Mango, Mango, Mango, It’s A Windows Phone

 

When Microsoft first announced the update to Windows Phone 7 would be code named Mango, well I couldn’t help but think of that Weebl’s Animation and Song. Ah it may be stuck in your head now too, but while Mango is a catchy name it was all the talk of improvements that got me excited. I’ve now updated to 7.5 Mango and have had time enough to see what it can do and what’s better.

First, I should remind you that I am using the classy HTC Surround and as a music lover that built in speaker is sweet! Before Mango I could go to work for eight hours and maybe a few pit stops or shops along the way. However, by the time I got home I had to charge this phone in the worst way. And I had Wi-Fi turned off most of that time and data is always turned off. Now with Data still off, but Wi-Fi turned on all the time as well as Bluetooth-I can go 24 hours on a single charge. I found this out while doing Extra-Life in October where I played video games for 24 hours. During that 24 hours I was using my phone to update Facebook and Twitter, check e-mail and play the occasional game.

Now with better battery, I was stoked. Meanwhile at work we have a hidden Wi-Fi network and before Mango I could not connect to them. This made it difficult to stay up to date with all these wonderful e-mail messages and terrifying Spam. Now with Mango I was able to add hidden networks with ease. I was also now able to directly connect other social networks to my phone in the People Hub. I no longer needed an app for Twitter and LinkedIn, while I rarely use it, is nice to have on the go once in awhile. Now I have all the Social and all my e-mail accounts on the go and ready for action. And as a side note, I was even able to add my Apple Mobile Me mail account with ease!

A funny thing happened on my way to work one day. As always I have a Bluetooth Speaker phone that auto connects to my phone when I get into my car. However, this time I was driving to work and all of a sudden it says something to the tune of “Incoming text from Becky, would you like to read it or ignore?” And of course being adventurous I told it to read it  and it did just that, it read me my text message. That is a sweet feature and helps encourage people not to physically txt and drive. Furthermore if you have Data turned on, you can reply to that message via voice!

These are just a few on the changes, these are the ones that stand out to me. I must admit it is obvious they made some serious improvements to core of Windows Phone 7. My phone is more responsive, it works better with Xbox live, Office, SkyDrive and it’s tailored to fit. I think their idea to design a phone for people was an awesome choice and now with Mango making this a much more personal experience that is also enjoyable-great job Microsoft! I love this Phone! I can’t even think about switching to any other phone now. It’d be like going to get an Ice Cream and being served a double chocolate fudge sundae and coming back for just a single scoop of plain vanilla.