Stupid Question 194: Windows 81, what is new?

[To celebrate my first year of programming I will ask a ‘stupid’ questions daily on my blog for a year, to make sure I learn at least 365 new things during my second year as a developer] Excuse me being late to the party here, but I’ve gotten this question so many times the last few days (weeks) that I’ve decided to blog the answer. Here are the new features that have been confirmed ( as I know of):

Windows 8.1

New color schemes for the start screen with animated backgrounds
You can set same background as the desktop- this feature is nicer than one would think,- it makes the two ‘modes’ seem more integrated!
All-apps screen with sort and filtering. You can also sort by category, and the apps you’ve used the most.- I really appreciate this as I have quite a few apps – some that I tend to forget the name of
Smart-search (it’s not called that, its what I call it) a search tool that searches all your apps and provides the result from all the apps almost like a Wikipedia article that spans horizontally. I’m particularly excited about this, but probably because I’m a data nerd.
Color sorting on search and more – simply a smarter search :)
Miracast (think AirPlay) – wireless projection to screens that supports the new standard
More modes- half screen is now supported
More true multitasking- up to four apps running side by side
Cloud all the way – everything stored in SkyDrive , file-stubs on the PC
NFC tap to print- Yes! Bring more NFC to the people!
New tile sizes – BIG tiles for BIG information :)
Photo-slideshow from SkyDrive on the lockscreen (better hide those ‘private pictures’ he he)
Start button is back

Windows 8.1

All in all, I’m extremely excited about the update, what do you think? Any favorite features? Anything missing?

Watch the video: