With Microsoft finally talking about what to expect with the next major update to Windows Phone, Windows Phone “Mango,” they also released a video demonstrating just a few of the features which will be available by Fall of this year.

Today is the big day, and Microsoft is currently in the process of “lifting the curtain” on the next major release of Windows Phone 7. So let’s take a look at what’s new.

Better Communication

• Threads – Now you can quickly move between text messages, Facebook chat, and Windows Live Messenger within the same conversation.
• Groups – Contacts can be grouped, allowing you to pin such groups as Live Tiles to the start screen, these grouped contacts will then appear in a Hub and only show the latest status updates and other information from those in the group. You can also send a text, email or instant message to the whole group.
• More social – Twitter and Linked In are now integrated into contact cards, along with built-in Facebook check-ins, and “new face detection software that makes it easy to quickly tag photos” and post them to your account.
• Linked Inbox – Multiple email accounts can be viewed from one “linked” inbox, along with conversations being organized “to make it easy to stay on top of the latest mail.”
• Hands-free messaging – With built-in speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities, text messages can be sent (and read) without needing to use the keyboard, along with chatting.

More than just apps

• App Connect – Applications will now appear in search results, along with hubs. Say you are looking for movie information, applications which can help you find movie information will appear in such search results and allow you to quickly get into the app and find what you are looking for. Not only will it show apps that you have installed, but also new apps you can download.
• Improved Live Tiles – “Live Tiles are more dynamic and can hold more information — making it easier to get real-time info from apps without having to open them.”
• Multitasking – The long awaited multitasking will finally arrive, allowing apps to run in the background “while preserving battery life and performance.”

Better browsing and searching

• Internet Explorer 9 – We were already aware of this long ago, but here it goes again: IE9 Mobile will literally be IE9, but mobile. This browser will support everything the desktop version does, such as HTML5 and hardware-accelerated graphics. IE9 Mobile also takes up less screen room than the current browser, giving you more room to view the web.
• Bing – Bing on Windows Phone will offer Bing Vision and Bing Audio, allowing you to scan QR codes, Microsoft Tags, barcodes, products, and more. Bing Audio will identify a song using the microphone on the device.
• Local Scout – “Provides hyper-local search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy to use guide powered by Bing.”
• Cards – Summarizes relevant information from Bing for products, movies, events or places you are looking for.

More languages, and phones

Mango will support new languages, include: Brazilian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish.

The Windows Phone Marketplace will also be available in a total of 35 countries beginning this fall, which is nearly twice the markets currently supported.

We are already aware of Microsoft’s big alliance with Nokia for Windows Phones, but today they are announcing new partnerships with Acer, Fujitsu Limited, and ZTE Corporation for new Windows Phone devices.

Windows Phone Marketplace coming to the web

The Windows Phone Marketplace will also become available on the web, allowing users to browse and purchase apps online. That way once you go to your phone, the app will be ready to go. Currently the Android Marketplace also offers this feature, and it is certainly a great feature to have.

Check out the video

If you want to see more, check out the video of Joe Belfiore showing off Windows Phone “Mango.”

Yesterday the Windows Phone Dev Podcast revealed some new consumer features that would become available in the next major update to Windows Phone: “Mango.” Now, according to LiveSide, a Chinese developer revealed more consumer features in the “Mango” update, but the original blog post by the Chinese developer has since then been pulled.

The follow features were revealed by the Chinese developer:

• East Asian Language, Dictionary, and Handwriting support.
• Syncing off all Office documents to SkyDrive instead of just OneNote will be supported.
• Windows Live Messenger will be integrated in the People Hub, and according to @WindowsPhone8 “…when sending a message the phone will autopick the best method – IM or SMS”
• Bing Image Search, along with Bing Audio and Bing Vision.
• Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, which will have the same rendering engine as Internet Explorer 9 for the desktop.
• Multi-tasking

The only thing new here is Bing Image Search and Windows Live Messenger being integrated into the People Hub. We knew about the rest when Microsoft talked about the developer side of “Mango” at MIX’11. Yes, they focused mainly on developer features, but they did announce the following consumer features: Twitter in the People Hub, all Office docs synced to SkyDrive, multi-tasking, Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, Over-the-Air podcasts, custom ringtones, and support for an additional 16 languages.

So there is no reason to get excited over these two new features we were previously not aware of, as the ones the Windows Phone Dev Podcast revealed were much more interesting.

It looks like someone may have let the cat out of the bag for new consumer-oriented features in the “Mango” update for Windows Phone, at least according to Paul Thurrott on Windows Phone Secrets. This information was obtained through the latest Windows Phone Dev Podcast, which you can find here.

These two new Bing features are Bing Audio and Bing Vision, which the former would allow the identification of a song by holding it up to the speaker (or what have you) much like Shazam. The latter enables the scanning of barcodes, QR codes, Microsoft Tags, books, CDs, and DVDs, along with text, products, and images of products according to Thurrott.

It is no surprise that Bing on Windows Phone will be getting updates, as currently Bing on other platforms, such as iOS and Android, have more features than Microsoft’s own mobile platform. For example, there is a new Bing iPad app which has Visual Search.

“Mango” will apparently also featured turn-by-turn navigation, another feature Windows Phone is lacking compared to other phone platforms, such as Google Maps on Android, and the iPhone, for that matter.

Right now Windows Phone only supports podcasts via the Zune software, meaning there is no way to update or subscribe to new podcasts without plugging your device into your computer, which can be a definite pain if you are out and about. That is appears to be coming in “Mango” as well.

You will be able to search for, subscribe to, modify series settings, update, and unsubscribe from podcasts right from the phone without needing to be hooked up, which will certainly come in handy for podcast lovers such as myself.

A couple of features revolving around SMS will also be added: reading messages aloud and dictation. Yes, Windows Phone will enable the speaking of received SMS simply by pressing the “Speak” icon which will appear at the bottom of the message. Not only will Windows Phone be able to read messages aloud, but people may also compose messages to Windows Phone as well by talking to the phone.

This feature will undoubtedly work well due to Windows Phone’s excellent voice recognition capabilities, well, unless you are trying to speak my last name to Windows Phone. But hey, I doubt most people can’t pronounce my last name, so I wouldn’t expect a phone to understand what I am saying!

Microsoft is now sending out the NoDo (March) update out to HTC Surround users on AT&T along with Deutsche Telekom customers in Europe. The March update is also being delivered Optus customers in Australia and scheduling the update for Telestra customers there as well.

There still seems to be a long road ahead of the Windows Phone Team, but as Eric Hautala says, “… we’re not resting until we complete this job for everyone. We know there’s more work to do—including tracking down and solving issues as they come to our attention.”

Samsung Omnia 7 and Samsung Focus Issues

Recently the deilvery of the March update for Samsung Omnia 7′s has stopped due to the ” learning of a technical issue that required a new update software package.” Hautala adds that the fixed update package is just about done, and he will give a resume date as soon as he has more information.

In addition to the Samsung Omnia 7′s experiencing issues, the Samsung Focus appears to be having even more troubles. This issue only affects “small number of Samsung Focus owners on AT&T” who have yet to receive the update notification.

The problem is that due to high demand of the Samsung Focus, two different sources of memory components had to be used for manufacturing, though “Focus models are identical in all other ways.” Currently the Windows Phone Team and AT&T are working together to test and deliver this update to the small group who have not yet received the March update.

Windows Phone Security Update

Yesterday was a very busy day, as another Windows Phone update was released which fixed an issue with fraudulent security certificates. You can find out more about that update here.

If you are having troubles installing the update for your Windows Phone, check out Update Central.