Microsoft Unveils Software Advances With Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 8.1 Update

(RTTNews) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Wednesday unveiled Windows Phone 8.1 and introduced Cortana, the world's first truly personal digital assistant with a persona inspired by a much-loved "Halo" character.

Powered by Bing, Cortana gets to know you and gets better over time by asking questions based on your behavior and checking in with you before she assumes you're interested in something. She detects and monitors the stuff you care about, looks out for you throughout the day, and helps filter out the noise so you can focus on what matters to you, the company stated.

The company said other new features that make Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones even more personal include Action Center, which complements Live Tiles by showing new activities and notifications at a glance; and Senses, a suite of features that takes the work out of managing data use, storage space and battery life.

Microsoft also announced Windows 8.1 Update, which includes improvements that provide more of what people love about Windows across more devices: quicker access to what's important, a more familiar and consistent experience across touch and non-touch devices, and more ways to discover great apps.

Key features of the update include user interface improvements for mouse and keyboard users, the ability to access the taskbar from any screen and pin Windows Store apps to the taskbar alongside desktop apps and favorite websites, and performance and compatibility enhancements to Internet Explorer 11, the company noted.

Microsoft said it is evolving its Windows business model to enable partners to offer lower-cost devices in the highly competitive smartphone, tablet and PC categories. Microsoft will offer to hardware partners $0 Windows with services including a one-year subscription to Office 365.

With Windows 8.1 Update hardware partners can also more easily build lower-cost machines such as devices with 1 GB of RAM and a 16GB hard disk drive without sacrificing the experience customers expect, Microsoft said.

Also, Nokia announced three new Lumia smartphones for Windows Phone 8.1, including the flagship Lumia 930, the affordable Lumia 635 and the first dual-SIM Lumia 630.