AfterDawn: Tech news

Windows Phone 7 fans rejoice, 'Mango' bringing 500 new features

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 May 2011 11:53 User comments (5)

Windows Phone 7 fans rejoice, 'Mango' bringing 500 new features Microsoft has unveiled Windows Phone 7.1 "Mango" today, with 500 new features.
The new firmware update will bring better social networking integration, a full search revamp, app upgrades, new communications updates and many more features.

For social networking, Mango will let users import their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn contacts with one-click. The native Facebook app will also get revamped, including face detection software and "check-ins."

The update will allow WP7 owners to create groups of contacts as live tiles which you can then "see the latest status updates and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group, right from the start screen."

Updating the search, user can activate visual search using the phone's camera, voice search or music search. You can also narrow down results with Local Scouts which "provides location-specific results that highlight important information about establishments and events in your immediate area. Clicking through on any link brings up general information as well as reviews gleaned from popular user-generated sites."



Multitasking will finally be available and a new "conversation mode" will let users switch between text messages, Facebook chats, and Windows Live Messenger in a single thread inclduing speech-to-text, and text-to-speech.

You can read about all the updates here: Windows Phone 7.1 Mango



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5 user comments

124.5.2011 12:45

As with past updates for WP7, will it brick people's phone as with other updates? I'm curious how long until the first reports of people getting a bricked phone start rolling in...

224.5.2011 14:41
ps3lvanub
Inactive

Windows Phone 7 fans don't exist. There are people who bought Windows Phones who deeply regretted it and there are the people who weren't stupid enough to buy one in the first place.

324.5.2011 15:15

Microsoft has moved farther into this market than most thought they'd ever reach. Now the question is will they keep it up, or continue with their track record and let it die. If they keep it up and keep taking market share from Apple and Google then congratulations. If they let it die then so be it, just another failed Microsoft product. But who knows, I've seen crazier shit happen. My next choice very well might be a windows phone, but not without considering the competition. Call me old fashioned but I like to keep an open mind with the products I use. Competition is always good and I'm not going to hate on a phone without trying it.

424.5.2011 15:26

Originally posted by xnmalletx:
Microsoft has moved farther into this market than most thought they'd ever reach. Now the question is will they keep it up, or continue with their track record and let it die. If they keep it up and keep taking market share from Apple and Google then congratulations. If they let it die then so be it, just another failed Microsoft product. But who knows, I've seen crazier shit happen. My next choice very well might be a windows phone, but not without considering the competition. Call me old fashioned but I like to keep an open mind with the products I use. Competition is always good and I'm not going to hate on a phone without trying it.
Would not surprise me in the least if in 2015 the market looked somewhat like this:

Android 35 percent
Windows Phone 7 30 percent
iOS 25 percent
Bada, MeeGo, etc 10 percent

524.5.2011 22:57

2015 does sound like a potentially good time to buy a WinMo phone...Of course, Android will probably either be great or terrible at that point, MeeGo will be a lot better but still, no one will want it...and you never know...RIM might just shock us...their mini-tablet is proof that they are capable of great things if they just remove the chains from the arms of their engineers. Plus, HTML5 does not seem to be making the world any more open, and the closed-source OS's will be able to play a lot more file types. Maybe they will let their hair down one day and make a PSP2 killer that also makes calls...that would be great.

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