Microsoft has today officially unleashed its Windows Phone 7.5 update, better known as Mango to its friends, and we have had some time to play with the update. Microsoft claims that there are over 500 enhanced features and performance tweaks in Mango, and here we have a slice of these for your perusal.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Slicing into Windows Phone Mango
Apps gain new life outside of the Marketplace in Mango, also showing up as search result suggestions for relative searches for movies, businesses and products.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
App integration
You'll also be able to find relevant apps in a new section in the Music Video and Photo hubs, so long as the publishers have enabled the feature on their end. It may take time to see the list populate after Mango's launch.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Marketplace
Windows Phone Marketplace gets some enhancements as well, including new search suggestions as you start to type. Music matches predominate, but you can also reduce your typing when searching for games, apps and podcasts.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Bing
Voice search moves to the bottom of the Bing app, and is joined by icons for three new features.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
New features in Bing
From left to right, the new Bing tools are Local Scout, Music ID and Bing Vision.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Local Scout
Fire up Local Scout, and you'll get a map and options for viewing local happenings and hangouts, complete with Bing map access (the map expands and becomes interactive.)
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Music ID
Like Shazam and other music "sound printing" apps, Bing's Music ID app listens to recorded music and matches songs with the Zune database.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Bing Vision
A neat idea with unfortunately inconsistent results, Bing Vision can scan barcodes, QR codes, Microsoft tags, covers of books, CDs, DVDs, magazines and posters for deeper searching. It will also attempt to translate text.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Not always right
Like all scanning apps to date, Bing Vision doesn't always get it right. A scan for the barcode of a Sublime album yielded a result for a different artist.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Multitasking
Microsoft has added an easy, practical way to switch between open apps. Just press and hold the Back button below the screen (faded in this shot.)
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Internet Explorer 9
Internet Explorer 9 gets some back-end changes to speed performance and protect privacy, but what users will immediately notice is the new-found ability to upload web links to social networking sites, such as Facebook, for instance.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Group contacts
Creating a group contact list is easy. Simply select which contacts you want in a group, assign a name and save.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Messaging in group contacts
Once you've created a group, you can send an email or text message to all the members.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Group contacts
The new group contact feature also lets you see status updates and photos from just the members of that group, and not your entire address book.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Pin to Start
In addition to pinning individual contacts to the Start screen, you can also pin group contacts to the main home screen for easy access.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Dynamic live tiles
In Windows Phone 7.5, live tiles provide more real-time information, such as a contact's status update, or any notification, such as a new message or a missed call.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Twitter and LinkedIn integration
Though we weren't able to try this feature out, Windows Phone 7.5 will bring Twitter and LinkedIn integration to the People hub. Tweets and status updates will show up in the What's new pane, just like in Facebook.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Linked inbox
With Mango, you'll now be able to link your email accounts.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Conversation view
Email threads are now grouped together, so you no longer have to scroll through every single message trying to find a response. Each thread is clearly marked, and can be easily expanded and collapsed with a tap of the screen.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Smart DJ
One of our favourite things about Windows Phone is the Zune integration, and it only gets better with Mango. A new feature called Smart DJ creates playlists using the content on your phone (or the Marketplace, if you're a Zune Pass subscriber) based on what you're currently listening to.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Smart DJ playlists
You can view Smart DJ playlists in the history pane of the Music Video hub, or you can save them to your phone and share them with friends via email.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Podcasts
Mango also adds the ability to search, download and subscribe to podcasts right from your phone. Previously, you had to connect to your PC first, and use the Zune software.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Xbox Live
Currently on Windows Phone 7, you have to download an extra app from the Marketplace to customise your 3D avatar, view your achievements and connect your friends. However, this will be standard out of the box with the Mango update.
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(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Video player
The video player now lets you jump to any point of a clip.
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