Microsoft offers free dev tools for Mango to push the apps market

Microsoft has previewed the next major release of Windows Phone, code-named “Mango,” claiming more than 500 new features and offering free development tools in a bid to push more apps into the market. There are currently 17,000 available, says the company.

The Mango release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this autumn. Microsoft is publishing a a beta release of the free Windows Phone Developer tools, which will be used to create the next generation of Mango apps and games, for public download to Microsoft’s website at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/05/24/developer-news-beta-mango-tools-available-today.aspx.

New OEMs making phones later this year include Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

“Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more,” said Andy Lees, president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. “With ‘Mango,’ Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort.”

New features: 

• Threads. Switch between text, Facebook chat and Windows Live Messenger within the same conversation.
• Groups. Group contacts into personalized Live Tiles to see the latest status updates right from the Start Screen and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group.
• Deeper social network integration. Twitter and LinkedIn feeds are now integrated into contact cards, and “Mango” includes built-in Facebook check-ins and new face detection software that makes it easier to quickly tag photos and post to the Web.
• Linked inbox. See multiple email accounts in one linked inbox. Conversations are organized to make it easy to stay on top of the latest mail.
• Hands-free messaging. Built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support enables hands-free texting or chatting.

Microsoft says it sees the promise of apps in how they can be integrated directly into the core experiences of the phone, so the “Mango” release also will 'surface' apps as part of search results and within Windows Phone Hubs, improved Live Tiles that give real-time information from apps without having to open them and multitasking to switch between apps in use and allow apps to run in the background, helping to preserve battery life and performance.
Microsoft is of course also pushing its desktop products to the phone:

• Internet Explorer 9. A browser based on the powerful Internet Explorer 9 and including support for HTML5 and full hardware acceleration.
• Local Scout. Provides hyperlocal search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy-to-use guide.
• Bing on Windows Phone. More ways to search the Web, including Bing Vision, Music Search and Voice so it’s easy to discover and decide.
• Quick Cards. When searching for a product, movie, event or place, see a quick summary of relevant information, including related apps.

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