It seems to be rather on the amusing side, but nowadays operating system updates do have a
gastronomic touch to themselves. The electronic realm is now celebrating the Ice Cream Sandwich from
Google, but Microsoft on the other side has also jumped in with their major update of mobile Windows
OS. Christened as the Mango (aka Windows Phone 7.5), it made its commercial debut in September of
this year.
The launch of the update was initially hampered by some confusion regarding the availability of the
update. Microsoft started out with their statement that around 98 percent of their customers will be
given a simultaneous, coordinated, global update. But within that paragraph the company also made it
clear that only 10 percent of their customers would be getting the installed version all ready and served.
Well as they say: you cannot have your Mango and eat it too.
Anyway, moving beyond the corporate hiccups, we should shed some light on the operating system in
itself. Tech enthusiasts need no reminding, but as opposed to the more experienced mobile operating
systems like Android and iOS, Windows Phone was just in its first generation iteration. So, it really does
not come as a surprise that we as consumers missed out on a few features expected from a well to do
OS. But now, with Mango entering the commercial fray, some of the issues have been sorted out, along
with a wealth of new attributes.
According to Microsoft’s general manager of customer experience engineering, Eric Hautala, the
Windows Phone 7.5 has more than a whopping 500 new features. Of course, most of them will have
no direct effect on your personal user experience, but some of them seriously make it worth the time.
From an overall perspective, the newer user interface of Mango is almost indistinguishable from its
predecessors, with preservation of the fascinating Metro UI. Rather the change can be noticed in the
enriched content displayed by those ubiquitously vivacious tiles. This course of improvement is in the
form of more viewable information and a flurry of third party apps making their presence felt (with ‘live’
direct updating option available).
Moving onto to the more collective functionality of e-mail and messaging, this is arguably where the
Mango really shines. The developers have envisaged a compact system that allows us to combine
multiple email accounts into a singularly amalgamated tile. Moreover, you also get to choose the
accounts you are going to combine. And if you thought that was impressive; hear this out. Now, the
e-mail and messaging conversations can be threaded together, so that you do not have go through
hundreds of other messages to maintain seamless communication with a particular person.
A slew of other new features include social network integration (like Twitter and LinkedIn), multitasking,
organized Groups within People Hub, Marketplace and even apps for convenient camera adjustments.
This utter scale of improvements certainly puts Mango in the same league of its exalted peers like Android and iOS. Now, only time can tell the impact of such an expansive yet fresh experience. But one
thing is for sure: Christmas came early for Window Mobile users.