That sounds awesome, multitasking and IE9 are BIG on my list, Please make sure that Omnia 7s also get the Mango in right time. All the best to WP7 team! Cheers!!!

Well I was anxiously waiting to watch the live stream of the webcast, but alas, I can't connect to it.....

@torsus: Here's a direct link to the live feed. This help?

www.microsoft.com/.../liveevent.aspx

@Michael Stroh: Thanks Mike!  Really appreciate it.  I knew the webcast was going to get hammered, but not this bad.  But that goes to show just how much excitement is surrounding the next version of Windows Phone, and how much we love it.

I just can't win with Windows Phone.  I have rev 1.4 Focus, I can't find a Microsoft employee anywhere that can tell me why I get error code 85010004 when trying to sync to my corporate OWA email when using the exact same settings that work on Iphone and Android and I can't connect to the press conference.

I am about to give up

Amazing job, i hope it will come in time

@jburch: Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Did you check Answers or post a question there?  That's the support forum and they have folks monitoring it.

answers.microsoft.com/.../wp7

So... this mango will be released in the fall.  Which means prior to December 22nd.  Does that mean it will be released for all in the fall?  Or will most of us still be waiting for it in 2012?

@Michael Stroh: Yes, a couple of times.  Nothing has worked.  I love the phone but not being able to get my work email really has me in a bind.  The only way I can get it on the phone is to log into our OWA website through IE.

all features of Mango are amazing! cant wait to get it. great work WP7 team

but i still did not get may security update to my orange uk omnia 7...

Yet i still haven't received pre-NoDo.  I expect to have Mango in ... 2015

Really great news on the features list - delivers what I was hoping for plus more!! Hope you're not pre-announcing too early though, don't wait to wait too long for this stuff.

So we keep hearing there's over 500 new features in Mango. Can we see that list please?

Yet i still haven't received pre-NoDo.  I expect to have Mango in ... 2015

Wow can't wait for the update...oh wait, nevermind, I don't even have NoDo yet

To me as an app developer, the biggest new features are: Touch events and image decoding on separate threads (huge issue for me today). This is not an issue on the emulator though, however I will only be able to test Mango on the emulator. Camera, accelerometer and gyro are other things that the emulator just can't replace a real device. Before I actually get Mango on the phone (where I really need to be testing), we have already seen how that can easily take months with rolling releases and carrier hold-up. It's simply not acceptable that I as an app developer cannot test or take advantage of the new features before users are getting the updates.

You MUST provide developers a way to run and test these upcoming OS's before launch. The current state is simply not acceptable.

i was disappointed.

nothing big. like we already know all the things prior to this presentation? i was expecting something new, some new features that we would never expect n stuff...

is this it or we can expect some new major stuff till it ships?

and the guy said that "skype is doing an app." so this means that skype wont be completely integrated into phone?

@Michael Stroh - How much of this will be available in places outside the US (such as where I live in Australia)? I watched the live stream and loved all the features you demoed, but when it came to the entire Local Scout demo and the reply to text message using only your voice demo, it was in the back of my mind, "oh, we won't get that in Australia because we don't have Bing Local or Voice Support here :(". Was a real dampener on a great demo.

Can you put my mind at rest that we will get getting the entire feature set or will it be US/Europe only like it is currently?

@jburch Are you using a fully validated official certificate?

Didn't watch live but read the Engadget live blog and the speaker saying "you won't have to wait for mango" and then following that up with saying it's coming in the fall is one of the dumbest things I've read. I'm excited for Mango and love Windows Phone but that was just plain stupid. Four plus months definitely qualifies as waiting. So stupid.

what about right to left languages like farsi and arabic? you promised  it in MIX 2011

I can't be too exicted since I don't even have NoDo, yet.

Microsoft's attempt to make fun of Android's Donut update sure looks stupid now, doesn't it?

Great work MS....Loving all the awesomeness you have in store for us all with Mango.  Still keeping some things to tease out each month thru to SEP/OCT I see :)

Here's hoping (as Andrew says below) that you can overcome the "challenges" for full Mango feature list roll out to all your international markets (or if not all - at least Australia outside of the US lol)!

Developer Tools out today to! Nice.  And Marketplace on the WEB outside of Zune client allows for heaps of extra functionality like regions etc (Yes - I'm a broken record!)...

Looking good.  Please let us know if any of the team are coming to AUS for any launch events.

:)

I've been Microsoft's biggest fanboy.  My Omnia 7 is still running version 7004.  I'm extremely angry.  I'm going to wait a few more hours and then i'll spam every blog that matters.  Only Microsoft can make a fanboy angry. This is RIDICULOUS

@Schrank: I installed the certificates several times now and I have tried it from two different Focus phones.  I put my settings into an Iphone and an Android phone and it works every time so I know I am not blocked at the server.

Great news...Exciting News...only problem is, this this is yet another post by MS that is not an announcement that they have, after over a month, figured out how to get NODO onto my wife's Samsung Focus.  I also see MS still hasn't learned from their many mistakes with WP so far and have yet again given a time frame for the Mango release.  Oh the disappointment and rage when in Januray 2012 we will still be waiting.  For anyone who doesn't like my post, move on to the next one.  For MS, will you ever learn?

Great features. I guess its time for me to move on from Android. Multi-tasking and Live tiles are what pulling me.

Your phone is up do date.

Current phone software version: 7.0(7004)

I HOPE HOPE HOPE, adjustable playback speeds were added to the media player for podcasts.  Really can't switch to WP until that's there.  iPhone has had since day 1 and there're many apps that can do that on Android...but nooooo...nothing like that in WP :(  Please MS I beg you...get this little feature in there!!!!!

So, IE can't be updated outside the core OS then?  Having to wait months yet for a proper/updated web browser on my Focus is testing my patience.  You're killing my beer drinking social experience, Untappd, with the outdated IE7 in WP7.  :(  I was hoping for some type of IE9 love earlier than this "Fall."  Booo....  Just release the browser already.  I'll take a beta version even.  Please.

I'm still reading through the blog, since I couldn't get anything live at work.  But it all looks great, with even a few surprises here and there.  After seeing how much Microsoft is really utilizing the HUB concept, I'm convinced more than ever that iPhone and Android will pale in comparison once we start thinking in this mode.  It just makes SO much more sense.  I said from day 1 that I felt the hub approach was revolutionary and not-too-well understood by most WP7 users (let alone all the non-users).  I think the phrase used to describe the iPhone and Android approach was stovepipe, which is a concept I'm fully aware of in the Lean/Six Sigma world.  That apps in WP7 are even more fully going to be "conversational" with each other is a dramatic departure.  In business data mining we often use the term "drill down" and "drill through", which is what WP7 is really doing.

One thing I couldn't help but notice was a mention about carriers providing more than connectivity, that they "add value" with software & services.  Apparently, Microsoft has not hired any Lean/Six Sigma experts to look at their operation.  I have yet to meet a customer who actually finds carrier software, etc. to be worthwhile.  Value is ALWAYS expressed from the customer point of view, NOT the provider.  As a customer, I pay AT&T for one thing, and one thing only---connectivity.  Same as my cable internet provider.  So, on that particular point, I vehemently disagree with the marketing Microsoft threw in there.

@Morton Nielsen, as was noted in the press conference, more will be coming out in the following weeks.  However, I don't doubt that many leaks will happen between now and then.  As the beta testing expands it will be next to impossible to completely contain "sharing".  Also, laying out little bread crumbs just keeps the interest up and wets the appetite until fall.

please dont delay this update... PLEASEEE.......... THIS IS WHERE WE GET FRUSTRATED WHEN YOU DELAY UPDATES

I just had an interesting experience that showed just how natural WP7 is compared to iPhone.  My wife, a devout iPhone 4 owner, has resisted joining Facebook until now.  Family issues prompted the need.  So, I assisted her in setting it up and downloading the FB app to her iPhone.  She didn't have any photos on her desktop to upload as her profile pic, so I told her to upload one from her phone.  Of course, the iterations she had to go through just to upload a photo were painful compared to how quickly I could select a photo and immediately upload it to FB.  This seemlessness is exactly where I think that WP7 is going to ultimately trounce iPhone and Android.

While I'm looking forward to Mango I'm really concerned that all those cool Bing search features are going to end up being US only. Right now in Canada the only way to get semi-okay results is to set my region to US. This needs to be fixed. I'm seriously tired of waiting for this, and the full marketplace. Music + Videos still is a black background and the live tile never updates in Canada.

And I see that the "I need multiple calendars" crowd will see relief in Mango.  Multiple calenders, color coded.  Not a useful feature for me, since I send all my appointments, regardless of source, to a single calendar (only way to accurately see everywhere I need to be and avoid 100% of conflicts).  But, clearly, the customers have been heard on that one.  Now the waiting game begins ;)

This is welcome and awesome upgrade, just make sure to get it in our hand in time.. thanks for awesome work.

Scuba: Generally agree with you about the carriers, but I have to say that I've been using the AT&T code scanner app, although I deleted all of the AT&T apps that were installed on my Focus when I bought it. I've had more reliable results with the AT&T code scanner than any other one I've tried from the Marketplace.

That said, the comments about the carriers adding value was just good partner relations. Microsoft never publically criticized the carriers during the delays of delivering NoDo (partially because there was plenty of blame to go around among the carriers, Microsoft and the OEMs) and they never publically criticized Verizon for its major role in the Kin debacle.

On Mango: exciting stuff and I am looking forward to it. Two tidbits from the event: First, I noticed the name "Zune" appeared on a slide listing WP services. That still doesn't mean the name won't be going away, but it didn't appear at all during MIX. Second, Endgadget is reporting that Mango has been officially designated WP 7.1 and not 7.5 as we were expecting. This is quite a lot of new stuff for a .1 release.

I already gave up on any features on my WP,the only thing I'm expecting from mango,is a fix for the usability of bing maps in Canada,if its still the same,I'm definitely selling my phone the next day and dive into the android jungle.I'm not saying Android is any better overall,just that it does the basic things I need perfectly such as navigation or just the Google maps services.all these big Mango features and promises are no way exciting to me all I want is first a fix of the current version.

P.S,by the way nothing guarantee I'll be getting the update before January 2012

Now tell me, how much of the Mango features will be US only or limited to like 5 countries. I'm guessing all of the Bing stuff and everything Marketplace related.

@Strider_Auz - I Think I Answered My Own Question. This Is From An Image On A Microsoft Facebook Page: http://twitpic.com/51zkko (Check The Bottom Of The Pic - US/UK Only). :(

And will Gmail not be completely useless and counterproductive now?

I hope one of those 500 features is support for more than one calendar per account.

@Michael Stroh...im new to blogging and really just have a silly question: based on everything that I have read and viewed in videos on Mango, I just want to clarify that Mango is going to be infact a software update (in the fall) and not a option for new phones only? I am purchasing a Samsung Focus in a couple of weeks and I am really excited about all that Mango has to offer but would hate that its olny for specific phones. Again I realize that the answer seems pretty clear however reading through some blogs has confused me a little so i would rather be sure, thanks.

Great stuff.  Will the text-to-speech work for Outlook emails?

Hi. I am eager about mango update. I would like to ask you if there is going to be localization for the new supported languages. For example is there going to be a Greek interface, or only typing support? Thank you very much anyway

@telly0828: Hi and welcome--and thanks for buying a  phone!  I think you'll like what you see. Yes, you're correct. Mango will be available on new phones and as a free update to current Windows Phone owners starting later this fall.

Regarding the blog post:

1. "Mango, which will be available this fall..." needs clarification. Does that mean Mango will be available to the OEMs & carriers in the Fall or will it be pushed to consumer devices starting in the Fall?

Regarding Joe's video:

1. Multitasking - is that preemptive multitasking or switch tasking?

2. IE9 - it would have been nice if Acid3, Browsermark, and Sun Spider tests were performed on all of the phones for different (possibly better) metric

Bing, Local scout, Cards - are great! But how much of this will be available outside of USA?

My MS Exchange administrator at work tells me that the WP7 doesn't have enough security for them to feel comfortable allowing me to sync to their OWA via exchange. Will the upgrade have improved security?

I'm Really loving the Windows phone,

but where's arabic support?!

@nesher Local Scout is only US and UK. Bing Audio f.e. is only in like 5 countries too. I understand Local Scout since Bings Data in Europe sucks, but Bing Audio makes no sense.

I'm loving the commitment Microsoft is putting into this new platform - mango is packed with really interesting things for developers to explore.  I'm very confident that this platform is going to succeed in a really big way!

I was hoping to hear news about being able to not only search for local and web results, but even search content that's on the phone (type a text phrase to find all contacts, messages, SMS, songs/videos, etc.) that match.  Anyone heard any rumblings on this front?

Well, that's nice, but still no native C/C++ code :/    

Guys, please read this:

www.pocketgamer.biz/.../news.asp

What exactly is that "political decision" ?

MS used to be cool and developers friendly.

What happened?

Yeah, lots of noise about Mango.  Sounds great, but I'm barely even paying attention to it anymore, as I doubt I'll actually have it on my phone before 2012 anyway.

If past performance is any indication, the Microsoft/AT&T/Samsung "partnership" pretty much guarantees months of waiting with weekly "nothing to report" updates to hold us over.  The NoDo nightmare all over again (and even worse, since Mango is actually a meaningful update)... fun fun fun

@Sogeman...The reason Bing Audio won't be in all locations is because not everyone speaks the same.  When you are working with voice recognition, accents have to be INCREDIBLY hard to work around, and doing multiple languages would be even harder!  Although with the US and UK under the umbrella, I would expect Canada and Aus to not be far behind as it would just be accent tweaks.

VERY excited to see the Xbox Games update!  It was annoying in my eyes to have to open an app to use what I thought should be native features. (Glance and go, Glance and go!)

Very excited to see the avatar features and Gamerscore comparison brought into the main overall experience.  The one last request I would HOPE made it in then is that the Xbox message system will include native WP spell check!

Windows Phone: You *don't need* an App for that!

Absolutely amazing stuff guys! Because I'm a huge fans most of what was demoed i already assumed would be true (thanks to leaks and rumors) but it does my heart well to know that everything i heard would be in the update would be in the update and much more. It was nice to see a "history" tab in the contatcs view. I saw that in a fan made mock up and it looked really nice and it seems you guys saw it too or were thinking along those lines. Being a social butterfly the twitter integration and new messaging experience is music to my ears. One question, in the demoes i saw that you could set your presence/status but it appeared that it was either only for msn messenger or that it set it for facebook chat as well. Is there seperate settings. like if you want to appear offline on facebook chat but be available on live messenger? i hope so.

I sincerely hope that the whole update fiasco process is behind us and mango will be a smooth TIMELY update. regardless i will have a focus 2 (or whatever samsung's Galaxy S II windowsphone variant will be called) on preorder or stand in line to get one. Focus 2 + Mango update= Old Spice guy level awesomeness

Again Microsoft did not support right to left languages , Again Microsoft neglect middle east customers

@Curtieson Pretty sure Bing Audio is that Shazam like stuff. Songs are the same everywhere. Also, I'm pretty sure there's voice recognition for somet things on my phone right now...

Guys I just got my Samsung Focus. Do you recommend updating it to March and February update or wait for the Mango update?

Honestly, I don't see any major new stuff or improvement except Live Messenger (FINALLY!!) and extra language support (since I am a Chinese).  

Speaking about speedy browser, the current nodo browser is fast enough, but it's the missing features than drag us down greatly.  e.g. missing password saving feature and it's primitive bookmark system.  Giving us a instant loaded & 200fps browser doesn't help our productivity if we still have to retype our password every time and go thru an bookmark lists that couldn't be organized easily.

While MS is saying so many new features added (where is that 500+ listed?), they are totally silent about major issues or missing features that users need most.

1. It's ridiculous that location (currently saved as Hong Kong) of my primary Live account cannot be change and I have to create a dummy account just to use my phone since I am in US now.  And it's one of my (and many others) major issue I never buy a single app in marketplace since I am not comfortable to associate my credit card info with a dummy account.

2.Fix the crappy BT: it's surely dump if the only feature on your BT stack is just to connect a headset.  Not to mention video over A2DP is not working.

And where are other top listed features like tethering GPS Navigation?

I just got my new Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S II) and I am relief about the switch after my 10+ yrs with Windows Mobile (my first PDA is iPaq 2215).  My Samsung Focus probably will sit in my drawer forever to collect dust given how WP team playing catch up with the competitors.

It would be awesome if under the share option while listening to music via Zune, if you could post the song you're listening to to your wall or a friends wall on Facebook.  Or even, an artist, song, or album from your collection or the Marketplace on both the device and the Zune desktop software.

I am wondering about multi-tasking for CPS tracking, timer, etc apps.  I use Runkeeper now and if I leave the app while in session, it will stop until I resume the app.  Is this scenario being addressed with how Mango and the live agents manage background processes?

Michael - ALL - open plea to MS on Mango release: Sheeds' Blog http://bit.ly/imMM6B

PLEASE PLEASE manage the region restrictions re: "LOCAL" featureset differently!

Well finally got Update 7.0.7392.0, Omnia7 on T-Mobile UK.

I absolutely love my windows 7 phone - and Mango is very exciting! Will I get the update as a current WP7 user?

Not sure if this is being included in the next update, but basics should be considered in the next update such as:

1) being able to change the sounds that play as your alarm to music that you have on your phone

2) being able to set an end date for recurring events on your phone. Is this just me being silly? but I have to do this on windows live at the moment

3) Use of  Windows Live tasks in WP7 would make it a better "business" phone. There is no where on the phone where I can write memos to myself or have to-do notes. Using live tiles to do have a "to-do" would make to-do lists better than what is seen on most Nokia phones.....

Answered my own question about getting current users getting the update... already.... Oops!

Are you guys adding capability to copy documents from zune to the phone? Maybe I am missing something, but currently there is no way other than to email a document to myself and open it on the phone to have it locally on the phone. Please add this feature.

Are we going to be able to back-up the phone data yet? All the bells and whistles are nice, but I want a back-up ability more than anything. .....and not just for pictures on Zune. I'd also like the ability to update and connect the phone to the computer without Zune. Zune doesn't support XP64bit, so I have to use a different computer for this phone.

@jburch - Enter your email address and password, email server address without the /exchange or /owa at the end (for Exchange Online I use red001.mail.microsoftonline.com) and ensure you select SSL required. You might have to install the SSL certificate first. I use Exchange Online and the SSL cert is done seamlessly. Don't assume that the same settings tht work on Android or iPhone is recommended on WP7, those device implement ActiveSync in weird ways, especially the myriad Android phones out there.

why microsoft didn't add the ARABIC  language ??? middle east is a huge marketing and I bet NOKIA  knows that ..

I just bought omnia 7 a month ago and I hoped they'll add ARABIC but now I'm very disappointed...

This is wonderful and I cannot wait to develop for Windows Phone.

Desirable Magazine, LLC  http://desirablemag.com

Does anyone know if Screen Capture will be added in "Mango"? Also why was Yahoo Messenger left out of the integrated IMs in "Mango"?

Since i have a rev 1.4 Samsung Focus am on version 7.0.7004 and cannot update, will I have to purchase a new phone in the fall to get Mango?

Thanks.

Romania still missing from supported countries! Shame-you Micro$oft !

Great work guys. But we all know it will not make a difference if no one knows about them. So, up the ante on TV ads, ALL WP7 ADs SUCK big time; nobody want to watch ads that show you how to put a phone away. The public is not getting ANY message form the ads and would it kill to have ads that do not involve any humans but simple faceless ads with just a pair of hands and a voice-over on a white background showing off all WP7 features in various everyday scenarios. There is a reason why it works for competitors; its plain, simple, uncluttered, and straigh to the point.

Enough about how to put your phone away, and more about what WP7 can do for you when you actually want/need to use it and not put it away And with all the leaks we've all heard about on the news, I'm sure enterprises and the government will love the new Information Rights management (IRM) to help keep their data in-house even on mobile devices with full SCCM 2012 management and security support in addition to current on-premise and cloud solutions support.

I really hope one of the 500 new features is when you plug your WP7 into your PC, with Zune installed that you are given an option to 'Charge Only' via USB.

This feature would be so handy + available on the other mobile platforms.

@Michael Stroh,picture this scenario:you are in a park(outside town) on a sunny day to take advantage of the beautiful weather and you are working on a document on your laptop which you have to send immediately,you don't have any Wifi network around,but you have a windows phone with a 3G connection,first you can't transfer the file directly from your PC to your phone by USB and secondly you can't even theder to upload the file to the cloud, so conclusion you are screwed.

Now ask yourself and your team is this more important than having an intergrated bing with all the fancy features which as a whole work in the US only??and are completely useless just North of the USA,I mean just here in Canada!

Surely Local Scout will work in Canada out of the box. It is not an accent problem like one poster alluded to because there is no accent difference between most of Canada and the US. I'm on a conference with a bunch of Americans and Canadians every week and the only ones you tell where they are from by their accent are from the deep south.

Is Microsoft Canada completely spineless--I haven't heard a peep from them in pushing for more Bing/WP7 services in Canada nor have the taken up the cause to get Microsoft's Gouge-All-Foreigners marketplace surcharge more even and fair--I'll grudginly pay the 12% gouge on $0.99 but I stopping buying any apps beyond that where the gouge is as much as 23% such as on a $1.99 app. And I used to buy a lot of them.

@Code Layer, it would really be unrealistic to expect Skype integration in time for Mango.  Remember, Mango is still in beta and at some point you have to draw the line and say "no more additions" in order to fully stress the update to make sure the bugs are worked out and all the features you DO have in there will work to the fullest extent you intended.  Microsoft only just acquired Skype (remember, announcing acquisition is only the beginning of the process).  I would imagine it would be months before Microsoft would have full access to the Skype ecosystem and coding.  That Skype will be available as an app by Mango launch is enough for now.  I believe we'll likely see integrated Skype and things like tethering (aside from us lucky folks who can already tether with the Samsung Focus) will show up early or mid 2012 (depending on, among other things, how well the Mango deployment goes).  

I'm sorry you're disappointed with what's going to be in Mango.  I don't understand the insistance on being "wow'd" by some surprise feature.  I'm extremely happy so many of the features that other devices already have will be added.  I'm also excited by how seriously Microsoft is taking the hub/integration meme.  I remain convinced that most people don't really comprehend the potential of this idea.  That apps will be interacting with each other in such a unique way--and often without our interference--is something that neither iPhone nor Android can touch.  Their apps and their OS's are very much stovepipe driven.  Not so with WP7, particularly after Mango.

Hopefully it will be available on my Samsung Omnia 7 in the same time as for others - also 2011? However Bing, local scout and so on are fantastic! But how much of this will be available outside of USA?

At the moment I'm in Austria with Live Search instead of Bing Search and also there is no navigation on Bing Maps in Austria!

@robtani.......adjusting playback speeds?  What is that?  And what's the practical use?  I can't imagine wanting to change my music speeds or video speeds.  What do you use that feature in?  (I suspect, if there really is significant demand for such a feature someone will build it into a third party media player once Mango is out).

@rlintw....I guess I'm glad you found SOMEthing from AT&T that's useful.  I actually found that particular app the most useless of all the stuff they had out there.  Just goes to show you that everyone has different needs.  And, quite frankly, I despise carrier interference so badly that even IF AT&T had a useful app I would intentionally NOT use it for that reason alone.  I just can't express how much I HATE carriers doing anything other than provide robust connectivity.  When I buy a new desktop (unless I've built it myself) I immediately remove every single piece of vendor-added software.  I buy a PC for the OS and the hardware set---not the junk vendors mistakenly believe is "value-added".  On the Zune issue, I think I saw on another site where the Zune "identity" is being split up so that Zune will be a much smaller footprint and the spinoffs will be integrated with the areas they really should be (e.g., games).  If I can find the link again I'll post it.  Personally, I do like the Zune name, and it's my opinion that Microsoft usually doesn't have a great track record with naming conventions.  I like names like Lync, Azure, Zune.  But then you have Windows Live <insert sub-feature-here> or "Windows Phone Series 7".  And on the 7.1 vs 7.5 thing, I just saw on EverythingWM that apparently when viewed via browser check that Mango is advertising itself as 7.5.  Not that this is really of any importance whatsoever, but I had a conversation with a friend over this last night and we both thought this was way too big of a release (particularly when you see their ad says it "changes everything") to be just a .1 release.

I wonder where people are getting the idea that the Mango update will cost them $$$.  At no point have I ever seen any official statement OR rumor that people would have to pay for the update.  I noticed on the latest podcast that they made a pointed statement about it being free---you only have to do that if people are spreading a rumor to the contrary.  Silliness.

@Vala Zadeh, if it didn't already come updated then I suggest you update it the next time you sync up in Zune.  HOWEVER, be aware that it looks like all updates to the Samsung Focus are on hold because there is a problem with hardware revision 1.4 (you can see if yours is 1.3 or 1.4 by looking under the battery).  I have NoDo but the 7392 update for the security certificate issue has not been deploying.  So, try it.  If you get updated, you're good to go.  Likely, though, you'll just get the "Your phone is up to date" message.

@WP7Star, you need to start thinking "Skydrive".  Zune is not designed to be your document interface.  The integration with the Skydrive is going to be fantastic.  I can't stress enough to folks that you really need to quit thinking of your desktop as your core.  If you absolutely insist on placing some degree of reliance on the desktop I urge you to use Microsoft Mesh to establish a sync folder on your desktop (and you can setup the same thing across multiple desktops so that all sync).  Any files you place in the Mesh folder will sync to the Skydrive.  Once Mango is release we'll have full access to the Skydrive (I can already hit most of it now, but it's a little painful at the moment).

@ThaRebeliouZ....why not just switch to Windows Messenger?  Really, what's the difference?  Besides, because of how tightly integrated it's going to be, I don't see that it makes sense to have multiple messengers woven in.  Windows Messenger is clearly the preferred platform.  I totally understand why Yahoo! wasn't chosen.

@Kenny Rawlins, WiFi hotspot is supposed to be supported in Mango, according to some of the websites.  So, I believe your issue will be solved.  But, keep in mind that this may be an obviously significant issue for you but not for others.  I'm not one of those people driving around with my laptop doing stuff.  I'd much prefer to be able to do more on my phone than be forced to drag my laptop around.  Different people, different needs.

PLEASE..........!!!! Please let non-developer phone have the choice of upgrading to mango even if it is in beta... even for a small fee.... even when there's still bugs... please let us have it soon....

@Michael Stroh, Can Microsoft not make Outlook work without the Activesync bit? My employers are a bit stroppy about enabling Activesync on my account :(

When will support Arabic??

22 countries of the language is Arabic in the Middle East and North Africa

Why ignore this??

Okay, in the Mildly Disappointing Department, I see that voice-to-text is only for messaging, not for email.  The LG Voice to Text app does Twitter, Messaging, Email and memos (and works well on the Focus).  Not a show stopper, but I'm kind of surprised the Mango V2T capability is limited to message only.  Maybe a third party developer will create one that everyone can use.

Still waiting for Microsoft to deliver on the statements made during the leadup to the release of WP7 devices back in September and October. Still waiting for the phone to have equivalent features to WM6.5, let alone any other smartphone OS. Still waiting for some straight talk out of Microsoft over the device rather than statements shrouded in PR speak. You have yet to be able to deliver on original statements from 8 months ago. Why, then, should I be excited about Mango? As far as I'm concerned, these are just more statements that you probably won't/can't deliver on - overreaching promises that existing owners won't even begin to see until early 2012, if the carriers even care at that time to bother with updates.

As it stands, WP7 is inferior to previous WM versions, inferior to iOS and Android, and by the time Mango comes out Android's Ice Cream Sandwich and iOS 5 will be out. You'll still be months, if not years, behind. Mango still doesn't bring feature parity to WP7 and iOS4 or Android 2.3.3. It's no wonder developers are running away from this platform, OEMs have repeatedly disparaged it, and the only way the marketplace can keep boosting their apps numbers is by having dozens of crappy apps like Quotes apps - which barely qualify as apps at all.

Office Mobile 7 will still be very user unfriendly - the lack of any local sync is a total joke, go ask Sony how secure the Cloud is. Sorry, I'm not uploading a critical work document to SkyDrive just because we don't have Sharepoint Server. Xbox Live integration is showing that it's increasingly poor (when it doesn't have multiplayer, can we really call it "Xbox Live"?) with overpriced games, including ones that are inferior to iOS and Android counterparts (research Angry Birds for WP7, an older version of the game). IE9 Hardware Acceleration? Who cares? HA on the web on desktop is still, mostly, in its infancy and mobile web providers certainly aren't making their mobile content need hardware acceleration. If you believe people are going to try to do everything on their phones that they do on a desktop or laptop, you're deluding yourselves.

I was really hoping you'd live up to your press releases and make this phone competitive, but I can see now my hope was misplaced. Most carriers don't even care about you now. They're not going to care about you by the end of the year. Your platform is a joke to them - they don't even try to sell customers on it. And you're not helping change their minds - hidden sales numbers, shoddy support, lame update cycle, et cetera. By the time Mango comes out, WP7 will be locked solidly in dead last place.

@ScubaDog - Stop thinking of the desktop as our "core"? Give me a freakin break. In every company, nearly everywhere, the desktop - including the server - is STILL the core. For most consumers, the desktop is STILL the core. The cloud is NOT being embraced eagerly or rapidly by all. It may be for you, but every day I still have to deal with storage solutions, servers, user desktops and user laptops.

Honestly, you sound like Apple trying to spout off this Post-PC nonsense. We are NOT Post-PC. You might be, but the rest of the 90% of the world is not. Stop acting like the cloud is currently a viable alternative. IT IS NOT. Look at Sony's troubles, look at the troubles of data centers in disaster zones, etc etc. The lack of local sync in Office, to include Outlook, IS APPALLING. Microsoft is clearly trying to lock-in sales of Sharepoint Server for companies that want to use WP7.

I'm kinda with Captiosus on this one.  Skydrive integration is a MUST, and I do want it (if anything so I can pull down stuff I've sync'd with Windows Live Mesh.)  But there's the rub, it's sorta 1 way syncing. If I pull down a document to my phone from....let's say...email.  I make a few edits, I put it in my pocket.  When I get home I can't just pull it off my phone via the software, I have to go back to the phone, upload it to Skydrive, then pull it back down to my computer.  I have 2 computers (a desktop and a netbook) I keep in sync with Mesh One of which still uses Office 2k7, so editing files straight from skydrive is out of the question (2k7 didn't support it that I can find.)

This is what Stepto called the "Redmond Reality Distortion field"  MS is assuming everyone jumped on the newest coolest tech (Office 2k10 with skydrive, Sharepoint, whatever) rather than adding in some support to help people who haven't caught up yet.  The Cloud just isn't ready yet, sometimes I won't have internet access, sometimes I just want to edit a document locally, a whole host of things.  Mesh allows me to have the best of both worlds, but WP7 currently doesn't.

That being said, I still do like my WP7, and I can't wait for mango, I just wish they had better user focus groups to work out the tiny kinks.

@ Captiousus - I feel your pain... truly feel your pain...

@Cap - Its behind? It depends what you consider behind... - WP7 will never match every single feature IOS and Android have and it doesn't need to...Windows Phone is a new way of doing things, its a different approach and it sounds like its not the phone for you as you keep comparing it to what everyone else has. You will continue to be disappointed if you think this way. It will not have features previously that 6.5 had because of new requirements and conditions with smartphones.

Also the cloud is what the selling point is for wp7, if the cloud is not your bag, this phone is not for you...

Well i am with @Cap on this one. Maybe this phone is not for me also. I like wp7 a lot. But in the future if USB local thing dont come up, i guess i will

jump to Android on my next phone.

I love wp7 cloud integration but a complete phone should embrace all, cloud, local, etc... If wp7 decides that they just want to stick with cloud, i know

Android already have all, and eventually start to integrate everything in the OS and refine the UI.

I dont get how companies are all Cloud thing even when users just dont want embrace it. They just dont give a damn about cloud. Cloud is nice and convinient but not the whole thing. The perfection is having both together for different uses...

Another thing, Marini said that IE wont have plug-ins (flash) because of 2 things, security and because we dont need it. We who? We him? We him and a couple of Redmonds iluminated people who think HTML5 is the thing now and not only from 3,5+ years? We dont need Flash, really?

4th most wanted feature:

windowsphone7community.uservoice.com/.../1189865-ability-to-play-flash-video-and-flash-media

Thank you Windows Phone Team, we are waiting for Mango update.

I second Captiousus and Tiago Fouto on pretty much everything they wrote.  @ Krush You - I guess WP7 is not for me neither... Too bad I still have 22 months left in my contract with Sprint...

@grh

You can do this by going into Zune settings -> software -> general and unticking the launch Zune when I connect a compatible device

@Scubadog2011,you should understand that some people have very important and private stuff they feel is mostly secured in their hands( on their computers ),so they just can't trust the cloud(SkyDrive) to store them securely,so no matter what they still need a way to carry their files from their PC to their phone,just look at the playstation Network scandal,what if that happens to SkyDrive,because there's a possibility for that.

And FYI,i don't have to be in my office everyday,atimes i sit in my office just twice a week,the other days i can be anywhere and a colleague needs a report or a data set,reason why i carry my PC all over but not everywhere i go is there a Wifi connection

@Captiosus, believe me, at first I was confounded with the divorce from local sync.  But now I don't miss it at all.  It took a bit of a paradigm shift to looking at my data, my connectivity a different way.  My desktop is purely a hardware appliance now for accessing my data.  I run a domain at my home, so I'm aware of issues there.  True, Microsoft did not help things by not having a mature Skydrive platform and complementary functionality on WP7 at launch.  But it's clear they are making significant and purposeful steps to fix that.  For the individual or small business user I just can't see holding onto the local meme for much longer.  WP7 was never designed to be an enterprise device and, Mango improvements notwithstanding, I don't see much serious movement in that direction---you're better off going with another platform if that's your bread and butter.  And I don't place Sony anywhere near the tier of Microsoft or even Google when it comes to anything cloud-related.  That's a non-starting argument as far as I'm concerned, and Sony is nothing but a bad joke in my opinion.  I tend to look down my nose at all things gaming console related.  But, seriously, I don't think anyone who needs serious enterprise mobility should even be thinking WP7.  Stick with Blackberry or whatever other platform is truly able to support that.

@scubadog2011,by the way if you really want to know is really important for me is to be able to use bing just the current version not even what is expected in mango,right now bing map is useless in Canada and bing search is retarded.but after seeing that the scout stuff is US/UK only I see that my bing will still be the same after mango as long as I am in Canada,reason why I gave up on talking about bing

@tsrbike, you're right that Microsoft's Skydrive and cloud platform isn't quite ready yet, but the changes coming to Windows Live and Mango will make a lot of the one-way concerns go away.  I definitely feel that pain.  For it to work well and be fully adopted, secure two-way, seemless movement needs to be the benchmark.  In a way I do get your issue with being pushed to jump to the latest software, etc., but then Apple lived by that idea nearly from the start.  I can't tell you how many times, as a tech, that I had to give customers (typically schools) the disappointing news that none of their software would work if they upgraded to newer Macs or Apples.  Apple maintained top of the line performance and features because they DID basically tell customers "suck it up" if they wanted new hardware.  Microsoft took an opposite approach, attempting a pretty fair degree of backward compatibility.  The cost was a LOT of issues with the various operating systems, drivers, etc.  Well, I wonder what you feel is a reasonable amount of resources that Microsoft should apply to keeping older software/hardware users in the fold?  I really think that there is a point where the intended overall performance is dependent upon all other pieces being fairly modern.  I think what we're experiencing are the growing pains of fundamentally changing the way we think about and use information, and in order to make that jump completely there's a capital investment that comes with it.  

Now, you might not know it, but you can access your Mesh files from WP7 but it's via the browser.  I've been able to successfully access my spreadsheets, for example, via the browser on WP7 and bring them to the phone for local edit and storage.  Of course, until Mango comes out it's not really a sync, which means I have to email the file to myself so that I can store the updated version back to the Mesh folder.

@Tiago Fouto, speaking only for myself, I don't have any need for Flash.  It does not exist on my desktop and I send nasty-grams to any website that I visit that insists that I have Flash to use it.  I would love to force everyone to HTML5 if I could.  Flash is old, slow and eats resources.  Oh, and riddled with security flaws.  I'm sorry there are so many who insist on holding onto it.  BUT, for those who live and die by Flash, then I think Android is the phone you folks need to go to, simple as that.  I don't blame Microsoft at all for standing firm on Flash.  Same situation with the local sync.  As I mentioned before, at first this apparent oversight bothered me until I embraced how the Outlook Connector worked.  I find being able to access my data wherever I'm at, from whatever device I want to much more appealing.  Clearly, for some, this is a show-stopper.  So, again, I think WP7 is not the device for you.  Android clearly answers that call.

@Kenny Rawlins, it sounds like an app that connects you wirelessly to your PC (along the lines of the old PC Anywhere) would fit your bill.  That would allow you to connect directly to your PC without relying on the cloud for actual storage.  I suspect with the new APIs in Mango this will be a functionality that third party developers will want to jump on.  Just a guess on my part, though.  Also, perhaps since Microsoft is improving passwording they'll eventually add encryption, which would make storage in the cloud more secure.  We've not seen all the 500+ improvements yet with Mango.

@scuba yes i know you are talking for yourself, not for others which globally think its the 4th most priority feature needed, including me...

I must admit I am rather excited about the voluminous new features being added with Mango but I do have a few reservations.

1) I have not heard anything about support for VPNs. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft wouldn't include support for VPNs considering how prevalently they are used in businesses and institutions.

2) Consistency. In the revamped Games hub the tiles for installed games has been replaced by a list+icons but in the Office hub the inverse has happened; the nice, attractive ordered list of Word/Powerpoint/Excel documents has been replaced by a hideous mass of bland coloured tiles. Doesn't seem right.

Also, why have the Zune player controls been moved to the top of the screen (and not centred)? They look out of place and if I am not mistaken the impetus for moving IE's navigation bar to the bottom of the screen was to make it easier to use, why make Zune harder to use?

3) The task switcher interface. While I think that Microsoft has made the ideal choice in employing multitasking on WP7 I am not too happy with the back button interface. For one thing it is fairly unattractive; large images against the theme coloured background. Landscape support should be also be present. In Joe's demonstration he kept having to tilt the device when changing between Fruit Ninja and Rise of Glory; not really necessary. Lastly is there a way to 'kill' an app from the task switching list; there should be an 'unpin' icon at the top right of all running apps. I don't want to have to continually wade through apps I don't need open any longer.

Could we also get the Office splash that was present in early builds of WP7 back in the Office hub back? The stark white is a bit dreary; most other hubs have an attractive background for the panorama.

All this aside I must congratulate everyone involved in the work on Mango for such a solid effort - you have certainly accomplished a monumental amount in such a short span. Bravo.

@ ScubaDog2011 - Dude, you are really marketing Apple and Android devices very well.  You are practically telling EVERYONE who doesn’t agree with your “philosophical” way of seeing “things” to just go buy an iPhone or Android.  I honestly think that your “rhetoric” is getting old and you need to start to realize that no one has died to make you the king of the truth…

But I am going to leave NOW you with a question –since you are the official voice of MS: if WP7 was NEVER designed to be an enterprise device, then, what was it designed for? Just for the regular Joe type of customer? If so, they should have made it pink with flowers and butterflies, and good enough for making calls, send texts or listen to music.  But I got news for you, as far as I am concern, that’s not a smartphone AND since MS made WP7 to be a smartphone, then the least they could have done was to make it solid enough to compete with the “others” OR are you going to now redefine the meaning of SMARTPHONE?

@Scubadog2011,the cloud will never ever be secure than the Desktop or Laptop,I'll tell you that as more as the encryption increase so to does the hacking techniques improve.

@buckeye - Its obvious you want an Iphone or Android as everything you complain about WP7 is what a lot of people like about it. Personally? I bought the phone for what it did at sale not for what is believed to come or what it might do later.

It had the features I wanted and tied into xbox, zune and windows live

Every Carrier has a return policy, if it didn't do what you wanted why did you keep it?

@ Krush You - Tell me, what do I complain about? The fiasco with the update process, the broken promises, the lack of transparency, the deployment of a device that is not even close to what the competition has out there, the lack of support, etc.  So, you think that EVERYBODY loves the issues I have been complaining about? You need to get your facts checked amigo!

@Captiosus always got my vote since most of his statements are sensible.   I really sick of seeing WP team repeatedly demonstrate IE9 HA while my main concern with the current browser are something else.  If that's what your new browser, I would rather have an Opera browser that can optionally remember the password of visited site, can sync and easily managed my bookmarks in a nice fashion.  The current bookmarks system is simply a joke and is worse than a 15 yrs old Netscape 1.0

@JasonB you don't like change, do you?

@ScubaDog2011 i figured if they already got AIM. Windows Messenger Live and Facebook chat integrated why the not just put Yahoo Messenger in there too instead of having to depend now on a 3rd party app.

@ThaRebeliouZ who says they've got AIM on there?

@Scubadog2011: I don't want to put any of my personal documents on skydrive or any other cloud or email service for security/privacy concerns. How can I get my documents on the phone? Wireless sync is ok (as long as zune does it securely). When Microsoft does it for pictures, music and videos - why not documents? Michael, please pass this basic request to the team.

I am with captious,WP7 is not for me

1 it does things differently which is nice but it doesnt do enough things,smart is all about an intelligent way to do what we do.and wp can't do what we do

2 i'll never trust the cloud

conclusion: waiting for the ice cream sandwich new devices and diving into the android jungle

@scubadog2011.by the way regarding flash,its my right to request it,because its the only way to enjoy a full browsing experience how many websites use html?found an answer?now check how many use flash?as long web developers keep building websites which require flash,i cant help but want it

How about:

Make a blog for your US/UK customers who get all the cool stuff.

Make a blog for the rest of us plebs who get scraps? Block access to the first one based on country location.

That way, the rest of us mere mortals won't have to see yet another MS product that is never, ever going to be released outside of the US.

@AussieAdam,thats a great idea,i support it

@florinr08 - You're right , i must've ran into one of the rumour blogs about the features and thought AIM was being built in with Live Messenger and FB chat. Oh well, it guess we can always use 3rd party Apps for those, not a big deal to me.

I would still like to see more of the "500 new features" in Mango, i wasn't expecting no more than 25 to be honest so this definitely caught my attention.

talking about IE,after all the propaganda on IE9 about its speed and beauty,I 've compared IE9 and chrome on five PCs and chrome won on all PCs when it came to start up speed,page loading speed, and searching,many sites don't even load properly on IE9 e.g. ctv.ca

conclusion i dont believe in any stats from micrsoft anymore and the IE9 mobile will be as shitty as the desktop version

It is too late to release it in the world of an added language.

Just wanted to leave a comment here saying Well done to you guys.

This is by far the best update in mobile history. You guys have been working hard and the results speak for themselves.  You've really differentiated Windows Phone from anything else out there. Can't wait to get my hands on the update. Good luck for the release and once again - good work.

@Michael Stroh, will be in Mango Smart Dialer?

About international support. As I don't see my country listed, all I want to say, that I don't really need to make Windows Phone in my language, but at least you could bring support for more international keyboards.

And what? There's no MyPhone service coming back with Mango? It was so nice to have SMSes synced to the cloud. Now if I change, lose, get my mobile broken, my SMSes are to stay with my device?

And it's very pity to hear about no tethering in Mango. For me it was just a selfexplanatory feature of WinMo 6.5

And I don't hear anything about the easily searchable address book to call phone numbers. Try to dial a number of WinPhone7 and try it on good old HTC WinMo 6.5. It takes a fraction of a second to search for and dial a number in HTC WinMo 6.5 (tap Phone, type surname), and it takes two seconds in WinPhone7 (tap Phone, tap Address Book, tap Search, type surname).

Anybody heard about contact forwarding from the address book? Is that possible at all? Oh, there's an app for that. But is that a matter of an app, or is that a functionality of a phone?

Tried to copy paste from a website? Dial a phone number written in a website? I hope, oh, I hope it's gonna be properly implemented in IE9.

No matter how badly I write here, still I am a believer. But if Mango doesn't solve this, I will definitely rethink my phone strategy.

I'm a user of every version of Microsoft Phones right from Pocket PC 2002... Please just don't disappoint me this time.

@BuckeyeTico, goodness, don't take things so seriously.  And you are fond of generalization.  I don't "tell everyone" to get an iPhone or Android.  I'm not the official voice for anyone.  Quit making things up.  You just don't like that I disagree with some of your contentions.  But, I think I make a valid point.  If a platform doesn't do what you want it to do, and if those missing features are not likely to show up anytime soon and your need for them is so crucial, what sense would it make to continue using that platform?  I'm serious.  I don't know why anyone came into WP7 expecting something different from what they got since pretty much everything that it was capable of (and not) was fully available at launch.  But, be that as it may, most of you who have spent considerable typing in comparing iPhone or Android features to what's missing in WP7, it seems very clear what platform y'all need to go to.  As far as the enterprise customer, I guess I read a lot more blogs and websites than many, because since November I've seen a number of places where various Microsoft people made it clear that they weren't targeting the enterprise with WP7.  It's kind of silly, I think, to assume that the consumer market is butterflies and whatever goofiness.  Apple has proven that the consumer market is much more sophisticated than it once was (though it certainly does allow for the pink flowers, butterflies, dragons & whatever).  I don't any of us have deluded ourselves into thinking that WP7 at launch was even fully ready for the consumer market.  I do believe, however, after seeing what's been released so far about Mango, that it will solidly address the consumer market quite well.  In fact, if third party developers fully grasp the hub and integration meme (which they really haven't done yet, judging by their Android-esque stovepipe app designs), there will be no comparison---WP7 will be far and away better.  However, it's also clear that Micrsoft is BEGINNING to pay some attention to tne enterprise.  Since I work in a very high security environment, the requirements for allowing any mobile device to access info are pretty tight.  The last device we setup connectivity with were the Treo devices (Windows Moblie, of course).  But WP7 isn't going to come close to meeting the requirements even after Mango.  So, guess what device currently wins the day?  Blackberry.  Oh, sure, I'd love to see us moving to WP7.  But that isn't going to happen any time soon and we have to be okay with that.  Our requirements aren't flexible, so our patform choices have to be.  Personally, I hate crackberries.  But the fit the bill.

@ThaRebeliouz, I just read on EverythingWM that Messenger allows you to sign in to Yahoo! messenger and others, so the way they made it sound is that effectly that integrates those other messenger services.  It sure sounds like that solves that particular issue.

@Tiago Fouto, do you have a source for your statistic that Flash is the fourth most important?  And, again, the issue is with Adobe, not Micosoft.  Sometime last year Adobe claimed to be working on a port of Flash to WP7 (according to a number of websites that quoted them), but apparently that either died or is still hung up.  Of course, I certainly can't argue that tons of websites use Flash heavily.  I just happen to be one who makes a point of avoiding those sites in favor of ones who use standards that don't require plugins, and I make the effort to criticize those websites when I come across them, for whatever that's worth.   So, if Microsoft has chosen not to pursue Adobe but, rather, is going hard over into HTML5, then I applaud that.  Of course, who knows.....they might change their mind months down the road.  If they do, then many of you will be happy.  I would hope that they would include an option to disable that bloated, energy-choking plugin for those of us who choose.

@Kenny Rawlins, I'm not sure what you expect to gain here, then.  You seem to just hate the platform and hate Microsoft.  If that's a generalization, I apologize, but I don't think I've seen much in the way of anything positive in your assessment.  As much as I hate Apple, I have an iPod (which is no longer used now that I have the Focus), and I acknowledge the things that Apple has done right with the iPhone (though I don't like most of it).  I guess I just don't get you.

@WP7Star, I think the reason why Zune only does media is because that's what it's primary purpose was when the Zune devices came out.  Since a lot of the Zune heart is part of WP7, that was the "path of least resistance" when it came to software loading.  Remember, the file system on WP7 is nothing like the Windows Mobile platform which was, essentially, flat.  I won't be surprised if future plans involve either expanding the Zune desktop to include documents or some other sync capability replacing Zune, but I have nothing to base that on.  I think it might be more likely that some expanded version of Mesh would be a better way to go.  As for security/privacy concerns, I'm clearly not going to convince those of you hung on that issue, except to say that if ANYone is paying top concern to security it would be Microsoft.  I think they are second only to government system in that respect.  Some of you threw that Sony issue up, but I find that to be a weak case since Sony's "cloud" (if you can call it that) was laughable from day one.  Microsoft, on the other hand, has made it a point to work very closely with DoD to meet desktop and server security requirements (which are stringent).  With that being the gold standard, it stands to reason that similar care is taken with their cloud services (and likely to get stronger, given that they ARE slowly reaching out to the enterprise).  They gain nothing by taking a lame approach like their competitors.  Seriously, unless you ONLY use your desktop standalone it's likely you are no more secure (I'd argue much less secure) than even a business network (which themselves operate at widely varying degrees of security).  If you are so security-focused that you've setup the electronic equivalent of ten different locks on your door, then I'd say you are likely the exception and represent a very small part of the market -- I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but at what point does it move from security-conscious to paranoia?  I'm guessing you folks won't be moving to ChromeOS anytime soon, since there is no local storage---it's all cloud, all the time.

mango seems to be nearby "enterprise ready"...so, we are searching for a long time for a long supported mobile system. Is there an support lifecycle for windows phone (devices shipped with windows phone 7)?

This would be a big plus on our decision for future mobile strategy at company....i dont find anything in the support lifecycle database, are there any infos on this?

We need to know this because of security vulnariblites will be much more important on mobile systems than in the past (see android security problems)....so there is just the experience on ios (apple) for round about 2-3 year support and the android anouncement of 18 month support, where stands wp7 on this?

@Scubadog2011,Primo I don't hate Microsoft,in fact I'm a fan boy,reason I have never used any Apple products not even the iPod or ITunes,since MS got into smartphones I've always been moving from one Wm to the next,you're right I didn't do enough research before buying a wp7,I bought it based on my experience with wm6.5,hoping to get the same basic functionalities with an amazing UI and and the hub approach.unfortunately those basic features(most of which were implemented but for US only from the start),are still not making way out of the US in mango.when I say basic I don't even talk about flash or tethering. This disappointment made me open my eyes to appreciate other things other than MS products which are in did better.I have never compared Android and Iphone to WP,I have compared it to wm basic features.

FYI,when I find  something better I'll say it reason why I switched from IE9 to chrome(Which is the only non IE browser I've ever use)  and reason why I'm waiting for a better Android UI to dive in,atleast Android will not do the great things of WP but will do the basics I need.

And also in my opinion I don't like when a company makes fun of another's product when theirs is no way better.I give a positive say on what I find is good Just as Windows 7

@scubadog2011,I'm just frustrated reason why I've been positive since the mango event,nevertheless i have been pulling customers to get WPs based on their needs,just as i have convinced and keep on convincing people to get Windows 7 PCs instead of MacBooks and as much as i convince people to go for chrome instead of IE9,or to wait for W8 tablets rather than getting a retarded Ipad.all this because i got Windows in my DNA but now mixed with frustration from wp and a more opened and realistic mind

@ScubaDog2011 -- I have to agree with you those stressing security concerns are really dealing with paranoia.  There is nothing less secure and has more personal information associated to it  than a credit or debit card, but we all carry at least one.   If I truly need that level of interaction with a file; then I am going to have my laptop with me.   For those who need connection back to a desktop, they should look to convince  the Webex or GoToMyPC crowd to build an app like GoToMyPC just completed for iPhone.

My biggest enjoyment with the Win 7 phone is that MSFT focused on the phone as a personal communication tool.  Communications is truly what the phone has been about since the 1800's.   Even in this first version, Win 7 phone is excellent at making communication is easy, versatile and fast.  My excitement for Mango is that is extends this concept further.  My smartphone does not NEED to be secondary laptop.  It needs to to be a smartPHONE first.  Every other feature is subordinate to its ablility to have me and the world communicate (IE9, FaceBook, Twitter, Phone).  Any new feature whether it is tethering or VPN has to not affect the central focus on the phone as communication tool.

@Michael/MSFT -- Job well done.  I have my HTC Surround since Jan and love it still.  The only purchase I've like more is my golf clubs.  It amazes me how by simply using my phone (pinning places to be, add live tiles for teams that matter to me, and such) how personal my phone has become.  Every iPhone or Droid, just looks and feels like that another Star Wars Droid.  You can always tell a demo Windows phone from a real live phone because it just naturally becomes its owner  without the kiddie stuff of custom rings or backdrops.

I am so excited with the pending improvements with Mango.  The Group Hub is going to be a life saver for me in regards to filtering out Facebook/Email clutter.  Also, I think the work on bringing decisions points to the bing search is absurdly awesome.  Receiving the update sooner than later would be great, but getting it right is most important.  I would love to see Joe (or a lookalike) on a tv commercial; showing all the reasons Win Phone is different than Droid or iPhone.  

Just the thoughts of a pleased Windows Phone 7 user.

@bill94in98.......Wait a sec, let me be fair here.  As I said, being very security conscious is not a bad thing at all.  It's certainly better than totally ignoring security (which is what most desktop users do).  I didn't say they were being paranoid, but that their emphasis seems to approach that.  I've seen firsthand where security becomes so paramount that systems are locked down so tight you can't do a darn thing with them.  I can get more work done at home than at the office.......that sort of thing.  I'm cautious, but I refuse to be paralyzed and unable to take full advantage of what the new meme presents as opportunity.  And the only way we're going to fully press this meme into becoming all that it can be is to stress it.  That's how you improve systems.  You make improvements, stabilize, then try to break it.  Improve again, and so forth.  You lower the water table each time and see what rocks are revealed.  But I think that's a good point about the credit card.  More attacks and hacking are done to get credit card info but that doesn't stop most from using them online.  I go back, though, to my point that of all companies, Microsoft has got to be one of the most secure---I'd trust their cloud services certainly above Google.

Now, see, as much as I hate Apple, I'm not sure I agree the iPad is "retarded".  We had a bunch of the Windows XP tablets and convertibles.  They were horrible.  So, when the iPad came out I thought "how stupid is that?"  And, even now, I'm not sold on the usefulness of tablet PCs of any sort, but I do think that Apple probably got it right with the iPad---if tablets CAN be done right.  The Android tablets are trying to compete, but their are poor performers.  My thing is that if I want full mobility I'm hoping my smartphone will give me that.  If I want PORTABILITY but with full function, that's when I bring my HP laptop.  I like being able to have all wireless capability, my portable music studio, full DVD capability, a decent sized screen (17 inches) and a REAL keyboard and still be portable.  Tablets---iPad included---just seem like too big of a smartphone and an under-capable laptop to me.  Now, while I'm pretty excited about SOME of the stuff I see coming with Windows 8--and apparently it will have a "tablet mode" that looks and moves more like WP7, this is another case of Microsoft coming way late to the party.....wearing the wrong outfit.  Apple isn't making their desktop OS look and feel like their iPhone or iPad.  Maybe they'll try that in the future, but that's not where they are headed right now.  I think it may be a mistake for Windows to try to make a version of Windows that is scalable all the way down to the smartphone.

@ScubaDog201

windowsphone7community.uservoice.com/.../top

i am not fond at all of ChromeOS philosophy.

@ScubaDog2011 -- My apologies.  I was not trying to imply you are soft on security.  I was really just more agreeing that there was the potential for too high an emphasis on security.  I used the credit/debit card example because I see many parallels to how the online banking industry started.  If we kept hyper-focused on security back then,  we would never have the cool BOFA WP7 app now.  My point is If MSFT had to trade delaying a file transfer program or VPN solution to get the Group HuB (consumer) feature into the phone.  I much rather them delay the VPN solution.  And I rather see them get their Cloud solution correct before wasting time on a file sync program for Zune.  I do not need my phone to be a disk drive.  

I do have to disagree with you on the Win 8 assessment.  If MSFT can truly get Win 8 on all devices (desktop, tablet, and phone) with the correct UI for each, then it is a win for all users.  Yes, it is a big IF.  However, when you considered MSFT prescence in all aspects from ERP solutions to BI solutions to just showing Live TV, it shows that is is the only software provider that has a platform that truly transcends all facets of life.  This is MSFT's biggest advantage bar none; however, there are still technical gaps that users have to bridge  to see the full benefit of this reach.   One OS that can be run on all these devices would go a long way to bridging many of those gaps.  Also I hope for a day where I can sit on a train use my tablet PC to read a book in my nice Metro UI, get a toast of an email hitting my account, flip my tablet into a traditional laptop correct the Excel file and  respond, and then flip back to Metro UI to watch the Modern Family episode that I DVRd on the Windows HPTC at home.  Lenovo was close, but MSFT was behind.  Win 8 could be a pretty marriage of the two.

@bill94in98, no I get you.  I was not wanting to mischaracterize what @Kenny Rawlins and @WP7Star were saying about their security concerns.  They are valid considerations, but I happen to be solidly convinced that blanket distrust of all things Cloud is unreasonable and stifles one's ability to move into the modern method of information management.  Again, I think your credit card analogy is appropriate.  I'd also argue that using a phone at all is the biggest invitation to losing sensitive data (because of physical accessibility as well as digital).

Now, I'm not saying Windows 8 won't be able to do the job.  I'm saying that there are SO many more challenges with trying to create a single platform that is SO scalable that it can work on smartphones, tablest and desktops is daunting to say the least.  Given Microsoft's track record with just ONE new concept (WP7, which was way later out the door than they intended and missing way too many features at launch), I just don't have confidence they can successfully make it happen in a reasonable time.  Which is why I think the iPad probably will continue to be the gold standard.  It really is just a big iPhone, so not a lot had to change from stuff that works on the iPhone to work on the iPad.  Microsoft was ahead of the times with their tablets, but the hardware just wasn't where it needed to be.  Their tablets were basically big Windows Mobile PDAs (stylus and all) running WinXP.  Not pretty.  Now, what it looks like they're doing is skinning Windows 7 with Metro and trying to include some of the WP7 touchscreen capability to work on a tablet.  Hopefully they don't think that touchscreen for desktops are the way to go....that would be sad.  I tried playing with the HP that's like that.  I'm sorry, but unless you're running a point-of-sale machine, touchscreen on the desktop is not practical.

@scubadog2011,i found the ipad retarded because to me it was just an iphone with a bigger screen,to me there was nothing special or innovative about it  which was not on the iphone.W8 is not really like trying to addapt W7 to a more-tabletlike mode,but building a tablet based OS that will kinda be PC-friendly and feel like W7 like in colour scheme and may be the aesthetics to.

Guys and gals, I think the Networking and sockets support and SQL CE engine in Mango will greatly increase its appeal to Enterprise applications. Plus VPN is changing, in the last 5 years I've seen VPN as it was, thrown away and Access Gateways over HTTP being used instead. I for one, really hope the Networking and Sockets APIs in Mango will allow Citrix to develop a Receiver client on the platform. Also, I can see SQL CE coming as being one of the major holdups other in-house developments had with transferring from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone 7.

Good job guys, really like it, multitasking, messaging, groups, twitter, LinkedIn integration...

Few things wished were introduced in the update, probably they're but not demoed yet...

Firstly, adding several attachment files in an email... it allows adding a single file now...

Also notification for FB and twitter still missing, pretty sure many have asked for…

Introducing the support for Arabic language is going to expand the marketshare for WP7 in additional 22 countries as the phone market, at least for reading web pages and email, and adding a keyboard as it may take some time to change the whole UI... Developers there are thirst to develop for WP7.

@ScubaDog2011 - I came across that article too, Thanks! Definitely answered that question.

I can't wait for Mango and the new wave of WP handsets but Microsoft please get more aggressive with the marketing! I like that i'm seeing more Windows Phone commercials during the NBA Playoffs BUT what type of users are you trying to attract? More commercials need to detail what WP can do and how efficiently. Get some popular people to fall in love with your product to, i'm sure they can help spread it all over.

@ScubaDog2011: My question is to Microsoft and specifically to Michael. Please quit writing replies if you are not asked a question. The PC is still and probably will remain the center of people's digital world. The could is a convenience or an add-on service that may enhance some experiences. In other words, its an accessory. I would still like to have some documents and other digital files to be personal to me and not share or put it anywhere on the cloud. In this case, as a user, I would still need capability to share my documents between my PC and my phone (avoiding the cloud part) and also be able to sync the document. Microsoft - when you do that for images, music and videos, why leave out the most basic digital entity - a file/document - out???!!!

Capt is right... The cloud is pretty much a nogo. It can be useful, but everyone, yes everyone, is doing it all wrong. Including you MS. I switched to windows phone 7 over my iPhone 3GS. At first it was amazing and I loved metro. It is like a piece of artwork that you can interact with. Sadly over time I saw iOS kick its but with updates and apps. Windows phone is pathetic in comarison. I mean you have the workflow and everything so well thought out, but you can't seem to keep your plans together and nothing turns out right. My brother recently got me an iPad, and it made me remember just how well executed apples products are. Honestly MS, I've lost a lot of faith in you. You were my favorite company, the winners. But you aren't anymore, you can't do anything right these days besides windows NT. I still believe NT is much better than UNIX, which is why I don't use a Mac, but you have failed us in the mobile market, and I'm never coming back. I will be switching to an iPhone as soon as I can. Sorry guys :( I really wanted WP 7 to take off. I don't think it ever will.

Thank you for the updates! I was never interested in an fruity devices before, and after winning an iPad a couple of weeks ago, I just decided to evaluate the other guys. Every time I use my phone, I am reminded why Windows is far superior to both MacOS and iOS!

@Tiago Fouto, your link took me to a pretty obscure website.  I see that among that group, yes, the Flash comment was ranked 4th.  I'm not really inclined to consider that a statistically valid survey.  But that's just me.

Pretty obscure site? :) Dont you know uservoice? Your ideas dont necessary reflect the world view...

@James Manes......Windows NT?  Seriously?  Hmmm.   Okay, anyway, you were ready to dump all over Microsoft's approach to the cloud...in fact, EVERYone's approach to it, proclaiming it dead.  So, I'd be curious to know what IS the correct way to do the cloud?  You seem to know definitely why nobody is getting it right, so what does the "right way" look like?  I'm of the opinion that the cloud concept is evolving as we speak.  If you look at it in terms of OS development, what we are witnessing is the modern equivalent of successive versions of the OS.  I don't think any of the players has started from scratch.  I think each started with bits and pieces and they're looking at them saying, "Okay, now this would work really well integrated over here, and we can take this piece, beef it up and do this with it".  In other words, they're not reinventing the wheel if they have an aspect that seems ideal for their vision of the cloud.  It's certainly an ugly process, creating a Frankenstein's monster, if you will.  The difference it, I think at least one of the players will get it right if they listen to the voice of the customer.  I'd argue that Microsoft is well ahead of the others because they have a number of the major pieces already their.  They just have to mature and integrate them (which is slowly happening).  But, if you have a better solution, I, for one, would love to hear it.  Microsoft might be glad to hear it, too.

@cpm78

Thanks for that...I'll give it a go.

Do you know if this update add call blocking?  Man this is one big thing I miss having. Love my Focus by the way.

With this update, will the on-screen keyboard finally fill the entire screen when in landscape?

@scuba NT is what windows has been based on since Windows 2k. It is better than unix in terms of permissions and the way it handles drivers. As for the cloud, microsoft has most of it done correctly, but skydive is an absolute cluster mess. Clouds office is over here, skydive is over there, devices is over here etc. Log into hotmail and you know what I mean. It is a mess and IMO a complete failure. It takes forever to figure out where everything is and how to navigate to it. For example I upload something on cloud office, where do I find it? I have two skydives, apparently. One for live mesh or whatever and one for normal documents? What stupidity is this, I want everything in one place so it does not confuse the crap out of me every time I need something done. None of my classmates find it usable and we cant collaborate on documents because they never know where to find them. Tell me, why do I have two skydrives? Why is the navigation on hotmal such garbage?

I hope the Developers will be able to cover whatever missing features aren't in Mango. Still would love to see all 500 new additions/improvements in a list.

@James I found it funny how you misspelt SkyDrive every single time until the very end. Also, it is definitely NOT a complete failure. It is a majorly useful service that after using it, I could not imagine not. The linking is confusing if you don't understand how it works. There's online storage space that you can share with others, and there's synced space to sync files between devices. The latter allows only you to access the synced devices files to the cloud, which I think makes sense.

@Florinr you can thank auto correct for the spelling. If the linking confuses me, how will average Joe know what to do. He wont.

@James yeah but if you think about it, it's not as bad as you make it out to be. True, there are some links and pages that are confusing and not very well woven together with the other related ones but I think in general it's a pretty good and useful service..? Most of the things on there make sense to me. :P

Hopefully you will be able to synchronize files via the Zune synchronization!

@Michael Stroh so whats the deal with the new features being available globally ???  I am not very confident considering you still have no voice search in the UK for BING and last time I checked we speak english here...No clickable addresses and no BING Traffic... However in other countries its far worse than this!!

andrewtechhelp.com/.../115-windows-phone-7-feature-availability-matrix

Already I read see no native PODCAST support in MANGO outside of the USA so can you please tell us what else will be missing for Global customers??  Do we get BING VISION? BING AUDIO? LOCAL SCOUT? and CARDS?

Fair question I think considering the big unveil last week...................

@Martin Shroh I like the idea of mixed SMS and IM conversations. However will you have an option to disable notifications that display a partial messages in the notification window??  

My messages from colleagues, friends and family members can sometimes be very sensitive and I would like my personal information to stay private. Also its important some messages for colleagues stay private also for business reasons. Currently all messages display in the notification window even when my phone is locked. Its a BIG minus for me and my colleagues I have shown the phone to so I hope you fix this issue by aloowing some options to switch the displaying of my messages off or on depending on my situation.

I really hope you look at giving people some more options in general so they can personalise the phones features.

Please pass my thoughts on to whoever needs to know..

Thanks

thenextweb.com/.../why-mango-matters - Why Mango Matters

Good read.

@ScubaDog2011

no, im not disappointed about the mango itself. i think that microsoft is working very hard and doing an amazing job.

i was just disappointed that they organized a whole "show" for nothing new and unknown but just for stuff that we already knew about but - i understand, marketing/keeping interest/spotlight.

The phone is a big hit with me and I spend a lot of time promoting it to everyone I know. I know that Microsoft will come out tops in the Smartphone market.

If you do not have a phone yet you can find one over at my website. A Windows Phone 7 Price Comparison Site. Sorry guys but this site only caters for the UK at the minute.

All of the updates in Mango make for a great Smartphone. Well done Microsoft your onto a winner with this one.

I'm not sure if it's the current lack of features or the limited hardware but Microsoft has to figure this out and go aggressively for the Windows Phone Mango marketing. The TV commercials need to do more to attract consumers cause as of right now they aren't getting the job done here. People do see the "Windows Phone 7" brand and don't really know much about it unless they try it hands on.

Sorry, but I don't want my emails and contacts in the "Cloud". My files either! Why is it so hard for MS to figure out how to read and write files from their desktop OS (W7, Vista and XP) to their phone OS (WM7)? All we want is for WMDC or Active Sync to work to a WM7 device. If that is being opened in Mango, they why not publish that to the world. It's upgrade time for phones in my household, and without some kind of sync ability, it's going to be a device that lets me NOT use the cloud! Simply stated, will there be a conduit for WMDC or Active Sync in WM7 that programmers can write code to allow desktop sync?

www.sfgate.com/.../article.cgi - Microsoft's Real Windows Phone 7 Problem: Nobody Cares

This article pretty much sums it up. I do hope the WP Marketing team is planning hard and are ready to execute.

WP7 is becoming seriously compelling with these new updates.

On idea I had about older WM6 users who haven't upgraded (and knowing Android looks better to them as a logical upgrade path): Microsoft should sponsor a phone (or phones) and offer WM device owners a cheap upgrade. You know, just to keep the install base. Because these are loyal customers.

Just a thought.

currently there is no way, as a sole proprietor/micro biz w/o an exchange server,  to sync my outlook calendar and contacts between phone and pc in windows 7 mobile.  (kind of defeats the purpose of a smart phone, doesn't it?)  i hear this will be fixed w/the Mango phone?  true?

I have a question - I just saw how iOS5 Notification Center works where all notifications get stored, so if you miss a toast notification for example, you can always go there and check. I know in windows phone, the notifications are already better than current iOS implementation, but is there any chance the notifications can get stored in one place so that I can see missed calls, incoming texts, tweet DM notifications, etc. together?

Some of these improvements look awesome! With the added languages going in, does this mean we might finally see support for Dvorak keyboards implemented?

Wish it had RDP Host. I would love to stream my phone content (MP3's, camera video's ect.) on my PC without have to transfer them. I like the other functionallity added though :) .

someone suggested somehere that microsoft should allow for old windows mobile users to trade in their phones for wp7. comes mango with the os being more complete it seems like an excellent idea to buy market share.

we need like iMessage in ios or black berry meseenger , metro design like windows 8 because we hate the left side of menu

, multi tasks like windows 8

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