Among the changes made for Windows Phone 8 by Microsoft was putting in new features in the lock screen for the OS. Microsoft previously talked about the new Start screen and now they also discuss what improvements they have made to the lock screen.
The post is actually in the form of a Q&A, where Microsoft program manager Danielle Ellbogen talks about, among other things, how the user of a Windows Phone 8 device can now customize what sort of notifications are available on the lock screen. She states:
Before we showed the calendar in the detailed status area. Now you can change that calendar slot to things like your email, your phone, your messaging—so you can see who the missed call was from, or read the first couple lines of a new text message. It’s the same amount of detail you’d see in the large Start tile.
New apps can also be put into the lock screen's quick status notification area. Ellbogen also talks about how the lock screen's main image can be changed automatically. It can be set to change the image from a Facebook photo album every 30 minutes. She adds:
And since we have Bing on Windows Phone, you’ll also now be able to see the Bing image of the day—something people asked for on Suggestion Box. People love those pictures, so we made a really big push to get the feature in.
Ellbogen says it was "nice" to work on a feature such as the lock screen because she knows that it will be something that people will see and use every day on their Windows Phone 8 smartphone. However, she also says that users sometimes have some issues, adding, "Because it’s so prominent, everyone sees it and everyone has opinions about it. But to me those are just good problems to have—people talking about your feature and caring what it looks like."
Source: Windows Phone blog | Image via Microsoft
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