Phone
The only real change for telephone
applications is happening behind the scenes, because the user interface is
almost unchanged. Instead, an important addition here is the integrated VoIP
support. This is possible thanks to a team of Rich Communication Suite API that
has been included in the SDK, which allows third-party developers to take a
chance. This means that we can see companies like Qik, Tango and Skype launch
applications with this possibility in the near future. Here's how it works:
whether or not the application is running, you will be able to receive VoIP
calls as you would with any other normal calls. The notification window will be
similar, and WP8 can handle VoIP and mobile calls simultaneously. Naturally,
Microsoft is putting much emphasis on the things that you can do with Skype, if
you use the service, you can be in touch even when the application is closed.
The multitasking is fully supported here, so your calls do not crash when you
try to exit the application. You will even be able to answer Skype calls in the
same way you would have to call to mobile.
Maps
Maps
This is not the first time this year we see
a phone manufacturer completely change its mapping technology in a major
overhaul of the platform, but we hope that what Microsoft is working on WP8
will be smooth than its rivals. As many of our readers already know, we are
quite impressed with the ability of Nokia maps, so we are satisfied that the
Windows Phone 8 maps have been blessed with the technology of the Finnish
company. (Yes, this means that other OEMs will use Nokia Maps instead of Bing).
The partnership with Nokia also helps Microsoft improve the coverage of traffic
data, extended to more than 26 countries and presents many more side roads.
This technology has some stable
improvements, including the ability to download maps for offline use. This is
one of the most interesting features for us, mainly because of its performance
that satisfied the real-life tests performed by Darren Murph on the Nokia Lumia
900.
Unfortunately, the transition to the Nokia
Maps is one negative side effect: a guided turn-by-turn voice has been
disabled, making it accessible only to those applications that support this
feature, such as Nokia Drive. However, it is not available on the units we
test, so we cannot check it.
Finally, Local Scout 1 has a new panel
called "For You". It sounds like Microsoft is giving you a special
gift, right? Not quite right, but it is taking a bit of Google Now to provide
you with local companies, restaurants and interesting places based on what your
friends and family like, besides several other factors (such where many people
have had, as well as the agreement is "common").
People Hub
The biggest supplement to the People Hub is
the Rooms. Think of it as an exclusive version of GroupMe (which may be a
coincidence or not, because the company has bought Skype last year). Here
friends and family has their own little message "hub" with a
notification thread and schedules, a place for people to post pictures and a
panel where you can attach notes. Each Room can be attached to the Start and
all the messages in the thread will be treated like that, together with the
normal notification messages. In addition, the changes here are few and
unimportant. As we mentioned earlier, the addition of NFC supports the
opportunity to share your contact with other people, and you can use this
opportunity to add the new contact in your People Hub. The group shares a panel
with Rooms, but ultimately it is the same; the biggest difference here is that
each group is synchronized with your Microsoft account, so they will appear in
your Hotmail or Outlook.com.
People
Hub
Messaging
There is not much change in the messaging.
The innovative features of WP8 in this area includes more than the MMS options:
you can send the contact and / or your position in the first message (that shows
your location on the map), and you can delete many threads at the same time.
Finally, you will also notice that your threads from any Rooms you have set are
here to help you escape from the hub to switch to the group chat.
Photos and camera
Whether the camera is one of the few areas
of the operating system in which manufacturers can let their creative energy
flow and make the differences, and the UI is still the same general mechanism. The
viewfinder UI has received few changes during the upgrade to WP8: the zoom is no
longer in the sidebar anymore, because now you can pinch-to-zoom directly on
the viewfinder. Occupying its place on the sidebar now is a switch flash and
the ability to choose 1 lens. The front camera and camcorder switched are not
going anywhere. What is Lens? The developers can now create applications that
help establish and apply multiple filters on our own custom viewfinders to
enhance our overall photography. We had the opportunity to play with some
examples. Photostrip allows you to take pictures in burst mode, and it lets you
decide how many photos are taken in burst mode, as well as the elapsed time
between images. CamWow is for you to use a bunch of filters, much like what you
would find in Ice Cream Sandwich. Finally, Photosynth gives you panoramic
photography opportunities. Since there are only few examples released at the
time WP8 is launched, we think that will take a long time before witnessing
many other applications in Windows Phone Store. Fortunately, there is one
option "find more lenses" that leads you directly to that item in the
Store.
Photos
and Camera
When it comes to what you can do after the
picture is taken, Windows Phone 8 offers a few new editing tools to add to its
collection: crop and rotate. Above all, SkyDrive users are given much more
flexibility in the picture of how they are compressed as they are one - one in
the picture is "good quality" by default, but you can set to change
the image will be pushed into the cloud in full resolution ("best
quality") (best quality) as long as you are connected to the access point.
You can also use NFC by sharing photos and videos with others. About Photos
Hub, the panel remains the same; however, the gallery does come with
multi-select buttons necessary for you to delete, share, store or starred more
than one image at a time.