Beta Mango Tools available today !

[tero]

Hi,

please check out the blog post about new Mango tools http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_p...ble-today.aspx

Br,
Tero

[kamalakshan]

Can you share the link for .iso images of the tools.

[wizard_hu_]

It is shared on the Microsoft site already.
Open link in #1, click on the blue download link (brings to http://create.msdn.com), "Download the free tools", "Download the Windows Phone Developer Tools (WPDT) 7.1 Beta", and it is linked in the "Instructions" paragraph ("Note: this release is also available in .iso format", where .iso is a link actually, around 700 Megabytes).

[petrib]

kamalkshan, I suppose it is best if you go to Microsoft for the tools: http://msdn.microsoft.com

Anyway, if one starts to develop for Mango, will Nokia's first Windows Phone based phones actually ship with the Mango version, or will they use the original Windows Phone 7 -release, instead?

I suspect that if Nokia is to ship any Windows Phone 7.* based phones this year, they're most probably using the original version, as Mango in all likelihood won't be ready until it is too late for phones shipping in 2011. One can, of course, hope that they'll be upgradeable, or Nokia will delay them until maybe Feb/March 2012. I suppose time will tell how it goes.

And as the original Windows Phone 7 supports only a very specific set of hardware, I also suspect that from that perspective, Nokia's first Windows Phone 7.* models will most likely have to be more or less exactly the same as those devices on the market now, which where announced/released already in late 2010. Nokia might change amounts of memory, display size, camera module, and the covers, but that's about it for the first round. Any serious changes are probably also impossible for "Mango", so it has to be some follow-up version where real differentiation can happen (which probably means late 2012, earliest, and Windows Phone 8, or whatever Microsoft will call it).

In that sense, if one wants to sell/market Windows Phone 7.* apps this year, it is best not to target Mango at all, but the current version, and make sure they work on Samsung, HTC, etc. Of course, on the side, it may good to try to ensure that the app works on the Mango betas, so that when Mango devices come, the app won't fail.

However, given the minuscule sales numbers so far (compared to any other smartphone platform, including Symbian), the business case for developing for Windows Phone 7.* isn't that attractive for many (no real user/customer base to speak of globally, and even less so regionally or for most demographics).

[kamalakshan]

It is shared on the Microsoft site already.
Open link in #1, click on the blue download link (brings to http://create.msdn.com), "Download the free tools", "Download the Windows Phone Developer Tools (WPDT) 7.1 Beta", and it is linked in the "Instructions" paragraph ("Note: this release is also available in .iso format", where .iso is a link actually, around 700 Megabytes).

Thank you, I had checked the page yesterday, but didn't notice the link at all. Should have looked more carefully.

[kamalakshan]

kamalkshan, I suppose it is best if you go to Microsoft for the tools: http://msdn.microsoft.com

Anyway, if one starts to develop for Mango, will Nokia's first Windows Phone based phones actually ship with the Mango version, or will they use the original Windows Phone 7 -release, instead?

I suspect that if Nokia is to ship any Windows Phone 7.* based phones this year, they're most probably using the original version, as Mango in all likelihood won't be ready until it is too late for phones shipping in 2011. One can, of course, hope that they'll be upgradeable, or Nokia will delay them until maybe Feb/March 2012. I suppose time will tell how it goes.

And as the original Windows Phone 7 supports only a very specific set of hardware, I also suspect that from that perspective, Nokia's first Windows Phone 7.* models will most likely have to be more or less exactly the same as those devices on the market now, which where announced/released already in late 2010. Nokia might change amounts of memory, display size, camera module, and the covers, but that's about it for the first round. Any serious changes are probably also impossible for "Mango", so it has to be some follow-up version where real differentiation can happen (which probably means late 2012, earliest, and Windows Phone 8, or whatever Microsoft will call it).

In that sense, if one wants to sell/market Windows Phone 7.* apps this year, it is best not to target Mango at all, but the current version, and make sure they work on Samsung, HTC, etc. Of course, on the side, it may good to try to ensure that the app works on the Mango betas, so that when Mango devices come, the app won't fail.

However, given the minuscule sales numbers so far (compared to any other smartphone platform, including Symbian), the business case for developing for Windows Phone 7.* isn't that attractive for many (no real user/customer base to speak of globally, and even less so regionally or for most demographics).

A lot of people I know from the developer community share these concerns(already a lot has been discussed in these forums). Infact, a few of them have started exploring other platforms like Android and iOS, instead of checking WP7 as its too early now. And in some markets Symbian phones are still a majority and holds a strong position. So developing with Qt is also a better option.

[ltomuta]

Anyway, if one starts to develop for Mango, will Nokia's first Windows Phone based phones actually ship with the Mango version, or will they use the original Windows Phone 7 -release, instead?

I suspect that if Nokia is to ship any Windows Phone 7.* based phones this year, they're most probably using the original version, as Mango in all likelihood won't be ready until it is too late for phones shipping in 2011. One can, of course, hope that they'll be upgradeable, or Nokia will delay them until maybe Feb/March 2012. I suppose time will tell how it goes.

Nokia will use the Mango release (i.e. WP7.1) on the first Nokia Windows Phones. From Nokia Conversations blog:

Today Microsoft has announced the key new ingredients of the latest ‘Mango’ release of the Windows Phone operating system. This is the software that will be used on the first Nokia with Windows Phone devices, and so should be of keen interest to Nokia-watchers everywhere.

[petrib]

Then, as Mango isn't to my knowledge ready yet, I have a feeling that Nokia will have a really hard time (it will be extremely "challenging") releasing any WP7.* phones this year.

Of course, "Mango" might be more ready than its publicly available SDK; e.g., in the case of S60 5th Ed., the first phones shipped long before the S60 5th Ed. SDK was available, except in beta form.

Anyway, given past history, if a Nokia phone is to be available for the "Christmas" season (should be in manufacturing in October), the hardware should be ready latest about right now (June/July) and already in the CE/FCC certification and operator approval cycle with fairly good firmware/software, too. If the device development at Nokia started in February, even before the deal with Microsoft was signed, having the hardware ready in 5-6 months would be some kind of a world record for a Nokia smartphone, where the timelines are usually much longer (especially for new hardware that Nokia is not yet familiar with, and in this case also an unfamiliar software platform for the company).

Time will tell.

[Nokia Ron]

Then, as Mango isn't to my knowledge ready yet, I have a feeling that Nokia will have a really hard time (it will be extremely "challenging") releasing any WP7.* phones this year.

Disclaimer, I do not know anything about Word Phone but one must assume that WP7.5 is backwards comapatible with all WP7 applications.
What I do know. Nokia is going to move quickly and they are going to do this and keep high quality. The old CYA mindset of Nokia management is gone.

Ron

[achipa]

Hi,
please check out the blog post about new Mango tools http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_p...ble-today.aspx

Just for completeness' sake, the download address for these tools (both beta and stable) is http://create.msdn.com/en-us/home/getting_started and the features the Mango update brings over the existing WP7 release are

• Background processing
• New profiler and emulator for testing
• Use of Silverlight + XNA together
• Silverlight 4
• IE9 web browser control
• Live Tile enhancements: use of back of tiles and ability to update Live Tiles locally
• Deep linking into apps from notifications and Live Tiles
• Additional sensors; direct camera access, compass & gyro
• Fast application switching
• Networking / sockets for communications
• Local SQL database for structured storage
• Access to calendar and contacts for apps

[Jiihaa]

And there's a training kit available for Mango as well, check it out at offline Mango training course

I have still faith in Nokia, and that they'll be able to release the phones in time Mango is 99.9% backward compatible, there's only one change I've found so far - in one special case in Mango, a certain API call returns to different thread context than WP 7.0. Nothing else so far, and we've worked with WP already over a year in my company - so I wouldn't be too worried

[lturner]

Nice. I hope there's not too many new things to learn.