I just received my windows phone 7.5 update codenamed mango.

Have to say, the improvement is instantly noticeable. It's not even the obvious changes like integrated facebook chat, there's also a greater sense of fluidity.

Really enjoying it, and now, other than more apps, I think it's ahead of the competition.

How does the app situation for Windows Mobile compare these days to the other 'stores' for Andriod and iPhone ?

what handset do you have?

I have the samsung omnia 7 and no sign of an update yet

arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

Windows Phone has about 30,000 apps now. They expect that number to zoom steadily towards 100,000 now as many more types of app are now possible compared to before. WP7 got to the all the app milestones around a similar time as iphone did in its own lifecycle and about 200 days faster than android.

Both Android and iPhone currently have several hundred thousand apps in their stores though obviously this reflects massive amounts of duplication and other things (e.g. creating an app and duplicating it for every single US state).

The average individual might install 50 apps. Some apps are more important than others. I reckon by mid next year, windows phone will have all bases covered for apps people want.


T-Mobile Samsung Omnia 7s are not being done right now. Omnia 7s on Three and Orange are.
I had to use a little trick to force it to come out now. They're doing a slower rollout: 10% of customers this week, a further 15% next week. Hold to see if any issues otherwise open up to everyone mid-octoberish.

oooooooh bollocks

probably best not to force the update then eh?

Head on over to WP Central http://www.wpcentral.com/force-mango...-zune-software

and do the Zune trick, I did it about 4 hours ago and have Mango on my Orange UK Optimus 7 and it's great

Someone asked about apps, the market place is brilliant thousands of apps movies and music, everything you need is there.

The update has changed my mind about getting rid of the phone as I was missing my iPhone 4.
Main things that are great in Mango that I welcome is better pictures layout, speech recognition (amazing!!), finally have UK Keyboard in my euro HD7 handset, groups/social integration and most of all - tap to focus and take photos*!

Also straight after the update, if you enter the marketplace you can already see lots of apps that weren't available before because they were Mango only.

Nice update

*I was at GAMEfest a week or so ago and asked a member of staff to take a picture of me with Mario and Sonic and because of the horrible camera button on the HD7 she didn't focus and the picture was all blurry. Now all you do is tap the screen, lovely!!

I have a beta Mango on my HTC Trophy for a couple of months now and it has been a major improvement over the original version. Internet Explorer is very fast, among other things, faster than Safari and whatever Android phones are having.

And I just updated to the final version of Mango. Originally I was supposed to restore the phone back to NoDo first and then install again, but it was not necessary. Very nice of MS to do that. Took just a couple of minutes, too.

Oooh thank you I'll try that later when I get home.

I did find another site that went into very detailed instructions on how to get the update but it seemed a bit dodgy so I didn't bother.

wish t-mobile uk would sort out the effing update

I think that won't help you. It only helps everyone else who is getting the update. Don't worry, you're not alone - owners of a certain type of Samsung Focus in the US won't get it right now either.

It's mainly due to samsung screwing around a year ago and not telling microsoft they were putting different things in different handsets. The main thing to take away though is you WILL get it eventually, just will take several more weeks.


To everyone else: I've just been playing with it some more and apart from brand-name apps from the likes of paypal, various banks etc; I honestly believe NOW it is the best phone OS out there. We've already seen iOS 5. the iPhone 5 reveal should just be a hardware reveal and Ice Cream Sandwich is a UI merge/tidy-up between tablets and phones.

The ZTE Tania looks like a nice phone that should come out at a cheap price point that I can give it to my mother.

So I shouldn't bother trying to force the update then?

^^^ I'd try it anyway. Use a cable, not wi-fi, you will have more control over when the network is disconnected. I think Zune first checks for updates at MS and then it checks if your phone is eligible and you have to disconnect before it completes the check.

Nice to see the WP7 settling down as a credible 3rd OS behind iOS and Android (I don't consider Blackberry as a credible OS). I may be tempted next year when Nokia have therirhandsets out and it is good to see ZTE getting in on the market as well (I loved my Blade). Not to keen on the idea of having Facebook bloatware imbedded in my phone mind you but I think custom ROMs are available so maybe some clever modders can rip that crap out.

Well, if you do not set up a Facebook account, it's just there doing absolutely nothing. Same with Twitter.

There's no bloatware there, that's what is so good. It's literally like adding your email account on the phone, it just then pulls the information from Facebook/Twitter and links it to your phonebook or People as it's called on Windows Phone. If you don't enter any login information for Facebook or Twitter or any other social network then you'd never see it mentioned on the phone!

What is its growth like ? Is the OS stealing ground on the others ?

Also, on the web browsing experience one of the best things I like on my phone (HTC Desire) is that when I zoom in on a web page it reforms the text to the size of the screen. Does that happen on WM ?

There's hasn't really been any growth so far. But before yesterday, the OS hadn't really changed from launch (just addition of copy + paste) and there were no new handsets.

Finally, with Mango, it's a rival to the other OSes by filling out feature gaps. Also there are several new handsets coming out soon from HTC, Samsung, Nokia, ZTE and Acer. So I expect its upward trajectory to start from this holiday onwards. It will be slow but I genuinely believe it will get there. Especially if Microsoft can make Windows 8 a hit and make the two product symbiotically close.

Android was unknown for a couple of years with the T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Hero, the true inflection point came after the creation of the HTC Desire which was based on the Google Nexus S. Google themselves only did that as they felt hardware manufacturers weren't trying hard enough.

Windows Phone re-launches into a much more difficult environment where iPhone is very mature, Android is close to maturity and occupies all price points.

But Microsoft is fully invested into the product, so is Nokia and many, many developers around the world. So if you invest into the ecosystem too, you won't be left shafted, six months down the line.

Hmmm I must admit i am tempted by Windows Mobile. I am not a massive user of loads of apps so as long as the web browing, social media interaction and sat nav are good I am pretty much a happy camper.

Patiently waiting for Mango for my Omnia 7 on T-Mobile! Been tracking their twitter feed all day and they say it's defiantly coming, but with no dates it's getting frustrating.

I forced the update last night and am very impressed with it.

It's a fantastic operating system, and as someone who had an iPhone 3GS before this, I'd take a Windows phone every time over an iPhone.

I would recommend you wait for the Nokia phone that will be announced late October.

Browsing - speedy and accurate rendering. Best in class on HTML5 performance.
Negatives: no flash and no text reflow

Social media integration - the best by far

Navigation - bing maps is ok, google maps better IMO but the Nokia will come with Ovi Maps - a full Tomtom type offline mapping solution with turn-by-turn voice instructions.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphon...ule-world.aspx

T-Mobile Omnia 7s aren't getting it at the moment. Hopefully should be no more than a few more weeks for you.

I am really loving Mango, I have just found out you can have incoming txt messasges read out to you, go into settings / speech / Read incoming text messages aloud and put it to always on, works a treat, very handy if driving or just busy.

Well not looking to get a new one to until late October anyway so I will keep an eye out for that one. The HTC Titan looks nice as well and I do like HTC phones having had a Desire for the last two years.