The Mango update for Windows Phone 7 will be available any day now, and while Microsoft has pointed out some of the highlights, it turns out there are a few hidden gems in the new software as well. For instance, Being Manan noticed that Mango lets you stream music from your Windows Live SkyDrive account to your phone.

Basically if you’ve already uploaded MP3 music to SkyDrive, all you have to do is fire up the SkyDrive app on your phone, find the Music folder, and select the song you want to play. What happens next is a little silly: You’re redirected to the SkyDrive website. But if you tap the song on that website, the file will load and you can stream it using your phone’s music player.

What’s interesting is that while the Internet Explorer 9 web browser in Windows Phone 7 supports this feature, it may not have been a high priority for the SkyDrive team. Instead, according to the folks that control the SkyDrive Twitter account, the focus is on making sure that users can access SkyDrive photos and documents on their Windows Phone 7 devices.

via LiveSide

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Microsoft recently released Windows Phone 7.1 Mango to manufacturers, which means that the first smartphones running the updated operating system should start hitting the streets in the next few months. But phone makers aren’t the only ones getting a new version of Windows Phone 7 this week. Microsoft has also released a new beta for developers.

The Windows Phone 7.1 Beta 2 refresh isn’t exactly the same as the RTM (release to manufacturing) build. But it’s pretty close and it does give developers the tools they need to update apps or write new apps that will work with Windows Phone 7.1 once it’s available to the public.

The new beta has built-in support for taking screenshots on your device, and features locked APIs, which means that any apps designed to work on the beta release won’t rely on features that will function differently in the final release.

There’s good news for those of you who are waiting for the Windows Phone 7 Mango update to arrive on your smartphones: Mango has been released to manufacturers and is being sent to cellular carriers for certification.

That should mean things are right schedule for the previously-announced September launch, though we could see Mango roll out even sooner. Fujitsu’s IS12T is set to hit retail shelves in Japan in August, and it’s expected to ship with Mango. There is, of course, that small hurdle of carrier certification to clear, and we’ve already seen just how long that can take. Some Windows Phone 7 owners are still waiting for their last pre-Mango updates to arrive.

While Windows Phone 7 devices haven’t exactly been flying off the shelves, customer satisfaction rates have been high and the platform has seen the arrival of a number of top-tier mobile apps (including Evernote and IM+) recently. Mango’s 500+ new features will open up scores of new possibilities for developers, which should help boost retail sales once the Mango-friendly apps start rolling in to the Zune Marketplace.

Mango’s other big improvements — like turn-by-turn directions, speech-to-text, group messaging, built in support for Live Messenger and Facebook chat, and a greatly improved email app — should help Microsoft win some new fans, too.

via Liveside.Net

Google is expanding its suite of mobile apps for the Google+ social network. When the service first launched a few weeks ago the company only offered an Android app and a mobile web site. This week an iPhone app hit the iTunes App Store. And now it looks like we’ll see a Windows Phone 7 app next week.

The Google+ social network is still in private beta, which means you can’t start using the service without an invitation. But while invites were pretty scarce in the first few days, Google has been pretty liberal with the invitations recently and there are already millions of registered users.

There are a few key features that set Google+ apart from competitors including Facebook and Twitter. The first is an emphasis on “circles,” or easy to configure groups of contacts. You can create circles by dragging and dropping your contacts into groups using a desktop web browser and then choose which updates you want to share with the public and which you only want to share with specific groups. You can also choose to only view updates from members of groups you’ve created.

The mobile apps also offer a nifty group chat feature that lets you create a “huddle” and invite friends to send messages in real-time. Android users can also enable automatic uploading of photos from their camera roll. The iOS app doesn’t support automatic uploads, but it does allow you to manually send photos from your phone to Google+.

There’s no word on which features will be available in the Windows Phone 7 app, but the Google Plus team some random guy has put out a list of updates coming next week, and the Windows Phone 7 app is on the agenda.

Update: False alarm… maybe. It looks like this news came from an unofficial Google Plus news blog.

via IntoMobile

Microsoft is set to release the next major update to Windows Phone 7 soon. The update (code-named Mango) will bring a number of new features including support for multitasking, better messaging, an improved user interface for switching between apps, and support for visual voicemail. Another update is tight integration with Twitter and LinkedIn.

This week Microsoft released a video showing how the new social features will work.

In a nutshell, updates from Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live LinkedIn will all show up in your phone’s People Hub. But if the stream gets too crowded, you can filter by social network.

There’s also a new social notification feature that works with a Live Tile on your home screen. When there’s new activity from your social networks, you’ll see it on your home screen. When you tap the tile it will take you to a notifications window where you can see if someone has mentioned you on Twitter, written on your Facebook Wall, or taken other action. You can also reply to messages from this window, retweet Twitter messages, or perform other actions.

In other words, while on most mobile platforms you need to install separate apps to get the most out of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks, the built-in social features of Windows Phone 7 Mango may be enough for many users. Of course, if you don’t actually use any of those social networks, this feature might just be a waste of space, but it’s probably a small waste at worst.

via WP Central

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A group of independent developers is working with Microsoft to provide an officially sanctioned tool for jailbreaking Windows Phone 7 devices. Right now if you want to install apps that aren’t available from the Windows Phone Marketplace you need to pony up $99 for a developer license. But the upcoming ChevronWP7 tool will let you do it for just $9.

One of the developers unveiled the pricing today on Twitter.

The tool is aimed at developers that want to test their apps on the platform before committing to spending nearly a hundred bucks to join the official developer program. But it could also provide a way for Windows Phone 7 owners with no coding skills to install unofficial apps without going through the Marketplace — assuming developer start to write such apps for the platform.

via WM Power User

Group text messaging is one of the 500 some-odd updates coming to Windows Phone 7 Mango. It’ll arrive inside the updated messaging hub and will even be smart enough to route messages to your contacts via IM when they’re online. But Mango isn’t due for a few months yet, and maybe you want to group message right now.

Those who want a heard start can now download the GroupMe app for WP7. Its arrival on Windows Phone 7 rounds out support for the four major mobile platforms, with iOS, Android, and BlackBerry users already invited along for the ride.

Two of the features your iPhone or Android toting buddies can enjoy are also available in the WP7 app — messaging and conference calls. If a Wi-Fi connection is available, GroupMe will use it to send your messages. If not, SMS will suffice. Location mapping and photo sharing are in the works, but weren’t ready to go at launch time.

Head over to the Marketplace on your phone and search GroupMe to install, or launch the Tag app and scan below!

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The Windows Phone 7 Mango update is coming soon(ish), and Microsoft is taking to the streets (or at least the web) to tout some of the upcoming operating system’s new features.

Curiously, Microsoft chose to title its blog post “navigational improvements,” which probably got a lot of curious readers thinking they’d see Mango’s turn-by-turn directions feature shown off in greater detail. Unfortunately, they were talking about navigating the screens on your phone, specifically the Apps list.

Now that the Marketplace is starting to fill with apps you actually want to install, your list could be getting quite lengthy. To make locating specific apps easier, Mango will add a search feature and quick jump list like the one currently available in your People Hub. Type in a few letters of the app you’re after and suggestions appear instantly below — just tap to launch. To keep clutter to a minimum as is the Metro M.O., the search box only appears when users have more than 45 apps installed.

And since finding and launching apps is so much easier in Mango, you’ll need a way to seamlessly switch among them, too. That’s where Mango’s webOS-inspired card switching comes in, finally bringing multitasking to WP7 phones.

Hit up the official blog post for full details, and then return to twiddling your thumbs while you wait patiently for Mango to RTM and be approved for deployment by carriers.