Microsoft Announces Windows Phone 7.1 Mango

Microsoft today provided the first official look at the next release of Windows Phone code named  Mango.

In Mango, Microsoft has added hardware-accelerated graphics and Internet Explorer 9 with HTML5.

Microsoft said Mango will be available for free to all eligible Windows Phone customers when it’s available in the fall.

The next release of Windows Phone also allows users to group and categorize people based on how they fit into their lives. This enables users to send group texts or IM conversations to entire groups of family, friends, coworkers and so on.

The app which features in Mango includes

• Improved Live Tiles, which provides even more real-time information to the home screen. Live Tiles on Mango can be more dynamic and contain more information.

• Multitasking allows users to quickly switch between recently used applications and pick up where they left off by simply pressing and holding the back button.

• Live Agents, which enables developers to create a number of multitasking apps for scenarios involving media, communications, augmented reality and more – all without compromising battery life and performance.

Other communications features in Mango include:

• Personalized Live Tiles make it possible for users to easily access individuals or groups from the home screen. Individuals can be pinned to the start screen as Live Tiles, providing users with at-a-glance access to real-time updates from social network feeds and notifications without having to open multiple apps.

• Multiple email accounts can be combined and linked into one inbox.

• Built-in voice-to-text/text-to-voice functionality, which will allow for hands-free texting or chatting.

• Local Scout prioritizes hyper-local search results based on user preferences and recommends the closest restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy-to-use guide.

• Visual search enables users to initiate a Bing search by photographing barcodes, QR codes and Microsoft Tags (without using a third-party app).

• Music search allows users to search Bing and get detailed information about music (like song title, artist and album title) by simply holding the phone up to a speaker.

The addition of augmented reality in Mango – a technology that integrates computer-generated images and sounds on a user’s screen to enhance their experience – is an excellent example of a better Internet experience. It has allowed some of Microsoft’s partners to make significant improvements to their apps.