Now that Windows Phone 8 and its SDK have been announced, it is time to make a round-up of the new features that are available in Windows Phone 8.

It's been said all around the net, but now that Windows Phone 8 is based on the Windows 8 SDK, this means that the .NET stack is pretty much using the same code base as on Windows 8.

Here are the new features, which I’ll try to discuss in later posts :

    • Pre-JIT in the store, or during side-loading
    • Contact store integration
    • Battery power reading
    • Adding songs to the media library
    • New memory requirements for Background agents and apps (with new hard-caps)
    • Speech integration, from the start menu and inside the app
    • VoIP agents (for skype, for instance)
    • Bluetooth support (with sockets)
    • NFC, with the same WinRT API that comes in Windows 8
    • Native code, using the WinMD publication
    • Wallet integration
    • App 2 app deep linking, via Schemes or file extensions
    • Lock screen notifications
    • Lock screen background
    • SD Card access from the apps
    • Datasmart API
    • New resolutions
    • Live tiles with new layouts and sizes (Cycle, Flip and Iconic)