Windows Phone 7.8 Update Announced

If you are following the updates, you may know that Microsoft has announced Windows Phone 8 officially with the codename “Apollo“. Unfortunately this new version will not support the existing devices. To bring the new features of Windows Phone 8 to the current Windows Phone 7.5 devices, Microsoft will be rolling out an update Windows Phone 7.8 soon. This step will really make the Lumia users happy to some extend.

Windows Phone 7.8 update will include new Smart Screen, Counters, Play To, and Camera Extras. Nokia Drive and Nokia maps will also get the improvements in this new build.

START SCREEN:

This is the big change and for many users will be the most important as it will allow the phone you already own to look and feel like a Windows Phone 8 device. The new Start screen will neatly fill the entire screen with tiles, so we'll no longer get that gutter down the right-hand side of the screen. This is a customer feedback problem that has been solved. 

LIVE TILES: What's great about the new Start Screen is that not only will the Live Tiles now fill the screen they can be personalised with three different tile sizes. Currently there are only two, the standard square and the large rectangle. With Windows Phone 7.8 Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 710 and Nokia Lumia 610 owners will get a third smaller size, which is approximately a fourth the size of the square tile. This new smaller tile is perfect for those apps you like to have on your home screen but don't necessarily use that often.

Nokia Drive:

Nokia Drive will get “My Commute,”which starts with a Live Tile on the Start Screen showing your estimated time. In the app itself, it remembers your various routes that you take every day. It shows you how long your alternate routes will take instead of just how long your current route will take.

Apart these major features there will be definitely some minor enhancements and improvements in Windows Phone 7.8. One important thing which we didn’t see in this Windows Phone Summit is the release date of Windows Phone 7.8. But we hope it will be released soon.

WINDOWS PHONE UPDATES: One neat little feature of Windows Phone 7.8 is that updates will be less telco and carrier focussed allowing updates to be pushed directly to the handset, typically using WiFi and your home broadband connection

 CAMERA EXTRAS:

 This is an update for your Nokia Lumia's camera that brings with it four spanking new features. Smart Shot Group will help make group shots easier to get right first time, while Action Shot is designed to bring fast-moving action shots to life with just one click. Panorama will allow you to stitch multiple shots together easier than ever, while Self-Timer means you no longer need to just take the photos but can also star in them!


NOKIA COUNTERS: This app has been designed with Nokia Lumia users on a budget in mind, as it's a way of monitoring your call and data usage on your Nokia Lumia, which is perfect for those on a tight budget.