Developers have been invited to test out the new Windows Phone, and they have been excitedly posting about its features. They expected a number of changes, but many were sadly disappointed that the more awaited features were not better designed. On the whole, the phone is much the same as it was in 2012. Below are the highlights, and the disappointing status of one key element, VPN support. Users can expect to keep their VPN subscriptions to leading VPN providers like ExpressVPN if they are concerned about online security and privacy.
Apps and Settings
An exciting development for the Windows Phone 8.1 was SDK updates. This feature allows developers to create apps for the phone. Last time, very few got to use the feature and so there were very few apps available when the phone was released. It is disappointing that it seems once again only a chosen few will again get to use it.
The phone now has an Action Center, which provides easy access to airplane mode, notifications and alerts. There is also Battery Sense that can track what apps are using up power. The phone now also allows greater control over volume for music and notifications. This version cooperates better with other software, too. It supports multiple types of Google Calendars and will have a complete podcast app. The phone will also have audio and video editing capabilities including slow motion filming. It can also manage Javascript and has support for stereoscopic 3D. These are not so impressive.
Apps
Native VPN support on the phone might make some users more comfortable. But it looks very basic, and being under the control of the company, is still suspect. The VPN was meant to make the phone more attractive to enterprise users. The phone also boats encrypted S/MIME e-mail and document scanning and OCRing. It can execute EAP-TLS Wi-Fi authentication and certificate management. But let’s not forget that Windows is tied in to the NSA surveillance program. This means that data on the Windows Phone 8.1 is also at risk of being spied on and recorded. To ensure strong data encryption for privacy, you need to use a good third party VPN like ExpressVPN. They use the OpenVPN protocol by default, and provide powerful L2TP/IPSec for devices that do not support OpenVPN. ExpressVPN can also secure Wi-Fi connections. The app is set to provide 128-bit encryption so it’s both secure and fast. But this provider leaves all the options open so that users can decide what works best for them in different situations and activities.
