Confession. Nokia Music recently became one of my favorite music services out there. It’s in heavy rotation for me personally with other services like Xbox Music, SoundCloud, and Songza. The offline playlists were very welcomed on my Lumia 1020 during the 17 hour journey from California to Abu Dhabi for Nokia World. I’ve also been using the Windows 8 version app a lot. Sadly, that one wasn’t updated for some of the new features available for Windows 8.1. Today’s my lucky day, since Nokia has just released an update for Nokia Music on Windows 8. Let’s check it out.
When we were at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, we got a first look at the Windows 8.1 version of Nokia Music. Version 1.5 was teased to us and we learned that it would be out in a “few weeks”. Well those weeks are up, since you can now grab version 1.5.0.5720 of Nokia Music from the Windows Store.
This update brings to you a few things. Here they are:
- Windows 8.1 enhancements for both Search and Snap View
- Artist favoriting
- Notifications
- Flux Capacitor kicks in at 87mph
Sure enough once you update your Nokia Music app for Windows 8 you’ll see that you can now have the app flow to whatever snap state you place it in. You’re no longer limited to two modes, instead pick a width of your display and Nokia Music will look beautiful no matter what with no black bars on the side.
Nokia Music snapped in Windows 8.1
Windows 8.1 is depreciating some of the principles for search that came with the OS last year. Most notable is that developers are now encouraged to put the search box within the app versus having users use the Search charm.
Another neat thing about this new version of Nokia Music is the ability to favorite artists. Why would you want to do that? Easy, to take advantage of the new notifications that the app can give you. When you favorite an artist you’re telling Nokia that you care enough about them to get notified for things like new music releases and upcoming tour dates. Check out the video below to basically see what’s new in the app.
Oh and of course, Nokia has finally fixed the Flux Capacitor to kick in at 87mph in Nokia Music. We can’t recall exactly what it was set to before, but apparently enough users complained that they’ve addressed this little misstep.
Want Nokia Music for Windows 8? Yes you do, so go to the Windows Store to get it.
Thanks for the tip ScottN!
