WINDOWS PHONE 8.1 ARRIVING WITH LUMIA 930 & LUMIA 630

Microsoft has announced the Lumia 630 and the Lumia 930. With the announcement of the latest Nokia Lumia devices, Microsoft additionally revealed that both devices will be powered by the Windows Phone 8.1 Operating System.

While Windows-based smartphones have been featured some truly unique features, Windows Phone 8.1 brings in a host of new features. The latest features now include Action Centre, 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. Windows Phone 8.1 also allows IT professionals to manage devices, and for professionals to connect to essential business apps and services with features such as simplified device enrollment, a built-in mobile device management client, S/MIME for encrypted mail and VPN support.

The new features integrate rather well with Windows Phone signature features like Live Tiles, which have been improved to add the possibility of a third row of tiles to all Windows Phones, as well as transparency giving even more personalisation with unique backgrounds. Extensive on device search, a reworked calendar, improved People Hub with direct app integration and the new Word Flow keyboard make Windows Phone 8.1 an extensive update.

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL WINDOWS 8.1 UPDATE

 Updated @ 11:45 March 20: The official Windows 8.1 Update 1 files are yet again available from the Windows Update servers. These update files appear to be identical to the files that were originally made available a couple of weeks ago; Microsoft hasn’t made any further changes. The links are included below.

If you want to download Windows 8.1 Update 1 for free, ahead of its official launch on April 8, you’re in luck! Just follow these simple instructions…

Yesterday, it emerged that Microsoft had already placed the final version of Windows 8.1 Update 1 on the public Windows Update servers. Normally, because these files have cryptic, unguessable file names, they would’ve remained hidden April 8 — but, as luck would have it, Microsoft made another mistake: By adding a new key to your registry, you could fool Windows Update into thinking you were a Microsoft employee, at which point it would grab the files and begin the update. (This technique of testing products internally is known asdogfooding. It’s a fairly common practice.)

Sadly, as you’d expect, Microsoft has since plugged the registry hack — but not before a lot of people downloaded the updates… and then uploaded the updates to digital file lockers, like Mega. If you know where to look, you can now download and install Windows 8.1 Update 1.