The wait is finally over…. not really.
Microsoft have just started rolling out the Windows 10 Technical Preview for Windows Phone devices. Well, those that meet certain requirements. Your device must be either a Lumia 630, 635, 638, 730 or 830. That’s really not a lot of phones and of course, they’re all low-end to mid-range devices. The fact that the Lumia 730 is included but not the 735 is also obscure, I believed the 735 would be with the priority phones. I’m also disappointed that us hard-core Windows Phone users don’t get to try this because we all have flagships. Your regular consumer will go for low-end, but the enthusiasts who wish to test this build and will use it all day, every day, simply can’t. If you’re lucky enough to own one of the above devices (sadly, I’m don’t) then here’s what you need to do!
- Register for the Windows Technical Preview
- Install the Windows Insider app
- Launch the app and sign into your Microsoft Account.
- Tap the “Get Preview Builds” button. (Most of us will be seeing “No build found”).
The list of the most noticeable features found in today’s list includes:
- The option to set a full-size background image for start, not just on the tiles. Tiles will be transparent.
- Ability to expand the number of Quick Actions in the Action Centre.
- Interactive notifications such as responding to texts or easily dismissing an alarm without leaving the app you’re currently in.
- Enhanced speech-to-text capability allowing you to create text with your voice that adds punctuation and understand the difference between two and too.
- Photos App has been updated now showing the aggregated set of all your local photos and OneDrive photos.
Today bits don’t include the new “Project Spartan” web-browser which will be added in the coming updates to the preview. Microsoft also say new devices and features will be added in the future. Touch-first Office, Outlook Mail and Calendar, IP Messaging and others will also be added later. So most of the exciting stuff isn’t there yet. Cortana is also US Only for now like on the Windows 10 JTP for Desktops, but it’s expected to also expand soon as well. Of course, there’s bugs and some could impact your daily phone use. You can see details about those here. Anyway, if you can try it out, let us know! In the meantime, I’ll try getting as much as I can as what’s new in Windows 10 for phones. Yep, that’ll be difficult without having the live code running on my own phone.
