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Over the course of the past six months, the Windows Phone team has been working very hard to ensure that there is a great experience for all of our customers with the upcoming Mango release of the Windows Phone OS. That means educating consumers, empowering developers, and working closely with our hardware and carrier partners to bring it all together with great devices.
Just last week, the first reviews of Mango started landing in press and blogs and the early sentiment is very encouraging. People get that Mango is a big step that dramatically enhances the core experiences that we all rely on our phones for every day; messaging and communication, use of any of our more than 20,000 great apps and games, and great use of the Web. AllThingsD wrote that the OS “is a mix of elegance and whimsy that’s a treat to use.” Gizmodo went so far as to say that Mango feels “complete.” However, it was The Daily that offered some bigger picture perspective in noting that, “it took Android nearly two years before hitting critical mass and three years to begin carving out a significant chunk of the smartphone market.” We’ve got a great product in Windows Phone and we feel we’re right on track, in fact we’ve already seen reports showing that in only a few months we’ve surpassed the more established RIM marketplace in the number of real apps available to customers.
Since beginning this journey with the new Windows Phone developer platform, we have aspired to be transparent, easy to build for, and easy to partner with.
We know that one of the most impactful things we can do for developers is to help them get their hands on the actual product. For Mango, that starts today with an early access program for developers. We’re still working out some final kinks in the distribution and support infrastructure for delivering Mango to all of our registered developers around the world, but are inviting the most eager developers to come get Mango today, for their retail devices, as part of our early access program! We expect the full distribution infrastructure to be fully operational in the next couple of weeks. For now, consider yourself a beta tester for the distribution process. Registered developers will get invites to the Microsoft Connect site, which will give them access to Mango. This build of Mango should also be viewed as beta quality, so there are still consumer features missing, but you can now start building apps and testing them against retail devices. Here’s what you need to do:
This is especially well timed for the tens of thousands of student developers who have registered through DreamSpark or related programs. Just as our Spring Cleaning program encouraged developers to finish up their projects over the past few months, delivering thousands of new apps, summer break is the perfect time for student developers to relax and have some fun with Mango. With the free Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta 2 and free access to Mango, now is the perfect time to see what you can do with Windows Phone. To make it even more interesting for students looking for a great summer project, we’ve set aside 50 Mango phones for those students who are building the next big thing on Windows Phone. Want one? Here’s what to do:
There’s lots to like in Beta2 of the developer tools, and some new goodies as well. You can find the release notes here, but I also wanted to talk about the new Advertising SDK June 2011 Update that was released for Windows Phone 7 earlier this week. The June update makes it even easier for developers to earn money and build ad-enabled mobile apps with streamlined Ad Control APIs and other new features.
Lastly, we got a lot of questions in email and on twitter as to why reviewers got Mango first. In short, it was to allow us to get you Mango today. Bringing a product to market requires a healthy balance between marketing features and empowering the ecosystem. Striking that balance is all about sequence. Microsoft believes in developers like no other company, but not even we want developer tear downs serving as the foundation for how consumers ultimately understand Mango. To get Mango to you today, we had to first set some context so that the market would have a good understanding of the product and not define us only by those features that developers uncovered. Think of it this way: if you could choose which path to go down, would you rather have a tightly selected group of influential people write your first reviews of your amazing app, or leave it to the customers with the fastest fingers?
So what now? First, go get the tools. Second, update your retail phones to Mango. Third, go rub it in your friends’ faces that you have Mango and they don’t. Fourth, start building your Mango apps using some of the cool new functionality like fast app resume, updated Live Tiles, Motion Sensor, Live Agents, sockets, background audio or raw camera access. There will be a tools update in the coming months which will have the go-live license you need to publish Mango apps to the Marketplace, but don’t wait. With the tools and the ability to test on Mango enabled phones, you should all be in really good shape when Mango is released later this year.
For the early access program, here are the countries which are explicitly supported – meaning that should your device become unusable as a result of updating, we will be able to process it for fixing once the full distribution infrastructure is fully operational in the next couple of weeks:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States
So I'm a little confused. We can update our retail phones to Mango right now for testing? Or is the only way to have Mango on a device right now is to compete for one your devices?
Is the download link really correct? It points to www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx which wants to "repair" my current installation...
"So what now? First, go get the tools. Second, update your retail phones to Mango."
This is what's making me think we an update our retail phones right now.
@Entegy - yes, you can update your retail devices with Mango as part of this early access program.
link to the tools are version 1, do we just need to wait for this to change?
thanks
This would be great if I could put it on my Focus rev 1.4 but I doubt I will be able to.
@billybob Is it developer unlocked?
--
How does it work?
Yeah... first link in the blog is dead. Second link goes to the Beta 1 tools, not the new Beta 2...
I understand the desire to get students involved as they indicate future growth of the platform, but what about BizSpark members?
"Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States"
I was a bit freaked out when at 1st glance I didn't see "United Kingdom" in that list :)
@nathan85 , yes but the current firmware is 7004 and currently anything higher isn't supported on this hardware revision.
Great news! this is the way the updates should be. Let your developers give you feedback before it hits the "user community" and turns into a disaster of an update because of odd user issues that should have been discovered with the dev community. I'd rather brick my phone and provide critical feedback to streamline the process in advance :)
this link worked for me > go.microsoft.com
Also guessing the invites will be sent via email (one registered with apphub account?)
If you decide to get a developer (student) account NOW - do I have to wait for the GeoTrust verificcation until I can use the Mango Update?
Links appear good now. I am curious as to the exact process to get Mango on my retail phone... i don't see that outlined anywhere in anything i've read or downloaded thus far... help?
Any chance we could get a step by step guide post on the phone update procedure along with any issues we may encounter?
For those asking HOW to get the Mango update, read the whole blog post.
"Registered developers will get invites to the Microsoft Connect site, which will give them access to Mango."
As is typically the case, that invite will explain the instructions, I have no doubt.
its great to see the next beta of WP7. However, I do not understand why the Beta2 installer does not automatically uninstall Beta 1 ( even if after informing ) .. right now we have to go manually uninstall from control panel before installing beta 2 ... just a suggestion for next beta ...:)
@hades32 yes, you will have to get geotrust verified
so, how do we become a developer if our country isn't listed in users.create.msdn.com/Register even though I have a dreamspark account? I want to develop for the WP7, and want to take advantage of early access to make sure my apps are ready for the time that mango comes out, but I'm from turkey, and we don't have wp7 phones being sold here yet (I've bought it from germany), and I can't get to register for a developer account.
would this take the retail phone out of the normal consumer upgrade cycle?
In other words, if you do this, would any post-Mango updates still be automatically installed? Or does this mean that in future you need to manually install any future updates?
Just confirming - anyone who updates their phone to a Mango Pre-release of any sort will have to restore a backup back to NoDo or some other official update before they can update to Mango RTM, correct? That's what I remember from some post a little while ago. Would really be nice if there were some supported way to just update to Mango RTM from the pre-releases just to avoid data loss and such. Be even better if there were a way to back these up separately somehow from the main phone OS or at least restore those separately from a full backup.
@Dale Lane as of right now you will have to revert back to backed up OS image...which is why we are asking people to read and understand every bit of the instructions.
So, does this mean that if I update my device now to Mango I'll be able to use a Live account from Brazil, or is this only gonna happen with the official release of the platform here?
I'm asking that because I have 2 live accounts today. 1 in the US, only for the phone (that I can use only with free and beta apps) and another in Brazil, used for Xbox, Messenger and everything else I need. I really want to use the second on my phone as soon as possible.
Thanks for this release and for the hard work to pull it off.
Brandon - is it a go for focus v1.4 too ?
@drankurn , nope you have to be on a current retail build 7390 or 7392 and of course there is no way to get a focus 1.4 to one of those so once again we get the shaft.
This isn't entirely clear - can all registered developers expect these invites, or just a select subset of the "most eager" ones (based on e.g. apps in the Marketplace?)
Just got my Connect invitation and am reading the update steps. it says the phone is required to be at 7.0.7390 or 7.0.7392. My Verizon HTC Trophy is at 7.0.7389... does that mean I can't participate? or that you guys just missed a retail version in your listing?
(I would've asked this in the Connect site but there's no place for questions/comments on the beta program right now)
INDIA not in list of supported countries? Why? I'm seriously worried, already registered developer.
I may have answered my own question by skipping to the bottom of the install guide:
I am on a build other than 7355, 7389, 7390, or 7392, and the Zune software shows my phone as "up to date".
Cause: The only builds that have updates available for the “Mango” ISV beta are 7355, 7389, 7390, and 7392. Older builds are not supported.
So I read this as 7389 WILL work, and am going to move forward. :)
"why, mr. Anderson, why? why, why do you do it?"
why not in the list that turkey?
Brandon, What if we are a 2-man dev team (father and son). Only one of us gets to develop with mango?
So I have have to wait for an email, before upgrading my phone?
Have I understanded this correct?
Oh, come on... 17 years old students (DreamSpark + AppHub account - GeoTrust) want to use Mango too! :(
I'm a developer from Hong Kong, so if my country isn't explicitly supported I will still get the invite but just won't get the support if anything goes wrong, right? I'm willing to take the risk for some tasty mango.
Installing this will void the phone's warranty?
hi guys... how come Singapore is not in the list??? Singapore is the few who start selling wp7 a few days before official retail if i am not wrong,,,
So from a dev box with the Beta2 tools installed, will I still be able to create/publish 7.0 apps in the marketplace while testing for 7.1 on the emulator/device?
Why don't we have access to the App Hub in South Africa? I don't understand why Microsoft has restricted developer accounts to select countries?
What happens when a Mango phone connects to a computer w/ a non-beta preview Zune client? I sync my phone on two computers, so am wondering if i have to update both the clients?? what about non-Mango phones w/ the Mango client?
I have been working hard to only setup my account and successfully submit an app without any single error on App Hub.
But that seems to be a dream that will "never" come true.
I am not alone. Head over to "http://forums.create.msdn.com" and look at the trouble all of your developers are facing.
Can you please get your system together first, and then release anything new??
Seriously, Please!
And Did you already test that all the existing apps are working exactly same as older version 7.0. While I am reading the documentation, it feels like there are so many changes that Phone 7 was Vista and Phone 7.1 (should be called 8) is Windows 7.
Hope to hear back, when these submission problems are going to be addressed.
Support staff is supposed to reply back within 24 hours for $99 subscribers. Apparently that has also slowed down because of one of the worst submissions process for which every single step is broken. Again head over to http://forums.create.msdn.com
So, I got the invite, being a developer. But I am still stuck on a Focus rev 1.4, so with no NoDo I can not update to Mango. So it is now official, Microsoft is dropping the ball so bad that people are getting Mango (beta) before we all even get the *cough* February update, let alone NoDo.
Come on guys. More INFO about this situation!
@contextfree - all registered (GeoTrust verified) developers will get invites. They are coming in batches.
Are you guys sending out the invites in batches? I have been a registered developer since November. I am really excited about trying out the Mango beta ROM on my Focus but haven't received the magic e-mail yet. When should be expect to get it?
@enahs, it makes me sad that I bought the "flagship" phone with the "flagship" carrier for WP7 and still can't get even the Feb update. I bought this POS to be a Dev phone! And to top that off MS has gone all fight club on us and has responded with the first rule of focus 1.4 is that you don't talk about focus 1.4. I keep thinking they must have 1 mentally deficient monkey trying to fix the problem while the rest of the company moves on,
Hi Brandon,
I am a developer based in UK, very exited about the mango update. I haven't received any invitation from Microsoft Connect. Just wondering if the invitation is sent out on a country basis. How to follow up if I didn't receive an invitation.
thanks.
@vbfnet - emails are going out...give it a day. Also check your spam folder.
Hi I am a dev and I will get the invitation soon - hopefully....
BUT: as of now I always had problems updating my omnia 7; I think it is because of a broken bootloader... no way to fix it until now.... running nodo... will mango destroy my phone???
are there some samsung bootloader fixes???
@billybob101 . Yes, I too got mine as a developer phone. Paid full out for it. LONG past the return policy from were I purchased it from. So I can not just take it back to ATT like 1000 of other people have been doing.
Hey Brandon if I am a student registered developer and verified by geotrust I have just not yet submitted my bank info on App Hub so that I can submit to the marketplace, will I still receive the email? I have developer unlocked my phone already as well. I would definitely like to develop for mango.
The page on Apphub says I'm supposed to have received an email and I have yet to receive this email. Is there another way to get the firmware for my phone?
@Brandon Watson: Just to clarify: going out in batches means that all mails are sent today and should reach all devs over the course of 24 hrs or that the mail will be sent over the next week. Just not sure about the timeframe.
Great to see Mango for us Devs :)
@Brandon Watson I am sure you are sick of answering all the same questions over and over but it just show how excited the developer community is to play with Mango. All of us are such WP enthusiast that we would like to see Mango on our phones asap. I wish there was a link just posted to our app hub instead of waiting for an e-mail. Please send out the emails soon. I cannot wait anymore :)
Installing Mango on my Omnia 7 right now. Backup just completed, took 435 secs, fingers crossed!
@vivgates - we did not want to simply post the content anywhere. We use our Connect site to manage access to code that is not public. I know people are impatient waiting for their emails. I heard we're about 1/2 way through the message pump.
Mango is up and running on my Omnia 7... Mango is fantastic... the best things I love is multi tasking, linked email and contact groups.
Tried to install a 7.1 app I was working on, got a message in Visual studio "failed to connect as its developer locked".
Long day.. will figure out tomorrow how to resolve.
updating to Update for Windows Phone 7 for ISV Beta (7661) now. I can't wait to test drive Mango.
Done!!! I'm now Rocking MANGO! Very smooth process, Microsoft. Very nice job! I have 2 copies of my backup. ;-)
Got Mango on my focus. Thanks Microsoft and Windows Phone team.
I'm also confused, create.msdn.com/.../Mango_Beta says "The update is available only to developers in these countries or regions:" but this you're saying these countries are where it's explicitly supported... Will us devs in Singapore get some mango love today?
This is great. Love it. I don't like real Mangos, but this one is sweeeeeeter.
....Just waiting for my email now.... Guess I'll check in the morning.
Thanks, Brandon, Joe, allya....
Enjoy Windows Phone 7.1!
-e
Very glad to have Mango on my device now. The upgrade process was a royal PITA though.
I can't get it why is the beta limited to some chosen countries and why, as a registered developer, I can't get it? Will this be a tradition in the future releases also? What's the reason for that? Is WP7 vulnerable to some magnetic field fluctuations in some parts of the globe or what? I could understand this if there was a reasonable explanation and not your policy only. Even the developers from some countries where Mango is going to be released can't get the beta.
@tom5
I'm in the same situation, I'm a developer from Hong Kong and I don't think we'll get the update.
Could someone explain the situation on the supported countries list. Can other countries receive this update but just not officially supported?
I am from INDIA. I renewed app hub membership just a month ago. If I would have known about such bias against some countries, I would never have renewed my app hub membership.
Why such bias towards some countries? As you guessed, developers from INDIA never got any update invites. I bought HD7 from US(unlocked), though I am using it in INDIA. Never got any invite code to update my device.
@jamiet They've listed it as Great Britian :P ... you're making us look like idiots :'(
Hi Brandon
It would be great if you can clarify once and for all, if this Mango updated would be available to App-Hub registered developers from countries others then mentioned above.
Thanks
I'm in Tokyo. I'm confused to not find Japan on that list, even though the launch is imminent. What's going on?
Really ? Not for India ? Very Strange, I think I know plenty of Indian WP7 Developers who would be off by this. I hope there is way to update to my HD7 with mango. Please... Please .. Pretty.. Please...
I do LOVE all this "minimal chrome" stuff, but could somebody look into adding the server TIME and offset of the blog comment post to the date in the corner? This way it would be so much easier to determine "when" Brandon said they were 1/2 way through the message pump.
-thanks
BTW, no message yet for me, that's at the email address registered both at the app hub and on this board.
In case you were wondering.
Enjoy Windows Phone 7.1 Beta2 (when you can get it)
@Leigh I'm currently in the same boat. I'm sure we'll eventually get it.
I'm developing a bit of an e-mail checking OCD though...
@Leigh @Mehran Moghtadai Same here. +1 for the e-mail checking OCD
Thanks for the Mango! Great work to get devs going/testing it first :)
But... my HTC 16bit banding is back and with no registry apps working anymore, I can't put it back to 32bit, so that is a bit lame. ( www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-s-response-post-nodo-16-bit-branding-issue )
The rapid app swithing is a super feature by the way
I am a dreamspark registered student. GeoTrust verified months ago with an app in Marketplace. why do I still not get the invitation?
Why is the menu in IE still cut off? Did no one test this? It didn't work pre-mango and still doesn't. In portrait, pin to start is only half there and in landscape even more is missing.
Edit: Wait, was that menu always scrollable? Man that bar needs to be a little more visible. Grey on grey isn't good ;)
Also, is there no Bing Audio in this build? I only have Voice and Vision.
Edit: just got the invitation. Thanks!
I'm refreshing my Inbox every minute and just can't wait for the invitation!
Thanks for being so awesome about the Beta and the SDK guys. I think the next step is to seriously reconsider the App Hub account process. A ton of people are having problems...
I just bought a pair of bluetooth headphones. I updated my HTC Verizon Trophy to mango yesterday. I cannot connect. Is this a bug?
Still no message.....who else in Germany got it?
Michael
@ mic_nbg: Living in germany, I received the invitation wednesday (29.06.2011) evening. The update process took about 3 hours, everything went well. Now I run mango on my OMNIA 7. Great job, MS!
If I register as a developer in the next days I will also get the invitation?, or only the ones that are already registered?
It's just too bad I don't have a retail phone to load this on to. :(
No message yet. I just went to app hub and triplechecked my settings. I had not set my profile to allow forum notifications, but that shouldn't have anything to do with it, I guess.
Can we get a new check on the progress of the list, somebody?
I am definitely an eager participant in this program, and you'll get a lot of thoughtful feedback on Connect from me.
ericleigh007 at hotmail dot com.
E
@sogeman...Bing music is there and works great
For all the developers abandoned in this beta: you just go to xda forum of another site and you'll find the way to install mango on your device. Apparently this is what Microsoft want the people to do by limiting the beta to some chosen groups of people.
@Teufel Hunden Guess they lock it then somehow. Normally I was able to access Bing features that weren't available here (like directions in maps) by changing the country. That doesn't work here. :/
So who do you have to sleep with to finally get a german translation of menus that isn't completely garbage. For a while I thought you couldn't clear a whole folder in email until I switched to English and realized the translation of empty folder made a noun out of empty and says that it's an Emtpy Folder.
I guess I'll continue to keep it on english.
I registered as a student yesterday and been refreshing my inbox every 5 mins but still no invitation. Does anyone know how long it takes? I am very eager, could hardly sleep last night.
Is it possible to join the students contest for students from Israel?
I am registered at DreamSpark and at yalla apps..
@Tom5...Thats probably why Microsoft didn't want to release a ROM. I don't they are leaving anyone out of the beta...If you are a registered developer, then you will get it. How much clearer can they be? Why can't folks just be patient and follow instructions? I guess thats just man's sinful nature. Are you going to support the people you just sent over to the XDA site?
@tom5 - Do you remember what happened last time people hacked their phones? MS was nice to assist but this isn't even an official release yet (still buggy) and its stated all over that if you use that method you will void your warranty - So it would be best to state that before you send users over to that forum otherwise we are going to have "Wah MS won't fix my phone even though I used an unsupported method, they suck etcetc"
I would very much like to know wether the 50 mango phone contest is open for all countries, or only for the supported countries ?
Great stuff!
Question: using beta2 I still can't download my excel files as streamed content... should this be working yet?
This works with IE9 Desktop just fine:
HttpContext context = HttpContext.Current;
context.Response.Clear();
context.Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats";
context.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", String.Format("attachment; filename={0}.xlsx", _fileName));
context.Response.BinaryWrite(pkg.GetAsByteArray());
context.Response.End();
I suggest somethings for mango:
- in email hub add facebokk private messages
- in bing maps add auto recalculate and download maps
and for your wonderful log I suggest to use windows live registratione for users without a boring new one!