More Features to Mango! WiFi hotspot, contact groups, album art lockscreen and more!
Well, well! On top of the post last week about some additional Mango Features that weren’t noted at Mix11, the folks over at wpdevpodcast have some more exciting news.More Features for Mango. I can’t wait to see what MS has cooking on May 24th when they showcase to the public (not devs) what they should expect from Windows Phone’s next update. I hope these are just teasers and MS has a lot more awesome stuff to come.
1) Grouped Messaging
OK I was surprised to find out this wasn’t a default part of WP (as with a lot of other things) and there are apps on market place that replicate core Symbian features (a bit like iOS).
I don’t know about you but being in Uni I have groups of people that I have to send notification texts to – from organizing study sessions, to day activities and nights out. It’s much more certain that facebook :p Sending group texts is annoying if you have to keep adding people every time, instead of just the group.
Other uses for groups: Sending mass message greetings (e.g. Christmas), sorting out local services (e.g. fav take aways, taxis, etc). This way you can message a lot of people, slightly tailoring your text to them to be more personalized but not having to keep adding contacts each time. Now hopefully Windows Phone will let you store groups as for one reason or another, these keep disappearing on my Symbian phones (Ovi Sync doesn’t support it either – I don’t think)
2) Impoved lockscreen Wallpaper:
Seems you can get the album art for that particular artist as your lock screen wallpaper.
3) WMPower user guys say that XBox Live interface (the “hub” to get your installed games) is getting an overhaul. I’d listen to the podcast but I’m rushing to get this post out so I can get back to revision.
4) Facebook Chat appearing in messages.
Nice. Assuming that means Facebook chat is integrated into WP? Not that I use it, but that’s cool for those that do. What about Skype, eh? :p
5) Sharing of Docs over Sky.Drive
MS’s access anywhere file storage, extends to office. I wonder if this will get a facelift. It’s pretty basic, but you can churn out documents with it quite well (the keyboard is insanely good folks).
The following might be part of the podcast, the WMPower user folks have listened to.
6) Visual Voicemail
7) Battery Management
- I’ve only used one WP7 device for an extended period and battery life is CRAP. Andre said it got better with NoDo, but that’s all without 3rd party multitasking. Apparently there’ll be further battery management, with some kind of battery setting in settings. Perhaps something like power saving mode like Symbian? Why do these things have to be buried in settings. Put them in the damn status bar Microsoft!
WiFi Hotspot Support
- Woohoo! I don’t think we even have apps at the moment to let this happen but the WMPoweruser folks think this is coming to ManGo though they do think it may be carrier dependent. If your carrier is an asspie, they wont let you use this. Symbian doesn’t have this by default but you can use JoikuSpot app.
Now sometimes these “new features” in Mango are something that Symbian guys have had for ages (Turn by Turn, Copy and Paste – I still don’t have NoDo – . That shouldn’t be a down point though – MS are putting a lot of work in getting features into Mango and with the future of Nokia set in the Windows Phone ecosystem, it should be looked upon as a good thing at least for future Nokia Windows Phone consumers to be getting more features. They of course may still have the Symbian or even MeeGo option if WP doesn’t satisfy. I’m assuming that’s what happens when you start from scratch to make sure the CORE experience in Windows Phone is tight – FEATURES – these can be added later.
via @camb078
Category: Windows Phone
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Any reason to post that info again?
I mean there isn’t anything new that we didn’t know for weeks already…
Same reason people keep on posting Symbian Anna videos and Symbian Belle videos. Why not post it?
Again? Apologies, could you post a link where we had discussed this before please? The WP community seem to think these are new. They’re new to me at least, so I posted about it.
sorry my fault, seems that I got the info about wifi hotspot and the other stuff from another site (really some weeks ago). Just thought that it was part of the previous news here
i just realize Wp7 doesn’t use the enough area on the screen for their UI looks like a waste of space
I agree. I’m all about simplicity and all, but this UI is almost too minimalistic. Makes it kind of difficult to know where/what to select on the screen.
WP7 Metro UI is very hard to translate from screenshot. It’s a lot about the movement too as you pan around – there’s a kind of change in paradigm here of UI structures.
I do agree however that there are quite a few areas where it could do with bulking up.
well at least microsoft is trying hard to get WP up to standard in a timely manner
but even with Mango i dont feel it’s where i want it to be for me to consider it
What are the things you feel it needs for you to consider it?
Right now, with what we know about WP7 and Mango, I don’t think I could recommend it to power/advanced users.
What are the things you think will still be missing from a power/advanced user’s point of view?
Damn!!!
The UI is strange. Those large fonts are squander of space. I don’t like it.
It is a UI that you either hate or love. Thankfully for Nokia most people love it (I’m one of them)
I like it , i jus want nokia to mix symbian wit wp
Hi guys,
what is your experience with wp7?
i’m thinking to get rid of my n97 mini and get a wp7 phone instead. i would only use it as my second phone (my main phone is the n8), but i would like to know if it’s worth getting an wp7 phone right now or wait or not bother at all.
thnks
In a sense I think you should get one yes. Then you can see how truly dire and terrible it is, and then you can write a blog post somewhere about your experiences and how you rushed back to the N8 having realised the error of your ways, and some Symbian blog will publicise it for you and you can confirm what some of us already knew, Windows Phone and the hardware it runs on is currently crap compared to the beauty and sophistication and power of an N8 running Symbian^3.
well, i would use it as my second phone. i’m not givin’ up my n8!
i’m just not up to date as to what kind of updates are coming to wp7. i mean the fact that i can’t use my own ringtones is a big turn off. but i’m able to get a wp7 phone for only a few bucks and my n97 mini is just old ( but maybe still better than the wp7 phones). so i don’t know if it’s worth a try
I would wait for Mango. Why be the quinea pig for a new, incomplete OS when the update is due in a few monhts time?
WOOHOO! More features in WinPho that Symbian has enjoyed in better form for many years!
Woohoo! Yeah!
/ sarcasm…
idiot most of this features symbian dont have :/
album art lockscreen?
grouped messaging?
xbox live hub interface?
visual voicemail?
facebook chat mesages appear in messages?
ive used symbian for 3 years and never seen these so…..
haha +1
if we have to argue about what symbian has and windows dont have then you guys have to see a lot in a list.
It’s good to see MS adding features to WP. For now, I think I’ll be hanging on to my old N8.
Off topic but, that picture of the green mangoes at the beginning of the article is making me hungry and nostalgic for the time I spent in the Philippines….
More features come to wp7 but how bout the ui/ux still the same ugly sh*t…could Nokia do something with the ui????