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Windows Phone 7 update discussed on Developer Podcast
Daniel Carey
Since Windows Phone 7’s inaugural release I’ve shown increasing interest towards its update line. As most know, over the past several months Microsoft has released pre-updates in anticipation for Windows Phone’s first official update. And while initially it was unveiled that the Mango upgrade for Windows Phone devices would come equipped with some form of multitasking, as well as copy & paste; it has now been revealed via the latest Windows Phone Developer Podcast, that Mango will come with some other delectable mobile goodies.
According to Windows Phone’s Developer Podcast, Mango will be bringing with it: Turn-by-turn navigation, SMS navigation, Bing Audio and Bing Video. From information gleaned, it currently appears as though all aforesaid services are tied directly into Microsoft services… as one would expect in a Microsoft controlled ecosystem.
Currently it would appear as though Turn-by-turn navigation is your simple GPS enabled navigation as would be found through Google Maps on either iOS or Android handsets. However, being Windows, it is safe to assume that Windows Phone’s navigation service will employ the much underrated Bing Mapping service. Interestingly enough, SMS navigation employs the same voice to text feature associated with the TellMe service. By simply pressing a button and talking into your microphone, your handset will dictate your speech into a text message.
Also due to be included in Microsoft’s upcoming Mango update for Windows Phone are several Bing oriented services: Bing Audio and Video. Much like Shazam on your current handset, Bing Audio scans a database of music informing the user of a currently playing song. In similar fashion to Bing Audio, Bing Video is another database scanning service in relation to QR Codes, Bar Codes, CDs, DVDs, and books.
That’s all for now, but hopefully as the update draws nearer we will have more information to report. In the meantime what’s your opinion on Windows Phone’s impending Mango update?
