New Windows Phone 7.5 features revealed

By Tom Warren, on 9th May 11 10:49 am with 17 Comments

Microsoft has revealed some additional Windows Phone 7.5 features over the weekend.

Ryan and Travis Lowdermilk from the Windows Phone Dev Podcast revealed some new features from “Mango” on Sunday. Mango, known to be Windows Phone 7.5, will include Bing Audio/Video, SMS dictation, podcast support and turn-by-turn navigation. Paul Thurrott has detailed all the new features after listening to the podcast.

Bing Audio/Vision

Bing Audio will allow Windows Phone 7.5 owners to search for music using Bing. The feature is similar to Shazam and will allow users to identify songs by holding their phones up to speakers playing music.

Bing Vision will be a search service using the phones camera. Bing Vision will support barcodes, Microsoft Tags, QR codes, Books, CDs, DVDs and text using OCR. Users will utilize the service by scanning products and finding competitive prices locally and online.

Bing Vision and Audio on Windows Phone 7.5

Turn-by-turn navigation / Podcast support

As part of Microsoft’s Bing Maps integration, the company plans to add voice guidance during driving directions. The feature will allow for true turn-by-turn navigation on Windows Phone.

Microsoft is also building in support for podcasts as part of Windows Phone 7.5. Owners will be able to download podcasts using the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Turn-by-turn navigation and podcasts

SMS dictation

SMS messages will be dictated using a new “speak” button inside the Windows Phone messaging client. This is useful for accessibility and for those wishing to read their messages whilst they are driving.

SMS dictation for Windows Phone 7.5

East Asian Language Keyboard, Handwriting and Dictionary Support

LiveSide has also posted details of handwriting and East Asian language support for Windows Phone 7.5.

Chinese keyboard Windows Phone 7.5

Microsoft is currently hard at work on “Mango”, its next major release of Windows Phone. Microsoft has promised to ship “Mango” later in the year. “Mango” is currently in the early beta stages at Microsoft, built as 7.1 currently. The company revealed a number of new features in February that will ship as part of its Windows Phone point release later this year. Nokia is also reportedly waiting for the next release of Windows Phone before it unveils its first Windows Phone device.

“Mango” currently contains multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 mobile and Twitter integration. Microsoft unveiled a number of key developer enhancements at its MIX11 conference earlier this month. Developers will have access to the Motion Sensor library and the camera, enabling augmented reality experiences. Phone integration has also been greatly improved for developers wanting to do more with their apps. The Live Tiles functionality has been expanded to give developers more flexibility and engage with their customers better. Microsoft is also planning to expand on developer opportunities for Windows Phone. The company will expand its Marketplace to 35 countries soon.

  • Pradeep
    • http://www.andrew-stockdale.co.uk Andrew Stockdale

      Heh, I was just about to link that article in here :)

    • http://www.andrew-stockdale.co.uk Andrew Stockdale

      Heh, I was just about to link that article in here :)

  • Jason

    Not excited about any of that, except turn by turn directions, in the least. Those are all frivolous and near pointless features that should take a back seat until we get more pressing functionality. Where are basics like VPN, full Exchange support, Xbox multiplayer, better Word and OneNote (can we get some proper formatting there please?), Zune Social and Hubs doing what they are supposed to. Not to mention rolling out Bing and Zune services globally. What’s the point of adding all of these features if only a fraction of the world can enjoy them?

    • http://www.google.com/profiles/the.headquarter the-hq

      iPhone market share in the US is tremendous and needs to be fought immediately. I think they will continue focussing on their major markets first.

    • http://www.google.com/profiles/the.headquarter the-hq

      iPhone market share in the US is tremendous and needs to be fought immediately. I think they will continue focussing on their major markets first.

    • Jason

      That’s a fairly poor attitude to take. There is no reason why Bing and Zune services can’t be rolled out globally and still develop new features for WP7 simultaneously. Zune is mostly legal in nature and Bing services fall on the Bing team, so little effort is needed from the WP team at all.

      And iPhone is well entrenched in other countries too. Smartphone ownership is already high in Australia and is growing quickly as well; Microsoft needs to act to get WP7 known and fully featured if they want a chance at combating Apple and preventing Android from gaining any more ground.

      Don’t get me wrong – I think WP7 is a great platfrom. I just feel that we are getting a pretty raw deal from Microsoft; there has been no word at all regarding rolling out these essential services to us. I would get a Zune Pass subscription the instant it became available, for instance.

    • brian L

      consumer features (non dev related) have not been announced yet. They’ll be more to come.

  • http://madebyplast.com Chun Yin

    About time they finally added in support for Chinese etc. Over here in Hong Kong, retail stores are actually telling people not to buy Windows Phone 7 handsets because they lack chinese input.

    • Anonymous

       but only two limited options for Traditional Chinese by looking at that photo. BoPoMoFo and Handwriting. Stroke, Pinyin, and Cantonese Pinyin should be there. Blackberry did it, I don’t see why MS didn’t. or at least allow third party input to be installed.

  • Anonymous

    Microsoft really needs to have a great showing in how they roll out mango. If they blow it, it’ll be bad press for them yet again.

  • http://twitter.com/MichielPapp Michiel Papp

    Whell, they are going in the right direction. I heard sockets control is comming to. I hope to see more of mango. Honestly it look a more epic update then NoDo. Can’t wait to get it installed :D

    • Tonious

      @Michiel Papp
      “…I heard sockets control is comming too…”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z6W56L5FCCEDHNOJT4NXML23R4 Isaac Barrett

    Nice. What about Audible through?

  • JeepGuy

    Ok… Audio SMS is cool. But can I speak my text and have it type it out? That would make that a really useful feature…

    I dont really care about all of that though… ALL I want is my dang Bluetooth to work correctly! I havent used my WP7 in just about 2 weeks now. Switched by to my old Samsung Eternity because my customers, and my wife, were getting too irritated by me having to ask “what” “please repeat that” constantly. Cant believe they havent fixed that in the previous updates..

  • JeepGuy

    Ok… Audio SMS is cool. But can I speak my text and have it type it out? That would make that a really useful feature…

    I dont really care about all of that though… ALL I want is my dang Bluetooth to work correctly! I havent used my WP7 in just about 2 weeks now. Switched by to my old Samsung Eternity because my customers, and my wife, were getting too irritated by me having to ask “what” “please repeat that” constantly. Cant believe they havent fixed that in the previous updates..

  • Blueeyedbeast3

    Still reading about this but does anyone know if the 7.5 will upgrade the current WP7 handsets or do we have the advantage to look forward to that happened between 6.1 and 6.5 with a new batch of handsets and no way to upgrade what you own? I’ve worked with the AT&T Tilt and it was great, now a Focus which is doing exactly what I want but improvements are always welcome. Just dont want to have to envy the guy who didn’t waste his money.