It has been just revealed that Microsoft’s next major Windows Phone 7 software update, code-named ‘Mango’ will bring some interesting features that were only available in iOS and Android devices until now. In a recent WP Dev podcast podcast, Director of Developer Experience at Microsoft, Brandon Watson has revealed that Bing Audio, Bing Vision, Turn-by-turn navigation, and voice to text are going to be four major feature updates that are going to hit the Windows Phone 7 with ‘Mango Update’.
Bing Audio: Bing Audio works like Shazam app (which is already available for WP7 phones), it listens to a song and discovers the details about the song.
Bing Vision: Basically image scanner that scans the barcodes, QR codes and texts using the phone’s camera. This is very much like Google Goggles app.
SMS Dictation: This is a voice-to-text feature based on Microsoft’s TellMe service, lets you to compose SMS text message by saying it aloud.
Turn-by-turn navigations: Voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, a feature where Nokia could help Microsoft after their ally. This feature indeed is coming with Mango update, as confirmed on Twitter.
Apart from these there will be a podcast app which lets you to listen and download podcasts. Though all the above said features are nothing new to smartphone users (and some of them even available through apps on WP7), they will be integrated directly into the mobile phone OS which is always better.
Cool