Gadgetory

no this is Sean Hollister at the verge and this is a first look at Windows 8.1 first things first the new start screen windows 8.1 now looks a lot more like Windows Phone and that's a very good thing you can hold and select individual tiles to resize them large versions display more information and the smaller ones let you squeeze more into your Start screen you can also group them move multiple tiles at once and generally set things up the way you want without banging your head against a wall pulling apps around want to see all your apps just swipe up you can also finally set your own Start screen background even ones that move as you scroll around or you could set the Start screen to your desktop background for a less jarring transition when you switch to desktop mode unfortunately the Windows 8.1 preview doesn't show some of the most dynamic backgrounds that Microsoft is shown off like this red dragon that swoops around as you move through the Start screen speaking of the desktop Microsoft is now brought back an old friend the controversial Start button it's literally a button and there's no actual Start menu here but there's also additional options to boot directly to the desktop and disable some of the hot corners that bring up the charms and recent apps perhaps the biggest change in Windows 8.1 is the integration of Bing search you can swipe in to reach the search charm or just start typing on the Start screen and get apps settings files and web results where this really gets interesting is when you search for an actual person if we look for our fearless leader Joshua Topolsky were immediately thrown into this new fullscreen hero experience where pictures and information really pop search for a pop star like Rihanna and you'll get an even richer experience where you can immediately access songs and videos Microsoft is redesigning its mail client for Windows 8.1 sadly it's not ready yet but it does pull a neat trick it can context truly snap a new window into place to open photos or web links the Photos app pops up in a 60-40 split view and allows you to edit images right then in there there's a neat little option to enhance individual colors by dropping a pin and spinning a virtual dial if you click a link in the mail app you can see two apps sharing the screen equally that's new for Windows 8.1 believe it or not you can readjust with the slider and snap multiple apps alongside each other if you plug in a desktop monitor you'll even be able to snap additional apps on extra displays or use the devices charm to project your content onto a miracast display there are a lot more app and prove Montano splay in Windows 8.1 the new Internet Explorer 11 is catching up to the competition now supporting unlimited tabs and adding a reading list so you can save articles for later both those tabs and the list are synced to other Windows 8.1 devices and Windows Phone using Microsoft SkyDrive the keyboard across the OS has also been improved letting you quickly autocomplete by swiping across the suggestions with the spacebar and enter numbers more easily Xbox music has been redesigned to make it easier to access content and the camera app lets you take a 360-degree panorama just by filling in missing puzzle pieces so to speak Bing Food & Drink is a cooking app which lets you get your hands dirty just swipe your hands in the air in front of your computer's camera and move forward in the recipe it'll be interesting to see if Microsoft opens up this functionality to third-party apps as well overall 8.1 is in refinement over Windows 8 it addresses key complaints and includes a lot of minor changes that add up to a big improvement in usability it's in preview today but Microsoft intends to ship a final version later this year Oh