Last night I posted many of the photos I took from the Windows Phone VIP event in London where Microsoft announced and showed off the many new features. Today I thought I would share with you my initial impressions of what I saw of Mango and the things that really interest me.
Groups
The idea of groups is pretty self explanatory, you can group people together. This seems to make the most sense with a Family group or a close group of friends who you’ll likely want to contact at the same time. The group allows a user to see what’s new with all the members of the group by pulling data from several social networks, including the newly added Twitter and LinkedIn integration. It will also be possible to see new photos of and from the members of the group.
Where the really useful part of groups comes in is when you want to contact the members of the group. It’s just as simple to send an email, text or even IM to the group as it is to send a single person a message. Mango indicates which members of the group can be contacted using each type of communication service to allow a user to choose the best method.
For me I can see two good uses for groups, 1 is to allow me contact small groups of people very quickly and easily and 2 is effectively set up Twitter Lists on my phone. The small groups of people I am likely to contact I probably wont be all that interested in what’s new with them as I expect I will mostly know it anyway (my family would be a prime example, none of them use Twitter or regularly update their Facebook status) but it’s likely I will want to send a text to them all with the same content. However, there will be some larger groups of people who I am not likely to want to contact but that I want to keep informed of what they have been up too (probably the people in the tech world I know).
Threads
If you have been using the new messaging system on Facebook then the idea of threads should be quite simple really, all conversations with someone are shown in a single view regardless of the method used to communicate. However, I think this is a much more useful than the new Facebook messages because it incorporates text messages and a variety of IM services into a single view on a device that is always with you.
I think this could well be a killer feature for Windows Phone and certainly very different from the ways in which the other mobile OSes offer users to communicate with others. It’s a very simple idea but I think it will have a very large impact on users; making communications with people so much easier and faster. It could also make them cheaper too, why send a text when you could IM them from the same view?
In fact, I think threads might be my favourite feature of Mango.
Further Facebook integration
I like the calendar on Windows Phone and I use it quite a bit. However I have been annoyed that despite Facebook being integrated into much of the phone it was absent in the calendar. Thankfully thought that is being rectified with Mango and Facebook events will automatically show up in the calendar. The integration will also allow users to RSVP to an event from within the calendar without actually having to go to any Facebook property.
Another great piece of Facebook integration within Mango will be Facebook Chat. This will be treated just like any other means of communication within the phone. As users of Windows Live Messenger will know, its great to have Facebook Chat alongside Messenger but I think it will be even better when text messages also sit alongside those communication services within the new threads feature.
Mango will also allow people to tag faces in photos when uploading them to Facebook. The phone will automatically etect faces in photos meaning people only have to state who the people are and not have to draw boxes around peoples’ faces.
Multitasking
Yey.
Local Scout
You probably know Bing does a good job of sourcing information about local areas, this is partly through a focus on this area of search and also through numerous partnerships with services like Yelp. With a phone being so mobile it only makes sense that Windows Phone should have the best possible experience for exploring this local data which is why Microsoft have a new Bing feature called Local Scout.
This looks very interesting to me allowing a user to find out where there are places to eat and drink, places to see and highlights within the local area are. This should change the way people use their phone when in an unknown place. I know that I would often search for “Starbucks” when needing a coffee in a new place but now I don’t think I will need to do this and instead I can just use Local Scout to tell me of the local cafes.
I do like the look of Local Scout and got a few demos of it yesterday but I look forward to actually having to use it at some point (possibly because that could mean I was on holiday somewhere).
Bing Improvements
Microsoft have added two new major features to Bing in Mango, these are called Bing Vision and Bing Audio and both are fantastic. Bing Vision allows a user to scan the cover of a book, CD or DVD or a barcode, Microsoft Tag or QR code and have that item be shown in a search listing. It is then possible to browse the search listing to see reviews of that product or the cost from a variety of sources. This, I guess, uses Bing Shopping to source the information but it should be a great way to compare the price of a physical object to the prices of that product online. The videos online I have seen for Bing Vision don’t do it justice, it was much quicker when I was demoed it several times.
Bing Audio acts much like Shazam in that it can identify a song being played and can deep link into the Zune marketplace to that song. It makes it very easy for a user to identify a song and add it straight away to their music collection on their device.
Microsoft have also added image results to the general Bing experience.
Voice controls
This, to me, was the most impressive feature of Mango allowing a user to receive a text, have the text read aloud to them and then reply to it using only their voice to control everything. It might appear to be a gimmick at first but there are a few uses where this could be really handy such as when driving or doing sports where you might be using your phone for music and aren’t able to legally or easily use the device in your hands.
It’s probably not a feature that will be used much but I think it could be invaluable when it is needed.
Mango can’t come soon enough, nor the new devices. What are your thoughts on Mango?
