The huge Chinese market has a bunch of different expectations and needs than the US or other countries—so while Cortana nicknamed “Xiao Na” generally works the same way in China as the US and the rest of the world, China did get some “special features”. As you’d expect, in her notebook, she displays what she is tracking for you, so you can see and control it. You can set reminders and quiet hours with her. She understands the whole internet so she readily...

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Windows Phone 8.1 Update includes hundreds of Internet Explorer 11 enhancements that greatly increase compatibility with the mobile web. Based on your feedback, we pursued a web experience for IE users consistent with what is available on iOS and Android devices – even where this meant we would be adding non standard web platform features. We believe that this is a more pragmatic approach to running today less standardised mobile web. We tested more than 500 of the top mobile web sites and...

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The second handset is codenamed Tesla, and recently appeared in leaked images. Elop described the Tesla handset as an affordable high end phone with a PureView camera. Tesla will likely debut as a Lumia 720 replacement, and it mark a new effort by Microsoft to push PureView down to even lower price points. The handset looks similar to the squared Lumia 930, but we understand it will be thinner and less bulky. Elops revelation at Microsofts annual company meeting event indicates that the device...

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With .1 starting to dribble out to users via the ever slow wireless carriers, tech enthusiasts have already turned their attention to Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1. To date, there been very little information about this update, beyond the fact that it was a bucket of sorts for features that didn't make the original 8.1 cut. But thanks to a nice leak from—you guessed it—Microsoft, we now know quite a bit more. The leaks were made by Microsoft to its OEM partners, those companies that...

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Among the early knocks against Windows Phone was a sadly valid complaint: It simply wasn't suitable for many enterprises due to a lack of mobile device management policies, apps, and other deficiencies. But as we enter the second half of 2014, that all changing. Maybe it time to reconsider Windows Phone. It hard to remember the world into which Windows Phone was born. But in 2009, the iPhone—then two years old—had pretty much taken the world by storm. So Microsoft efforts at that...

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Cortana will also have specialized suggestions for China, including air quality information and local TV show results. In the UK Cortana users will get access to English Premier League scores, London Stock Exchange information, and train transport updates. Canadian, Indian, and Australian users will have to opt in to use an English language version of Cortana in its US or UK form, meaning it wont be fully localized for those regions just yet. Visually, Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 is largely the...

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One of the benefits of Cortana is that we can make updates behind the scenes on the servers that light up new capabilities without the need for a software update. We added the ability for Cortana to predict the winners in popular soccer matches in Brazil courtesy of Bing magic earlier this month. Starting today, Cortana will now proactively showcase local recommendations from Foursquare on devices running Windows Phone 8.1 in the U.S. To turn this on, go to Cortanas Notebook and then Interests...

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Microsoft is still on track to deliver a second update to Windows 8.1 in August. But dont expect it to include any major features or to be mandatory. Follow @maryjofoley Update 2, to which Microsoft will be referring as the August update, wont be mandatory, unlike the first Windows 8.1 Update. It also wont be cumulative. Itll be pushed as just another monthly update to Windows 8.1. It will include some relatively minor design changes, I hear, but nothing big, feature wise. Microsoft...

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