exactly the kind of content I expected from el Reg.
so here's how it actually is.
1) no one commenting here has a windows phone, and updated it to 8.1. I have, and have been using it since it went live.
2) I've been following reddit,com/rwindowsphone for the past few days, the reality is a practically everyone is happy with the update. There are however the following issues that people seem to uniformly agree on
1) xbox music app is really not very good at all, and for those subscribing to the "xbox pass" music subscription it has lost a key function. the ability to see new music.
2) previously games were hidden from the app list, instead stored in their own games container. now they're in the app list. People don't like unexpected change, and this was never publicised.
3) in certain places the hubs aren't at first, as nice as they used to be. The general issue people have is they think they cannot see social media feeds under specific contacts, or under the people hub. They can, that functionality in its entirety is still there.
People also think they cannot access their facebook photos from the photos hub. they can, that function is still there in its entirety.
So what has really changed is
a) the music hub is 100% gone, it's now an app. A rubbish app.
b) some of the facebook integration has gone, e.g. you can't see the facebook photos of a contact in their profile, or see what new photos have been uploaded by other people in the photos hub. Remember, we didn't have a facebook app when WP launched, now we have a good one developed by Microsoft that doesn't come with all the fluff that the official app does on other platforms. :-)
everything else 8.1 brings, and there is A LOT, is very very nice, especially if you have been using Cortana.
> Websey said "RTFM If you have enough sense to be able to read a how to install 8.1 you should be able to read that this is a preview,"
this is a feature complete release, it's RTM (released to manufacturing), not RTFM. But will microsoft stop with development of WP? Of course not, most of the OS is split out in to Apps that can easily be updated bypassing carriers.