The next Windows Phone 7 - Mango

I am sure that most people who follow Windows Phone 7 already know all about Mango.  But if you are just sort of casually following what Microsoft is doing around the new phone platform you will have missed a lot of what is in this video.  Joe Belfiore (Corporate Vice President) does a demo of some of the highlights for Mango.

Go watch it directly on YouTube, it is a good video.

So many features

There are a crazy number of new features in the phone update.  There are a couple that I really like and wanted to explain them a little more than Joe does.  Watch the video to see the high level on the phone update.

Bing Integration

The Local Scout is pretty neat to find things around you.  But I don’t do that very often. 

But the ability to take a picture of something I am looking at and find it online is something that I have been using a LOT lately.  I frequently forget to add things to my shopping list until I am completely out of them item.  When I empty the bottle of vitamins now I can take a picture, and it finds the item for me.  Usually I then add it to my Amazon shopping list, or even purchase it right from my phone.  This has been a real delighter for me.

Multi tasking

This is something that a lot of people will complain about I am sure.  I actually call this task switching, but that is just my geek nature.  The ability to press and hold back to see recent apps that are still in memory is awesome.  This is similar to implementations I have seen on other phones from an API perspective, but the UI is very nice and intuitive.  I only wish I could take a screen shot to show you how it looks.

Turn by Turn Directions

This one freaked me out a little the first time it happened.  I got directions to go somewhere and while I was driving (and listening to a podcast) the phone chirped in with a message, “prepare to turn right at 100th avenue”.  That was amazing!  The reading of the directions is really nice, and it will even tell you to get in the left lane because the turn after is a left hand turn.  Very impressive.

Text Messaging

I was driving home one day listening to a podcast and one of my daughters text me.  The phone chirped up and asked if I wanted to read it or ignore.  You just say “read it” and the phone reads it to you.  Then you can reply using voice!  It can be a little awkward when you want to say lol to something, it doesn’t quite get that meaning.   But overall I like the approach, and the totally hands free way this was implemented.

Mango will be Huge

I do honestly believe that the update is going to be huge.  It is pretty impressive considering it has been less than a year since the phone released.  I was a very early adopter of the phone (of course my phone was free because I work for Microsoft), and I gave the team a ton of feedback of things I didn’t like.  I have to say that Mango finally does surpass my previous smart phone experiences, and actually pushes the bar forward quite a bit from where other phones are today.