 Hey, this is Tom Warren with The Verge and we're looking at Windows Phone 8.1, an update to Microsoft's mobile operating system. The first thing you'll notice is when you scroll through the tiles on the start screen here, there's a transparent effect and you can basically skin these tiles with a background image. Now that's coming across to all old devices that update and it's just a new feature and it's kind of cool looking. Now some of the bigger features in Windows Phone 8.1 is a new action center that you swipe down from the top. It's kind of similar to iOS and Android. You've got your sort of settings here. You can turn off Bluetooth, turn off Wi-Fi, all that kind of stuff. And you can also check out the battery so you actually see the percentage of these. Notifications from apps will show here. You can tweak them and get them to mute, not to vibrate and all the sounds, etc. Another big feature is obviously Cortana. You hold down the search button to activate the voice side of it. You can ask the questions. You can also interact with text so we'll quickly show that now. On the text side, you can actually use a swipe keyboard. Now Microsoft is saying that this is the fastest in the world and they're boasting about that. It's kind of fast and it's all integrated in so you don't have to go and swap to it. It's just all there. Now kind of the theme of Windows Phone 8.1 is tweaking and lots of small additions. So one of them, Battery Saver, you go in, it lists basically all your battery usage across all of the apps so you can see which apps are really taking your battery. It's pretty cool. There's also a Wi-Fi Sense feature that will automatically connect to free Wi-Fi networks when you're on the road. So Internet Explorer is also being updated. It supports YouTube in the way that the YouTube video will now play inline rather than fullscreen. You can also sync all your tabs back to your Windows 8.1 device. That's kind of a common theme across Windows Phone 8.1. So even your theme color choice and your layout here will sync up to OneDrive and that will be prevalent across any Windows Phone 8.1 device that you use. So Microsoft is also separating out the video and the music features and podcasts. And there's also new features in the calendar. So the view looks a lot better. So that was kind of the big features, Action Center, Cortana, and this cool new Start Screen. And that was Windows Phone 8.1.
 Hey, this is Tom Warren with The Verge and we're looking at Windows Phone 8.1, an update
 to Microsoft's mobile operating system.
 The first thing you'll notice is when you scroll through the tiles on the start screen
 here, there's a transparent effect and you can basically skin these tiles with a background
 image.
 Now that's coming across to all old devices that update and it's just a new feature and
 it's kind of cool looking.
 Now some of the bigger features in Windows Phone 8.1 is a new action center that you swipe
 down from the top.
 It's kind of similar to iOS and Android.
 You've got your sort of settings here.
 You can turn off Bluetooth, turn off Wi-Fi, all that kind of stuff.
 And you can also check out the battery so you actually see the percentage of these.
 Notifications from apps will show here.
 You can tweak them and get them to mute, not to vibrate and all the sounds, etc.
 Another big feature is obviously Cortana.
 You hold down the search button to activate the voice side of it.
 You can ask the questions.
 You can also interact with text so we'll quickly show that now.
 On the text side, you can actually use a swipe keyboard.
 Now Microsoft is saying that this is the fastest in the world and they're boasting about that.
 It's kind of fast and it's all integrated in so you don't have to go and swap to it.
 It's just all there.
 Now kind of the theme of Windows Phone 8.1 is tweaking and lots of small additions.
 So one of them, Battery Saver, you go in, it lists basically all your battery usage
 across all of the apps so you can see which apps are really taking your battery.
 It's pretty cool.
 There's also a Wi-Fi Sense feature that will automatically connect to free Wi-Fi networks
 when you're on the road.
 So Internet Explorer is also being updated.
 It supports YouTube in the way that the YouTube video will now play inline rather than fullscreen.
 You can also sync all your tabs back to your Windows 8.1 device.
 That's kind of a common theme across Windows Phone 8.1.
 So even your theme color choice and your layout here will sync up to OneDrive and that will
 be prevalent across any Windows Phone 8.1 device that you use.
 So Microsoft is also separating out the video and the music features and podcasts.
 And there's also new features in the calendar.
 So the view looks a lot better.
 So that was kind of the big features, Action Center, Cortana, and this cool new Start Screen.
 And that was Windows Phone 8.1.