date and in a personalized fashion. One of the biggest improvements is the redesigned lock screen, which allows apps to change the background and notifications. The new Facebook app, for example, will be able to show your friends’ photos directly on your lock screen.
What apps will you be able to use? New additions include Temple Run, Urban Spoon, updated Skype, updated Twitter, updated Facebook, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Space, Where’s My Water?, Jetpack Joyride, and Pandora. Pandora will be released in early 2013 and include one year of free music without any ads.
For more coverage of this event, stay tuned to Pocketables.
This is a feature Android has had for ages, but via third party software only. My lock screen is one of the most important features of my phone, and I often never leave it anymore because I can do so much from there. You have to appreciate the irony that such a great feature has never been made an official feature of Android, and then Microsoft snaps it up and makes it official for Windows Phone. I’d say kudos to MS for recognizing what’s good on another platform before the creator of that platform
Its interesting that pandora is coming to windows phone 8. I wonder if people will choose it over xbox music
It’ll be fun to see what developers can come up with in order to get around the low power consumption constraint. Displaying photos and other Facebook info seems like it would use up battery, although live tiles already do a good job of power management while still using push notifications and RSS feeds (? sort of).