Since last weeks two major Mango events in New York and London, Mango launch events around the world have been in progress. At a Mango event in Berlin, new features were shown off that were not unveiled at the other events.
We already knew custom ringtone support was coming, but this is the first time we've really seen it in action. Anythingbutiphone reports that the "set ringtone" screen has not been seen before with custom ringtones, and in the video the custom ringtones are separate from the default ones for ease of access.
Microsoft also showed off the new "battery saving" option, which puts the phone into battery save mode when it reaches a certain percent. Battery saving mode disables multitasking, stops email from automatically being checked and disables WiFi and data services to get the best battery life. The feature is disabled by default, and can be switched on and off at will. The video also shows off support for uploading video to Facebook from the OS, which has been a much requested feature.
The Microsoft event in Berlin also provided the first visual proof that multiple calendar support is in the OS (even though it is in another language in the video). Still no official word on "turn by turn" navigation for Bing Maps from Microsoft, but last week it was uncovered in the Mango emulator.
Neowin has also uncovered a feedback program for the updated keyboard in the emulator, which will provide feedback to Microsoft based on usage of the keyboard and will help them improve it. The program is similar to the CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) software that's commonly seen with other Microsoft products such as Office, and can be disabled.
Mango is expected to be released in September this year, and brings 500 new features to the Windows Phone 7 platform. A lot of features are yet to be revealed, so stay tuned for more. Check out the video showing off the features at the Microsoft Berlin event below.
35 Comments - Add comment