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Windows 8.1 isn�t the only one getting some love from Microsoft on the first day of the Build 2014 developer conference. The �mobile first, cloud first� company has also taken the opportunity to unveil the next edition of its Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system: Windows Phone 8.1 (codenamed �Blue�).

Unlike Windows 8.1 Update, which is a smaller update compared to last October�s Windows 8.1 update, Windows Phone 8.1 is a major update to the Windows Phone OS. It comes 17 months after Windows Phone 8, though to be fair, we did get three feature-adding updates along the way (the last one happened just last October) before today�s milestone.

So what�s new in Windows Phone 8.1? There are literally hundreds of new features (remember Windows Phone 7.5?), but here�s our top eight.

(P.S.: In case youre wondering why Windows Phone 8.1 coming from Windows Phone 8.0 is able to add so many features than Windows Phone 8.0 coming from Windows Phone 7.x, the answer is simple: Most of Windows Phone 8s changes were under the hood, at the kernel level. With this foundation in place, Windows Phone 8.1 is now able to build on it and realize so many new consumer-facing features and UI-level changes.)

Widely known by its �Cortana� codename before this, the final name of Windows Phone 8.1�s digital personal assistant is�still Cortana, which is brilliant. (Background: Cortana is the name of the AI character in the Halo video game series, which is owned by Microsoft. And Cortana in Windows Phone 8.1 is also voiced by the same actress, Jen Taylor.) Powered by the vast knowledge vault that is Bing (and other data sources, of course), and the speech recognition capabilities of TellMe, it�s an intelligent personal assistant in the same vein of Apple�s Siri and Google�s Google Now. It�s activated by either a Live Tile on the Start screen or by a press on the Search button.

Through interaction and your permission to have your data (which happens the very first moment you use it), Cortana�s usefulness will become more and more obvious with each passing day. As Microsoft puts it: �She detects and monitors the stuff you care about, looks out for you throughout the day, and helps filter out the noise so you can focus on what matters to you.� And what Cortana knows about you is stored in a virtual �Notebook� that�s stored in the cloud, one you can easily revoke access to. You can input text or just speak to communicate with Cortana. In short, Cortana is a digital personal assistant that tries to act like a real human being. Its extensibility (there are APIs, so third-party app integration is possible) also sets it apart from Siri.

But there�s a slight crease to Cortana�s skirt: When it�s launched (as a beta) in Windows Phone 8.1 this year, only a few regions will get it. They are: the U.S., the U.K., and China. For us in Asia Pacific, we�ll have to wait till 2015.

(To know about Cortana, we recommend that you check out this blog post from Microsoft or this detailed piece by The Verge.)

Another big feature is Action Center, which is a swipe-down-from-the-top panel that houses notifications for apps and settings (yes, something like Android�s notification shade and iOS� Notification Center). Notifications can be silently added updated, and deleted in Action Center, and they�re viewable even when the phone is locked. Above the collection of toast and app notifications is a bar with four user-configurable �quick actions� (i.e., shortcuts) for easy turning on and off of system settings like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Camera, Flight Mode, Internet Sharing, Location, Rotation Lock, and more.

As they say, it�s better late than never.

We don�t know about you, but the new built-in swipe-based keyboard in Windows Phone 8.1 is a major productivity feature in our opinion. Similar to the Google Keyboard, or the Swype/SwiftKey third-party virtual keyboards on Android, this stock keyboard lets you enter a word by sliding your finger from one letter to the next, complete with a prediction system that suggests alternative words (emoticons too!) to speed up typing. Microsoft even claims that a �kid� was able to break the world record for fastest typing previously held by the Swype keyboard on the Galaxy S4 using the Word Flow Keyboard (Update: Video below!).

For once, Windows Phone has one-upped both Android and iOS.