Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan Updates Rolled Out to Lumia Owners; Top 10 Features From Lumia Cyan Update

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Gestures As He Speaks At The Company's "Build" Conference. — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gestures as he speaks at the company's "build" conference in San Francisco in this file photo taken April 2, 2014. Microsoft Corp's new Chief Executive Satya Nadella likes to boast that Bing is growing and powers 30 percent of the Internet search market, making it a worthy competitor to Google Inc. Reuters/Robert Galbraith

Nokia Lumia owners with Windows Phone 8 OS will receive the Nokia Lumia Cyan Update and the Windows Phone 8.1 Update starting July 16 onwards. These updates include killer enhancements and Lumia specific features, says Nokia's official blog post.

Lumia owners will get the Nokia Lumia Cyan Update and the Windows Phone 8.1 Update over-the-air (OTA). If the updates are not available immediately, users are advised to wait longer. The other option is to get the aforementioned software updates manually by navigating to Settings -> Phone update. Here is a list of changes that can be expected out of these software updates.

Meanwhile, interested readers can check out the video uploaded in the Nokia blog that shows the hands-on demo of Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia Cyan Software Update. [Scroll down to watch the video.]

What are the Updates?

1. Lumia owners (specific to the U.S.) will receive the virtual personal assistant Cortana in their devices upon upgrading to the aforementioned software updates.

2. With the Office for Windows Phone update, users can now view, edit, save and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and OneNote notebooks on the go. In addition, Outlook, Skype and OneDrive can be used in tandem to communicate and collaborate effectively.

3. These updates also bring in the much-needed third column of customized Live Tiles and the custom background feature on the start screen.

4. Furthermore, apps can now be stored in the microSD card, says Phone Arena.

5. The Lumia camera has gone through some improvements that bring in enhanced low-light capabilities and richer colour reproduction on several models of Lumia like Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Nokia Lumia Icon. In specific, these two models are equipped with Nokia Rich Recording and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound for quality audio/video recording.

6. All Lumia owners will receive the Nokia Storyteller app once updated to the latest software. This app lets users to create stories with video slideshow and can be shared with various social media.

7. A new Action Center for notifications/settings is introduced along with the addition of "Word Flow" for the keyboard, which acts similar to Swype, says Phone Arena.

8. Internet Explorer 11 will now have the ability to save and remember passwords. Additionally, it will support HTML 5 for YouTube playback.

9. And then, there is "Wi-Fi Sense" that automatically connects the Lumia handset to free Wi-Fi hotspots.

10. The new "Device Search" option lets the user locate a particular email, contact, appointment, or a movie by just typing in the keyword in the Bing search bar.

Also, interested readers can check out the software update availability for various Lumia phones from Nokia.

Source: Nokia's YouTube Channel