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Windows Phone Mango’s here, and it’s a particularly juicy piece of fruit. But aside from the new features (both cool and catchup), one stands out: search. Windows Phones will rattle off information like a friend, not a cyborg. More »

Microsoft mobile-products chief Andy Lees introduces the Windows Phone 7 "Mango" update at an event in New York on Tuesday.  Photo: Sam Gustin/Wired.com

NEW YORK — Microsoft previewed new features in its upcoming software update for Windows Phone 7 here Tuesday. Code-named “Mango,” the update focuses on streamlining different forms of wireless communication.

Microsoft highlighted the “People” hub in Mango, an all-in-one contacts list with tight Facebook integration that allows users to text, call, e-mail, IM or tweet at people on their contacts list.

Microsoft’s sales pitch: By making it easier to contact friends and family in the People hub, customers can spend less time fiddling with apps and get straight to communicating. In other words, it’s the less-antisocial smartphone.

“We wanted to provide the customer with less clutter, more clarity,” said Andy Lees, president of Microsoft’s mobile-communications business at a press conference. “This builds upon our mission to make the smartphone smarter and easier. With Windows Phone Mango, we’re taking a people-centric approach to communications.”

Other new features Microsoft previously announced for Mango were multitasking, copy-and-paste and multimedia messaging.

Microsoft has been searching for a path forward in the mobile space, lest it fall further behind Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system, which have surged to a lead in the booming smartphone market. The company originally launched Windows Phone 7 in November 2010 on handsets built by manufacturers including HTC, Samsung and LG.

In order to differentiate itself from the likes of Apple and Google, Microsoft officials said the company is pursuing a strategy that seeks to integrate mobile applications with the operating system.

The new software emphasizes tight integration with Facebook, of which Microsoft is a minority owner; Bing, Redmond’s search engine; and Skype, the web-telephony pioneer Microsoft recently purchased for $8.5 billion.

“Think of your applications as musical instruments,” Lees said. “With Mango, they finally become part of an orchestra, with a conductor. With Windows Phone 7, applications are alive as part of the total experience.”

Mango will be available for Windows Phone 7 customers as a free update beginning this fall, Lees said, adding that the software is already live on not-yet-public handsets built by Nokia.

Microsoft is releasing the API immediately, to allow developers to create applications for the software.

We’d heard some rumblings ST-Ericsson might be moving in on its turf with Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, but Qualcomm has now reasserted that it’s still the main game in town. Following the big Mango announcement this morning, Qualcomm confirmed that Microsoft has chosen it to bring a “new generation of Windows Phone handsets exclusively featuring Qualcomm’s second generation Snapdragon mobile processors to market.” The company’s executive vice president, Steve Mollenkopf, further went on to say that Qualcomm is “excited about this next Windows Phone Mango release,” and that it will “leverage the synergy of our highly integrated second generation Snapdragon solution and Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.” Leveraging synergy, what more could you ask for?

Qualcomm confirms its Snapdragon processor will power ‘new generation of Windows Phone’ devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone’s latest iteration (codename Mango) is all about keeping it in the hood. We had a chance to sit down with a Windows Phone rep before today’s big reveal, and they let us in on a couple of new features that will most definitely set the OS apart — at least when it comes to navigating the tangled web that is the internet. We did get a quick glimpse at IE9, but the new browser isn’t much of a game changer — it supports HTML5, but still won’t deliver Flash or Silverlight compatibility. The real news here is in the Bing-powered search function, which lets users surf the vast expanses of the web four different ways, with a focus on the local.

Clicking the dedicated search button from the Windows Phone home screen takes you to a familiar Bing page, offering the visual, audio, and voice options we heard rumored earlier this month, along with a city scape icon. That skyline represents Local Scout, a function that focuses your queries on the neighborhood you’re in, providing location-specific results that highlight important information about establishments and events in your immediate area. Clicking through on any link brings up general information as well as reviews gleaned from popular user-generated sites. That’s not all that’s new, however, as Mango also offers some nifty tricks in its visual search. Instead of just snapping a barcode, you can actually use a shot of the product itself to bring up information about pricing, availability, and relevant apps.

The demo we saw used the cover of The Girl Who Played With Fire, and supplied among the search results a link to the title in the Kindle app. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking technology — Google Goggles does much the same thing — but what’s truly different here is the tight integration of such functions in the operating system, as well as links to outside applications. Thus, the experience is a bit unlike any other in the OS atmosphere, upending our idea of what it means to search the internets without resorting to standalone programs. Whether it’s something users will take to is anybody’s guess, but we’re certain it’s enough to get folks talking. For a deeper (and very vertical) look at Local Scout, hop on past the break.

Continue reading Windows Phone ‘Mango’ search offers location-specific results, app integration (video)

Windows Phone ‘Mango’ search offers location-specific results, app integration (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mango may no longer be a secret in and of itself, but we doubt Microsoft would’ve set up an entire event to preview its big Windows Phone update if there was nothing hidden up that Redmond sleeve. To that end, we’ve just come across an official press release from the company, released on its Romanian website. The machine translation awaits after the break.

Update: We’ve now swapped in the natively English press release. There’s also confirmation that Mango will indeed be known as Windows Phone 7.1.

Update 2: Turns out Microsoft “had to give [the SDK] a name” and dubbed it 7.1, so Mango retains its formal WP7 moniker.

The first thing to note is that the update will be “freely available” to all current Windows Phone handsets, something Microsoft already committed to, and will be ready for download “at the beginning of this summer.” (Update: it looks like our translation machinery betrayed us, tipsters are saying it’s actually the beginning of autumn.) Naturally, the new goodness will also figure in new devices and from new partners, including Acer, Fujitsu, and ZTE. Those fresh faces join Nokia and the incumbent partners of Dell (maybe) HTC, Samsung, and LG to expand the WP ecosystem.

A Beta SDK of the new Windows Phone free tools will be available within 24 hours, we’re promised, for developers to sink their teeth into.

In the communications department, Microsoft is introducing conversation threads, which seamlessly transition between MSN Messenger chats, SMS, and Facebook messaging to keep you talking to the same person irrespective of the method. New contact group tiles are also incoming, with the ability to send quick emails or IMs to entire groups. Twitter and LinkedIn contact integration is mentioned, though we expect this go a lot deeper in Twitter’s case, as Microsoft has already demonstrated. Speaking of more in-depth integration, Microsoft has improved the Live Tiles to allow the display of more dynamic information from apps, which will of course be able to multitask beautifully. Internet Explorer 9 is also joining in on the Mango fun with support for HTML5. Jump past the break for all the details.

Update 3: Would you look at that, Bing search has gotten a thorough sprucing up as well. Video of all the new goodness follows after the break — or you can click here to hit up Microsoft’s own video library, which is loaded to the gills with feature overviews.

Continue reading Microsoft announces Windows Phone ‘Mango’ update, coming in autumn (updated)

Microsoft announces Windows Phone ‘Mango’ update, coming in autumn (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 09:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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