RIM gets handed open letter from disgruntled employee, quickly responds in kind

One of the blessings -- and curses -- of this World Wide Web is that it creates a forum for open discussion, where we can communicate anything that our heart desires and feel like someone is listening to us. BGR published an open letter reportedly written by a senior executive at Research in Motion, chastising upper management for its inability to make bold business decisions as it continues to consistently lose market share. The anonymous author listed out several suggestions on how their company could improve its status and work its way back up to the top of the smartphone totem pole. As it turns out, the disgruntled employee was successful in that RIM published a response to the anonymous communication. What exactly were this employee's suggestions, and how did the folks in Waterloo respond? We'll break down the letters after the break.

The open letter, which can be found in its entirety at the source link below, discusses eight recommendations that the anonymous employee feels would help get RIM regain its position at the top of the class. We'd like to break each one down and highlight some of the major points found within.

Focus on the End User experience
We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice - the end user doesn't care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren't hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. The author did the unthinkable thing for a RIM employee to do: admit that Apple is doing something better. Apparently, the author says, there's a method to Cupertino's madness, and it's directly correlated to why RIM is falling behind -- the user experience is simply better. The employee even goes on to recommend that key decision makers use competitors' products as their primary device for a week to understand why one-time "CrackBerry" users are starting to jump ship.

Recruit Senior Software Leaders and enable decision-making

We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren't talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated.

It seems like a lot of RIM's troubles are being caused by a lack of communication among senior-level leadership. Essentially, the author is saying: if everyone is the key decision maker, nobody is. In addition, it's important to recruit leaders that have extensive experience in the industry, insinuating that many in the company's management just don't have the background to cut it.

Cut projects to the bone

We simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren't ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.

This is intriguing; a RIM employee is acknowledging its products are incomplete at the time of shipment, and the brand's hurting as a result. It's not too often we hear something so bold from someone inside this company.

Developers, not Carriers, can now make or break us

There is no polite way to say this, but it's true - BlackBerry smartphone apps suck. Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps.

The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are.

In the US, especially, carriers rule over the OEM with an iron fist, but the author insists that RIM spends way too much time worrying about how it looks to the networks and not focusing on creating the right tools that make the product look good to consumers.

Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire

A product's technical superiority does not equal desire, and therefore sales... How many Linux laptops are getting sold? How did Betamax go? My mother wants an iPad and iPhone because it is simple and appeals to her. Powerful multitasking doesn't.

People buy into a brand / product not just because of features, but because of what it stands for and what it delivers to them. People don't buy "what you do," people buy "why you do it."

This basically sums everything up. RIM talks up its technical superiority, but consumers don't care about that. They care about what's in it for them, and why they should buy into something. The author mentions strange marketing campaigns "from a barber shop to a horse wrangler" that didn't connect with its intended audience. Create an inventive and engaging campaign, the letter says, that focuses on what BlackBerry products are about.

No accountability - Canadians are too nice

Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn't mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It's time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out.

If something's not broke, don't fix it.

In this case, it's time for something to get fixed. Instead of rewarding loyalty, it's time to give incentives to those employees actually performing well. Separate the wheat from the chaff.

Don't snap at the press, now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia

However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won't work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then. We are now 3-4 years too late. That is the painful truth... it was a major strategic oversight and we know who is responsible.

Perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO. There is no shame in no longer being a CEO. Mike, you could focus on innovation. Jim, you could focus on our carriers/customers.

Talk about calling upper management out on the carpet -- admitting RIM made a huge mistake by getting overconfident and not preparing itself for the onslaught of innovative competition is a monster statement. Of course, it's easy for this author to say in 2011; hindsight, as they say, is always 20 / 20. What's most interesting to us about this section, however, is that this is allegedly a senior executive stating he or she isn't happy with the current dual-CEO management structure. Apparently, not everyone agrees with Mike and Jim about the way things should be run at their company.

Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees -- please!

Encourage input from ground-level teams-without repercussions-to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.

The headhunters have already started circling and we are at risk of losing our best people.

Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces.

Ouch. The eighth and final bullet point paints an extremely dire picture of the average RIM employee. Basically, the author is saying here that the morale in Waterloo's headquarters has become intolerable and those who haven't been laid off are considering a departure from the company. The only way to reverse that trend, the letter suggests, is to reach out to employees and do everything possible to re-energize the workplace.

The long and short of it is that not everything in BlackBerry World is peachy, and some desperate measures need to be taken for the company to get back on the right track. The anonymous senior executive doesn't feel like they can speak their mind and be heard without some type of consequence. This time, however, the scribe was heard. Here's RIM's response:

An "Open Letter" to RIM's senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a 'high level employee". It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a "high level employee" in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company's challenges and its opportunities.

RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM's management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM's net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.

It's ironic, and perhaps tragic, that in responding to a letter in which it's called out for not listening to its employees, RIM completely dismisses the matter altogether and tries to paint itself in a flowery manner. Nothing was learned or resolved, and certainly conditions there can't expect to get any better. RIM seems to not believe the letter is truly from one of its own fold -- we can't be completely certain either, to be honest -- and instead of directly addressing the criticism, insists it already is working to resolve many of these issues discussed at length. The company is optimistic about how everything will turn out at the end of this "major business and technology transition," but unless the fine folks in Canada ditch the rose-colored glasses, the outlook could have a very different hue.

Sprint’s Samsung Conquer 4G Hides after Announcement

Have you ever-experienced playing hide and seek with a mobile phone? I bet you haven’t. Apparently, that is what happened when Sprint actually released information and pictures about Sprint’s Samsung Conquer 4G being available for viewing, and then had it pulled out afterwards. There may be something strange with the picture as I give some specs of the device.

The 4G phone is coupled with an average solo 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU, a standard Android Gingerbread, a 3.5-inch HVGA screen, and cameras that are 3.2MP at the back, while having the front at 1.3 average VGA display, with no LED flash, super sharp screens, but it has 4G. This is the wrong thing in the picture. Usual 4G units are souped up with specs that are worth the pride. This may be one of those phones created to give customers an experience of using 4G with lesser cost, although there are no price announcements yet. As the pictures were removed, a date of “July 15” is actually available, which may be the relaunch date. Let’s wait and see.

Source: Engadget Mobile

LightSquared Submits Nationwide Wireless Broadband Plan to FCC

LightSquared, the nation’s first wholesale-only integrated wireless broadband and satellite network, formally presented the company’s modified spectrum plan to the FCC and proposed a comprehensive solution to the GPS interference issue. This plan will serve as a foundation for the construction of a new wireless broadband network that will bring world-class Internet service to the United States, including rural areas and other underserved communities and inject new competition in an increasingly consolidating wireless market.

LightSquared’s proposal outlines a three-part solution for resolving GPS interference issues involving GPS devices, which was detailed in recommendations filed at the FCC today. GPS device test results, which were also filed at the FCC today, show unequivocally that the interference is caused by the GPS device manufacturer's decision over the last eight years to design products that depend on using spectrum assigned to other FCC licensees.

Today’s Mobile News in Brief (June 29, 2011)

As reported here on Cell Phones Etc. and across the Web, here’s your daily brief on what happened in the world of mobile phones this Wednesday, June 29th 2011.

TELUS Tentatively Scores A $1 Billion Contract With The B.C. Government
TELUS and the B.C. government has tentatively signed a 10-year contract worth $100 million per year, so $1 billion! TELUS beat out other telecom players such as Bell, Rogers, Shaw and five others and will seem in almost part of the government: six regional health authorities, BC Hydro, WorkSafeBC, the Insurance Corp. of B.C. and BC Lottery. They’ll provide all forms of telecom services (long distance, conferencing, voice, data, cellular) and build-out high-speed Internet to 450 schools and bring cell service along 1,700 kilometres of highways.
MobileSyrup

Happy 4th Anniversary, iPhone [INFOGRAPHIC]
Four years ago today, Apple released the original iPhone. The hype that preceded the release of the so-called “Jesus Phone” was nothing short of staggering. In four years, the iPhone has utterly transformed the mobile industry. One can debate how much Apple innovated versus refined when it comes to certain features (touchscreens and app stores existed before the iPhone), but when we look at the mobile industry, there is a very clear line between what happened before June 29, 2007, and what happened after.
Mashable

Samsung Conquer 4G To Pack WiMax And Android 2.3
Samsung today published details about the D600 Conquer 4G, a new WiMax Android smartphone for Sprint. Based on the specs, the Conquer 4G appears to be a mid-range smartphone. It has a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 1GHz processor, and offers a 3.2 megapixel main camera with flash, and 1.3 megapixel user-facing camera. Based on the images published by Samsung, the Conquer 4G will include Sprint iD, which offers users bundled themes and software for their Android devices. The FCC approved this handset in April with CDMA in the ESMR 800MHz band, 850MHz band, and the 1900MHz band, making it a tri-band CDMA device.
Phone Scoop

OnLive CEO Reveals ‘Entirely New Approach’ To Wireless, Credits Rearden For Toppling Shannon’s Law
“In advance, yes — you’re right, it’s impossible. But nonetheless, we have ten radios all working at the same frequency, all at the Shannon limit… and there’s no interference.” You may not fully grok the significance of that statement, but anyone heavily involved in solving the wireless bandwidth crisis is probably dropjawed. For a little background, there’s a perceived limit in wireless known as Shannon’s Law, which largely explains why no one can watch a YouTube clip on their EVO at Michigan Stadium. For whatever reason, it’s been assumed that this law was fundamentally unbreakable, but it looks as if an unlikely member of society may have just overrode expectations.
Engadget

Angry Birds For Windows Phone 7 Now Available For $2.99
Microsoft originally said that Rovio’s hit game Angry Birds would make its debut in May, but that date was later pushed until June 29th. That day is finally here and, as promised, the game is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Oddly enough, the title will cost gamers $2.99 — quite a price hike over the free ad-supported version available on Android, and even the $0.99 price tag for iOS devices. Worse yet, it doesn’t appear that Angry Birds Seasons — which is being updated every month with new levels — is available. Hopefully that version will be available soon, too, but we wouldn’t hold our breath. Game on!
BGR

Yamaha's TNR-i app lights up iOS with its musical stylings, dashing looks

We've seemingly unearthed a whole lot of alternatronica in the past few days (not that it's a bad thing), so you'll understand when we enter yet another combatant into this abstract ring. Looking more like a complex game of Simon and almost playing like it too, Yamaha's TNR-i app apes the functionality of the Tenori-on for your iOS instrument of choice. Ringing in at a hefty £11.99 (that's $19 bills, yo), this 16 x 16 grid of orchestral lights crams six performance modes and online multiplayer functionality that more than justifies the price tag. Considering this is a CliffsNotes version of the real thing, you'll feel right at home in that amateur robot drum circle. Hit the source to get your own melodious light bright on.

Flickr Metadata Hints At Possible “Droid HD” In The Works

A picture on Flickr (which I can’t find and therefore can’t confirm) has apparently been spotted by PocketNow with “motorola Droid HD” listed as the camera. Oh my god, it’s a new Droid with a 1280×720 screen, like that in the Nexus Prime and other upcoming superphones!

Or… someone has been messing with EXIF data, or (as the picture was taken near the Motorola campus in Illinois) it could be a test platform for new Droid-standard HD camera hardware. One data point isn’t much to go on.

[via Droid-Life]

HP confirms it's in talks about licensing webOS, Samsung tipped as a possibility

HP CEO Leo Apotheker has already indicated that he's totally open to licensing webOS to other companies, and he's now confirmed that HP has, in fact, been in talks with a "number of companies" about that possibility. Not surprisingly, he didn't get much more specific than that, and went some way to dampen expectations a bit, saying that "there is no time pressure to do this." According to Bloomberg, however, "three people with knowledge of the discussions" say that Samsung is one of the companies HP has had talks with, and one said that the company is specifically interested in possibly using webOS for its Galaxy Tab tablets. HP's Jon Rubinstein also dished a bit more on the subject to This is my next, noting that "if someone wants to really invest, and potentially help develop webOS, we're interested in talking to them," although he went on to indicate that HP isn't interested in playing second (or third) fiddle with a company primarily focused on Android or Windows Phone -- it'd seemingly have to be webOS first, but not necessarily webOS exclusively.

The Times and Sunday Times Launch New Smartphone App

Times Smartphone App, Sunday Times Smartphone App

Today, The Times and The Sunday Times launch a new smartphone app to bring you coverage from Britain’s most experienced political reporters, foreign correspondents spanning the globe, award-winning columnists and sports writers. The smartphone app allows you to hand pick the news that suits you by allowing you to choose between over 30 different sections; giving you the news you want 7 days a week anytime, anywhere. 

From today, everyone can download the app for free for a limited period. The Times and Sunday Times subscribers will receive the app as part of their digital subscription once the free preview ends, which includes the most innovative and immersive websites; thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk as well as the award-winning Times and Sunday Times iPad app edition.

 

A subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times Digital Pack costs 1 for the first 30 days, 2 a week thereafter, and includes access to thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk as well as The Times and Sunday Times iPad editions.

 

HTC Status For AT&T Gets Official

We’ve covered the HTC ChaCha’s journey to the States pretty exhaustively, from its debut at Mobile World Congress, to the rumors that it was heading for AT&T, to the last-minute name change from ChaCha to Status (presumably as a result of this lawsuit filed by ChaCha. As in the company, not the phone. A phone can’t file a lawsuit, silly; it doesn’t even have hands.)

Well, the journey’s pretty much over: this morning, AT&T threw up a Facebook fanpage for the Status, pretty much confirming everything. As usual, they’re keepin’ mum on the price/release date for now.

I don’t often play prophet, though the birds-eye-view this job provides would allow me to. I don’t think I’d be going out on a limb in saying this, though: this phone.. won’t be a raging success. Between the antiquated-looking form factor, the odd screen size, and the gimmicky Facebook button, people just don’t seem interested.

UberMedia Launches UberSocial 1.2 for BlackBerry with "Inner Circle"

UberMedia, the largest independent provider of applications for reading and posting to Twitter and other social media platforms, today announced the release of UberSocial 1.2 for BlackBerry. One of the longest-running and most popular apps on the BlackBerry platform, UberSocial (formerly UberTwitter) continues to set the bar on innovation with the introduction of a widely requested feature, the Inner Circle.

In addition to a user’s traditional timeline, Inner Circle allows you to elevate the most important people you follow to an exclusive timeline. In this way, users can stay in touch with the people who matter most by easily viewing tweets, replies and direct messages from anyone in their Inner Circle. Users can also set up special notifications for tweets, replies or DMs from anyone in the Inner Circle.

Carphone to sell LG Optimus 3D on July 1

3D smartphone to launch through retailer’s website and in 20 Carphone and four Best Buy stores on July 1, before going on sale nationwide on July 5

The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy, the exclusive launch partners for the LG Optimus 3D, will begin selling the handset on July 1.

The Optimus 3D will launch online through Carphone’s website and in 20 Carphone and four Best Buy stores, before going on sale nationwide on July 5. It will be available for free on a 35 a month contract and from 499.95 SIM free.

The phone, which features a glasses-free 4.3-inch 3D screen, runs off the Android 2.2 operating system and comes with a five megapixel dual lens camera, 4.3-inch display, 8GB of internal memory and HDMI port to view photo and video content on a TV screen.

It uses tri-dual technology (dual-core, dual-channel and dual-memory) aimed at speeding up transitions between multiple programs and applications. A 3D hot key enables users to access an area of 3D ready apps, videos and pre-loaded games from Gameloft.

The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy chief commercial officer Graham Stapleton said: “The LG Optimus 3D features some groundbreaking technology and we’re proud to be able to offer the world’s first 3D smartphone exclusively at The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy. It is a remarkable piece of technology and I’m confident our customers will be as impressed and excited as we are.”

 

T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide is Now Official

A while back, we have been graced with a couple of leaked shots with the MyTouch 4G Slide and saw some hardware being tested on the drawing board. However, all of that changed and this time, T-Mobile has made it official that the MyTouch 4G Slide will be out this July. It actually boasts on a camera that is more advanced than any other phone out there, working at 8 megapixels on 3264×2448 pixels, with the ability to autofocus and has capabilities of zero shutter lag, sweeping ultrawide shots, burst mode, and can even shoot HDR pics, enhanced with its dual LED flash.

It runs on a decently fast 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor on a Google Android Gingerbread. Although there are no confirmed dates yet, which may be updated pretty soon, the new slide smartphone is already posted on the mobile company’s website, which will sell for $199.99 with a 2-year contract.

Source: T-Mobile

Motorola XOOM, Wi-Fi and 3G Tablets on Android 3.0 Available in India TODAY

Motorola XOOM, Wi-Fi, 3G Tablet, Android 3, Motorola XOOM in India, 3G variant tablet, HD display, 3G Tablet in India, Android 3 in India

Motorola Mobility India today announced the availability of Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi and 3G variant tablets in India. Motorola XOOM is the world’s first device powered by Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Motorola XOOM features a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM, front-facing and rear-facing cameras, true multi-tasking functionality, and the latest Google Mobile services on a 25.6 cm (10.1-inch) widescreen HD display. 

“Motorola XOOM is redefining the tablet experience by pre-empting the future mobile experience today,” said Rajan Chawla, Mobile Devices business country head for Sales and Operations, India and South West Asia, Motorola Mobility. “Designed from the ground up with the user in mind, it offers productivity while on the go and, provides more ways to have fun and connect with friends. Whether surfing the Web, watching the latest hit movie as it was intended or video-chatting with friends, Motorola XOOM will delight customers with its ease of use, speed and vivid graphics. Motorola XOOM is everything that a tablet should be!”

 

Motorola XOOM Features

Motorola XOOM delivers exceptionally fast performance with its 1GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM. The tablet showcases the innovations of the Honeycomb user experience – including an interactive, customizable homescreen with moveable widgets, notifications and tabbed browsing – on a 25.6 cm (10.1-inch) 1280×800 widescreen HD display, enabling video content that’s richer and clearer than ever before. Support for HDMI enables viewing of videos and movies on larger screens, such as HD televisions. A 5 MP rear-facing camera with flash captures HD video, and a 2 MP front-facing camera enables clear video chats using Google Talk.

 

The latest Google Mobile services include Google Maps and access to over 200,000 apps from Android Market. Motorola XOOM also supports a beta version of Adobe® Flash® Player 10.2 downloadable from Android Market, enabling the delivery of rich Flash-based Web content including videos, casual games and rich Internet applications. Motorola XOOM also features a built-in gyroscope, barometer, e-compass, accelerometer and adaptive lighting. The tablet supports up to 10 hours of video playback and charges in half the time of some competitive tablets on the market.

 

Additional key specifications:-

• Connectivity: 3.5 mm, micro USB 2.0 HS, Corporate Sync, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR + HID

• Messaging/Web/Apps: Email (Corporate Sync, Google Mail, POP3/IMAP embedded, Push Email, Yahoo Mail), WebKit w/ Flash

• Audio: AAC, AAC+, AMR NB, AMR WB, MP3, XMF

• Video: 720p capture/1080p playback/streaming, H.263, H.264, MPEG4

• Camera: 5 MP rear-facing camera with dual LED flash/2 MP front facing camera

• Memory: Up to 32GB on board user memory, up to 32 GB micro SD removable memory*, 1GB DDR2 RAM

 

Pricing and Availability

Motorola XOOM is available in two variants in India—Wi-Fi and 3G version, at select outlets in select cities in the country. The Best Buy for the Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi version is Rs 32,990 (MRP: Rs 34,490) and the Best Buy for the 3G version is Rs 39,990 (MRP: Rs 41,490). For additional information, please visit www.motorola.com/in or call 1800 3000 4343 or email info.in@motorola.com

 

Monster Offers One-Click Mobile Payment with My Max Speed App

Monster Offers, a leading mobile banking solutions company and Daily Deal aggregator, announced today its family of mobile payment solutions will be bundled with the popular new mobile phone application, My Max Speed. A speed monitoring application to encourage safe driving and protect consumer rights, My Max Speed is experiencing a record number of downloads as users can keep tabs on their teenagers’ driving speed in addition to confirming in an instant their own rate of speed if pulled over for a citation, among its many other features.

Through a partnership with Iconosys, Monster Offers is providing free downloads of Monster Offers’ “One-Click” Payment Processing, Pre-Paid Debit Card, P2P Mobile Money and Daily Deal eWallet to My Max Speed application users. The planned integration is expected to be complete by July 2011.

Tag Heuer outs $6,700 Link Phone for those who like alligator skin with their Froyo (video)

As far as most of us are concerned, if we're going to pay a lot for a phone -- you know, like, $350 on contract -- it had better come with the works. We're talking a qHD display, dual-core processor, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p recording, NFC, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 4G radio, to boot. If you're someone who buys things made by Tag Heuer, you've got different priorities. The company just introduced the Link Phone, a darling clunker of a handset festooned with steel, 18K rose gold, or titanium, topped off with leather, alligator- and lizard-skin, rubber, and diamond accents -- a medley that'll set you back no less than €4,700 ($6,712). What's that you say? You want specs? The Link, named after the Swiss outfit's storied watch line, runs Android 2.2 -- a clear step up from its feature phone predecessor. Other ho-hum features include the 3.5-inch (800 x 480) display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, 256MB internal memory, an 8GB memory card, 1400 mAh battery, and EDGE / HSUPA connectivity. Tag Heuer also says it'll be particularly durable, though it's coming up short on specifics. Somehow, though, we don't think it will survive when we accidentally drop it in our gold-plated toilet.

Tag Heuer Link Phone

iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 Getting Hot in Autumn

Some may not believe it, being too stuffed with all the rumors and buzzes flying all over, but there is an almost sure guarantee that Apple will be selling out new phones before 2011 ends. Why? According to CNN’s Fortune page, quoting Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore, “With Nokia and RIMM struggling, the time is right for Apple to aggressively penetrate the mid range smart-phone market to dramatically expand its [total addressable market] and market share.”

Based on some facts, combined with the air of suspicion and assumption, the phones may go out to be the iPhone 4S, being an adaptation of the iPhone 3GS two years back, and the iPhone 5, mimicking the rage of the iPhone 4 when it was launched. Both phones are projected to be out in the market sometime in September, with Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty seeing that Apple in Taiwan is becoming aggressive with the production of iPads and iPhones from August until the end of 2011.

Source: Unwired View, CNN Fortune

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango in-depth preview (video)

Make no mistake, Microsoft isn't playing coy in the smartphone market any longer. The folks in Redmond are making a significant jump forward in the mobile arena, announcing that the upcoming version of Windows Phone, codenamed "Mango," will be heading to a device near you in time for the holidays. As its competitors have raised the bar of expectations to a much higher level, Microsoft followed suit by adding at least 500 features to its mobile investment, which the company hopes will plug all of the gaping holes the first two versions left open.

We received a Samsung Focus preloaded with the most recent developer build (read: not even close to the market release version) and we had a few good days to put it through its paces. It's still far from completion, as there were several key features that we couldn't test out; some weren't fully implemented, and others involved third-party apps that won't be updated until closer to launch. Yet we don't want to call this build half-baked -- in fact, it was surprisingly smooth for software that still has at least four months to go before it's available for public consumption.

At the risk of sounding ridiculously obvious, we're mighty interested in seeing the final result when all is said and done this holiday season. As a disclaimer, we can't guarantee that the stuff we cover here will actually look or act the same when it's ready to peek out and make its official introduction in Q4; as often happens, features and UI enhancements are subject to be changed by the Windows Phone team as Mango gets closer and closer to release. Let's get straight to brass tacks, since there's a lot of details to dive into. It'd be best to grab a large beverage (we'd recommend a Big Gulp, at least), find your most comfortable chair, and meet us after the break.

Table of Contents

Key features
Social network integration
Email and messaging
Multitasking
Maps
Bing Vision and Music Search
Marketplace
Internet browsing
Music+Video Hub
Photos and camera
Office Hub
Games Hub
Calendar
Other changes in Mango
New or changed settings
What's missing
Wrap-up

Key features

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When Windows Phone originally launched last year, we gave it a score of 7 (out of 10) in our review. We loved the user interface and Microsoft's mantra of "glance and go," but the glaring omission of useful features like multitasking and copy-and-paste -- not to mention an empty Marketplace -- was too much to ignore. The brand new OS had the right idea, but it needed more substance. From the looks of it, Microsoft was listening. Less than five months after launch, not long enough to get rid of the new OS smell, the NoDo refresh took care of copy-and-paste. Now, the Mango revision is rapidly approaching, bringing with it a bevy of tempting features like multitasking, Facebook / Twitter integration, turn-by-turn voice guidance, third party support for live tiles, and groups. And that's just for starters.

First impressions

When we first booted up the OS, we were greeted by the same Metro UI we've been accustomed to -- there were absolutely no revelations given at bootup that this was a Mango device. We even went into settings just to make absolutely sure we weren't sent an old Focus by mistake, and it was indeed running OS 7.5. As Microsoft is primarily focused on filling the gaps in its existing user interface rather than completely turning everything upside-down, we didn't have to take extra time to figure out where everything was at. It wasn't until we got inside and looked around that we realized that even though we were in the same house, a lot of the furniture had been moved around, the basement's finished, and a shiny new chandelier was hanging from the ceiling.

Social network integration

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Twitter and Facebook have blessed (or cursed, if your best friend discovered Mafia Wars and needs points) our lives for several years, and now these services (along with LinkedIn) are diving pretty deep into several aspects of the OS.

The Me hub lets you check in to Facebook Places, post messages, and see your notifications.

Microsoft gave the Me hub more purpose in Mango. Current Windows Phones don't put much emphasis on this particular tile -- it's basically your Facebook Wall and little else -- but Mango is cranking up the Facebook integration a notch. First, the live tile has been given more meaning now, offering up status updates, IMs, check-ins, comments, and other notifications directly on the tile, lending more credence to the company's "glance and go" mantra. The page shown upon entering the hub will display your latest status update, profile picture (also seen on the live tile), and three options: post a message, check in, and set chat status. A swipe to the right brings up the same "what's new" page present in the previous iteration of Me; repeat the same gesture and you'll find your Facebook notifications.

Twitter integration will be tight as well, though we didn't get to try it out.

We love Twitter correspondence, so you can imagine our excitement upon hearing Mango will have bring more integration with the social networking service. Sadly, we weren't able to take advantage of the feature on this build -- the functionality still resides on an internal server and couldn't be ported onto our seed devices yet -- but we'll see it come into play just as much as Facebook does, embedded within the Me, People, and Pictures Hubs.

You may now create groups.

One of our favorite additions to the Windows Phone mold is group functionality. It's the difference maker in the People Hub now, which was largely unaffected by the update otherwise. The "all" pivot screen, once just a list of all your contacts, now throws a group section on the top. Obviously you won't see any groups by default, because you'll need to put those in yourself. It's easy to add these in just by hitting the "new" button on the bottom toolbar. It then prompts you to add either a new contact or new group, then choosing a name. Pass through this screen, and you get the opportunity to start choosing members.

Once you've created a group, you can access a special hub for it. There's three pivot screens in this hub. In the first one, "group," you'll find a set of live tiles (much akin to the Start menu), with each one representing a member of your group. We're told these tiles will be dynamically updated with each individual's Facebook and / or Twitter statuses, but we couldn't get it to work in this build. Underneath the live tiles will be options to text or email your group. Now here's where it starts to get a little interesting: you may create a group in which not all members will have an email address or a phone number (they may just have one or the other). In this case, you'll be informed that not every person in the group will be receiving the text or email -- instead, it will just say "x of x members."

Within the group hub, the "what's new" pivot will aggregate the status updates, picture uploads, and other comments related to members of that group; it's easy to "like" or comment on someone's status directly from this pivot. Finally, the "pictures" pivot is exactly how it sounds -- you'll have the opportunity to see photos related to everyone in the group. It's broken down into two sections: you can choose to view all of the images pulled together into one album, or select an individual member to see only their albums. If you have a large group, you may be discouraged when you try to look at the photos of the group all together since there's no way to filter them. You just get all of the pictures in one large tray.

After playing with groups for a couple days, we discovered a hidden gem that may not be completely obvious when you first start using the feature. One frustration we have when looking at our normal Facebook news feed is that there's no easy way to filter out entries by priority. Let's face it -- status updates from your family and best friends are much more important to you than having to see what your old high school buddy from 20 years ago is up to. To make matters worse, those less important updates are burying the ones you actually care to read. Groups in Mango has the solution: make a group comprising those friends or family members you want to keep up with on Facebook. Pin that group to your start menu, and you can bypass all of the junk updates you don't care about.

Windows Phone Mango Social and Email

You can pin each group (and contact) to your Start menu.

We gave this one away in the previous sentence, but it's important enough to give it more attention. Each group hub can have a live tile on the Start menu. The tile shows each person's profile pictures, though we're unsure if there will be any dynamic updates here.

Also, each one of those live tiles from the group hub (or any individual contact off the People hub, for that matter) can be pinned to Start, but a new pivot screen has been added to each person's information hub that highlights that person's photo albums.

Mango allows you to add tags when viewing Facebook photos or albums.

Sure, you can view photo albums and even upload pictures to Facebook direct from NoDo, but can you add tags to them? We submit that you cannot. Mango brings that functionality -- along with automatic face detection -- straight to your device, with the ability to add tags to your images as well as your friends'. Tap the face of the person you want to tag, and you'll be given the option to tag yourself, a Facebook contact, or just some random guy or gal that happened to wander into your precious memories.

Minor changes:

Direct access to People settings within the hub: this is much faster than accessing the settings app.

Filter my contact list: don't want all of your Facebook friends or Windows Live contacts showing up in your list? This new option in the People settings will let you choose which services to aggregate your contacts from.

Added tasks to account sync in People settings.

Email and messaging

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You can link your multiple email accounts together into one combined inbox.

One of our biggest complaints about the email system on WP7 has been dealing with one email account per tile. If you have several accounts to deal with, this takes up an massive amount of space on your Start screen. Mango settles that concern in stellar fashion, by giving us the choice of which accounts to bind together and which ones to leave as standalone tiles. Universal inboxes are great, but there's one problem with them: they're universal. In other words, we don't have a choice -- all of the accounts are included. We much preferred linking the three accounts we always use, and leaving out the others that aren't as important. Microsoft scores some major points against the competition by giving users the control here.

Email conversations are now grouped together into one continuous thread.

Mango has definitely been focusing on making its user interface seamless and more convenient. One huge piece of evidence supporting this is the threaded email conversations. Good luck trying to find every part of an email thread that's spanned over the course of a few days in NoDo; every email is treated individually and buried among the rest of your inbox. Windows Phone will now hunt down the full email chat you've been having with your boss and pull them all together in an easy-to-find thread. These conversations can also be minimalized, making it much easier to scroll over the whole thing and move on to other emails in your inbox if you don't want to read it. If there's anyone sad to see this new functionality, stop moping; all you have to do is go into the settings menu and choose to turn it off.

Messaging threads have integrated SMS, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, and Twitter together into one seamless thread, while making it easy to switch back and forth.

Speaking of threads, the messaging app will have support for them too. In this case, you're given the chance to switch between text, Facebook chat, and IM (Windows Live, to be specific) all within the same chat thread. If you've been talking it up to your friend on Facebook but he has to get off, the both of you can pick up the conversation where you left off. We also enjoyed the fact that each Facebook chat thread will specify if your friend is online or off.

This has some serious potential in saving money on texts, but we'd really love to see this take off into the world of third parties. It would be wonderful to see developers given access to integrate their services into this thread. We use Google Talk and Skype IM on a regular basis, and nothing would satisfy us more than to see these types of clients invited into this "exclusive club" for messaging.

You're now able to see a comprehensive email history for individuals.

As you're looking through an email you received from Bob Johnson, clicking on his name at the top of the screen will take you into his individual profile and recent email history. Between this new option and the ability to search your inbox, it may take less time to find that hidden email from a couple weeks ago.

Mango blesses the Enterprise user with additional Exchange support.

You'll be able to set Out of Office autoresponder messages, alpha-numeric PIN codes, search your Exchange server for a specific email, and read IRM messages.

Voice dictation has been added, so you may speak your message and have incoming ones spoken to you.

All sorts of speech-to-text (and vice versa) capabilities have been tossed into Mango. When new messages came in, we were asked by a female robot voice if we'd like to have it read out loud to us. After reading it, we were given the opportunity to speak our response. These new voice recognition and dictation features can be used over the loudspeaker, Bluetooth, or other headphone set; as a kicker, you can filter which audio devices can use this functionality in the settings -- in other words, you could make it work only when you're paired up with a Bluetooth device, if you so desire. Don't worry, though, the good ol' fashioned voice search we see in Windows Phone now isn't going anywhere; long-pressing the Start key will still prompt you to say what you want. The only real enhancement here is that the phone will recognize the "text" command.

Minor changes:

New search button on the toolbar to find specific emails. Pressing the requisite search key underneath the display will just take you straight into Bing Search instead.

In the inbox, folders have been moved from toolbar to soft key menu.

New email settings: added conversations on / off toggle and changed signature from check box to toggle switch.

Added option in settings to show replies and email from all synced folders while in conversation mode.

New messaging settings: added facebook chat on / off, group text on / off, option to turn on delivery confirmation, and SMS center number.

Multitasking

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Performing a long-press of the back button will pull up the card-view task switcher.

Fans of WebOS will find this feature oddly familiar, as Microsoft's solution to multitasking is showing each open app as its own card. Just like in webOS, swipe left or right to the card of your choice -- laid out like a trail of bread crumbs -- and you're taken right back to the same spot you were before. While we could test out the card view, there were no third party apps to take advantage of this feature yet, though we're very happy to see developers get access to this functionality so early; this will give them ample time to ensure their programs can run in the background before the update even launches. We anticipate seeing a healthy selection of multitasking apps in the Marketplace when all is said and done.

Third-party background audio will be enabled.

Fans of streaming music apps will appreciate this addition to Windows Phone, as pre-Mango phones don't allow background audio for any third-party programs. However, we were unable to take advantage of the feature this time for the same reasons as mentioned earlier. Expect this to be fully enabled by the time Mango's ready to go.

Live tiles finally give you a greater sense of "glance and go."

Currently restricted to use by native WP7 apps only, Mango is opening the door for third-party apps to put dynamic updates directly on their Start menu tiles. We checked out The Weather Channel app and were able to see the temperature and weather condition; push notifications also worked on other apps we tried out such as Beezz (a Twitter client) and Send to WP7. Much like multitasking, this isn't running at full speed yet, but we hope that most apps in the Marketplace will use this new functionality.

Windows Phone Mango Multitasking and Maps

Maps

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Mango includes voice turn-by-turn navigation.

Windows Phone is giving navigation giants such as TomTom and Telenav a huge run for their money by throwing in the female robot voice for free with the OS.

The new maps are tightly integrated with Local Scout.

The name fits well. Essentially, Local Scout takes a look at businesses around your location and gives you a sense of what there is to eat / drink, shop for, and keep yourself and the kiddos occupied. You can change the order your results will appear by prioritizing them by distance, rating, relevance, and type. It can be accessed through the toolbar at the bottom of the maps app, or through the Bing Search page (mentioned below).

Each business is assigned a Quick Card.

Once you have a list of results, you can select any of the businesses and get some detailed information about them. This includes contact information on the first pivot screen and a Quick Card on the next, which shows customer reviews and even a score sheet.

Minor changes:

New option to add places to your favorites; likewise, a new "favorite places" option is available in the soft key menu Changed wording from "route details" to "directions list."

Changed wording from "results list" to "search results."

New settings: options to read directions aloud when tapping the screen, and change map orientation for driving directions.

Bing Vision and Music Search

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Pressing the search button from the Start menu has always led us into Bing search, but Mango added a toolbar to the bottom. Local Scout, Bing music search, and Bing vision have all been placed in the toolbar, along with a soft key menu offering music search history and settings. Voice search has also moved from its perch in the entry bar down to a dedicated home on the toolbar. We've already discussed Local Scout, but let's discuss the other two options.

Bing Vision is Mango's built-in QR, barcode and tag reader; in other words, it's Google Goggles on Bing.

Readers are all the rage these days, but they're typically reserved as separate apps. Mango smartly combines several types of readers into one, and the SDK supports further integration with third party apps. We'll give you a scenario to explain why this has so much potential: you notice a DVD at your friend's house and really want to get a copy for yourself. Scan the barcode with Bing Vision, and it offers to take you straight into the Amazon app (you'd have to download this first, of course) to buy it or put it on your wish list. Plenty of other apps could be used, but you're picking up what we're putting down, right? For right now, though, all we could do was scan tags, QR codes, and barcodes, and pull up results in a Bing search, but at least it did an accurate job picking them up.

Bing music search is a lot like Shazam or SoundHound.

It's the same exact body in a Bing-shaped costume. The phone started to listen for music as soon as we pressed the music button in Bing search, and results popped up in less than 10 seconds (of course, the speed and accuracy of the results will all depend on how popular / obscure the song is and how loud it's playing). When we got the results, we were shown artist, song title, and cover art. Below this were options to close out of the screen or proceed to the Marketplace to purchase the song.

Bing Vision can scan text and translate it into several other languages for you.

It's not a perfect system in this build, but we were surprised by how much text Vision could actually pick up. We scanned the back cover a book, complete with full summary, and it still picked up about 90 percent of the words. After the text is found, it's easy to find the "translate" option from there and choose between 26 different languages. There's no word on if there will be additional language support, but this is a solid number out of the gate. We also appreciated the ability to scan upside-down text without a hiccup.

Marketplace

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Windows Phone Mango Multimedia and Bing Vision

Podcasts can now be downloaded direct from the Marketplace.

In NoDo or earlier, podcasts could only be sideloaded into the phone via the computer's Zune app. With Mango, however, there is full integration of podcasts into the Music + Video hub as well as the Marketplace. You'll be able to search, subscribe to, and download as much as you want -- and there's even a setting to restrict downloading to WiFi zones only, if you're worried about excessive data charges.

When searching for something in the Marketplace, a drop-down menu pops up showing search results as you type.

Not so in the current version; rather, typing in the search entry field will yield no possible options until you actually perform the search. Perhaps this isn't a huge deal to most, but we think it's a beautiful addition because if you know what you're searching for, it cuts down on the amount of time you have to spend scrolling through possible results.

Marketplace will be available on the web.

Let's face it -- there's times we might be in the mood to go app shopping, a tedious process when attempted on the phone. Especially as more and more apps become available for Windows Phone, the annoyance of perusing that list will continue to grow. Web Marketplace will give us the opportunity to search for cool apps directly from our computer; after we pick one to download, it will be sent right over to the phone itself with no need to sideload.

Minor changes:

Marketplace has a search option added to the bottom of the screen.

Added new pivot screens: apps, games, music. In NoDo, the Marketplace displayed featured and app suggestions.

Internet browsing

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Mango includes Internet Explorer 9.

The new version of Microsoft's signature browser will include full support for HTML5, CSS3, SV, XHTML, DOM, and more. If you're looking at that list in hopes that Flash is there, stop searching for it -- Flash is not one of the 500 magical features in Mango, so we'll just have to keep hoping it's on the roadmap for some future update.

In landscape mode, the URL box is still there.

Current devices offer complete full-screen mode when the browser's in landscape; when you need to enter a new URL, you have to adjust the phone back to portrait mode. There's no way to hit the side of the screen to bring down an entry box. With Mango, you'll have the complete opposite problem: you'll have that URL field available, but you can't get rid of it if you want to. Thus, there's less real estate for your browser.

IE9 offers one streamlined toolbar at the bottom, rather than one at bottom and top.

Speaking of less screen space to work with, portrait mode offers two toolbars in NoDo -- one at the top and bottom -- that can't be hidden nor changed. IE9 changes all of that by combining aspects from both toolbars into one streamlined option at the very bottom of the screen. This toolbar is limited to the URL entry box and a soft key for menu options; everything that had been found in the bottom toolbar in IE8 (or earlier) is now found here. That includes tabs, favorites, and add to favorites. Everything else in the menu is the same here.

Minor changes:

In Mango, you can be in landscape mode and still access the hidden top bar that shows your battery, reception, time, and other icons.

The settings now give you the choice to have IE9 collect your browsing history, so you can enjoy turning it off if you don't want a trail of bread crumbs following you around while surfing the web. Also new is the option to open links from other apps in the current tab or a brand new one.

Your browsing history is now available as its own option in the soft key menu, rather than bundled together with your favorites.

Music + Videos Hub

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Smart DJ creates your own personalized music mix based upon your interests.

If this sounds familiar, it's not unlike the Genius feature you'll find in iTunes. Smart DJ looks at the music you have on your phone and makes a playlist. If you have the Zune Pass, the feature will select from the catalog in the cloud and create a mix with much more variety. Sadly, without a Zune Pass, we were unable to test out how well the Smart DJ performs here.

Minor changes:

Enhanced playback menu when pressing volume rocker or in lock screen. Current devices have the ability to access the music player by simply adjusting the volume or coming back into the lock screen, but it was rather small and only showed the song title. This go-round gives a new look to the playback menu: the artist is now included, everything is in a larger font that's easier to read, the control buttons are larger, and the volume indicator has a format of "xx / 30." One thing omitted from Mango's playback menu is how far you are through the track. Lastly, the music controls are displayed in the lock screen, but volume only drops down from a hidden lair above when you press the volume adjust keys. These are definitely minor changes, but they do make for a much cleaner look that's easier to read and interact with.

A new setting gives you the option to restrict podcast downloads to WiFi zones only, preventing your data usage from going sky high.

Zune Marketplace search is now an option in the soft key menu.

Photos and camera

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The camera app can now remember your settings.

Using the camera application on Windows Phones has always been a bit of a hassle, since your preferred settings never get saved when you exit. Mango has a "save settings" option in the soft key menu, so instead of having to switch from VGA to 720p each time we flicked on the video record, the HD option became the default. Additionally, you can restore your settings back to the original in the menu.

Tap screen for shutter.

Haters of the dedicated camera button (we know you're out there) may appreciate Microsoft adding the option of snapping your picture by touching the screen. We're not sure how this is any better or easier to use than a double-detent button, but choice is great and Mango is finally giving us that freedom to make our own shutter-snapping decisions.

Auto-fix will adjust saturation, exposure, and highlights for you.

It's a great idea -- sometimes you take shots with your phone that don't look quite right, so auto-fix aims to do exactly what its name implies. To be honest, however, we didn't see much use for it. Our pictures didn't seem to turn out that much better, and we felt that we'd do a much better job ourselves if we just had some manual adjustment controls instead of letting the OS do the heavy lifting.

Mango will automatically run face recognition on pictures you share on Facebook.

It also gives you the chance to tag other people by tapping on their face and either choosing a contact or typing in the name of someone not already on your list.

Minor changes:

Devs will now have access to the camera API, allowing for more apps with full camera capture capability.

Pictures hub now has dedicated camera roll access from the first pivot screen, as well as new options for people and albums.

New soft key menu offers option to turn on auto upload.

Ability to choose or shuffle the background within the pictures hub.

New settings: tap screen to take pictures, reset the camera, and prevent accidental camera launch when the phone is locked.

Camcorder switch is now a single circle icon instead of a toggle.

Office Hub

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Windows Phone Mango Office, Games, Etc.

Office 365 support has been added.

Office 365 is a set of software tools made available to businesses that give access to Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync. Mango aims to combine all of these elements into Office and let you sync with these services at any time.

Locations pane.

This new panel gives you access to all of your doc locations: Office 365, SkyDrive, and SharePoint. It sorts by whichever location was the most recently used. And speaking of SkyDrive, this is a new feature in Office we haven't seen before; any personal or shared docs you have stored there can now be accessed from this pivot screen. Furthermore, any documents you have in Office can be shared and uploaded to SkyDrive as well.

Notes pane offers notebook access.

If you've saved notebooks in your SkyDrive or SharePoint account, they're easily reached in the notes pane (originally called OneNote).

Excel sheets now offer formulas.

If you're not a regular to Excel (or even spreadsheets in general), it's difficult to remember what you need to type for formulas like sum, max, min, and average. By finding the autosum icon in the toolbar, you'll see that Mango's hooking you up with the secret ways to get your spreadsheet on without typing lengthy formulas manually.

Minor changes:

Lync app will be available in the Marketplace; basically, it helps you join meetings and exchange IMs on a corporate level.

There's more of a tile-centric interface to mesh with the Metro UI better.

IRM support for documents now included.

New templates have been added to help create new docs.

Changed settings screen: UAG server and reset Office options are now front and center; OneNote settings also gone.

Sync option added to notes toolbar.

Share option added to Word and Excel toolbars.

Open location option added to PowerPoint and Excel soft key menus.

Games Hub

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While we're waiting for WP7 to let us play Xbox 360 classics from our phone, at least the Games Hub is making some improvements. Here's the highlights:

You can now add your own 3D avatar.

Find your friends directly through Windows Phone.

Accept, reject, and send friend requests.

See who's online and what they're doing.

Check out achievements and your player profile.

There's also a direct link to Games Marketplace as well as a search option.

Calendar

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Tasks, or To-Dos, have a much larger role to play in Mango.

We're huge fans of tasks and to-do lists because there's so much to keep track of, so it's a pleasant surprise to see added functionality coming to Mango. The deadline for any task you add here is integrated into the calendar itself, showing it just like any other event. Exchange tasks can be synced too, which is not a big shocker considering the update's emphasis on compatibility with the service. These features are great, but there are a few limitations that we'd like to see worked out: first, even though these tasks show up directly on the calendar, it isn't reflected onto the live tile on the Start menu. So without opening up the calendar to look for the task, you're forced to set up reminders to do the job for you. Second, we still don't see any third-party task support here. There's a multitude of task apps out there such as Remember the Milk, Google Tasks, and more, so we'd benefit greatly from being given the option of using our preferred task management system instead of relying on Windows Live or Exchange.

Facebook Events can be directly integrated into your calendar.

There's a new toggle switch in the calendar settings that throws Facebook Events in.

Minor changes:

You'll be able to sync your Exchange To-Do lists.

Sync and view multiple calendars on an Exchange account.

Apps that take advantage of the built-in compass, gyro, accelerometer, etc. will now be able to integrate its features in with the calendar.

Other changes in Mango

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My Windows Phone: a Find my Phone client that you'll be able to access from the web. You can find the phone on a map, ring it, lock it, and perform a remote wipe if needs be.

Alarms and reminders can now be integrated with apps for improved third-party notifications.

Power off screen gives you a "slide down to power off" option, instead of directly shutting off.

Battery saver, found in the settings, will shut off email and background apps when you're getting extremely low on juice. These services will be resumed once your phone's on the charger again. This setting will also give you a current battery status indicator and anticipated amount of time remaining before the device powers off.

Custom ringtones will be a reality with Mango. It wasn't available for us to test, but the Zune desktop client will be able to crop non-DRM music tracks in your collection and convert them into your own Windows Phone ringtones.

New or changed settings

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Keyboard: adds more supported keyboard languages.

Ease of access: adds speech for phone accessibility option.

Speech: adds option to read aloud incoming text messages, and changes audio confirmations to a toggle switch.

Background tasks: brand new setting that will let you choose which apps can run in the background.

Games: added options to sync game requests and show game alerts.

Music+video: Now gives option to only download new podcast episodes over WiFi to save from excessive data use on 3G.

Search: Adds options to send location info for Microsoft Tags, allow search button access from the lock screen, and allow Microsoft to store and use images from Vision searches (presumably in Bing?).

What's missing?

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Almost everything that we pined for in Windows Phone has finally been included with the Mango revision, but as always, there's a few things we would've liked to have seen included.

Native Skype integration. Microsoft's acquisition of Skype opens the door to a lot of possibilities on Windows Phone as well as the desktop. We'd love to see Ballmer & Co. take full advantage of this $8 billion investment by taking it to the mobile front.

Since this is a Microsoft product, we understand that Bing will be front and center of everything. However, we'd still appreciate having some extra options available for Google or Yahoo searches in IE9. It's wishful thinking, we know.

Bing Maps does not include "Bird's Eye" or street views.

Native inclusion of Bing Travel.

Landscape mode for the Start menu.

Not enough integration of third-party services into messaging, tasks, and calendar.

We'd love to see a way to hide the toolbars in IE9 to allow for more screen space.

Too much white space on the Start screen that, if used properly, could make room for larger tiles. The UI is set up this way because the right arrow (to proceed to the app list) is placed on the top right corner, and we're sure this could be moved somewhere else. Would anyone miss the arrow if it was removed altogether?

Wrap-up

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Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Windows Phone is developing into the OS we've been asking for since we first used it last year. By adding in crucial elements like multitasking, groups, social network integration and more, it's starting to play catch-up to the other big names in mobile. Not overcome -- catch-up. Mango hasn't shown us anything truly groundbreaking yet. At least this platform, still in its youth, is stepping onto the same playing field as hard hitters like iOS and Android, though. One thing that surprised us was how few bugs or choppy effects were present in this build, an impressive feat considering we're still a few months away from completion. Overall, we've come away with a positive outlook on Windows Phone's newest iteration, and are very eager to see the finished result. The house that Ballmer built received a hardy housewarming party last year, but now that it's been redecorated and the trampoline is set up in the backyard, we're sure we can come up with reasons to throw another celebration.