Windows Phone 7.5 Mango brings new life to Windows Phone
Bluetooth 28 Sep 2011
It has been months since we received the NoDo update which didn’t impress us. Just 1 hour ago, I received a notification to update it to the Wp 7.5 (Mango). I hook up my HTC trophy 7 and update it through Zune downloading the massive update via internet.
Once the update is done, you will be greeted with a RED colour Windows Logo. In split seconds you will be greeted with the usual tiles screen somewhat with a updated font.
A flip to the right shows us the applications tha are previously installed. I notice the slight change in layout. It now includes a search app option and the apps are now arranged just the way the phone book is, categorising them under alphabetical order.
Asian users have always been concerned about the Asian language support. Wp7.5 didn’t forget about this part of the world. Although display language and menus are still restricted to 5 European languages, input methods include Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The Chinese language includes handwriting too.
The popular mobile messaging application WhatsApp is now available in the Marketplace for downloading. This cross platform tool allows free “sms” to other platform users on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. It it definitely a great tool to have on the Windows Platform. Unfortunately, SKYPE is still not available on this platform.
A check on the HTC Apps in Marketplace, I discovered 2 new apps, one is Locations and the other is Connected Media.
Locations is for you to save your favourite location with photos, voice and notes. You can also share it with friends. The second is Connected Media. It is software that allows you to view photos and play music or video stored on media servers. you can also send media from your device to networked media players such as TV or Set top boxes.
In settings, you will also find a new item “background tasks” which list the apps that can continue to run in the background.
The new IE is refreshing too. The default screen appears in full screen with the URL bar relocated to the bottom of the screen.
So far, after 30 minutes of running on this new update, I wouldn’t find 500 updates but have found most of the improvements I wanted. One of the disappointment is the menu screen which is still not configurable to other Asian languages. The other feature that is missing is Tethering. According to our PR contact, the Tethering feature will be added on in another update (with no dates specified). Well, I can live with it so long there is WhatsApp.
WP7.5 is a leap ahead for Microsoft that is long overdued. The next apps that will make Windows Phone 7.5 more complete would be SKYPE, banking applications.
So have you installed yours ? Post your comments at the end of the post.
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