Well..."Ta-Da!"

"Mango" is a major update with more than 500 changes and updates to the Windows Phone system. That is why Microsoft is now calling it Windows Phone 7.5 instead of Windows Phone 7.

I have been playing with a pre-release beta version of "Mango" for my 30 Days With Windows Phone 7 series, so I have already had an opportunity to explore some of the new features. I have been very impressed.

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Damn... guess I better watch what I say... wait... I don't work for MS...do I? No...hell let me check.. .god knows who the company was sold to and who I work for now.

A Windows Phone principal program manager has left the company two weeks after making headlines for tweeting his impressions of an unreleased Nokia phone running the Microsoft mobile operating system.

A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed this morning that Joe Marini, principal program manager for the Windows Phone web platform, no longer works for the company, but declined to provide further details, citing a policy against discussing personnel matters.

But the back story, as we understand it from people inside the company, is that Marini resigned after learning that he would be let go for improper use of social media and disclosure of confidential information.

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Awesome! They are getting better and better. 

At Microsoft Tech Ed in New Zealand Microsoft has finally confirmed that front facing cameras (as well as support for them) is officially coming with the Mango update which is due to hit soon.

The news was confirmed in a session at Tech Ed today by a Microsoft staff member, and confirmed in a tweet from Windows Phone NZ. We've seen a few Mango devices so far, but only one is available in the wild. Based on this news, its likely that the majority of Windows Phone "7.5" hardware will sport a front facing camera. 

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I think MS was just messing with Google. 

Google may not have had much of a choice when it came to buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. If it didn’t, someone else would have and that would have put the company in an even bigger patent hole.

Our sources say that Motorola was in acquisition talks with several parties, including Microsoft for quite some time. Microsoft was interested in acquiring Motorola’s patent portfolio that would have allowed it to torpedo Android even further. The possibility of that deal brought Google to the negotiation table, resulting in the blockbuster sale. 

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