Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Update, Calling it Mango

Earlier today, Microsoft held a press event, announcing some of the newest features that will be found in the latest edition of their mobile phone operating system, Windows Phone 7. This update to the operating system is code-named Mango.

Andy Lee, president of Microsoft's mobile division, took the stage today and announced some of the new features that will be found in Mango.


To start off, Twitter and LinkedIn will now be integrated into Windows Phone 7. Also, the homescreen will be updated slightly, so that notifications are pushed more.

Call history will be sorted by person, and you will be able to see all of the calls, texts, IMs, and visual voicemail (another new feature in Mango) all in one "list". Related to this, a new feature in Mango will be the ability to group friends into groups. Groups will show all of those friend's activity, be it calls, texting, or even social networking activity. One can also communicate with all of the members in a group.

Although the long awaited copy and paste has finally come in an update a while ago, Mango will also add predictive text while typing. These are both important features that seem standard on any phone. However, predictive text can either save you time, or become an extremely annoying part of texting.

The new "threads" feature allows users to carry on a conversation from Facebook to texting, etc.

Andy Lee, President of Microsoft's mobile devision

Also regarding communication, Mango will allow users to keep email inboxes separate or combined, or even both. For example, one might keep his work email separate from his personal email, but he/she could combine two separate personal inboxes, and have work and personal inboxes. Some new security features have also been added for enterprise email.

Voice activated technologies will also be integrated into Mango. Microsoft showed how one could have text messages read to them while in the car, one could also respond just using his/her voice.

Microsoft is also bringing smarter apps, along with the ability to run multiple apps at once. Another improvement that will come with Mango is faster web browsing. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, will be integrated into Windows Phone 7, and will provide a slightly "smarter" search. For example, searching for the name of a movie will bring you directly to showtimes.

Mango will be released in the fall as a free update, and, unlike the previous update, will just require users to plug their phones into their computers. Mango will first appear on Microsoft/Nokia devices, but will soon be available on other phones. Mango will also be available on a few new devices that will support 4G.

Overall, Mango seems like an exciting update. If, unlike the previous update, everything goes as planned, this should give consumers more of a reason to buy a Windows Phone. Even with great hardware and a great OS, the problem still remains: With only 18,000 apps available (compared to over 300,000 for the iPhone), the devices are still not compelling. Although Windows Phone 7 is not going to outsell the iPhone anytime soon, Mango is a good step in that direction. A little help from app developers, and Windows Phone 7 might find itself on top.