Tech Mania

Windows Phone 7 Mango(WP 7.5) update features revealed

Posted: 13 May 2011 04:39 AM PDT

Ryan and Travis Lowdermilk from the Windows Phone Dev Podcast have revealed some new consumer-oriented features that will appear in the next major release of Windows Phone (version 7.5), codenamed Mango. According to the two, Mango will include two new Bing features—Bing Audio and Bing Video—as well as SMS Dictation (spoken text messages), on-device podcast support, and turn-by-turn navigation.

What they quote is

Bing Audio allows you to search for music using your phone … Bing Audio allows users to hold up the phone to a song and identify it. [Similar to how Shazam app works in Android]

Bing Vision will be a search service using the camera. So, you get this one-stop shop to scan barcodes, Microsoft Tags, QR Codes, Books, CD's, DVD's, and even text using OCR. Users could even scan products or images of products. Or, of course, the barcode using the camera.

Turn-by-turn navigation [includes] "voice guidance during driving directions".In addition to this there is On-device podcast support.

SMS Dictation: [In Messages,] at the bottom of the screen on the Application bar is a microphone icon. Under the microphone icon, are the words "Speak".

There is a lot more in the podcast so go check out.In addition to this Microsoft is planning to include Visual Voicemail in Windows Phone 7.5, according to one anonymous leakster.The suggestion comes from the Twitter account @WindowsPhone8. The account has previously announced Mango developer features shortly before Microsoft's official MIX11 conference in April.Microsoft is currently hard at work on "Mango", its next major release of Windows Phone. Microsoft has promised to ship "Mango" later in the year. "Mango" is currently in the early beta stages at Microsoft, built as 7.1 currently.Nokia is also reportedly waiting for the next release of Windows Phone before it unveils its first Windows Phone device.

"Mango" currently contains multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 mobile and Twitter integration. Microsoft unveiled a number of key developer enhancements at its MIX11 conference earlier this month. Developers will have access to the Motion Sensor library and the camera, enabling augmented reality experiences. Phone integration has also been greatly improved for developers wanting to do more with their apps. The Live Tiles functionality has been expanded to give developers more flexibility and engage with their customers better.

Microsoft is expected to reveal a number of key features for Windows Phone 7.5 at a special preview event on May 24.

Windows Phone 7 Mango(WP 7.5) update features revealed is a post from: Tech Mania