WINDOWS PHONE 7 MANGO RELEASING IN NEXT WEEK OR TWO

Microsoft general manager Eric Hautala wrote a blog post on Microsoft’s official Windows Team Blog on Wednesday in which he confirmed the Windows Phone Mango update will begin rolling out to devices “in the next week or two.” Hautala said Microsoft has been making solid progress on the update and advised any Windows Phone users not to install unofficial or leaked copies of Mango. “During the official Windows Phone 7.5 update process, every Windows Phone will also receive software from the handset manufacturer,” Hautala explained. “This matched and paired firmware has been painstakingly tuned so your phone—and apps—work with all the new features of Windows Phone 7.5.”

WINDOWS PHONE MANGO RELEASED TO CARRIERS AND MANUFACTURERS

Microsoft’s final build of Windows Phone Mango has been rubber stamped and released to manufacturers and wireless carriers according to Windows Phone Dev Podcast. The move is among the final steps before Microsoft delivers the Mango release to customers. The most recent reports have suggested that Microsoft will update current Windows Phone devices in September, although winrumors says the update could be pushed out as soon as August. Microsoft’s Windows Phone partners include HTC, LG, Samsung, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu, ZTE Corporation and Nokia, and we should see a number of new devices from those companies in the fall time frame. Mango was officially announced in May and Microsoft has promised that it will deliver more than 500 new features to the platform.

MICROSOFT'S SMARTPHONE SHARE DOWN 35% AFTER WINDOWS PHONE 7 RELEASE

ComScore issued its May report on mobile subscriber market share in the U.S. last week, as usual, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS grew more popular in the month, mostly at RIM’s expense. Perhaps equally as troubling as RIM’s continued slide, however, is Microsoft’s position with Windows Phone. As noted by Winrumors, Microsoft’s share of the U.S. smartphone market has dropped a whopping 35% since it released its next-generation smartphone platform in November of last year. At that time, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile accounted for an estimated 9% of smartphones sold in the U.S. In May, Microsoft’s combined share was just 5.8%.

The lack of carrier attention has left the OS as something of an afterthought thus far. With Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” devices due later this year and Nokia set to launch its first Windows Phone before 2012, Microsoft is well-positioned globally. Here in the U.S. however, the Redmond-based tech giant needs far more carrier support if it hopes to make a dent in an already crowded smartphone market.

LEAK: NOKIA'S FIRST WINDOWS PHONE PHONE

A video just surfaced showing Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, foolishly asking a crowd of people to "put away their cameras" for the unveiling of something "super confidential," codenamed "Sea Ray." Naturally, a few people ignored the plea for "no pictures please" and, indeed, leaked the new device out to the blogosphere.

What is it? Why, it's Nokia's first Windows Phone. While it looks nearly identical to the just announced N9, the different LED placement on the back (in line with the same 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens) confirms it's a new device as does the additional hardware button (for shutter release, we presume) along the side. And the fact that it's running Windows Phone 7 Mango seals the deal.

MICROSOFT RELEASES ANDROID PORTING PACKAGE FOR WINDOWS PHONE 7 DEVS

Microsoft's App Guy has quite a job on his baby-soft hands: to boost Windows Phone 7's numerically-challenged Marketplace by encouraging developers to port apps across from other platforms. The little fellow helped iPhone devs out a couple of months ago with an API mapping tool to makes it easier to translate iPhone APIs to WP7 code. Now he's extended the mapping tool to work with Android APIs too, and backed it up with a 90-page white paper and a promise to get more involved in developer forums.

WINDOWS PHONE 7.1, 'MANGO', COMING THIS FALL

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its forthcoming major update to its Windows Phone platform — Windows Phone 7.1 “Mango.” We gave you live coverage of the event as well a hands-on look at the update, and now that the dust has cleared we can finally sit down and collect ourselves. In short, Mango looks awesome. We’ve seen plenty of promise in the Windows Phone platform right from the start, but we also thought Microsoft rushed the OS to market — understandably — and a lot of key features and functionality were missing as a result. Mango goes a very, very long way in bringing the emerging platform up to date, and Microsoft has named HTC, LG, Samsung, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu Limited, ZTE Corporation and of course Nokia as partners moving forward. Windows Phone 7.1 will be the launch platform for upcoming Windows Phones from Nokia, by the way, and Microsoft confirmed that Nokia has already built devices running Windows Phone 7.1 that are currently being tested in its labs. Mango will add more robust multitasking support, messaging threads, deeper social integration, a unified email inbox, voice-to-text and text-to-voice support, and about 500 other enhancements to the Windows Phone platform when it launches this fall.

BALLMER SAYS OVER 500 NEW FEATURES IN WP7 'MANGO' UPDATE

Steve Ballmer revealed the Windows Phone 7 'Mango' update will have "over 500 new features" in a speech over in Japan today, where he also said that additional information about "who's going to be building Windows Phones" will be forthcoming at tomorrow's preview event as well. Combine that with an otherwise unsubstantiated rumor about Microsoft showing nine new Windows Phone handsets tomorrow, and it does seem like there'll be fresh hardware to go with the ripening software.

Neither the Mango release nor any devices on show will be coming to market any time soon, mind you, but it's nice to think we'll get to see what the future of Windows Phone will look like in physical as well as digital form.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATE TO BRING OFFICE 365, FACEBOOK CHAT AND BETTER XBOX LIVE INTEGRATION

The Windows Phone Dev Podcast unearthed some seemingly legit Windows Phone 7 screenshots last week that revealed a few new features apparently headed to the mobile OS, and it's now back with another batch that show yet more additions said to be included with the so-called "Mango" update.

That includes support for Facebook Chat and Office 365 (plus SkyDrive and SharePoint), as well as a revamped Games hub that suggests even more Xbox Live integration (including a rather interesting new "Automatic Sync" option). What's more, the lock screen will apparently now show the album art if there is a song currently playing, and it seems there will be some new group messaging options as well.

Of course, all that's still unconfirmed by Microsoft.

MICROSOFT TO UNVEIL NEXT MAJOR RELEASE OF WINDOWS PHONE MAY 24TH

Microsoft has scheduled a Windows Phone event in New York City on May 24th, 2011, during which the company will “lift the curtain on the next major release of Windows Phone.” We know Mango will offer Internet Explorer 9 with an integrated Twitter experience, better multitasking, and new apps such as Angry Birds, Skype, and Spotify. We’ve also heard that Microsoft will add Bing Audio for identifying music, Bing Vision for scanning bar codes, and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation with Bing Maps, although none of these features have been confirmed by Microsoft just yet.

ANDROID OS RISES WHILE BLACKBERRY FALLS

Android’s U.S. market share is continuing to grow at the expense of RIM, Microsoft, and Palm, according to a new report from comScore that took a snapshot of the mobile phone market during the March quarter. The report found that Android powered 34.7% of all U.S. smartphones, up 6% from December 2010. RIM’s BlackBerry OS market share fell 4.5 points to a 27.1% share of the market, while Microsoft’s Windows and Palm’s webOS each saw a 0.9 percentage point decrease. Apple’s iOS market share jumped 0.5 points to a 25.5% share of the market, just behind RIM’s 27.1% grasp. Samsung remained the most popular mobile phone brand with a 24.5% share of the market, followed by LG (20.9%), Motorola (15.8%), RIM (8.4%), and Apple (7.9%). The report also found that 234 million Americans above the age of 13 used mobile devices.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 SUFFERS SECOND OUTAGE IN A WEEK

Microsoft has confirmed that its Windows Phone 7 platform on Friday suffered its second major outage this week. Early on Friday, users began reporting that they could not access Xbox LIVE services from their Windows Phone 7 devices. BGR had independently confirmed the issue on two separate devices, and now Microsoft has acknowledged the outage via its official Windows Phone support team Twitter account. “It’s a new issue that users are unable to access Xbox LIVE features at this time,” a Microsoft official posted to the Twitter account. Earlier this week, Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace suffered an outage that prevented users from accessing the company’s mobile app store during a scheduled maintenance that was extended due to complications.

RUMOR: AT&T STARTING WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATES APRIL 19TH

According to a leaked memo posted up over at Winrumors, AT&T has just wrapped up its testing of the famed NoDo update, and if all goes well, it'll be pushed to end users on Tuesday. Owners of the LG Quantum and Samsung Focus will see it first, while HTC Surround owners will need to wait until mid-May.

SILVERLIGHT COMING TO XBOX; WP7 GAMES ON THE WAY

Silverlight started as just a humble Flash competitor and now, well, it's all grown up. Almost, anyway. It's a fundamental part of the Windows Phone 7 ecosphere and word on the street is that it's about to become a fundamental part of the Xbox 360 world as well -- or a part, at least. Microsoft's MIX 11 developer event kicks off next week and rumor has it that Microsoft will unload a new tier of Silverlight compatibility enabling apps on the company's console and there's the potential for writing apps that could run both on phones and on the console.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATES ROLLING OUT TO MOST CARRIERS...EXCEPT AT&T

Last week, Microsoft released its much anticipated “NoDo” patch for Windows Phone 7 handsets… the patch that finally brings copy and paste and a host of other improvements to the WP7 world.

The only problem with the NoDo update? The carriers.

While Microsoft began rolling the patch out over-the-air to unbranded smartphones in Europe late last week, things are much more complicated in America, where it’s up to carrier discretion whether or not to roll out a mobile operating system update.

This is actually common in the American mobile world, where most phones run operating systems that have been bought off the shelf. In this world, Apple, Research in Motion and (up until recently) Nokia were some of the few makers who were in charge of their own software destinies, and who would take responsibility for an update if it failed on a phone. When a handset is made by one person, and it’s operating system another, both companies can point their figures at each other if things go wrong… leaving the carriers ultimately holding the bag on failed patches.

That’s why, in America, carriers test patches before they roll them out. It’s also why updates for Android and Windows Phone 7 can get held back for so long:

MICROSOFT BEGINS 'NODO' COPY PASTE UPDATE FOR WINDOWS PHONE 7

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed that its first major update for the Windows Phone 7 platform is now being rolled out to users. Internally referred to as “NoDo” — which is said to be short for “No Donuts,” mocking Google’s first Android update dubbed “Donut” — the update adds much sought after copy/paste functionality to Windows Phone 7 devices. It also adds support for “tombstoning,” improves Marketplace searches, fixes a variety of bugs and adds support for CDMA devices. “We’ve begun to gradually roll out the Copy & Paste update, starting small with open market phone customers in parts of Europe this week,” a Microsoft spokesperson stated in an email, adding, “More to come.”

Sprint’s HTC Arrive was the first device to feature NoDo when it launched this past Sunday with the update pre-installed. Microsoft has not yet detailed its plans for a U.S. rollout, so we are unsure when other U.S. carrier-branded devices will begin receiving NoDo. Users will receive notifications on their devices once the update becomes available, and they will need to connect to PCs in order to install it.

MICROSOFT PAYING NOKIA BIG MONEY IN WINDOWS PHONE 7 DEAL

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft Corp. will pay Nokia more than $1 billion to promote and develop Windows-based handsets as part of their smartphone software agreement, according to two people with knowledge of the terms.

Nokia will pay Microsoft a fee for each copy of Windows used in its phones, costs that will be offset as Nokia curtails its own budget for software research and development, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the final contract hasn’t yet been signed. The agreement runs for more than five years, the people said.

“This gives Microsoft scale and allows Nokia to rip out costs,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners in New York, who recommends buying Microsoft shares. “Microsoft is getting the platform boost that comes from acquiring a Nokia for about a billion dollars.”

DUELING WINDOWS PHONE 7 'MANGO' UPDATE RUMORS

Paul Thurrott, Microsoft guru, published an article in Windows IT Pro and stated that the Windows Phone 7 (WP7) update, dubbed 'Mango', that will bring multi-tasking, IE9 and Twitter integration into the WP7 OS, will be delayed until 2012. He writes Mango won't be finalized until the end of the year, making a 2011 release nearly impossible.

Mary Jo Foley, a Microsoft watcher/writer at ZDNet, says Microsoft is promising OEMs and carriers Mango by "early fall at the latest." This would put the update out just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Both writers are highly regarded on Microsoft, so it will be interesting to see who is right on this one.

MICROSOFT SCREWS UP WINDOWS PHONE PATCH TO FIX THE UPDATE SCREW-UP

Earlier this week, Microsoft released a patch for the first Windows Phone 7 update to fix issues involving WP7 installs on Samsung handsets.

Why the patch? Easy: the earlier update was actually bricking some Samsung handsets, and failing to install on others Unfortunately, the updated update seemingly has its own issues, as some users are now reporting that it won’t install on their handsets..

To be fair, most devices are handling the update ably, even those that previously had failed to install the last, buggy update. Unfortunately, a minority of devices are still having issues, and it’s not entirely clear what the cause is, although some users are reporting that uninstalling some apps and freeing up disk space is resolving the issue.

ANGRY BIRDS COMING TO WINDOWS PHONE 7

Rovio's popular Angry Birds game will be available in the Windows Phone Marketplace starting April 6, Microsoft announced Thursday.

Angry Birds is one of six games coming to the Windows Phone 7 platform. The lineup also includes Doodle Jump, Plants vs. Zombies, Hydro Thunder Go, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, and geoDefense.
In a blog post, Microsoft spokesman Michael Stroh said all the games will be Xbox Live friendly, meaning access to achievements, leaderboards, and more. Today's lineup was revealed at Microsoft's spring showcase event in San Francisco, and is part of a new Windows Phone "Must Have Games" program.

Angry Birds has been branching out quite a bit lately. Most recently, game maker Rovio said the game would be coming to the Nintendo Wii and 3DS later this year. Earlier this year, it was also released for the PlayStation 3 and PSP.

WINDOWS PHONE 7 UPDATE ALL MESSED UP

The first Windows Phone 7 updated from Microsoft is apparently causing all kinds of issues. Some people are receiving updates, others are not. Some people are having the update hang at step 7 of 10 causing them to reboot and get the original firmware back, while others are hanging at step 6 and ending up with a bricked phone.

While the centralized update distribution was suppose to be a huge advantage over the carrier distribution of Android, Microsoft has failed miserably with very first one.

To top it all off, Microsoft had hinted that updates were suppose to come to all 'eligible' phones at the same time, however we are now learning carriers can opt to block an update as long as they allow the next one.

For a company that is behind in the mobile field, this is certainly not a good showing.