Hands-on with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango on a Samsung Focus

Microsoft is showing off a Technical Preview of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango and most of the pieces are up and running successfully, including Facebook chat, linked inboxes, podcast support, multi-tasking, and much more.

Check out my full article detailing the improvements and new features in Mango on my ZDNet Smartphones & Cell Phones blog.

Groups let you place multiple contacts under one icon on the Start screen with Live tiles one level below the main Live tile. Family, friends, and coworker groups are good places to start with.

Photos of your group members are easily accessed by swiping to the left.

Email is so much easier to follow when in conversation view and now Windows Phone present Gmail better than Android smartphones.

You can now discover, subscribe to, and download podcasts right from your Windows Phone without ever needing a PC.

Mango integrates Facebook Chat, Windows Live, and text messaging into a singular interface that lets you seamlessly switch between text messages and IM services.

Notice the seamless flow between text messaging and Facebook Chat in this simple conversation?

The Games Hub gets a makeover in Mango with more support for Xbox LIVE.

There will be some advanced avatar functionality in Mango when everything is turned on.

Multi-tasking is simple, yet effective with a press and hold of the back button to view up to 5 running applicaitons.

The new Bing Search functions are awesome and so seamless too. They replace a few dedicated apps and greatly improve the Bing experience.

The Local Scout utility seems to be a very quick and easy way to discover what is going on around you and explore your world.

Bing Visual brings in many different types of scanners to a single utility that is simple and very functional.

You can now save your camera settings so as soon as better cameras are released on Windows Phone devices we will be much happier.

Internet Explorer 9 is a powerful and fast browser that shouldn't leave you wishing for more.

Social networks are more integrated and as soon as Twitter and others are turned on you will be able to share web pages easily.

As you can see more services are available for account integration, including Linked In and Office 365.

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