14 DAY TRIAL // Today, during its MIX11 developer conference in Las Vegas, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft announced that it aimed at bringing the next Windows Phone platform to existing and new handsets in fall. This would be the much-discussed Mango update, which should bring, among other new features, true mutitasking capabilities. However, this is not all, as the upcoming operating system flavor should arrive with new features and enhancements aimed both at end-users and at application developers who have committed to come up with software for the platform.
Some of the main improvements included in the update, many of which were presented before, include the new Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Mobile with HTML5 support, as well as Twitter integration, and other new features as well.
“Mango will introduce some awesome new features, including multitasking capability, a hardware-accelerated mobile version of Internet Explorer 9, Twitter in the People hub, better support for Office documents in SkyDrive (Microsoft’s free cloud-based storage service), and much more,” a recent post on Windows Phone blog reads.
During his keynote at the MIX11 conference, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore showcased some new applications that would arrive on Windows Phone soon, including software from Skype, Spotify, Layar, and Qantas Airways.
“He also talked about some of the capabilities app makers can tap in the next version of Windows Phone, which will offer more access to the phone’s camera and built-in sensors like the gyroscope. This should make possible all kinds of creative and cool new 'augmented reality' apps,” the blog post continues.
In May, Windows Phone users would benefit from new, highly appealing games on their devices, including Angry Birds (which should arrive on May 25th), Doodle Jump, Plants vs. Zombies and more. Have a look at the video embedded below for a quick preview of one of them.
But there's more to it. Developers too would benefit from the upcoming update, and Microsoft is set to release a new set of Windows Phone Developer Tools in May, so as to get them ready for building application for the new OS flavor.
Although the company did not demonstrate too many user interface changes for the next version of Windows Phone, nor end user features and capabilities, they did stress on the new opportunities that developers would find in the upcoming platform release.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools that arrive in May will bring: A new profiler and emulator for testing Support for Silverlight AND XNA in the same project Structured storage that enables access to SQL database Access to calendar and contacts through apps
The new tools are meant to address some of the “needs” that developers have been expressing for a long time, Microsoft notes, mentioning Web, Augmented Reality and messaging. The new OS flavor, as well as the new Windows Phone Developer Tools, should bring forth more visibility and access.
