Windows Phone 7 Mango : 7 New Features, Demo Video

I have a feeling Windows Phone 7 will be really hot next year (I mean, Nokia's gonna carry the OS. If the goal is to make the platform 'popular', how can you go wrong with that?), so we might as well start to familiarize ourselves with its neat features as early as now.



Last night, 'Mango', the latest build of Microsoft's mobile OS was finally unveiled in a preview event in New York. Mango comes seven months after the release of the first batch of Windows Phone 7 smartphones, which were praised by geeks but failed to actually captivate the public.

The update will come as a free download to existing WP7 handsets and will ship on new phones in Q3 from companies like HTC, LG, Samsung and even new ones including Acer, ZTE and Fujitsu. Next year, Mango will be available via new WP7 phones from Microsoft's biggest mobile partner, Nokia.

Here's Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Windows Phone, showing off some of the new features of Mango --



Here are 7 fresh features that we can expect to see in this update;

1. Better browsing experience with mobile version of IE9 and HTML5 rendering capabilities
2. Local Scout location-aware search letting users know what's hot and happening wherever they are
3. Bing Vision product searching and App Connect, which I think is just an improved version of Google Goggles
4. Multitasking with new card interface similar to what we see on WebOS
5. Better email experience with threads and combined inbox for multiple accounts
6. Grouping social networking contacts
7. Unified threads for Facebook Chat, SMS and LIVE Messenger

I'm on iOS, Android, Symbian^3, BlackBerry OS and Maemo. I must admit I haven't actually had the chance to play with a WP7 device extensively. Off hand though, the demos look great. So yeah, I'm greatly looking forward to also owning a Mango phone soon.