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Acer jumping on the Windows Phone 7 bandwagon this fall?
One manufacturer who has not boarded on the Windows Phone train to commerceville is Acer, who is certainly all over when it comes to Android. Why no WP7 love? No word on that front, but we're told that may be changing this fall. The company is reportedly looking at releasing one or more handsets for the platform to coincide with the first major Windows Phone update, currently given the saucy nom de guerre "Mango." That's right about when we're expecting our first Nokia WP7 handsets, which means things could be getting interesting in Microsoftia this September.
Windows Phone 7 'NoDo' update hitting phones in early February, 'Mango' coming later with IE9?
Word on the street from Microsoft savant Paul Thurrott is that Windows Phone 7's first update might go gold as early as this week -- in time for Ballmer's CES keynote, in fact, which means he might give it a mention and / or spend a few minutes showing it off. It's said to be codenamed "NoDo," short for "No Donuts" -- a pretty obscure (and odd) reference to the fact that Redmond doesn't want to release incremental, minor updates like Google did with Android 1.6 Donut. We're not sure why they'd bother taking a swipe at an Android build that happened... oh, four versions ago, but Microsoft works in mysterious ways. Anyhow, it'll apparently add copy / paste, CDMA location support (which might be the only thing holding up Verizon and Sprint from launching at this point), support for additional Qualcomm chipsets, and miscellaneous bug fixes. Moving on, Thurrott says that the rumored Mango update isn't the next update after NoDo, but it's real -- and it's big. It'll add Internet Explorer 9 with HTML 5 and Silverlight support, but notably, its code line is being referred to internally as the "entertainment branch," so there might be some other magic in store. Current version numbers for Mango are in the 7.2 range, but builds are in the 7500 range, suggesting Windows Phone 7.5 branding is a possibility. An exciting 2011 for Microsoft on the mobile side? Looks like. Update: Microsoft's Charlie Kindel has chimed in on Twitter in direct response to Thurrott: "BTW, a guy failed to bring donuts to a meeting after loosing [sic] a bet. The 'nodo' codename had nothing to do with Android." Makes a heck of a lot more sense -- and it confirms the accuracy of the codename. Thanks, CrookedC!
Windows Phone 7 said to be getting major 'Mango' update in August or September
We'd already heard that Windows Phone 7 is set to get an update of some sort early next year -- possibly coinciding with Mobile World Congress in February -- but ZD Net's Mary Jo Foley is now reporting that an even bigger update could be following in August or September. According to her sources, the update is codenamed "Mango," and it will effectively amount to Windows Phone 7.5, which she says might even be the actual name when it's released. That update will apparently bring Silverlight runtime and HTML5 support to the OS, along with Far Eastern language support, and some other unspecified features and functionality. It will also presumably be the most significant update until Windows Phone 8, which Foley says is codenamed "Apollo," and is on track for a release in late 2012. [Thanks, John]
Well Fed Buff: Essence Mango
Well Fed Buff serves up tasty dishes to boost your HP, stats and appetite – with that special WoW twist, of course. Those Trolls from Yojamba Isle were on to something. Before The Burning crusade, one of the cool foods that players could get were Essence Mangoes, a quest reward that could be obtained by handing in a Zandalar Honor Token. These weren't actually any better than Alterac Manna Biscuits, and back when Zul'gurub was still in vogue, the tokens weren't quite worth turning in for an average food that didn't give any buffs. But the quest describes mangoes as luscious fruits from the South Seas, and it couldn't be more true. Mangoes are significant fruits in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. In the Philippines, where I live, mangoes are an everyday treat and I think we have the best mangoes in the world. Today on Well Fed Buff, we'll put a new spin on the Essence Mango (which is essentially just a fruit) by making a simple, healthy drink that is sure to restore your health and mana as well as tickle your taste buds.
NPX and Mango team up for Mango Research Magic 380 portable GPS unit
NPX's swGPS tech isn't just for making photo location tagging easier, it's also powering Mango's 380 portable navigation unit, claiming to provide better performance and accuracy through software location processing, eliminating the traditional GPS baseband processing chip. Otherwise, the 380 sounds pretty traditional, with a Samsung touchscreen, stereo audio and an optional external RDS/TMC module for real-time traffic and data services. Supposedly the swGPS tech allows the unit to be slimmer than your average device, but we don't have the dimensions on hand to confirm that. No word on price or availability either, but Mango was showing this off at CeBIT, so it shouldn't be too far off.
