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| Microsoft has finally outed the Windows Phone 8 Update 3 after making its fans wait for a long time. The update brings support for a lot of enhancements which were rather dubiously missing from the operating system for ages. |
Visually, the OS has seen a minor overhaul. A total of six Live Tiles can be placed horizontally. Support for up to 6 inch displays has been brought, with resolution of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. No signs of a unified notification history are seen but the Live Tiles are bit of a substitute to that anyway.
Support for advanced hardware has finally been brought. Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 800 processor is supported now, which should be enough for the already-fluid OS.
Nifty, useful things like separate ringtones for notifications, phone-calls, etc., screen-rotation lock, advanced storage management and a much-useful task manager which adds a button for directly closing apps are added.
Accessibility features for the blind is added to make using the phone easier by speaking commands out loud.
Microsoft has also increased support for third-party Bluetooth accessories. A new feature called Driving Mode keeps other notifications (read: distractions) at bay while you’re using your phone for its mapping services.
Lastly, the support. Unlike WP8, Windows Phone 8 GDR3 will be coming to existing phones, in the next few months. Nokia’s Lumias and a few HTC & Samsung-built Windows Phones should be getting this update soon.
While the update hasn’t brought everything we hoped and wished for, it will certainly make life a lot easier for existing Windows Phone users, apart from closing the gap between it and other operating systems.
