AT&T becomes First US Carrier for Mango Phones

AT&T has announced it will add new Windows Phone 7.5 phones to its lineup, becoming the first in the U.S. to offer devices using the Mango version.

AT&T also said all Windows phones handled by the company would be updated to the Mango version of the Windows Phone operating system this fall. Two of the new 4G devices are from Samsung, and one is from HTC.

Focus S, Focus Flash, Titan:
The Samsung-made Focus S updates its earlier Focus phone, which AT&T described as the biggest-selling Windows phone in the United States. It offers a 4.3-inch Super-AMOLED-Plus display, a 1.4-GHz processor, 4G-capable speeds, a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera and a rear-facing 8-megapixel, and a width of only 8.55 millimeters.

The Samsung Focus Flash has a 3.7-inch Super0-AMOLED screen, a 1.4-GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera. The HTC Titan has the largest screen of any AT&T phone, 4.7 inches. It features a 1.5-GHz processor and an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash. Pricing and ship dates have not yet been announced.

AT&T said other Windows phones that would be updated to Mango included the HTC HD7S, the HTC Surround, the LG Quantum and the Focus.

The Mango update to Windows Phone 7 offers a variety of improvements that Microsoft hopes will help it gain footing in the current mobile market, which is dominated by Apple and Android phones.

Multitasking, Local Scout and Office:
Except for the "live tiles" interface that provides an updateable, simplified way of organizing one's apps and data, the original Phone 7 platform did not receive a whole lot of praise. Mango, however, is intended to correct that, with the addition of features such as multitasking, so that a user can move between apps without having to quit and reboot any of them.

There is also native support for Internet Explorer 9 and 4G high-speed wireless, and a new feature called Threads allows users to conduct a conversation while moving between Live Messenger, Facebook, and text messages. The various threads of the conversation are displayed on one screen.

A feature called Local Scout, tied in with Microsoft's Bing search engine, offers local results for shopping, entertainment, and restaurants, and Scout knows where you are via GPS. Microsoft is also expected to enable its Mango phones with Skype, which will help to accelerate the downward spiral of voice services even as data needs increase. The software giant has not yet issued a timetable for that to happen, but since it is buying Skype for $8.5 billion, the only question is when.

And then there's the Office tie-in. With Mango, users can get access to the Office 365 productivity suite in the cloud, meaning access to using Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files.

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