Yes, and I really need to make better use of the available apps and my user account options.  While I use some of the obvious, there is so much more I could be using to better enjoy my W8 phone.

Thanks for the head up, ID.

I got a little 520 to mess with over the weekend. Pretty impressed. Windows 8.1 and now Windows Phone 8........I'm liking the all round experience that Microsoft and Nokia are putting together.

I've posted several times now about a Nokia exclusive app called 'Photobeamer'  (see my first post in this thread), but recently there is yet another Nokia exclusive app I've been finding invaluable.

Nokia Beamer

This app shares your phone screen (Nokia phone) via Nokia's servers to/with any internet-enabled screen locally or remotely (for remote sharing you send people the link via SMS or email etc.).  You can even invite additional 'participants' (although I'm not sure how many since I have yet to test that particular app feature!).  If you choose you can also share your camera feed so anyone on the other end can see whatever your phone camera is 'seeing'.

Of course it is advisable to be using WiFi (to save data) while doing so but the app also has options regarding quality vs speed and one can set it to either share the screen constantly or only when one gives the screen a shake (thereby only providing periodic screen updates).

Absolutely fantastic app I've used quite a lot already.  Aside from how rock solid I've found the Nokia hardware I continue to be impressed by Nokia's focus on bringing out more and more worthwhile apps!

Microsoft released a preview for a Remote Desktop App for Windows Phone.  Right now, you will need Windows Phone 8.1 to install.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/microsoft-remote-desktop-preview/299b09ab-207e-441c-9e8e-c8d66c20b76b

Features:

• Rich multi-touch experience with remote desktop protocol (RDP) and RemoteFX supporting Windows gestures
• Secure connection to your data and applications with breakthrough Network Level Authentication (NLA) technology
• Simple management of all remote connections from the connection center
• High quality video and sound streaming with improved compression and bandwidth usage

Now this is an app I will find very useful.... when I can get 8.1 on my phone.  I got the Black update about a week after folks here were speaking about getting it, so hopefully 8.1 isn't too far off.

As far as I know the official release for 8.1 is still a ways off.   You can get the 8.1 developer preview.

You have to go here:  http://appstudio.windowsphone.com/

Register.  Download the APP and enable and check for updates.

The 'official release' is likely coming mid-summer sometime.  At least to us Canucks up here! 

Ok, okay!  So it's just the developer preview people are talking about having.  Oh well, I'm not missing out after all.  Still, I will look into the developer preview and see how it goes.  I have a vague recollection that some folks had issues, so hopefully it will be easily rolled back if that happens to be my experience with it.  Uh, no... I just read at the Dev site that the updates delivered are not reversible.  Never mind, I'm sure it'll all work out just fine.

Well I seem to have the Preview for Devs app on my phone, but I have no idea how to get it to do anything.  Every time I click on it I have to accept the terms and conditions, which I do, then I have to sign into my account using my email acc and password, but that's as far as I can go.  It tells me I'm supposed to register as a developer - which I thought I had when I initially signed in with my user name - but I cannot find where to go from there to do this.  If anyone has any idea as to what I need to do, please inform me so that I may use this app.

Thanks.

It's Okay, I figured it out/solved it.  I hadn't completed the registration properly. Once I had I was able to enable the preview and get the updates.

Yeah, it was all so confusing, but after being up for 32 hours now without sleep, I'm allowed to get confuseded... and not see the obvious.

Anyway, all is well that ends well, my phone is updating and I can now get the tools to make my own apps.  Woohoo, with a bit of practice, a wing and a prayer, I'll hopefully be able to make apps that'll connect me to my internet banking [they do Android and Apple apps but not one for Windows] and another to connect me to my ISP and landline provider accounts.

The OneDrive app was updated to v4.1.  

"The new version now allows for multiple files, photos, and videos to be uploaded to a OneDrive account at once, which should be a huge time save. Users can now open and share OneDrive files in other apps. There's also a new "immersive view" for photos, and users can now sort files and photos by name, along with which file is newest or oldest, or which has the biggest or smallest file size. Finally, there are a number of unnamed bug fixes and performance improvements."

Via Neowin.net.

the pirate must have had some trouble updating to 8.1. i don't think he's been back since he started the update process.

Yeah, I've been unwell with a bad dose of Vertigo, but I did get it sorted out and I now have the developer preview installed.  It seemed to take an eternity downloading and setting up, however... like I could see progress bars and such moving, but ever so slowly  Also, my phone seemed quite sluggish to begin with, but after a complete power off and restart it was back to its zippy self. 

One thing I have noticed is that I don't seem to have the Cortana app anywhere... well at least I've not been able to find it. Has that been released yet or is it still to come?  I checked for further updates but there were one.  Sometimes this can be a regional thing, and often we are waiting for updates a while longer here down-under.  Similarly I've found that Win 8.1 update 1 isn't available as yet. Yesterday I finally got around to updating my Asus notebook from 8 to 8.1, but in checking for further updates, specifically Update 1, Windows Update says there are none.

The other thing I did was download the developer tools to create apps, so when I'm over the worst of this bout of Vertigo I will investigate those and try my hand at making some simple but useful apps.  I watched the short tutorial on the developer site and it doesn't look that hard to make basic apps for every day use kind of things like RSS feeds, URLs and browser launchers, etc.

cortana is strictly for US use at the moment. well, maybe England too. i believe that to be the case, anyway.

have you added the third column of tiles yet? or used the swipe keyboard?

I've not really done much with my phone since updating it.  Unfortunately I've been suffering with vertigo and I don't focus too well on stuff when it hits hard.  I usually just veg out in front of the TV and just hope that it passes cos medication doesn't do a lot to help relieve/ease it.  There are some days when I just stay in bed because even minimal movement exacerbates the nausea and feelings of travel sickness, disorientation.

As for Cortana, I suspected it was something like that... a regional thing and that we'd have to wait a while longer, as is usually the case.  Oh well, can't have what they don't wanna give me as yet.