Hi! I’m in New York this morning to learn more about the next version of Windows Phone, codenamed “Mango.” Microsoft is hosting a live press conference starting at 10 am ET (7 am PT), so stay tuned for live updates here. Newest entries will be at the bottom.
8:07 am – I’m at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, where the event is being held, in lower Manhattan.
9:36 am – First new feature spotted on promo billboard: Linked Inbox tile.
9:50 am – PocketNow reports that the full Mango feature list has leaked! So, what’s new? LinkedIn integration. Hands-free messaging (voice). Local Scout. New partners: Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE. New Mango dev tools with 24 hours.
10:00 am OK, live notes time.
Andy Lees, president WP division
new perspective
phones as app launchers – crowded market
sea of icons
new mission
smarter, easier
do more, have more fun
Consumer at center, not OS – complete exps
delightful UI, fewer steps, and designed to be easier to use
provide cust with less clutter, more clarity
new approach to ecosystem – optimize how hw, sw worked together
touch, hw and sw works well to type quickly and easily
devs with rich platform – perf and battery life
data sync –efficient
innovation and choice, no fragmentation
Major release now – Mango
smarter and easier – 3 main things from their phone
1, connect and share with family, friends, colleagues
2, rich apps, do more
3, harness power of internet from palm of hand
Communications
phone was all about phone calls. Today, more forms of comm. capture memories. phone to PC and even to TV. problem: Phones only included very basic comms. everything else is an app. hunk and peck to comm and share. missing the moment.
mango: ppl centric approach to comms.
how it works: Demo with Derek Snyder, Snr Product Mgr
phone with pre-release version of Mango
new Personal Email icon for mail. linked inbox.
home screen improved – more info on live tiles notifications pushed into the tiles
People hub – windows live and FB in 1.0 – now twitter and linkedin as well – new Pictures column for contact in the People hub – history column with IMs, email, visual voice mails, calls
New feature: Groups. Mirror real life relationships on phone. Family. Friends, whatever.
Go into Groups, see Group column with live tiles, What’s New (feeds filtered), Pictures columns
Group communications with email, but also with Text+Chat (SMS, Messenger) – plug into the services you and friends are already using. Facebook Chat and Messenger out of the box. Predicting words new to virtual keyboard – much faster and intuitive typing experience.
Pin group to the home screen.
New feature: Threads. weave together all communications. No matter what transport. Facebook conversations. Texting. Messenger. All in one place.
Email communication. Not all or nothing. Link two or more inboxes.
Conversation view as in desktop version of Outlook. Enterprise features like IRM (Information Rights Management). Previously disclosed at TechEd.
Link things that should be linked: Email and calendar. Get email meeting invite, tap, go to calendar to place in time where the request is from. Adding facebook events to the calendar as well. (NEW)
When your phone is out of reach. You are playing music. Text message comes in. Phone tells you with voice. Read it. Reads the message to you. Say reply, call, or I’m done. “Reply.” say it. It transcribes (“thinking…”). Send or Try Again. And then the music comes back. Completely hands free.
Demo over. Andy lees back.
People at the center, not apps – No apps were used in that demo
Kind of recapping previous section I guess
With mango, the message always gets through
Applications
extends what you can do on the phone
platform enhancements – multitasking for new types of apps, games
go one step further – smarter approach to apps
on other phones, apps are silos. Grid of icons, sea of apps.
2 problems. Those apps don’t integrate into the phone experience. Just a bunch of apps.
Info in those apps is locked up. Launch it to see what’s going on
with Mango, apps are alive as part of the total experience
upgraded all the hubs in WP, even the apps on the phone like Office with new versions of the Office apps
Demo 2 – Derek – Apps
Hubs enhancements
Pictures – people centric experience. Facebook does auto face detection on upload, for tagging
Office hub – SkyDrive and Office 365 integration – a “new” Phone location for on-device docs. Nice new tile-like documents grid. Full Office document fidelity while viewing, editing. Multi-cell highlight with Auto Sum (also a TechEd demo).
Games hub – “Xbox LIVE hub” – completely redesigned – cleaner looking with redesigned Collection column. Collectables for your avatar, who is now 3D and animated as on the 360.
Play a game, something else happens, want to get back into game. Fast App Resume. Intelligent multitasking with no effect on battery life and perf. Hydrate and rehydrate apps. Press and hold back button for a list of available apps. Cards-like UI.
Social game experiences. Friends who are online. Recent games, comparisons.
Platform for developers to build on. British Airways demo app. Notifications for flights exposed as live tile. Built into app experience. new thing for mango. (This is from MIX.) Boarding pass in the app can be scanned at the check-in kiosk.
App Shortcutting – the new feature.
Demo done – AL back, recapping again – Smarter apps/games and multitasking, live tiles and app shortcuts, Enhanced hubs
Internet on the phone – IE 9
leading desktop browser with hardware acceleration of HTML 5 – on mango, not just similar, it is exactly the same. great for consumers. Great for web developers.
but went one step further
tailor the internet to the palm of your hand
blue links today
Now, Bing deeply integrated – find, decide, take action
location, sensors, social, and apps. Bring the internet to you in Quick Cards
blur the line between searching the net and finding apps
Derek back for demo
Phone comparison – Blackberry, iPhone, Droid Charge, WP Mango
load HTML 5 speed test – performance test. We saw this at MIX too. WP 7 first. iPhone never even really started rendering, came in dead last
app-like experience with the web
Bing
Not an app on Windows Phone, an integrated experience
upgraded for Mango – location info, new icons
see a movie? Search box – suggestions – Web, Local, Images pivots in the results
Tap on showtime, go to Quick Card for the movie – not a separate web site
App Connect – lets WP apps link into Bing Search results, like IMDB for a movie search
blurs the line between apps and internet search
Search for restaurant – Local, Images, Web pivots – starts on local this time – Reviews and ratings from multiple services, About (now with neighborhood link…..)
Goes to Local Scout. Information about the neighborhood. Highlights, See + Do, Shop, Favorites
Indoor maps for malls and other public locations, shown in Bing Maps
Use sensors to start a search. Text search, voice, and now Bing Vision. Tap the Eye icon in Bing, for Visual Search. Scan cover of book or bar code using phone camera. Go from there. Connect with Apps: Best Buy, Kindle, Amazon.com
Demo done (and apparently the last demo)
Lees wrap-up – IE 9, internet beyond the browser, Quick Cards, Local Scout, App Connect
A lot more
Over 500 new features – going through in more depth over the coming weeks
Very big release
worth waiting for
not going to make you wait
Fall – less than 12 months since WP7 launch
free upgrade
Set out to make smart phone smarter and easier
need for vibrant ecosystem – devs, service providers, operators, hardware makers
momentum
Mango – significant acceleration
today, over 18,000 apps
Today, mango tools available so devs can write new apps
Services – help users do new things on the phone
core services built in, enhanced in Mango
Operators – they do more than give connectivity, sell phones. Add value with software and services. Supporting more geographies. New partners we’ll be announcing. More languages. More services in more countries. Lower cost phones. Market 4x for Mango than for WP7.
Handset makers – Samsung, LG, HTC for v1. All with new phones for Mango. More differentiation, including 4G phones (NEW)
New – Acer, Fujitsu, ZTE
Also, Nokia – Scale and innovation. WP Mango will be the release for the first Nokia Windows Phones. In labs today. For the ecosystem, the stars are aligning. Mango is a tipping point of opportunity.
we’re 7 months in
Next chapter is significant release codenamed Mango
focus -what people want to do most taken to the next level
You haven’t seen anything yet
cue awkwardly loud music video demo
… And we’re done. No Q & A apparently. I assume
Windows Phone Secrets 
Wish I were there.
Thanks for blogging this Paul :)
Paul if they open it up to questions:
When will developers get a chance to make multi-player games over live or wifi?
I really hope they make mango available to us developers ASAP and that they have better support from cell companies. For example Verizons droid does I think was the main reason google is at the top now. We need a carrier that supports windows phones. For example I went with a friend to the ATT store and ask for a windows phone and they wanted to sell us an iphone or google phone. They claim it was a better phone and knew what we wanted; the sells person was trying to sell us something else.
Paul, please see if you can find out if mango will support multiple exchange calendars.
I know you’ve been using a single gmail calendar since iPhone first added support for exchange active sync, but this is a big deal for a lot of people and I’m afraid it will not be one of the talked about features today.
I’m not sure what you mean multiple exchange calendars…I’ve got a WP7 and have multiple exchange calendars–in other words, when I click on calendar on my phone ALL of my appointments from ALL of my exchange accounts show up on it, in a different color. Is that what you mean?
Yes, you can display calendars from multiple accounts.
However, you cannot display 2 exchange calendars from the same account, instead WP7 will only display your “Default” Calendar.
In Hotmail I have 3 calendars, I have a default calendar, I also have a shared calendar with my wife, and a seperate birthday calendar of my friends and family.
I also have 3 calendars in my corporate exchange email account.
But WP7 only displays the Default Calendar for each account. This is a known limitation of WP7 that iPhone, and Android do not have.
I think he means I have 3 Calendars in my single Exchange mailbox. I would like them all on my phone in different colors. I would also like to know the answer to this question.
Annoyed that Microsoft PR releases media statements about the mango event before the actual event.
Come on guys, that fails Marketing 101.
Looks like it’s been MS Romania that sprung the leak early this time…I’d guess they didn’t adjust for daylight savings properly so posted an hour early. Pocketnow has it translated – http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/windows-phone-7-mango-features-fully-revealed
Apparently a couple of site are reporting that mango is coming this summer.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/microsoft-announces-windows-phone-mango-update-early-and-in/
I think that maybe false and its coming this summer as a beta for developers instead and for general public later. I guess it could be done in code this summer but it could take until November for all users to get it. Either way since I am a developer I hope I get it soon.
Still no link to the live stream in the WP Newsroom >:-|
OK, Microsoft.. Time to wow us with some Mango lovin’.
I noticed a lot of blogs and tech shows that normally cover live events like this are sitting out on the Mango news… it’s a pity, but I’m used to it now.
There is a group of core users who have believed in this smartphone OS and the Metro interface from the very beginning. I’m (still) proud to be one of them.
Hit it out of the ballpark for all of us, MS.
– Mike
Anyone else having problems loading the stream? It’s taken 15 minutes to get the “starting bar” to 60%.
Shame MS couldn’t get the Live Stream working as I wanted to watch it live, there are however a least a lot of videos up on http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/videogallery.aspx to keep our eyeballs occupied with moving pictures in amoungst Paul’s updates ;-)
Finally got into Live stream 25mins in. All looking very impressive, just hope most of this is available outside of the US this time…?
Will we be able to set our own personal ringtones on the “phone” now? ;-)
Dell noticeably absent from Hardware Maker chart.
Alright, whoever at Microsoft decided it was a good idea for the speaker to say “You won’t have to wait for Mango” and then follow it up with saying it’ll be released in the fall, deserves to be punched in the throat. I know I’m not the most patient person in the world but I’m pretty sure 4 months or more qualifies as “waiting”.
Yep. On the other hand, the schedule has been moved up a bit. Previously, it was “by the end of the year.” Now it’s within one year of the original release, so by September or October or the latest. It’s not like they were releasing Mango in June.
Oh yeah, I’m happy as hell with the prospect of getting the update sooner than expected (please AT&T don’t be so…..AT&T-like this time). I was just annoyed by the wording. Just an extra word or two makes it an acceptable sentence. “You won’t have to wait long for Mango” or something like that. Saying “you won’t have to wait” implies it’s coming now or very soon. Enough ranting. I’m still incredibly excited for this update.
Also I haven’t looked so sorry if you’ve posted already but Microsoft has a bunch of videos for Mango up on a youtube channel. http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-mango-demo-by-joe-belfiorevideo/ The first shows a pretty cool Best Buy app.
Don’t even pay attention to any of those dates. Fall? C’mon, we know better. Don’t even get your hopes up, because your phone might be the ‘odd duck’ that never sees an update. Like my ‘variant’ Focus. :)
Last day of “Fall 2011” is December 21st, so it could still be a long way off. Anyone think the carriers are just going to push this out to existing devices without a fight? Is MS going to put any pressure on the carriers? Yeah, we’ll see about that.
I know it has already been mentioned, but… IRM is in Mango, but not device encryption and full EAS policies support? IRM support is a business-oriented feature, but how many businesses are really asking for IRM and NOT for encryption?
Paul, please press them on this. IRM without AND before encryption is just maddening for businesses wanting to support WP7 but can’t without full EAS policies support–something their competitors offer.
Looks like some pretty cool features.
Did they show if the phone saves camera settings in Mango?
No. I did ask about multiple calendars within the same source (i.e. you have multiple calendars in Google Calendar). Still not supported.
Thanks for asking for me Paul.
I should have expected that answer. I just can’t believe they didn’t want to fix supporting multiple exchange calendars.
500 new features where more important?
Geez, will they ever catch up to Apple and Google with support for their own protocal?
Odd, I don’t see any big headlines on CNN.com, I’m shocked.
Ok.. looks like it’s feature complete… I really hope there will be some skype niceties in Mango also by release time. With all the leaks we got for the past 3 weeks… what was really new Paul? I don’t want to read about the “old” features anymore… :)
Any new features, I guess we’ll have to wait for the “Guava”- or whatever fruit they’ll call it- release.
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Paul, according to the picture of the Mango phone, a picture of the people tile can cover at least up to 3 tiles. Did you see that too? Any more info on that?
I didn’t see anything like that. Not sure.
Ph. see this link : http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/imagegallery.aspx#channel_contentListTop
(I hope the link works) and look at image 5 (of 188). The one with the start screen… instead of 9 tiles, there where only 3 at that time. I still think that the default 9 will stay, but it looks like an enhancement
:) OK.
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Do we know if Bluetooth A2DP support will be added for video playback?
No. That’s awfully specific. There were no deep-dive feature reveals like that at all.
Neowin reports that multiple calendars are supported: “We were able to confirm that Hotmail birthday calendars are now available, and support for multiple Windows Live calendar subscriptions is now available.”
That’s not the same as “multiple calendar support.” That’s “support for a proprietary calendar feature that’s only in our own product.”
Nice coverage, Paul!
Something I don’t get however: While a few of these features are simply catchup, most of Mango offer levels of integrated services and features that neither iOS or Android come close to (my last phone was a Droid and I do have and iPad 2 in the house). Sure those platform have apps than can do some of these things, but none of them integrate these capabilities on an OS level. Yet, reading the coverage on other outlets, you’d think that iOS and Android already do all of these things and that Mango offers nothing new. It seems to me that they miss the point: WP7, especially with Mango, is about a well integrated usage model and not, as it is with Android and iOS a platform for siloed experiences.
Is there something I am missing?
Yes. There is a big thing there that isn’t happening, and I need to write this up formally. But the short version goes like this:
Microsoft creates this great platform where third party developers can link into hubs and offer users seamless experiences. But let’s say your Flickr, or whatever service. (I’m not beating up Flickr, it’s just popular.) Do you link into these hubs and provide users with an integrated, seamless experience?
No, you create an app. Because an app brands you and your service and attracts new users with your big pretty logo. An integrated service deemphasizes you and your service and makes you just a part of Microsoft’s brand (Windows Phone). So what happens on WP is that if I want to see Flickr pictures, I do it in yet another app and not in the Pictures hub where it should be happening.
Flickr isn’t alone… No one is taking advantage of this functionality, almost literally.
So in Mango (WP v2), Microsoft makes App Connect partially in response to this trend. Now, developers can integrate into search results with … (wait for it) … standalone apps. Not integrated services, mind you. Apps.
So the primary “benefit” of WP becomes mostly theoretical because a) developers are not taking advantage of features Microsoft built and are instead just making apps like on any other platform and b) as users of WP, we’re relegated to using only those services that Microsoft can build into the platform itself; in v1, this was Facebook and Windows Live – v2, they are adding LinkedIn and Twitter. So it’s good stuff, absolutely. But it won’t “win” unless third party developers really embrace this stuff.
It’s like the OS integration features in IE 9. Great stuff, again, but if all the world’s most popular sites don’t embrace this functionality, it may as well never have happened. And if it never takes off, it’s not really an advantage any more, unless you happen to use the services that Microsoft does integrate itself.
This worries me.
Hope Mango fixes the wireless sync issue I’ve been having.. I’m trying to setup a 3rd phone with wireless sync and like the previous two phones I keep getting an error C00D07C9 – the knowledge base article is written for Zune players and not WP7 devices.
Anyone else have this problem with wireless sync?
Also related.. the two phones I managed to setup are hit or miss with the wireless sync.. I plug them both in overnight every night and it sometimes goes for days without ever syncing.
Would be such an awesome feature if only it was more reliable.