Windows Phone Wednesday: Mango RTM, Parachute price drop, Sally's Salon

As you readers all know, I have been a long time fan of Microsoft's mobile operating systems and my main devices at this time are Windows Phone 7 devices. I took an in-depth look at a Samsung Focus running Mango last month and have been using it every day since then. Mango significantly improves Windows Phone and as Mary Jo wrote Microsoft just released this significant update to manufacturers yesterday. Passing through the RTM phase is a big deal and now we just need carriers and manufacturers to get through their testing and implementation phases and get it into all of our hands.

In the meantime, manufacturers are pushing out some minor bug fix updates for existing Windows Phone 7 owners. T-Mobile is reportedly sending out an update for the HTC HD7, but since I was able to upgrade mine to the beta version of Mango I won't be able to check it out. The Dell Venue Pro update is also rolling out for T-Mobile customers so I will have to see if that is ready for my device. I honestly have never had a single real issue with my upgraded Dell Venue Pro, but others have had issues with WiFi reliability and other things that are apparently fixed with this update.

The new Xbox LIVE game this week is Sallly's Salon Luxury Edition available now for $4.99. While this isn't really my type of game, my daughters enjoy playing Diner Dash on the iPod touch and this looks like a comparable game for the Windows Phone platform.

The Deal of the Week this week is one of the first games I purchased on my Windows Phone 7 device and one that I highly recommended even at the $2.99 regular price. For one week you can pick up Parachute Panic for just $1.99.

WP7 application tracking sites have the number of apps currently at 26,060 which seems to show just a slight slowing trend compared to previous weeks. I imagine developers are gearing up their apps for Mango and have a bit of work to do to tweak them for multi-tasking and Mango goodness.

I plan to roll this into a bi-weekly feature with the other week focusing on taking a closer look, with video, at XBox LIVE games on Windows Phone. Gaming is the top category on every mobile platform and there is interest in these games so I figure I will try to give you all a better feel for the games prior to trying or buying them yourself so stay tuned for my planned first game review next week.