My Top 5 Mango Features

Everyday I find more that I love in my Windows Phone: voice-to-text SMS, visual Bing search, Secondary Tiles, visual Voice Mail, and SkyDrive integration. Momentum is finally catching on. As a user, it’s simple and a pleasure to use. As a developer, the brand means something – skills I developed throughout my career are useful and meaningful. It’s my phone, MP3 player, mobile office, camera, and gaming and internet device. Plus, it’s cool. Really cool. Try it before you tell me I’m wrong!

Here are my top 5 favorite features of Mango (the codename for the new Windows Phone 7.5). There are some 500 new features, so picking 5 wasn’t trivial.

1. A dedicated camera button means you take pictures fast.

Most phones, like the IPhone, require you to squirrel through menus while your picture opportunity passes. The Windows Phone dedicated camera button can even operate when the phone is locked. Read more here

While I am on it, I also love the Back button, a real differentiator from the IPhone where you have to go home just to get to your previous app. Back, back, back – but now with Mango I can even scroll over two/three/four apps to where I want to go. Brilliant! It’s not a favorite, but I still love it.

2. Play mobile Photos and Videos wirelessly to your television

It’s called DLNA, and it lets your mobile device serve and remote control your computer, television and theater equipment. You can share photos, music, and video (like this) – without needing to buy an Apple TV or Google TV box. Samsung, Toshiba, LG, and HTC have apps in the marketplace for it. Or, you can use it with your Microsoft Home Server. Read more here

3. Consider it an extension of your Xbox

The Microsoft Living Room extends through Companion Devices like the Windows Phone. Why not take your Xbox game with you in your pocket? I don’t mean to just play on your phone. I mean, take the game itself – your current state, stats, everything. No phone can or will ever be able to compete with the Windows Phone and Xbox integration. Read more here

4. Complete SkyDrive, Office 365 integration

Windows Phone is not just for fun. People can seamlessly integrate with their free cloud storage through SkyDrive. Professionals can access their Microsoft hosted services through Office 365. Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote (perhaps the most understated Microsoft product). No phone can really compete with this. Remove more here

5. Put Your Contacts into Groups

The Windows Phone is awesome; it mashes my LinkedIn, Face Book, Twitter, Windows Live, and Corporate accounts into one Contact list. But that’s a long list when I’m hunting for my Family, my Team, or Friends. Thankfully, Windows live let’s my bundle contacts into Groups – with Group email, texting, and Messenger threads, social updates, and photos. Windows Phone has begin to lead the market with true, clever, and useful innovation. Read more here

Welp, those are my top 5 favorites about Mango. Loving Mango so far!