Great news for Lumia users, as the Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphone family has started receiving the Lumia Cyan software, the new Windows Phone 8.1 update.
The update brings Microsoft's third column of customized Live Tiles on your Lumia phones' home screen, and you can also use one of your photos as a background image on your Start screen.
The People Hub also gets better, and is the one-stop shop to your address book and social networks.
Action Center is the key to all your settings and with one swipe, acts as a mini dashboard. You can customize your settings and app notifications as well as change settings such as Wi-Fi and Flight mode. You can still make changes even when your phone is locked or if you’re using a third-party app.
Wi-Fi Sense automatically connects your Lumia to free Wi-Fi hotspots and even takes care of the annoying part of putting in your details for you. And then there’s Word Flow, a smartphone keyboard out there. Just glide your finger over the letters on the screen and your Lumia will do the rest. Word Flow will also correct words as you "type" and predict your most frequently used expressions.
And for people in the US, Cortana is the virtual assistant built around you.
With the new Device Search, if you need to find a specific email, contact, appointment, or even a song, just type in a keyword in the Bing search bar.
The Lumia Cyan software also brings the updated Internet Explorer 11 and the updated native Calendar, which tracks not just your appointments, but also the weather.
The update will also improve the Nokia Camera, Creative Studio and Storyteller apps. Nokia Camera gets a simplified user interface with one-tap access to edit and share pictures, and full-resolution zooming, re-framing and Creative Studio 6 (CS6) are available directly from the renewed Camera Roll.
CS6, available in the Windows Phone Store soon, brings new filters and image enhancement tools. The updated Storyteller app allows you to share your best shots as a short Story Video on social networks.
With the new Nokia Device Hub included in the Cyan update, your Lumia can help you track down a missing accessory by showing you where you last used it. You’ll also get recommendations for apps you can use with that accessory.
And a bonus for folks with a Lumia 520, Lumia 525, Lumia 620 or Lumia 720: If you currently run local HERE Drive, you’ll get a free upgrade to global HERE Drive+.
The business support you’ll get with Windows Phone 8.1 includes the following built-in tools: Office for Windows Phone; Outlook, Skype and OneDrive. And of course, all of your information is fully device encrypted.
Other new enterprise features include the ability to send digitally signed and encrypted emails to people outside your company (S/MIME), and you can set your Lumia to automatically access your company’s virtual private network (VPN).
For one, the audio quality of videos taken with the Lumia 1520 and Lumia Icon smartphones will be even more true-to-life thanks to Nokia Rich Recording and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 sound. And the camera capabilities will be even more robust (e.g. improved colors and low-light performance, continuous autofocus and improvements to RAW DNG images) and real thanks to the Living Images feature.
In addition, Microsoft’s Screen Share technology allows you to project content from your Lumia 1520 or Lumia Icon to connected screens like a smart TV or projector. Last but not least, the new SensorCore SDK Beta means that apps such as Bing Fitness & Health and gadgets can use location data, real-time updates (such as miles walked) and other advanced features.
The Lumia Cyan update will start rolling out around the world today and will be available for all Windows Phone 8 Lumia devices in the coming weeks.
Your phone automatically checks for updates and will notify you when the update is available.
Check availability here