14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, Nokia and Microsoft announced the availability of a new software update for the owners of Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 devices in the United States and Canada, providing them with a variety of enhancements and new features.
Initially available only for the Lumia 920 and 820 at AT&T in the United States and for the Lumia 920 at Rogers in Canada, the update will also arrive on devices in other markets around the world starting with early February next year.
According to Microsoft's support website, this update will bump the Windows Phone 8 build inside devices up to version 8.0.10211.204. The new firmware also includes enhancements coming from Nokia themselves.
The new software release will provide users with improvements to the Messaging app, better Bluetooth connectivity, a faster and more reliable start-up sequence, as well as improvements to the battery life and photo shooting capabilities.
As soon as the update (none other than the previously rumored PR1.1) has been made available for a specific device, users will be notified on the matter, and will be able to accept the update and install it on their phones.
Before starting the update, however, users are advised to make sure that the battery inside their devices is fully charged, and that they won’t need the phone for about half an hour. Furthermore, they will also need a Wi-Fi connection before starting the update.
Users can check to see whether the update was made available for their devices through going to Settings -> Phone Update -> Check For Updates.
Provided that Wi-Fi is on and the phone is connected to a hotspot, the update will start being downloaded immediately.
Once this process is completed, the smartphone will prompt users to install. As soon as the handset has completed installing the update, users will simply need to select “Done” and then reboot the device.
To check whether the update was successfully installed on their phones, users will have to go to Settings > About > Software Version, which should be 1232.5951.1249.0001.