A developer misplaced his Lumia 920, which got leaked into the wild, revealing some interesting features that will come with the next update of the OS.
With all the excitement building up towards the June 26 launch of the preview build of the Windows 8.1 (Blue) update, it would seem that one developer got a little to careless with his Lumia 920. The phone was allegedly running a developer build of Windows Phone 8.1 OS, or Windows Phone Blue.
The Reddit user Chinaman28 purchased the phone from an eBay post, only to find that what he had received was a Lumia 920 running a somewhat different version of Windows Phone 8. He posted screenshots of the new features and was soon tracked by Microsoft, who requested him to return the phone. However, unlike another company who we know to have misplaced a prototype in the past, the company refunded the money the Reddit user had spent on the Lumia 920, along with giving him a brand new unit of the phone as well.
So, what was so special about the phone? According to the screenshots posted, the phone ran Windows Phone 8.1, albeit an early build. The phone had a functioning notification centre, something that many users have been wanting for a while. Along with that, the new OS also apparently allows you to close apps right from the multi-tasking window.
There’s also an option to sort apps by frequency of use, and not just alphabetically. This should come as a great respite to those who are always scrolling up and down to find their right apps. Microsoft will also be introducing Data Sense, a utility that monitors data usage (both mobile and Wi-Fi) and should come in really handy for those who have smaller data caps than others.
Microsoft has clarified that the build shown on this developer phone is a much earlier one, and that the OS has undergone various iterations since then. The notification centre, before being pulled out of the update, was made a part of something called “People’s Hub.” The update is expected to hit the download queue later this year, but there is no confirmed word on a release timeline yet.
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