In a series of tweets published this morning, corporate vice president and manager for Windows Phone Joe Belfiore has outlined a series of updates that will be going live on the Windows Phone platform.
Belfiore touched on the subject of the number of social networks available for integration on Windows Phone, noting that while only a few social networks could be configured before, the platform now supports sharing to all social networks.
As for the much awaited lock screen app, Belfiore stated that it was undergoing beta testing on devices with over 1 GB RAM, and that work is underway in applying the finishing touches. He said that a dev preview will be announced shortly. On the same subject, Belfiore mentioned that it might be a while before the lock screen app is made available on devices with 512 MB RAM. As for the reason this feature will not be available soon on low-memory devices, he said that it was to "make lock fast/stay in memory."
Belfiore also mentioned that app updates for Facebook and Skype are incoming, and stated that Microsoft is actively partnering with Facebook in trying to eke out any lingering bugs in its app.
Belfiore touched upon the subject of new hubs/apps being different in functionality (Xbox Music splitting from the hub, etc), and said that it was because a third party platform was used to build them. He mentioned that this allows for better updatability, and "makes the platform better so all apps improve." He said that such apps are limited in number, and are mostly on dev previews and a small number of new devices.
On the subject of universal apps, Belfiore said that since Windows Phone 8.1 is still in its nascent stages, most developers are focusing on Windows Phone 8, but once WP 8.1 starts gaining momentum, there will be a lot of universal apps available.
Finally, Belfiore said that there are a couple new apps that will be announced for the platform soon and that the Windows Phone team continues to squat bugs before they're ready to roll out Windows Phone 8.1 to the world. Head on over to his Twitter page to read through published messages.
Source: Twitter (Joe Belfiore); thanks to everyone who tipped us!
