Skip to main content

Windows Phone Mango features on full display in New York

windows-mango-preview-presenterIn downtown New York City today, Microsoft held a press conference to show off Windows Phone “Mango,” the much anticipated update to Windows Phone 7. We were on hand to check out the event, where a number of the “500 new features” were shown off. We already know about some of Mango’s new features from Mix 11 and some recent leaks, but Microsoft revealed quite a few new tidbits. The presentation was split into three separate sections, focusing on how Mango will improve communications, applications, and the Internet. The entire focus seems to be on finding new ways to integrate search, the Web, communication tools, and different apps into user friendly “hubs” that provide context and don’t force users to know the difference between the many programs they are using.

Communications

windows-mango-preview-integrated-messaging-webMango is adding a number of enhancements to communications and the People Hub. Microsoft says BlackBerry, Android, and iOS force users to use a bunch of separate apps to communicate with their social circle. While Microsoft certainly doesn’t dislike apps (its Marketplace now has 18,000 of them), its focus seems to be on ways to integrate social services directly in with its native social apps.

Recommended Videos

People Hub & Messaging: Twitter and LinkedIn are now a part of contact profile pages, allowing you to see status updates and messages from those services, alongside Facebook Status updates. The People Hub also connects right up with the Messaging Hub, which now lets you intermix text messages, Facebook Chat, and Windows Live Messenger chats. Microsoft calls this “threading.” It’s fairly easy to switch between different chatting services and the Messaging Hub brings your conversation with you, showing people who enter and leave the conversation in real time. Facebook Check-ins and face detection software are also included so you can more easily tag photos and groups of photos. You can also add pictures across multiple social networks.

Groups: You can now group contacts together and message them in bulk. Unfortunately, Mango doesn’t currently import the people categories you may have already set up in messaging services or Facebook, but you can make groups with relative ease.

Linked Inboxes: In the current version of Windows Phone 7, you can have multiple Inboxes, but they are all separate. If you have Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts, they can both be accessed, but they have separate homescreen live tiles and programs. Mango changes this, allowing you to integrate multiple email accounts into different hubs as you see fit. Enterprise features were also added. This flexibility seems nice, allowing you to group email as you see fit. The calendar has similar features.

Predictive text: The Windows Phone Mango keyboard tries to predict what you’re going to say before you type it. For example, if you type “Happy,” it may suggest “Birthday” as your next word.

Hands free responding: If you’re listening to music or have headphones on, Mango will allow you to hear and respond to text messages, etc without touching a button. It reads you the text and who it’s from, and then gives you the option to reply. While we don’t know how this feature will work outdoors or in a crowded area, it worked quite well in the controlled environment of this demonstration.

App Connect

Microsoft is upgrading all of its applications to integrate all of the new features available on Mango. Aside from every app being a part of the multitasking and background apps processes in Mango, apps will now more easily integrate into every aspect of Windows Phone. Microsoft described its apps as “alive,” and showed off many of the new ways these programs can interact with users. Notifications have improved and users can pin individual features and app pages to their homescreen as a Live Tile. This sort of application deeplinking – called “App Shortcutting” – is one of the most promising aspects of WP7 Mango.

In addition, Microsoft has given its Xbox Live app and Office Hub a visual upgrade and a number of new features, including better Xbox Live friend integration. Your apps may start looking a bit more like games as well. A British Airways app was shown with integrated 3D graphics, allowing you to tour the plane and pick your seat in full polygonal 3D, as if playing a video game.

We’ll get into Bing in a bit, but Microsoft is adding App suggestions to many of its search results pages. A representative tried searching for the film “Water for Elephants,” which brought up a Bing movie page for the film, complete with things you’d expect, like a synopsis, genre, local showtimes, etc. However, there was also a tab for Apps, which had the IMDB app listed. When he selected to use IMDB, it not only opened the app, it automatically pulled up IMDB results for “Water for Elephants.” Bing Vision, Microsoft’s version of Google Goggles, also integrates apps in this way, allowing you to scan a book and instantly search the Amazon Kindle app or a number of other apps. If this were Android or iOS, you would have to open the app and then search for what you want manually.

Internet and Bing

windows-mango-preview-ie9-speed-comparison
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’re puzzled why Google hasn’t integrated Chrome into Android, but it may have to soon. Microsoft showed off a full version of Internet Explorer 9 running on Mango. To show how much better it was than the competition, a representative lined up the BlackBerry Torch, iPhone 4, Droid Charge, and a Mango phone. In an HTML5 speed test (which we believe is a Microsoft created test), IE9 handily defeated the competitors: The iPhone didn’t even load, the BB got four frames per second, the Droid Charge reached 10 fps, and Mango soared with 27 fps. What this proves, we’re not quite sure, but IE9 is fast and appears to load pages well.

Bing is also being integrated much more deeply into the phone. Microsoft’s goal is to avoid giving you pages of “blue links,” or standard search results, and instead provide you with direct answers, sometimes without you knowing you’re on the Web at all. This approach is what all search engines hope to do, but it’s good to see Bing heading in the right direction.

Local Scout: With Mango, Bing is now getting its own version of Google Places, albiet much better looking. If your phone knows your location, Bing will aggregate local venues, stores, etc and give a place page, called a “Quick Card,” for each of them. In addition, Bing maps now has indoor maps of many malls and large indoor areas. Though your GPS won’t work inside these locations (give it a few years), at least you’ll have a general idea of where to find Hot Topic in your local shopping center. We were also impressed with the Bing place pages for venues like Madison Square Gardens, which actually lists upcoming concerts and shows at the stadium.

More coming…

Be sure to check out the handset-related announcements Microsoft made (new partners like Acer).  We also posted a quick picture gallery of the event, a video of Bing Vision, and a video of multitasking in action.

Overall, we were hoping for some handset announcements and the ability to touch and fool around with Mango ourselves, but we are, noentheless, impressed with many of the user-centric features Microsoft is adding to Windows Phone. Hopefully when it unveils its first set of Mango handsets, Microsoft will finally start to right the wobbly ship that is Windows Phone 7.

Jeffrey Van Camp
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
Apple’s iOS 26 public beta may finally arrive next week
Could apple's iOS 26 beta drop next week?
The control center with Liquid Design on the iOS 26 developer beta 1 running on the iPhone 16 Pro

Why it matters: Apple fans dying to try the latest iPhone OS have faced a wait longer than expected for the iOS 26 public beta, diverging from Apple's usually rapid rollout. A near-term release could help ramp up user testing , work out bugs, and increase excitement ahead of the full launch this fall, especially as rivals like Google push AI-heavy Android updates.

The big idea: Multiple reports suggest Apple is looking at July 23rd for the iOS public beta debut, based on insights from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This follows the developer beta 3 rollout on July 7, which skipped the typical one-week public follow-up.

Read more
Act fast and save $400 on the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar
The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar in Carbon Gray.

We're getting to the point where it is more and more affordable to get one of the best smartwatches or fitness trackers. The tech has been around for quite some time and we're even to the point where some government officials are wanting everyone to have a health tracker. So, I shouldn't be too surprised to see this deal on the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar at its lowest price on Amazon, ever, but I am a little bit. I just covered the gray and orange version getting a $250 discount a few months ago and here I am, looking at a different color with a $400 discount. Right now you can get the 47mm, Carbon Gray colored, Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar for just $500, a very decent drop from its usual $900, by tapping the button below. If you want, however, keep on reading to get a reminder on just how great this smartwatch is.

$500 at Amazon

Read more
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 preorder deals plus $50 credit
The back of the Galaxy Z Fold 7

Samsung Galaxy phones have entered their lucky number 7 era. We've got the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE all coming out later this month. And, if you pre-order now, you can yours by July 25th. Plus, if you pre-order after tapping the button you will receive an additional $50 credit in addition to all other pre-order discounts. This is the strongest pre-order offer available, so be sure to take advantage of it. Tap the button now and start making your selections. Just note that after you hit the button you'll only have 30 minutes to get the $50 credit. As a result, we recommend clicking now and then following along with the pre-order advice guide.

Preorder now

Read more