Microsoft has started pushing out Windows Phone 7.5 Mango software. This means that sometime in the next week or so there’s a good chance existing Windows Phone 7 users will be prompted to download and install an update. There are plenty of new features coming in Mango, including tighter integration with Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud services, improved social networking and music features, and turn-by-turn driving directions.

Microsoft is also making it easier to discover Windows Phone apps — even if you don’t have a Windows Phone device. Anyone can now browse or search for apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace using a shiny new web interface.

You can view featured apps and games from the home screen, and sort apps by free, top, and new. Clicking on any app takes you to a page where you can views screenshots, reviews, and more details. And if you do have a supported device you can login with your Windows Live ID to purchase apps from the website.

The process isn’t quite as smooth as Google’s. If you have an Android device, you can tap a button on the web and your phone or tablet will automatically start to download and install an application. But the Windows Phone Marketplace will instead send you a link via email or SMS. You have to click on that link to start installing the app.

The Windows Phone Marketplace is expanding at a pretty decent clip. While there aren’t nearly as many third party apps available for Windows Phone 7 as for Android or iOS yet, there are more than 25,000 apps in the Marketplace according to windowsphoneapplist. That number may be a little off, since other trackers have different figures. But WinRumors notes that it was just a few months ago that only 15,000 apps were available.

Of course, quality counts at least as much as quantity. After all, do you really need access to 400,000 iOS apps, or just to the few dozen you want the most? But we’ve also seen some movement on that front, with some of the hottest Android and iOS apps finding their way to Windows Phone 7. This week alone we saw the introduction of Angry Birds, Kik Messenger, Gowalla, and Epicurious, among others.

At this rate it’s going to take a long time for Microsoft’s app store to catch up to Google’s or Apple’s. But you can certainly make a case that you don’t need to attract the most developers — just the best ones.

In other news, nobody is even coming close to toppling Apple’s lead in the tablet app space. MacStories notes that as of this week there are more than 100,000 iPad apps available in the App Store. That’s not counting all of the iPhone apps you can also run on the iPad — these are apps designed specifically for the 9.7 inch tablet’s 1024 x 768 pixel display.

HP says there are about 300 tablet apps for webOS this week, and there are only a few hundred apps available for Android 3.x Honeycomb tablets even though the first Honeycomb tablets started shipping in February.

Microsoft is letting developers know that the Windows Phone Marketplace will no longer accept Windows Mobile 6.x apps starting on July 15th. Developers will also no longer be able to change the prices or other information in the Marketplace after the 15th.

This isn’t quite the end of the road for Windows Mobile 6.x users though. You’ll be able to continue downloading apps from the Marketplace for the immediate future. You just won’t see any new apps in the Marketplace.

Of course, when Windows Mobile first hit the scene, there was no centralized app store. Instead users simply downloaded software from developer web sites or from third-party stores such as Handango or Mobihand. And you can still do that. But with Microsoft throwing its weight behind Windows Phone 7, killing off the Marketplace for earlier devices, and a diminishing number of Windows Mobile 6.x phones on the market, it might be time to consider upgrading if you want to be able to run the latest apps on your phone.

via GottaBeMobile

When Microsoft rolls out the Mango update for Windows Phone 7 later this year, the company will also introduce a new web-based version of the Windows Phone Market. This will allow users to browser the Marketplace using a desktop web browser, read reviews, and purchase and download apps.

You’ll be able to login to the web site with a Windows Live ID to purchase apps using the credit card linked to your account. You can then send download links to your phone via SMS or email to initiate a download. It’s not quite as elegant as Google’s web-based Android Market which lets you start a download on your phone simply by clicking a button on the web. But it’s pretty close, and unlike iTunes, you don’t need to download an app to your desktop and synchronize your phone to install an app you discovered using a web browser.

Microsoft will offer parental controls to let you keep your kids from downloading paid apps or seeing apps with mature content ratings.

The web site will also make it easier for users, developers, and bloggers to share links to Windows Phone apps. Mobile apps for Windows Phone 7 will also start showing up in Bing search results.

Microsoft will offer the Mango update as a free upgrade for all Windows Phone 7 users this fall. But developers can already get their hands on tools to start writing apps for the new platform. Microsoft has released a new set of developer tools for Mango which are available for download starting today.

Here are some of the new things that apps can do in Mango:

• Support background processing
• Use Silverlight and XNA together
• Support new Live Tile features
• Offer deep linking to notifications and Live Tiles
• Make use of the camera, gyroscope, or compass
• Support fast application switching
• Access calendar and contact data
• Offer Internet Explorer 9 web browser control

The new tools also include a new emulator for testing Mango apps.

Microsoft is also expanding the Windows Phone Marketplace to additional countries. That means this fall you’ll be able to submit or purchase an app in 35 different nations. Right now the Marketplace is only available in 16.

Microsoft will also follow Google and Apple’s leads by offering a web-based version of the Windows Phone Marketplace making it easier to find apps using a desktop computer. But while Google lets you send apps purchased from the Android Market in a web browser directly to your phone, it looks like Microsoft will take a more Apple-like approach by having you first download the app to your computer before sending it to your mobile device. Users will be able to purchase apps on the web and send download links to a phone via email or SMS.

Windows Phone 7 may not be able to run hundreds of thousands of apps like iOS or Google Android, but as the new kid on the smartphone the third party ecosystem around the platform is growing quickly. Microsoft published some interesting stats about the number of third party developers and apps in the Window Phone Marketplace this week.

There are currently 36,000 registered developers who have paid their way into the developer program, although the development tools for Windows Phone 7 have been downloaded well over a million times. there are 11,500 apps in the Market, including 7,500 paid apps, and 11,000 apps using Microsoft’s advertising service to generate revenue.

The average user downloads 12 apps per month, and 44″ of all paid apps include a trial version.

While Microsoft could probably get more apps into the Marketplace by taking a Google-like approach and allowing all developers to push their apps to the Marketplace in minutes without a review process, the company says it’s focusing on quality over quantity by reviewing apps. Microsoft’s Brandon Watson also takes a swipe at RIM for beefing up its numbers by allowing competitors’ apps to run on the platform, and at Google for counting wallpapers as an app category — although to be fair, the Live Wallpapers listed in the Android Market as a standalone category do take a little more programming skill than simply cropping or resizing an image.

The number of apps and games available for Windows Phone 7 continues to grow. The folks at Windows Phone App List say there are now over 9,000 free and paid titles available from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. And some top tier mobile games including Angry Birds and Doodle Jump are coming soon. Now it looks like we can add I Love Katamari to that list.

Microsoft Xbox Live manager Karl Stricker says that the mobile version of Katamari Damacy is coming to Windows Phone Marketplace this Wednesday, with support for Xbox Live integration.

In case you’ve never played a Katamari Damacy game, the goal is to roll a ball around various landscapes, making the ball bigger and bigger by rolling over objects ranging in size from household objects to skyscrapers. It sounds ridiculous — and it kind of is. But it’s also a lot of fun to play.

Update: I Love Katamari is now available from the Windows Live Marketplace for $6.99.

There’s already a mobile version I Love Katamari for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s available from the App Store for $4.99.

via WP Central

Developers have found a vulnerability in the Windows Phone Marketplace DRM software which makes it possible to download paid apps from the marketplace for free, crack the security and either install the app on a phone or distribute the cracked app.

The folks at WP Central have put together a video showing how the security can be bypassed — but the tools will not be made available to the public. Right now this is just a proof of concept and the site has been in contact with Microsoft in hopes of tightening up security to make it harder to crack security.

While some folks might be happy to find out how easy it is to bypass the DRM used by the Marketplace, mobile app developers expect to be paid for their work and if piracy becomes too rampant for any mobile platform, we might find that big name (and some independent) developers shy away from releasing apps for that platform.

You can check out the video after the break.

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