Windows 8 Default App Updates Rolling Out With New Features

Last week Microsoft announced the Windows 8 default apps were getting updated and today they are starting to roll out. Looking in the Windows 8 Store you should see or soon will see updates to the News, Photos, Bing, SkyDrive, Maps, along with the other default apps such as Mail and Messaging. The updates are awesome with the fact that they can be done without updating the operating system which makes the process more nimble.

Here are a list of the default Windows 8 App updates and what they bring

SkyDrive

• SkyDrive as a share target
• File and Folder Management
• Details view

Mail, Calendar, People, and Messaging

• Conversation view
• IMAP account support
• Accepting and declining invitations in email
• Updating your account picture

Photos

• Photo Editing
• New auto slideshows
• View photos and videos on network locations

Maps

• Bird’s eye view
• 3,000+ indoor venue maps
• Driving directions hints
• Improved navigation and layout
• Improved customization, including custom pushpins and roaming options
• Integration with Bing and Travel apps

Bing

• Richer search results for local content and images
• Bing rewards integration
• Use zoom on your search results to see related queries
• Use the file picker to select an image from Bing to use on your lock screen or in your other apps

Finance

• Additional news and magazine content
• More market exchanges enabled
• Finance videos

News

• Additional news content from partners such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal
• Enhanced article reader, including font customization, zoom, pagination, and more
• Improved offline reading experience
• News videos
• Slideshows

Sports

• Additional news and magazine content
• Sports videos
• Slideshows
• New soccer leagues, including MLS, J. League, and Brazilian League

Travel

• Additional news and magazine content
• Improved flight search and new flight progress indicator
• Improved hotel listing page
• Interactive 360-degree panoramas (gyroscope supported)

Weather

• Improved default location usability
• Hourly weather forecasts, up to 10 days
• Day & evening high/low temperatures

Video

• Purchasing in local currencies
• Closed captioning
• Search by actor or director

Music

• Expanded music services
• Rich “Now Playing” experience
• Discover more music with SmartDJ

Games

• Exciting new games
• In-game purchasing
• Invites and turn notifications

Tagged as: win8, Windows 8 App Update, Windows 8 Apps