As part of the official Mango unveil today, Microsoft released a pretty flashy promo video for Windows Phone 7 that showcases some of the new features coming to the next update including but not limited to threads, groups, multitasking, IE9 and Local Scout.
It’s worth noting there are still many improvements in Mango not demonstrated in the video, including the subtle addition of “predictive phrases” to the touch keyboard (ex. “happy b” will show “happy birthday”). Voice-to-SMS and SMS-to-text is another new feature that should be an instant hit with daily driving commuters.
Even though Ballmer’s “500 new features” is most likely an exaggeration and there’s still many highly-requested features not addressed (notably, tethering), Mango is shaping up to be a fairly solid update, a release that should make much more impact on market share than the original release.
Mango is scheduled for the beginning of “fall” which in real terms should be around September. Fortunately that gives users a few weeks to enjoy it before the postponed apocalypse in October.
Well the guy did reiterate that there are over 500 features and they will be showing them until release. I believe this is meant to keep buzz and also so that when iOS5 is revealed that they still have more things to show.
“This video contains SME content and is not available in your country.”
If that is an official video: FAIL!
Some of the features are very exciting. For me these days recieving the actual update is actually the least exciting part of the experience. It’s the hype leading up to it and the excitment of the new features that keeps me going. I found that as soon as I had copy and paste, I was just longing for Mango.
My biggest concern is, STILL no mention of Zune Music or Bing Local in Australia. This is a major problem and I hope it’s announced later today or soon. It’s really bugging me that it’s been so long and still two of the most basic features of the operating system are missing in Australia. These are the only things I miss from my iPhone. Please Microsoft Australia – fix this!!
What phone is that?! It looks like a real phone, either a Samsung or a Nokia phone!
@Sionic – I suggested the phone looked familiar to the Nokia mockups, on twitter yesterday but two people replied saying no it doesn’t 🙂
I still think the phone used in this sizzle reel looks very similar to the Nokia mockups http://twitpic.com/525pnv (with the top speaker moved to a central location)