Tech

Watch Out Apple, Google: Windows Phone's Next Big Update Is An Absolute Home Run

By Ellis Hamburger
Read in app
mango title image
Windows Phone Mango is incredibly beautiful  Ellis Hamburger

Windows Phone is getting a giant update coming this fall called "Mango."

We can't wait.

Mango has some truly inspired features that integrate social networks into every aspect of the phone, as well as many others.

We got our hands on the beta version of Mango a bit early, and we're going to prove that Windows Phone isn't dead.

Windows Phone Mango is gorgeous--a breath of fresh air.

mango 16
Ellis Hamburger

The home screen doesn't look much different from before, but wait until you see what's underneath. People Hub is first.

mango 27
Ellis Hamburger

Hold the back button (bottom left) to activate multitasking. Swiping between apps is quick and very fluid.

mango 26
Ellis Hamburger

Mango plugs into Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There's my most recent tweet. If you tap yourself, you can see your notifications and post status updates.

mango 29
Ellis Hamburger

Native status updates are huge. Pick and choose which social networks you want to update.

mango 4
Ellis Hamburger

The Notification screens brings in information from all the social networks you have plugged in.

mango 2
Ellis Hamburger

The "what's new" screen is a news feed from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can always pick one at a time, however.

mango 3
Ellis Hamburger

Choose which social networks you want to see updates from.

mango 14
Ellis Hamburger

Here's the "what's new" screen for just Twitter.

mango 31
Ellis Hamburger

Tap a tweet to retweet or reply to it. It all works flawlessly.

mango 32
Ellis Hamburger

In this view, you can only see LinkedIn updates.

mango 15
Ellis Hamburger

There's also native support for posting comments to LinkedIn, as well as Facebook.

mango 5
Ellis Hamburger

Mango has built in support for real-time Facebook chatting, even inside your SMS texting window.

mango 24
Ellis Hamburger

In mid text conversation, you can switch to Facebook chatting within the same thread.

mango mobile blurred

Groups is an innovative new feature that lets you communicate and keep track of specific people.

mango group blurred

Once your group is complete, you can pin the group to your home screen. Send a text or email to everyone in that group effortlessly.

mango 12
Ellis Hamburger

Within your friend group, there's a news feed that only contains updates from those people.

mango 10
Ellis Hamburger

You can also swipe to view photos of only people in your friend group.

mango 11
Ellis Hamburger

Voice activated actions work great.

mango 20
Ellis Hamburger

Speak a message, and the phone converts it to text.

mango 21
Ellis Hamburger

Boom, there it is. When Mango comes out, you'll be able to send a text from "send text to" to "send" all via your voice.

mango 22
Ellis Hamburger

Internet Explorer 9 is a new Mango feature, and is blazingly fast.

mango 13
Ellis Hamburger

Bing Vision looks a whole lot cooler than Google Goggles. It works almost instantaneously.

mango 7
Ellis Hamburger

One cool new feature is called App Shortcuts. Do a web search, and any relevant apps will pop up. If you search for a specific movie, there will be a link straight into the IMDB app.

mango 3024823
Ellis Hamburger

Another innovation--instead of scrolling through contacts or searching, you can tap the # sign in the contacts list to pick by letter.

mango 30
Ellis Hamburger

Bing Maps looks great, and can even show maps of indoor malls so you can find the store you're looking for.

bing maps mall

Voice activated searching is quite accurate.

mango 33
Ellis Hamburger

It heard us correctly on the first try.

mango 34
Ellis Hamburger

Search pops up with tons of information, all formatted for your phone.

mango 35
Ellis Hamburger

Search for a neighborhood in your city and Mango's new Local Scout feature is there to help you. Here are places to shop.

mango 19
Ellis Hamburger

Local Scout also has built in reviews for restaurants, bars, etc. Most importantly, it all looks really sleek.

mango 28
Ellis Hamburger

Here are places in the neighborhood you selected to eat and drink.

mango 17
Ellis Hamburger

Here's some stuff to see and do in the neighborhood you selected.

mango 18
Ellis Hamburger

Office is excellent on Mango. There's integration with the brand new Office 365 and Microsoft's cloud service SkyDrive.

mango 8
Ellis Hamburger

OK, so what's missing?

iPhone Apps

One word: apps.

Windows Phone Mango is a stellar platform that integrates social features far better than Android or iPhone (even in iOS 5), but can't really succeed until developers get on board and build apps for it.

Most importantly, Mango looks fresh and focuses on people. It's the only mobile operating system besides WebOS to put such a tremendous emphasis on communicating with others, which is what phones are for, right?

Windows Phone has finally caught up to the big boys.

Oh, and Microsoft--for Pete's sake let us take screenshots on the thing. Also, convince the nation's largest carrier to sell more Windows Phones.

Now that you've seen Mango...

ios 5 logo
Dan Frommer, Business Insider

Check out our huge walkthrough of iOS 5, hitting your iPhone in a month >

Read next

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片
Ellis Hamburger
Ellis Hamburger is a former reporter for SAI:Tools at Business Insider. He wrote about Facebook, apps, and gadgets. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2010, where he founded Michigan's first technology blog.
HOME Subscribe Read in app