Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

I was eager to watch the Windows Phone 7.1 (Mango) Webcast, and I figured taking point-form notes would be a great way to share with all of you what Microsoft presented. Here we go:

• Seven months ago, Windows Phone was launched
• Everything is people centric on Windows Phone; Mango ups the ante
• Twitter and LinkedIn now added into the mix
• They added photo albums via a pivot on the person
• Call History is sorted by person, including visual voicemails
• Groups: you can mirror your real-life relationships on the phone. This feature looks killer! It filters all your social networks just for those people, including photos that are tagged with those people. Group email, group texts - Microsoft didn't want to take a proprietary approach like Blackberry Messenger; they used Windows Live and Facebook Chat instead.

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"REDMOND, Wash. - May 24, 2011 - Microsoft Corp. today previewed the next major release of Windows Phone, code-named "Mango," through a series of media events around the world. "Mango" will deliver more than 500 new features to push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet. The "Mango" release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall. More details on device update timing will be provided closer to availability. Windows Phone will also add support for additional languages, expand access to apps by launching Windows Phone Marketplace in new countries, and partner with new OEMs to enable expansion to new markets."

Windows Phone 7.1, better known by it's code-name Mango, is big. Really, really big. Seven months after the initial launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is announcing the next big wave of features - and, frankly, dubbing it a .1 release is under-selling how big this really is. Read, watch, and sound off on what you think about what Microsoft is bringing to the table.

Check out the Webcast (I'm watching it now). The remainder of the press release is after the break. Read more...

"The idea behind Pioneer was to breathe a culture of innovation into the all-too-often stolid company. As it's grown, Microsoft has become increasingly bureaucratic, a place where creativity could often be crushed under a mountain of meetings and dependencies on other Microsoft products."

Although today is a huge day for Windows Phone, let's take a moment to mourn the loss of one of the most innovative labs at Microsoft. Pioneer Studios, first opened up by J Allard (the executive behind the Xbox), had the mission of innovating and creating products that could help Microsoft compete against competitors such as Apple. The dual-screen courier was the most famous and sought-after product to ever be announced, but unfortunately the product was scrapped before it ever hit the light of day. The studio was involved in much more than just the Courier, having lent their skills in the development of Windows Phone 7, Zune, and the failed Kin. Although the studio is closing, let's hope that the employees and their ideas persist and find their way into other Microsoft products.

"Toshl is an app and that makes managing expenses fun and effortless. Noting an expense is quicker than a shooting star. Simply enter the price, tap the right tag for your purchase and save. Best of all, it can seamlessly sync to the cloud and give you beautiful infographics about your own money."

I like finance apps - there's always been one on my various late lamented Windows Mobile devices. Better yet, Toshl is free, though if you need more advanced features the developers offer a Pro version for $19.95. Some might not like the cloud saving feature even if communications are SSL encrypted, though given how much of our lives are out there now I don't know if one more point of contact makes a difference. Set against that, all your data would be available through the Toshl website.

"In recent hours two more possible changes have surfaced for the ‘Mango' update to Windows Phone 7. First up, it was leaked via Twitter, that Mango will include a ‘Linked Inbox' capability, which is rumored to be an improvement over the universal inbox technique used by Apple with the iPhone."

A New Zealand media teaser image for Windows Phone Mango shows how the Linked Inbox and People Hub live tiles will appear when Mango hits phones later this year. The Linked Inbox feature is Microsoft's answer to Apple's universal inbox. Where the Linked Inbox differs from Apple's implementation is the user can designate which email accounts is to be aggregated into the Linked Inbox versus an all or nothing approach. Also shown in the press image is the People Hub's live tile which now pulls pictures from additional sources and is able to display different size images.

"While there are a wide range of new features in Mango that you'll hear more about in the coming weeks and months, at TechEd we're highlighting a number of new capabilities designed to help you stay productive on the go...Mango is designed to make you even more productive right out-of-the-box - helping you quickly and easily stay connected with the people and information that are most important to you."

There are enough nice improvements that Mango does deserve the .5 release number. Including the email conversation view you see above, there's going to be integration with Office 365 and Windows Live Sky Drive, pinnable email folders, server search, Microsoft's new Lync service, and a bunch of under-the-hood improvements to make WP7 more amenable for corporate IT departments to manage.

"The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 is designed to make it easier for you to build mobile applications that leverage cloud services running in Windows Azure. The toolkit includes Visual Studio project templates for Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure, class libraries optimized for use on the phone, sample applications, and documentation."

For those developers looking for a way to transition your app to the cloud, look no further than the Windows Phone Azure Toolkit. The toolkit provides developers with all the information and sample code necessary to provide their app with online services and storage. Better yet, those looking to try out the platform can try Azure for free for 30 days without using a credit card. This looks like a promising solution for those not wanting to create/maintain their own dedicated server.

"In a surprising approval by Microsoft, TapSplosion 2.0 just became available in the Marketplace. Why surprising? The developer wanted to add a bunch of Achievements to the game but was worried Microsoft may consider that term 'exclusive' for Xbox Live titles--which is not too far fetched--and deny approval."

The surprising part of the approval is the use of the word "Achievements" in the game description, where it reads, "TapSplosioin is the game that the Windows Phone 7 platform has been waiting for, and now it's even better with Achievements!"

There was concern that the use of the term might not be seen as generic. After all, Achievements are normally associated with XBOX LIVE titles. So a customer might expect that these Achievements would show up on XBOX LIVE. But they don't.

I think it's great that there is some sort of achievement system in a 3rd party game. But would you find this confusing?

"Attending TechEd 2011 in Atlanta? Why not check out the WP7 hackathon which will be hosted at the Omni Hotel on May 16th for 5 hours?"

If you're in the area and want to learn more about what makes Windows Phone tick, consider going to the Windows Phone Unleashed Hackathon. It is from 6:00pm to 11:00pm, so it shouldn't conflict with the things you're doing at Tech Ed. And you'll get the chance to learn "hands on" from expert developers.

They are only accepting 300 attendees, so sign up quickly here: Hackathon

"Looks like another big name app has made it to the Marketplace. The USA Today official app is now available, for free of course."

Another official app is now available in the Marketplace... USA Today. Available sections are: Headlines, Scores, Weather, Pictures and USA Today snapshots. The USA Today app is free and available now in the Marketplace.

"This tool has been tested by Brandon and his team and I have approval to release it to users for use."

The title basically says it all. If your phone is "Walshed," click the read link and apply the fix. As stated, "This tool will repair your Windows Phone device, re-enabling official update compatibility."

Although Microsoft previously announced that the Mango developer tools would be released in May, the actual release is now rumored to coincide with the VIP Preview we previously reported on. The developer tools will bring hardware access to the camera and accelerometer, as well as the phone's contacts and calendar. Hopefully this rumor turns out to be true, as a developer release of the tools would indicate that Microsoft is on schedule with regards to the update.

"Singhal's official title is program manager on the Windows Phone engineering team. Unofficially, she's the "queen of copy and paste," as some of her co-workers good-naturedly call her. It was Singhal who led the team that created this feature, the highlight of the March update."

Priyanka Singhal is a Program Manager on the Windows Phone engineering team. You may not have heard of her, but, I bet you probably have heard of the feature she was in charge of. It is one of the more prominent feature of the March NoDo update if not the most. Yep, 'Cut and Paste.'

Michael Stroh from the windowsteamblog just posted his interview with Priyanka regarding 'Cut and Paste.' He posed the following 10 questions to Priyanka:

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"Kalezo has released London Bikes over at the Windows Phone Marketplace that helps you find the nearest bike station in the London area...London Bikes utilizes your Windows Phone locations services and Bing Maps to where the available stations are located, mark stations as your favourite, as well as turn by turn directions to your station of choice."

Cool, I wish I had technology like this during my student days. If you've ever had the misfortune of trying to drive around London, you'll know how useful alternative transportation is. London Bikes is a free application and is available in the Marketplace now.

"APPA Mundi Tasks is an advanced Task manager application which synchronizes with your Exchange Server mailbox to make your task list available on the move."

As the poll I published earlier this week shows, there's a large majority of users who need Tasks support on Windows Phone 7 - it just so happens that the developer of APPA Mundi Tasks posted in that thread letting us know about his product, so here I am sharing it with all of you. It even syncs with Exchange! If you've been looking for a Tasks solution, try this out and let me know how it works.

"Microsoft has announced that the latest version of Windows Phone 7 will be released in a ‘VIP Preview' event on May 24th, in NYC."

Microsoft is set to give a 'VIP Preview' of the upcoming version of their Windows Phone operating system on May 24th in New York City. This upcoming version is believed to include Bing voice turn-by-turn navigation, IE9, Skype support and multitasking.

Developers on all platforms often complain about the confusing and often frustrating app submission processes. Often, apps will be denied from publishing for no apparent reason. Growing the number of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace is a priority for Microsoft, so constantly updating and streamlining this process is definitely in their best interest. The most recent version of the certification requirements looks to further improve the submission process, by clarifying the content policies and technical requirements for approval. There are also additional testing steps that will help developers conduct in-house application testing to help improve pass rates. Hit the link for more information about the changes, and keep working on those apps!

"On the Windows Phone Developer Podcast, a plethora of new features were announced that will really bring Windows Phone up to par with the competition..."

I wouldn't consider things settled yet, but there's some real nice additional functionality that's coming our way with the Mango update. Along with real GPS navigation, we're going to get Bing Audio and Bing Vision, as well as Voice to Text SMS. How much of this will actually make it to all markets is still an open question, since Marketplace hasn't been fully rolled out either. But its encouraging to see the progress Microsoft is making towards a truly competitive mobile OS.

"Chris Walsh was fast to comment on it and have warned users that.. this "may" give you 7392. But this can also cause other issues if you install language packs that aren't supposed to be on your device. So I'd hold off on using this"

Ahodes on xda-developers recently posted a possible fix for Samsung Focus devices that were updated via the Walsh method. Ahodes' fix has to do with installing language packs into the phone that he believes should have been installed but were not when devices were updated via the Walsh method.

However, Chris has just issued his opinion on Ahodes' possible fix and believes that there may be undesired side effects to installing language packs that aren't supposed to be on the device. He recommends holding off on using the Ahodes fix and instead wait for his fix that Microsoft is said to be validating.

As Saijo George stated in his post on 1800pocketpc, I too would recommend waiting until Microsoft's validation before applying any sort of fix on Walshed phones. It is great to see that there are many developers working on a possible fix. I'm sure it will all be figured out soon enough.

"The Windows Phone Nodo Update may have created a image scaling bug with OneNote. Images look clean and crisp when viewed from a computer but after being synced to OneNote, the note becomes distorted, washed out and pixelated."

This is a curious bug, considering Windows Phone has been pretty good and snappy when scaling images and text from within a browser. So we could assume that it's not related to the hardware.

Hit up the link for more information. Then let us know if you're experiencing the same, or similar, issues.