There have been some leaked info on new features coming to Windows Phone in version 8. My heart initially skipped a beat, as I hoped that the core features that were keeping many of us “free spirits” from adopting Windows phone would be on the list.

Well, I was disappointed. Here are the leaked features:

Data Smart. A way to actively save cellular data when possible and avoid “bill shock”. Microsoft (not coincidentally) just blogged about this feature in relation to Windows 8. Re-read that post and think about how a smart phone would need/use exactly the same functionality. Data Smart can be extended by wireless carriers to integrate with their offered data plans.

App-to-App communication. Because Windows Phone 8 apps, like Windows 8 apps, are sandboxed from each other, this new system will provide a Windows 8 contracts-like app-to-app communications capabilities.

Internet Explorer 10 Mobile. Windows Phone 8 will continue to used a highly tuned version of IE which utilizes the latest web technologies.

Shared components with Windows 8. The kernel, multi-core processor support, sensor fusion, security model, network, and video and graphics technologies are all coming to Phone from Windows 8.

Companion experiences with Windows 8. Microsoft is offering a very similar user experience across phone (Windows Phone 8), PC (Windows 8), and TV (Xbox vNext). Pocketnow says there will be a new sync client, and not Zune PC software, though I can’t confirm that part, and a set of common cloud services that will work across all three. This includes the ability to sync content (photos, music, movies) between the three screens, phone management from PC or web, shared content between each device, and Xbox LIVE games, entertainment, and more.

SkyDrive integration. Microsoft will make your content available on all of its platforms via SkyDrive.

Skype app. Still a separate but better app and not integrated into OS. Still optional.

NFC and Wallet. Windows Phone 8 will allow users to securely pay and share via NFC and manage an integrated Wallet experience.

Local Scout. Now with personal recommendations.

Camera improvements. New “lens apps” and a far more powerful camera experience.

Business features. Windows Phone 8 will include full-device, hardware accelerated encryption with BitLocker and always-on Secure Boot capabilities, just like Windows 8. Also, it will support additional Exchange ActiveSync policies and System Center configuration settings and inventory capabilities. Businesses will be able to distribute phone apps privately as they can with Windows 8 apps.

You can get more details of the leak on WinSuperSite.

There. Microsoft is adding the most sophisticated features on the planet to windows Phone, but leaving out two simple features that could turn the fortunes of Windows Phone around.

Still Missing

1. USB Mass Storage
2. Bluetooth File Transfer e.g. of music, videos, and pictures
3. Lack of support for J2ME/Java

How hard can it be to add these two simple features?

Microsoft sure are acting strange. Can I say this: You are not Apple. Wake up!!!!

Sorry, guys. I like the Metro UI on Windows Phone. I like some other neat integrations. But, sorry, its not good enough for many of us yet.

I was a participant at MTN Nigeria’s Ideas Forum held at the Southern Sun, Ikoyi yesterday. It was a very engaging time during which we discussed mobile apps development in Nigeria and MTN’s proposed mobile app store, as well as ways that the ecosystem can be enhanced.

I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with a number of great guys from strategic companies, including Opera and Microsoft.

I have it on good authority from the Microsoft official that Windows Phone is coming to Nigeria officially – and soon. So many people have been asking me this question, so I guess your blood pressures can return to normal now – or go up even more from the anticipation.

Oh, and I was told that the Nigerian launch is not going to be soft, so expect a lot of push from Microsoft here.

Meanwhile, do not forget that my written review of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango is on the way.

Here’s a quick walk through of Windows Phone Mango on a HTC HD7 smartphone.

My written review is work-in-progress and will be published in the next few days.

This morning, a post on the Zune player Support page reported that Microsoft has stopped the production of her portable media player, Zune. From the post:

We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players. So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing. Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our very last devices.

Incidentally, I was just about ordering for one from Amazon yesterday.

This news does not in any way suggest that the Zune player is no more available in the market. However, it’s availability is now subject to a “while stock lasts” condition. Of course, as stated on the page, current Zune users do not need to panic and existing warranties will still be honoured.

As at mid-2010, I didn’t think that Microsoft could pull off anything exciting with WindowsPhone. However, being my job to try out everything mobile, I laid my hands on a HTC HD7, a 4.3-inch display monster that ran WindowsPhone OS – and instantly fell in love. Microsoft proved me wrong.

The WindowsPhone UI is simply clean, elegant, and very usable. In my opinion, the WindowsPhone UI beat everything else in the mobile space (read: Android, iOS, WebOS, and pre-Belle Symbian) hands-down (minus the new Nokia MeeGo UI which wasn’t in existence then and which I am yet to try). I have been an avowed WindowsPhone fan ever since.

But WindowsPhone was limited by a lack of some functionality available on other OSes at that time. These include: copy and paste and multi-tasking, among others. However, with the release of WindowsPhone version 7.5 AKA Mango, those listed features and 480 other improvements have been added to this very elegant OS.

In case you missed the news, this long-awaited Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update has started rolling out to devices.

A follower of this site is making available his HTC HD7 running WindowsPhone Mango for me to play with and review, so you can expect some exciting reviews and articles as I try to squeeze all the juice out of this Mango.

I am including below links to some of my past reviews of the HTC HD7 when it was running the first iteration of the OS. Do enjoy them while waiting for my Mango reviews.

• HTC HD7 Windowsphone First Impressions
• Pictorial Mini Review of HTC HD7
• Things I like about the HTC HD7
• Am I confidently recommending Windowsphone above other OS?

Microsoft has been real busy the past one year in re-shuffling and in the re-arrangement/rebuilding of different aspects of their services/software. This is evident with the latest iteration of their mobile operating system, Windows Phone that was re-written from the ground up to be more intuitive and user friendly. Plus, Windows Phone 7 (WP7) also has a very clean and minimalistic user interface.

When Microsoft and Nokia struck the deal for the Finnish phone maker to make WP7 phones, many people (myself included) thought that it was a very foolish move by Nokia.

The reason behind this was that Nokia had lost its place as the Number one mobile smartphone operating system and it needed something to boost its position both in North America and Globally. The logical move thought by most people (myself included, again) was that Nokia was finally going to take up Android.

I couldn’t understand the big picture then but when I look at the recent unveiling of Windows 8 (or whatever its going to be called) by Microsoft, I realized that Microsoft was moving toward the Cloud and with the tablet-like interface that the Windows 8 Metro UI runs, the integration with Windows Phone 7 was going to help Microsoft in their mobile division.

A major problem that has hindered WP7 sales is that most of the devices that it runs on which are manufactured by Samsung, HTC and others are pretty expensive. This is where Nokia comes in.

If Nokia can make a Windows phone that is both cheap without skimping on functionality, that is the perfect combination for the spreading of the gospel of Windows Phone. Add the fact that among phone manufacturers worldwide Nokia has the greatest mobile market penetration worldwide.

In conclusion, the simplicity of WP7 and market reach of Nokia combined with the release of Windows 8 makes me wonder if Android and iOS should not be watching their backs. It may not be an immediate catch-up but with time Windows Phone will displace Blackberry to become one of the top three mobile OSes alongside Android and iOS.

The first set of WindowsPhone smartphones hit the market in October 2010. Inspite of this slew of devices from over 5 manufacturers, this platform is clearly not selling in droves in the market.

The lack of sales seems to have informed Microsoft’s energy in courting Nokia to take up WindowsPhone as a primary smartphone platform. The Redmond giant mnust be hoping that with a manufacturer like Nokia pushing WindowsPhone, the platform stands a brighter chance of suceess. That reasoning is a valid one, and one can only hope that it returns great results.

I have owned two WindowsPhone devices and can tell anyone who cares to listen that the OS has a clean and elegant user interface. While its initial feature set was limited, in that it lacked lots of functionalities that are taken for granted on other platforms, WindowsPhone has seen additional features added to it.

The first update, which was named NoDo, added system-wide copy-and-paste functionality, among other improvements, to the OS

The next iteration dubbed Mango literally transforms the OS into the leagues of Android and iOS in terms of functionality, bringing multi-tasking and several other major improvements to the table. Mango has been reported as ready and being shipped to manufacturers already, so we can expect updates to existing devices, as well as a new set of devices.

It seems that WindowsPhone has all the trappings of a great product – a user-friendly UI, rapid updates with additional features, and a galaxy of hardware vendors behind it. Why has it failed to catch on in the marketplace so far?

Microsoft is pushing out WindowsPhone Mango out to manufacturers already and we can expect new devices, as well as updates to be pushed out to existing devices.

Mango brings 500 new features to the WindowsPhone platform. Those features include: multitasking, improved IE9 with hardware acceleration and support for HTML5, combined messaging threads, email conversation view, among others.

Fujitsu have announced the very first WindowsPhone Mango device, a waterproof smartphone with a 13.2 megapixel camera named Toshiba-Fujitsu IS12T.

We are not likely to ever see it in these parts, as it is targeted at the Japanese market only.

GSMArena reports that Microsoft has also expanded access to the Windowsphone 7 Marketplace to another 19 countries.

• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• Greece
• Hungary
• India
• Japan
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Sweden
• Taiwan

This brings the total number of countries on the Marketplace to 35. Unfortunately, Nigeria is not listed yet.

Source

When the new Nokia CEO announced the adoption of WindowsPhone as the company’s primary smartphone platform, the impression given then was that MeeGo was not in a state anywhere close to deployment.

However, this week’s unveiling of what has turned out to be an absolutely fantastic smartphone, the N9, running on a game-changing OS and UI, MeeGo, has got me stumped. Actually, it has got the entire mobile industry stumped.

Traditional Nokia critics are drooling over the N9 and MeeGo. Die-hard Nokia fans are ecstatic about it. For once in a long time, Nokia looks outstanding. The N9 is without contradiction the most amazing thing that has come out of Nokia ever. Think about it.

Any Advantages of WindowsPhone over MeeGo?
Of course, this now begs the question, Why drop MeeGo for WindowsPhone?

Why throw away a fortune of investments in MeeGo research and development? We are talking about obscenely huge amounts of money here. Why not reap from those investments?

MeeGo and the N9 already have features and services that WindowsPhone wishes to have when it grows up. The N9 has a minimalist user interface that seems even better than WindowsPhone’s. The N9′s user interface certainly packs a greater WHAOH! factor than WindowsPhone, not to mention that it seems to work better too.

I also understand that the MeeGo team at Nokia re-wrote the whole UI to make it what it is now in just 9 months. What? Brilliant! Amazing! Those guys should take a group shot and have their faces plastered all over the Internet.

Confusing Signals
I don’t get it anymore. Nokia is sending out confusing signals to everybody. Developers don’t know what to make of this Symbian-MeeGo-WindowsPhone dance anymore. Consumers don’t. The press don’t. Network operators don’t. Retailers don’t.

Perhaps only a handful of people on Nokia’s board do. Just perhaps. Or perhaps they are just as confused as the rest of us?

The Iron is Hot: Strike!
Nokia has lost a lot of mindshare and marketshare in the last few years (smartphone Market, that is). On a personal note, I have remained a Symbian fan, but delays in updates have gotten me weary, and I am looking elsewhere already. I will certainly get the N9 when it hits the Market, even if Nokia foolishly relegates MeeGo to experimentation satus.

Yes; it will be foolish of Nokia’s decision makers to ignore the opportunities presented by the buzz that the N9 has generated and continues to generate. It is foolhardy to ignore what the consumers say they want – and we are saying it loud and clear: “We want MeeGo and more devices like the N9″.

From North America (the continent that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has been courting) to Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is the same thunderous applause for the N9. Leaking a Nokia WindowsPhone that uses the same hardware of the N9 the next day hasn’t muted that applause and desire for the N9.

For the first time in a long, long while, Nokia have almost everyone happy about a Nokia product.

The Logical Things To Do
Nokia needs to re-consider certain things, including the following:

1. Do WindowsPhone if you must, but not at the detriment of MeeGo and an excellent product like the N9. Other manufacturers have multiple smartphone platforms. Samsung produces Android, Bada and WindowsPhone. That’s three. Why can’t Nokia, a much bigger manufacturer, do two? Let’s all agree that Symbian is dead, but seeing that MeeGo is like Symbian or steroids, no-one is going to cry over that.

2. Commit to one MeeGo handset a year. Just one. The iPhone is not selling in droves because there are multiple form factors and variants. Make MeeGo smartphones something for us to look forward to every year. Make it exclusive. A collector’s item. Whatever, just give us one every year.

3. Ride on the current waves of popularity of the N9 and push that device and its successors like crazy in the Market. It is sheer foolishness to ignore or muzzle whatever gets your customers excited. The N9 has got both fans and critics alike excited. Even Engadget has glowing praise for the N9!

A Timely Warning
Nokia have prided themselves in standing out with regards hardware and multimedia. That is changing fast. Samsung is catching up fast in those areas. Apple is catching up there too. Both are unrelenting, tireless innovators.

Perhaps someday, Nokia smartphones wont have the best cameras anymore. What then would Nokia be pushing? What would stand them out? What? History? Maybe. Just maybe.

In the meantime, what the Nokia MeeGo team have done shows in-house innovation, differentiation, and creativity that should be praised and encouraged to high heavens. The N9 is a device that truly beats with the Nokia heart that we used to know.

I am not saying that Nokia WindowsPhones will be terrible. We will have to wait for the jury on that. But if MeeGo is making people look in your direction, and you are in the market to sell to those same people, it is madness not to capitalise on that.

Stephen Elop and Nokia’s management need to wake up to reality. The cookie may just be crumbling. In the meantime, the world watches. And waits.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 24, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today previewed the next major release of Windows Phone, code-named “Mango,” through a series of media events around the world. “Mango” will deliver more than 500 new features to push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet. The “Mango” release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall. More details on device update timing will be provided closer to availability. Windows Phone will also add support for additional languages, expand access to apps by launching Windows Phone Marketplace in new countries, and partner with new OEMs to enable expansion to new markets.*

“Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more,” said Andy Lees, president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. “With ‘Mango,’ Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort.”

Communications: Easier to Connect and Share
The smartphone experience can be complicated by a sea of disconnected apps and accounts as people attempt to keep pace with all the ways they communicate — from calls, texts, email and instant messages (IM) to status updates, Tweets, check-ins, photo posting and tagging. To help people stay on top of that growing complexity, the “Mango” release organizes information around the person or group people want to interact with, not the app they have to use.

• Threads. Switch between text, Facebook chat and Windows Live Messenger within the same conversation.
• Groups. Group contacts into personalized Live Tiles to see the latest status updates right from the Start Screen and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group.
• Deeper social network integration. Twitter and LinkedIn feeds are now integrated into contact cards, and “Mango” includes built-in Facebook check-ins and new face detection software that makes it easier to quickly tag photos and post to the Web.
• Linked inbox. See multiple email accounts in one linked inbox. Conversations are organized to make it easy to stay on top of the latest mail.
• Hands-free messaging. Built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support enables hands-free texting or chatting.

A Smarter Approach to Apps
Windows Phone will challenge the way people think about apps. Today their usefulness is measured by what can be done within the app, but Microsoft sees the promise of apps in how they can be integrated directly into the core experiences of the phone. In addition to making it easy to get timely notifications and updates from apps right from the Start Screen, the “Mango” release also will surface apps as part of search results and within Windows Phone Hubs. As a result, a useful app is more likely to be right there when needed.

• App Connect. By connecting apps to search results and deepening their integration with Windows Phone Hubs, including Music and Video and Pictures, “Mango” allows apps to be surfaced when and where they make sense.
• Improved Live Tiles. Get real-time information from apps without having to open them. Live Tiles can be more dynamic and hold more information.
• Multitasking. Quickly switch between apps in use and allow apps to run in the background, helping to preserve battery life and performance.

Taking the Internet Beyond the Browser
In addition to including Internet Explorer, the “Mango” release will connect the power of the Web to the unique capabilities of Windows Phones, such as location awareness, camera and access to apps, to present a way of viewing the Web that is more localized, actionable and relevant.

• Internet Explorer 9. A browser based on the powerful Internet Explorer 9 and including support for HTML5 and full hardware acceleration.
• Local Scout. Provides hyperlocal search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy-to-use guide.
• Bing on Windows Phone. More ways to search the Web, including Bing Vision, Music Search and Voice so it’s easy to discover and decide.
• Quick Cards. When searching for a product, movie, event or place, see a quick summary of relevant information, including related apps.

Strengthening the Ecosystem
The Windows Phone ecosystem has grown steadily since Windows Phone 7 first launched in October, with more than 17,000 apps currently available on Windows Phone Marketplace and Windows Phone handsets available from a range of partners worldwide, and Microsoft’s recently announced partnership with Nokia.

“Mango” will further expand and strengthen the Windows Phone ecosystem through new partnerships with Acer Inc., Fujitsu Ltd. and ZTE Corp., which today announced plans to deliver new Windows Phone devices in markets around the world.

Furthermore, Microsoft announced it will support additional languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish, and will greatly expand the list of countries where consumers have access to apps via Windows Phone Marketplace.

As well, a beta release of the free Windows Phone Developer tools, which will be used to create the next generation of “Mango” apps and games, will be posted for public download to Microsoft’s website within 24 hours of today’s events. More information about what “Mango” means for developers, the tools and a link to the public download page is available at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/05/24/developer-news-beta-mango-tools-available-today.aspx.

If this rumour had come a year ago, I would not have dignified it by giving it any attention. Unfortunately, things have changed so fast between old bitter rivals Nokia and Microsoft in the last one year that one does not know what to believe anymore.

A year ago, I did not believe that Nokia would dump Symbian. Oh, making smartphones on multiple platforms was not the issue. But actually dropping off Symbian? Still, it happened.

A year ago, I did not believe that Nokia would adopt Windowsphone; yet they did.

So, when the same source (Eldar Mutazin of Mobile Review) who first broke the rumour-that-became-facts about Nokia’s plans is now the same person saying that Nokia and Microsoft are meeting to explore the assimilation of Nokia’s mobile units by Microsoft, well, how do you totally throw that away?

If this sale happens, it will be disruptive. Too many things will change. I will not even begin to imagine how things will go. But perhaps some of our readers have crystal balls and would like to tell us?

In the meantime, I will sit back and watch it all unfold.