WP7 Beta Mango Tools Available Today
More good news for Windows Phone 7 today. You can download later today. Other news coming out during the press conference, so might want to watch it live or later here. A press release is here, but here’s a summary of the new features. Another summary on Windows Phone blog.
Communications: Easier to connect and share
The smartphone experience can be complicated by a sea of disconnected apps and accounts as people attempt to keep pace with all the ways they communicate – from calls, texts, email and IM to status updates, Tweets, check-ins, photo posting and tagging. To help people stay on top of that growing complexity, the Mango release organizes information around the person or group people want to interact with, not the app they have to use.
• Threads. Switch between text, Facebook chat, and Windows Live Messenger within the same conversation.
• Groups. Group contacts into personalized Live Tiles to see the latest status updates right from the start screen and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group.
• Deeper social network integration. Twitter and Linked In feeds are now integrated into contact cards, and Mango includes built-in Facebook check-ins and new face detection software that makes it easier to quickly tag photos and post to the Web.
• Linked Inbox. See multiple email accounts in one linked inbox. Conversations are organized to make it easy to stay on top of the latest mail.
• Hands-free messaging. Built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support enables hands-free texting or chatting.
A smarter approach to Apps
Windows Phone will challenge the way people think about apps. Today their usefulness is measured by what can be done within the app, but we see the promise of apps in how they can be integrated directly into the core experiences of the phone. In addition to making it easier to get timely notifications and updates from apps right from the Start Screen, the Mango release will also surface apps as part of search results and within Windows Phone Hubs. As a result, a useful app is more likely to be right there when you need it.
• App Connect. By connecting apps to search results and deepening their integration with Windows Phone Hubs, including Music and Video and Pictures, Mango allows apps to be surfaced when and where they make sense.
• Improved Live Tiles. Get real-time information from apps without having to open them. Live Tiles are more dynamic and can hold more information.
• Multitasking. Quickly switch between apps in use and allow apps to run in the background while helping to preserve battery life and performance.
Internet beyond the browser
In addition to including Internet Explorer, the Mango release will connect the power of the Web to the unique capabilities of your phone, such as location awareness, camera and access to apps, to present a new way of viewing the Web that is more localized, actionable and relevant.
• Internet Explorer 9. A browser based on the powerful IE9 and including support for HTLM5 and full hardware acceleration.
• Local Scout. Provides hyper-local search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy- to-use guide.
• Bing on Windows Phone. More ways to search the Web, including Bing Vision, Music Search and Voice so it’s easy to discover and decide.
• Quick Cards. When searching for a product, movie, event or place see a quick summary of relevant information, including related apps.