In the recent post detailing the recent Windows Phone 7 update, I talked about the new features added in that update - quake status (reviewed/automatically reported), quake location and the option to show all quakes. These features are of course also present in this new Windows Phone 8 version.

On top of these new features though (which you can read about in detail in the post linked above, or on the Windows Phone page) are of course the WP8-specific features.

The first time you start What’s Shaking, NZ? you may notice that the app starts up faster - it no longer has a startup screen. Microsoft have now made these optional, which is useful for apps (such as What’s Shaking, NZ?) that don’t have a lot to do during startup. The list view should now be a little faster as well, as it uses a new, faster control. This wasn’t exactly a problem previously, but every bit of performance is important.

I’ve also enabled what’s called “fast app resume” - meaning that if the app is running already, you can now get back into it quickly by tapping the tile on the home screen. Previously this would terminate the old instance of the app and create a new one, which took quite some time. Now it simply brings the existing one to the foreground (which you could do previously by holding down the Back key and selecting the app from those shown). This makes for a much nicer experience when switching between applications, as the phone is much more responsive and apps appear to load a lot faster.

One of the biggest features Windows Phone 8 has over WP7 was multiple live tile sizes - these are included in this initial release. The medium tile shows you the same information as before (number of quakes in the last 24 hours, with magnitude, depth and time of the latest quake on the back of the tile), while the large tile now also shows you the location of the latest quake.

Those features (along with those mentioned in the previous post) are the most noticeable ones. In addition, there have been quite a few changes behind the scenes - bug fixes, changes, improvements, and preparations for future features. You can have a look at these on Github if you’re interested.

Feel free to tweet me if you have any comments or suggestions, or you can email me direct from the app.

The list view has a useful new feature - it tells you where the quake was! This appears as text with a direction and a distance from a New Zealand town or city - for example “5km south of Christchurch.” This allows you to quickly glance through the listed quakes and then drill in on ones that are close to places of interest to you, and to easier see patterns in recent quakes.

On the quake detail page we now show the quakes “status” - primarily this will be either ‘automatic’ or ‘reviewed’. You can tap on these words to get a pop-up describing what they mean, but basically ‘automatic’ is a quake reported by the Geonet monitoring equipment, and ‘reviewed’ means a Geonet technician has checked the quake, to make sure the equipment has provided an accurate report. Previously you had no way of knowing whether a quake was accurate or not - the initial automatic reports (within the first few minutes of a quake occurring) can be especially inaccurate.

We’ve also added the ability to view all recent earthquakes from around New Zealand. Previously, we were only showing you those which were likely to have been felt. You can toggle this on/off on the Settings page - it’s off by default. There are a lot of earthquakes that are never felt by people, so this is most likely not something you want turned on all the time.

These are the most noticeable changes. There have been a few changes behind the scenes, bug fixes and so-on, which you can view on Github.

Enjoy the latest update, and keep an eye out for a Windows Phone 8 version coming soon!

Features include automatic alerts for new quakes, map and list view of recent quakes, full customisation and quake detail views. The app is completely free and open source, hosted on Github.

You can read more about it on the Android page.

Features include:

• Uses the latest Geonet Rapid data feed for up-to-the-minute quake information.
• Both list and a map overviews of the latest quakes.
• Allows you to select how many quakes you’d like to see presented at once.
• And more!

For more detail (and screenshots!), see the Windows Phone page.