Windows Phone 7 Mango shots show built-in IM, cloud Office
updated 05:20 pm EDT, Sun May 15, 2011
WP7 Mango to get multi-network IM and Office 365
Microsoft's upcoming Mango update for Windows Phone 7 had even more features unveiled Sunday through the latest episode of the Windows Phone Dev podcast. The release is now due to have built-in instant messaging not just for Windows Live Messenger but AIM and Facebook as well. Microsoft's system would be smart and weave into the people hub, automatically detecting whichever is the best network and create group messages.
SkyDrive would get a wider presence than just in photos and would move to the Office hub as well. Microsoft would also roll in Office 365 syncing to work with the web-based version of the Office suite.
Extra features would include album art on the lock screen with an active track and syncing for the games hub to pick up progress from an Xbox 360 game on WP7 or vice versa. Xbox Live may split into free Silver and paid Gold versions like on the console.
Mango is due to bring the much improved IE9 web browser engine, multitasking, improved home tile features for third-party apps, more direct access to the camera, and a Twitter tie-in. The OS is due to ship sometime in the fall. [via WinRumors]
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2008
Office integration..
...was the feature that most interested me about WP7. One week after getting my Focus, it has not disappointed me. The ability to open/edit/copy/paste/etc. natively with .XLSX, DOCX, and PPTX files is the killer feature.