Windows Phone 8.1 arrives along with new Lumias: here's all you need to know

Microsoft has taken the wraps off Windows Phone 8.1, one of the largest updates to the Windows Phone platform since its inception, introducing a brand new Bing-powered personal voice assistant called Cortana, a unified notifications hub called Action Center, and plentiful new customization options. 

Cortana, for instance, aims to be a truly personal assistant, tapping into your location and emails (if you allow it to), learning from your behavior over time to give you relevant information, and that’s great.

The Action Center is another hugely requested feature that finally brings all your notifications into a single place. Yes, it reminds of similar features on Android (and iOS), but it’s also slightly different, as you can customize it to the very tiny details.

In addition to that, Windows Phone 8.1 brings all new customization options with wallpapers appearing like a jig-saw puzzle on the home screen, with options to completely overhaul the lockscreen experience, as well as new options for Live Tiles.