Sept 27 maybe very fruitful

All fruits are pointing to September 27 as "Mango Day" worldwide.  Would Microsoft learn from the way they rolled NoDo out, I like the cautious way they did it but it just took a long time for people to get them.

Seems like the tweets, mobile carriers websites from around the world are all pointing to Sept 27.  Will have to see..

But folks, looks like the wait is over (or will it?) on Sept 27.

On another note, the popular and often missed cross platform instant message app WhatsApp appears to be in beta testing.  Loved it from my old iPhone days.  Looking forward to it releasing on WP7.

... Fingers Crossed ....

*Update* - I will be bringing a review of Mango update for us Canadians WP7 users once I get the *proper* release in my phone (via a Zune update).  Beta is great and all but I want to know what kind of stuff we Canadians will be able to see in the official Mango release.  I will go over some of the bugs that we have discovered in Nodo (i.e. bing map workaround), another one is the Push Notification problem that could only be resolved if you have a dev unlock device and see whether or not Microsoft manage to be nicer to us Canucks.

Dell Venue Pro Unlocked for Cheap!

After waiting for Fogellus to release the Dell Venue Pro, it doesn't look like it will be coming after all the rumours and shit.  However, if you have a friend in the US and or a shipping address in the US, here's the next best thing.  The Dell US Ebay store is currently *still* selling an Unlock Dell Venue Pro - 16GB storage version for a really good price of $299 US (that's under $299) Canadian.  State taxes are of course required and HST/GST/PST when you bring it back across the border.  Yes, the Dell EBay site only ships to US addresses.

Linky here

Both the AT&T and the T-Mobile versions are available for the same price unlocked.

If you are on Rogers, Bell, Telus, Fido, you will need the AT&T version

If you are on Mobilicity, WindMobile, you will need the T-Mobile version (1700Mhz 3G band)

Before you go crazy and order this, note that the Generation 2 "Mango" devices are coming in September to wage battle against iPhone 5.  Still a great price for a good WP7 phone with a slide out vertical keyboard.

Source: Ebay

Mango has been RTM'ed

According to the fine folks over the the Windows Team Blog, Mango build has been RTM'ed or released to manufacturing.  Which means that the new Gen2 WP7 handsets will be able to start testing on this official WP7 release build and get ready to release to market.

This of course also means that the old G1 WP7 will receive this update soon once our Canadian telcos should be getting this build so that they can start testing on their network and the existing handsets.

Can't wait for Mango?  At least it's now a matter of Rogers/Telus/Bell/Sasktel getting their act together and start testing this build on their network.  

Canadian Marketplace news

With Mango on the horizontals, WP7 is finally gaining a lot more attention around the gadget community. 

As Canadians, one of the problems we have had with the Marketplace is that despite the high C$, we constant pay 10% more for our apps than our American counterparts.

Well, my fellow Canuck (the crazy kinds), when I was checking out the marketplace today, I notice that app prices are now EXACTLY the same as the America marketplace. 99 cents are now actually that, 99 cents.  (no more $1.09 apps).

Now if Microsoft can notify the automakers about this so what on-par Canadian dollar, we'd be all set.

E3 2011 is next week!

E3 2011 is next week!  I'll be bringing you WP7 games news or XBOX360/WP7 integration type news if there are any.

Stay tuned!

Mango Press Event Summary

So damn early.. 7am Pacific start of this Mango Preview.  I'll be grouping these (hopefully not all 500 new features will be shown because that would be a really long event) into different categories so hopefully it will help you sort out your needs (i.e. business users vs. consumers). 

Just before you get too excited, remember that all these new features are targetted at the US market - most will make the International market but not all - anything that has to do with Zune or Xbox Live are doubtful for non-US markets.

Mango is coming this fall (early fall) - OTA update - really?

Mango Preview Event - May 24..

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is doing a big Mango Preview event tomorrow. 500+ new features for our beloved wp7 devices coming end of this year. There are also rumours that another 9 new Wp7 devices will be announced tomorrow but Nokia hardware might not be part of that lot. Nokia wants to announce their devices later on I their own event. Of course I will not be writing up all 500+ new features coming in Mango but I will sort through the list of new features and list out the significant ones. Rumour also state that there might be hardware announcements coming from Samsung, HTC, Dell and a newcomer, Acer. Stay tuned.