The first proper update for Windows Phone (NoDo) is finally here! Well almost anyway, Microsoft say that they’re releasing it on a staggered schedule, many people have already reported receiving the update, although it seems like most have unbranded handsets.
Its seem like those of us with branded phones (anyone who got the phone for free or subsidised with a contract) may have to wait a little longer. For example, according to WPCentral Telus have announced that they won’t be rolling out the update until the 29th. I certainly haven’t received it for my HTC 7 Mozart on Orange (UK).
Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come, the Android platform is plagued by phones on different versions of the OS (although admittedly this is mainly due to differing hardware and skins). I hope I’m right in assuming it’s extremely unlikely to happen, but if a carrier decides it doesn’t like a certain updates and blocks it for its users we could start to see similar for Windows Phone 7.
Needless to say, once ready you should be notified when you when you sync with Zune (you can check if it’s ready for you by going to your settings page then clicking on phone update). It’s a bit like waiting for someone to choose you for their team in football!
Check out the full change log from Microsoft’s website:
OS version: 7.0.7390.0
- Copy & paste. You asked for it—now it’s here. Just tap a word and drag the arrows to copy and paste it on your phone. You can copy text from emails, text messages, web pages, and Office Mobile documents, and paste it anywhere you can type. To learn more, see Copy & paste.
- Faster apps and games. Nobody likes to wait. That’s why we’ve whittled down the time it takes for apps and games to start up and resume. It’s all part of our focus on getting you to the things you love, easier and faster.
- Better Marketplace search. We’ve streamlined Marketplace search to make it easier to find specific apps, games, or music. Press the Search button in the Apps or Games section of Marketplace and you’ll see only apps or games in the results. Press Search in the Music section of Marketplace to search just the music catalog.
- Other Marketplace improvements. We’ve improved the stability of Marketplace while you download apps. We’ve also improved the experience of downloading apps larger than 20 megabytes, upgrading from trial apps to paid apps, using a credit card with an address outside the United States, sharing links to apps via email, sorting Xbox LIVE games by release date, and creating an Xbox LIVE account from within the Games Hub.
- Wi-Fi improvements. We now display your phone’s Media Access Control (MAC) address in Settings. (You might need this info if you try to connect to a Wi-Fi network that uses MAC address filtering. To learn more, see Connect to a Wi-Fi network.) We’ve also removed the limit on the number of Wi-Fi profiles that you can store and reduced the time it takes to start your phone if you’ve stored lots of Wi-Fi profiles.
- Outlook improvements. We’ve improved the experience of viewing iPhone photo attachments you receive from a non-Exchange-based email account (such as a Google Mail, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail account), using the Global Address List (GAL) when connecting to Exchange Server 2003 using Exchange ActiveSync, and working with email display names that contain brackets (for example, “David Alexander [Contoso]“).
- Messaging improvements. We’ve improved the experience of receiving Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages if your phone uses a PIN-locked SIM.
- Facebook integration. We’ve improved the experience of syncing Facebook accounts.
- Camera improvements. We’ve improved the stability of switching between camera and video modes.
- Audio improvements. We’ve improved the experience of using a Bluetooth headset to make calls when you’re playing music or videos.
- Other performance improvements. This month’s update also includes software from several phone manufacturers that improves the performance of specific models. Naturally, if you don’t have one of the affected models, we won’t install this portion of the update on your phone.
What do you think about this update strategy, have you had any luck receiving it yet? Do you think it’s reasonable for the carriers to have a say about the updates or do you, like me, wish Microsoft had access to a gigantic lever which throws the update down to every phone at the same time? Let me know in the comments section below.
[Source - Microsoft]
I’ve had that problem in the past with various mobile OS’s. Orange are painfully slow at releasing the updated software as they feel the need to massacre it and fill it with their branding. That’s why my old N95 got debranded pretty sharpish