keith.kg

Nice to see the iPhone catching up with WP7

The current Windows Phone 7 update already includes audio messaging (Siri), Skydrive (iCloud), Microsoft Office 2010, Xbox Live Integration, Facebook Chat integrated in Messages and (HTML5 Browser) Internet Explorer 9. 

A full (and impartial) comparison of Apple iOS 5, Windows Phone Mango and Android is available at Into Mobile…

Windows Phone Mango Update

Finally managed to get Zune to upgrade my phone with the Mango Update or Windows Phone 7.5. Once Zune picked-up the update it took about an hour to download, back-up and install. 

People Hub

After the install I had to set-up Twitter and Linked in accounts. These are now integrated into the People hub which means checking that all your contacts are linked to their additional accounts, most were updated automatically. Another useful feature in the People hub is the ability to create groups - which like contacts can be added to the start menu and can help with sending group messages/emails. Unfortunatly it doesn’t automatically pull your groups from Facebook. 

Messaging Hub

The messaging hub has also been given a refresh. Most noticeably the message tiles are now two tone one shade for the contact another for your messages. A single thread can now include messages from Text, MMS, Windows Live Messenger and Facebook Messenger keeping everything in one place. 

Internet Explorer 9

The default web browser has been updated to IE9 which is much smoother than it’s predecessor and includes support for hardware-accelerated graphics and a new JavaScript engine. 

Other new features

• Battery Saver which lets Windows Phone turn off features to help preserve battery life. 
• Local Scout helps you discover places and activities around your location. 
• Multitasking makes it easy to switch between apps and not just back like before. 

There’s probably more but I just haven’t found them yet.